therealmusashi comments

Tattoos are stupid. Engrish is stupid. Kanji isn't even Japanese. Learn your own damn language. That is all.

Excellent piece, Mr. Heiler! You get it. Let's hope the rest of the US does too.

Cheers to you, Takahashi-san, for perceiving what many refuse to even contemplate. This is one of the most astute pieces I have seen on JT.

I am really sorry to hear about Tony's position, and wish him only the best.

I am also really sorry to hear fools on this site claiming that he should expect this kind of treatment simply because this is Japan. If you believe in basic human rights, then you believe in them no matter where you are. Get a clue.

For the same reason they frequently do not achieve fame or success anywhere outside of Japan. JT's commenters aren't being unfair.

If these clowns would stop aping hip-hop, build up some muscle, and quit dyeing their hair orange, they might start to approach a "rough side."

The amazing thing is that the New Kids On The Block, and the other talentless, poseur boybands have all been called out and roundly ridiculed for appealing mainly to 12 year old girls...yet somehow that construct always comes back stronger than ever. Somehow it never gets old...?

It's a reality-style show, with "Kitano as himself in the role of Beat Takeshi"...?

Honestly, this food gets pretty boring after a couple of months. If you're from a country where access to a wide variety of authentic ethnic food is available (like any major metro US), you'll start to crave spicy, or salty, or crunchy, or texmex or Vietnamese...the list goes on.

Nice - we don't need their plastic crap.

Let them sanction the US. We need their plastic crap anyway. Without our manufacturing contracts they would still be doing laundry in the river. Oh wait, they are still doing that anyway.

Do you think for one hot second that we can't find some other 3rd world country to build our crap? Be happy, China, tha you're getting all this free brain-drain. It's not gonna last.

@ tkoind2: I'm not recommending anyone buy this over an iPhone, or as a replacement for a phone, check my post.

I simply said it's not aimed at power users, that should be obvious? Yet all your (and industry pundits) complaints or perceived shortcomings are the lamentations of a power user. You're a busy Tokyo-ite commuting on a train - don't buy it! I wouldn't. Use your iPhone. No one's saying tablet computing is for people walking around in a busy city.

This product is aimed at people who don't use computers, or find them annoyingly complicated (like my parents) - it will enable them to do things like send and receive email, view photos, etc. with one finger touch. No mouse, no keyboard. That's what this is about.

It's not as clearly game-changing as the iPhone, but it's an experience that most other manufacturers also deem necessary - look at the wealth of tablet PCs already available! The difference is, of course, that this is an Apple product, aimed at a specific market, and it will empower people in that market segment.

@ paulinusa: Excellent point. Sometimes the benevolence of the US is almost unbelievable. Makes one proud.

Most of the tech pundits called out the iPhone for a lack of "features" when it debuted, and plenty of people predicted its failure, yet it has the highest satisfaction rating of any phone, ever. Also, in the next product revisions, over a period of months, Apple listened to users, and shored up most of the perceived remaining issues.

This is the part where you figure out that:

a. Most users can't figure out the features packed into their non-Apple devices, therefore rendering them functionally useless.

b. This product isn't aimed at power users, it's aimed at consumers.

c. It's about the experience. Period. Show me another device that delivers this kind of experience?

It's a 1st gen product. They needed to get it to market, and it has a lot of wow factor. But if you're lamenting the lack of a camera, or something else, wait 6 months and see.

Wow, a voice of reason, from a judge no less! Surprising, and refreshing.

Most of these arguments are awesome. To paraphrase - no society should ever lock anyone up, for fear of creating enemies. Brilliant.

How are you guys not elected officials by now? Sheesh, get a clue.

He is a talented guy - it's almost too bad that he's reduced to doing American TV - but at least it's good exposure for him, and he's still getting work.

I believe (citation needed) he is the only Japanese to ever have a major role in a Royal Shakespeare Company play, as "The Fool" in King Lear.

@ yabits - you are way off, do some research. Hiroshima & Nagasaki did indeed have military value.

From Wikipedia:

"The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great wartime importance because of its wide-ranging industrial activity, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials."

Your claim that no one at Pearl Harbor was a victim is absolutely ridiculous, but then, so are most of your other posts.

To what end? No, skip it and focus on real issues, not some perceived victim-mentality BS.

It's not so much about Apple trying to figure out what the Japanese like, as it is Sony, who needs to figure out what the rest of the world wants. Here's a clue - we don't need Big Brother to tell us what media we can and can't play. There's a start. The rest has been spelled out ad nauseum by tech pundits over the last couple of decades. Sony is a perfect representative of Japan; stubborn, and very slow to change.

Yeah, I tried that. Let me connect the dots for you.

The whole thing is about Japan - this is news about Japanese-Americans and how they were treated during WW2. Since it's news about WW2 and Japan happened to be involved in WW2, the American government reaction to Japanese-Americans is part of that history. My comments are also about Japan, and its participation in WW2, and the history there.

Last I checked, this is a news site about Japan. The only reason this is even posted here is to get a reaction from people living in Japan or wishing to read about Japan.

Cheers.

The fact-checking "techniques" employed by major Japanese networks are indeed laughable.

It's like high schoolers are running the media over here.

cleo - most of the posters here are pretty much of the same mind, having been socialized in the west, I suspect. We don't tolerate this stuff. I can't speak for Europe, but in the US, really awful bullies have occasionally been dragged from school in handcuffs by the police. It sends a pretty strong message. If a teacher fails to maintain order, that teacher is disciplined or replaced.

You've argued that strict action against bullies isn't warranted, and won't work.

I think we all understand that the issue here is systemic - lackluster teachers who rely on Japan's group dynamics to force conformity, lackluster school administration who are content to do the same, and finally Japanese children who do not communicate with their parents. We get that.

Do you have any solutions in mind?

I'm glad the Japanese can remember this. It shows promise that maybe someday they will also remember why they got bombed, or what countries even participated in WW2, or the Rape of Nanking, or the Bataan Death March, or any of the other issues about WW2 history that have all but been erased from their school history text. This makes me ruminate on some famous words:

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." - Edmund Burke

I certainly hope this is not in Japan's future.

Yep, trying to be the "hip parent" is exactly why your kid is doing all this retarded rebel crap. If you can get your kid to respect you, he will want to be like you and seek your approval. When I was growing up, even though I wanted to rebel against my parents, and didn't agree with them, I could look at Vince Neil and the idiots in Motley Crue, and then look at my Dad, tri-lingual, PhD in Physics, owned his own business and I could see which one was real, and which one was a stupid act.

@Redhots - the answer here is a little introspection on your part, not a massive government overhaul, and added bureaucracy. You have 2 college degrees and you're making $9/hr? Try something else.