Thomas Proskow comments

People thrive on gossip, negativity, and nitpicking others' lives to ignore their own life's flaws and mistakes.

Japan vs. "The West" One country vs. a whole hemisphere???

Of all generalizations......

I've witnessed great service and horrible service in both Japan and Canada.

When I visited Leipzig in Germany also, everyone was polite and helpful, and not the least bit uncivilized with their customer service.

I think customer service rules are pretty universal, but it depends on management. Poor management equals poor service.

Japanese cultural customs are dying because everyone is too busy with their empty, emotionless careers and pursuit of soulless material possessions to ever think about, ponder or practice them.

When we find a way to vanquish workaholic culture, we will see a return of Japanese culture.

....... just remember what happened in The Matrix and Terminator :(

Galadriel, Saruman, Frodo, Legolas, and I bet they're going to find some way to sneak Sauron into the Mirkwood scene as "The Necromancer"...... Of course, that's what you do when you already have a successful movie....... create as many iconic links to it as possible.

I would try to make Elrond slightly different-looking from the LOTR version though..... I was always confused as a kid how Elrond was drawn with a beard in the Hobbit cartoon, as Elves can't grow beards, until I read The Silmarillion and found out he was half human.

If Jackson tempts the wrath of Tolkein fans and writes completely new material himself, it might be interesting to see something based on the Numenorean saga and the bloodline of Elrond and his brother.

The Silmarillion is far better left as a book, and I think anyone who has read it would agree....... It would be like making a movie out of the Bible!!!

I think racism is something that's more of a natural response we develop differently depending on life experiences and the environment we were raised in.

Those of us who've been raised in multicultural societies where since childhood we've been interacting with and making friends with children of different ethnic backgrounds will obviously view racism as evil, stupid, and self-defeating.

However, please realize how most people in asian, african, or middle-eastern countries are raised. Not only have they been raised to view those of a different physical appearance as "alien" or "of a different tribe", but their racial background becomes a very important source of self-identity, especially in a society as collective-minded as Japan. This doesn't make it right, but it does make it understandable.

Some idiot with reality issues is gonna deprive me of seeing mvies????

I opt for civilian involvement in capital punishment!!

A wannabe super-villain.

Some people should just not have access to TV....

@thomas proskow: Just out of curiosity, could you please tell which countries do not have strict immigration policies and allow foreigners to influence their politics?

Well, America has an Austrian as the governor of California for one.......

I think most of us who have been here long enough realize how STUBBORNLY xenophobic the Ministry of Justice and most lawmakers in this country are. It wouldn't matter if the entire United Nations were at their doorstep giving them the ultimatum of "change or else", most of them would cut off their own genitalia and eat it while bathing in iodine before admitting foreign races are equal to Japanese......

However, I think this article touched on a deeper reason behind stubborn xenophobic immigration policies, and that is that the government in no shape or form, wants foreign influence in politics. One of the reasons they monitor all foreign activity in the country so closely. They have been operating on their own materialistic conservative agendas that haven't changed for many, many years, that protect the rich and put no priority on any sort of social welfare system or human rights issues that would give any kind of power to the working class or social minorities. They fear all that would change if any foreign humanistic ideals would be introduced into the system.

Completely agreed.

I've worked in private schools where female teachers have been hospitalized after being violently beaten by students and the students barely received a slap on the wrist from it.

The police sided with the students' parents and claimed the teacher was asking for it.

This is the problem with systems....... OBVIOUS guilt is ALWAYS discounted in favor of "formal investigations" in order to protect the guilty and cause pain to the victims' families.....

Especially in the case here, where the guilty parties were the sons of "important people".

If the victim's parents were important people, and not the perpetrators', I GUARANTEE the investigation and the entire situation would be very different.

THIS is how corrupt and biased the modern mockery of "justice" is in the world we live in!!!

Modern man is despicable!!!!

The world is changing and interracial marriages are just a natural part of that change, get used to it!!!

I know white girls who love Japanese guys because they also have a stoic charm to them...... people like Abe Hiroshi or Ken Watanabe.

Yes, this makes me sick indeed, but all too common a story in this country recently........

People's lives are FAR too controlled by their jobs and materialism, and forget the things that really matter in life.

We seriously need to DESTROY salaryman culture and replace it with family culture!!!!!

There IS something seriously wrong with this woman, and even MORE seriously wrong with the society she was raised in!!!!

And the father???? Probably too concerned with his precious office work and drinking with his boss to even care. Salarymen shouldn't have children either.

Finding a new corrupted law in this country is like finding a new crater on the moon.

I think we should go around forcing politicians to fill out surveys asking them whether or not they have bigoted views.

Forgive me by being ignorant, but how exactly are they going to keep track of people who use P2P programs like Soulseek??

There is one ultimate root to every major problem I find annoying in Japan: the group mindset.

Everything from xenophobia, racism, intolerance towards difference, and insane workaholism/horrible treatment of workers could be avoided if we changed our cultural values towards individual worth, instead of group conformity(also called "Wa", which ironically means "harmony").

Solution to prejudice: promote a society where individuality is seen as an integral asset to a community, and where difference is not only tolerated and accepted, but encouraged!

An unrealistic fantasy for Japan, yes, but not impossible.

It seems Osaka's fine........ no missed work for me :(

The only way Japan can progress is to get nutters like Hashimoto and Ishihara out of office and start promoting anti-racism in schools. This society has stagnated over it's childish fears and prejudices long enough. It's time for Japan to wake up and meet the world!!

Hitler rose to power in an age where people were sick and tired of wishy-washy politicians. He also had loads of charisma and a rock star attitude and ego.

History is repeating itself.