Thomas Smith comments

This doesnt apply to just the securities industry. Japan is full of foreigners who couldnt cut it in their own country and leech off the 'gaijin' image in their chosen 'profession' while living in Japan - just look at the English teaching industry....

Would be more valid where the foreigners create the industry and how it runs, where teachers are just another foreign entertainer class in Japan. Stay while you are young and underpaid but "return to your home" before you make a move to management or get paid on par with Japanese staff (unless you teachers are getting the bonuses now). Blaming foreigners for how that imdustry works feels a bit like "blame the victim".

This seems absolutely like what Japanese employees do, while foreign workers are more ballsy about stating their opinions, making their case, and taking their boss on.

Sounds like sour grapes to me. Or a terribly small sampling size, one off anecdotes etc.

Netninja Children of age 10 would not be mature enough to understand the repercussions of their actions ...obviously. If you say they deserve the abuse for that reason, well, I just don't follow the logic.

South and Central America are highest in the world for intended homicide too. Very dangerous lately. It pays to know about where you're going.

only in the USA. Sad.

Again, misinformation. Would be a better world of it only happened in the US.

shootings at high schools, etc. Many will blame the guns. However, in my day (the 80's), you never heard of these types of shooting being reported

Okay that's just untrue. Perhaps you werent as news savvy or something, but there were often reports of smaller scale school shootings reported back into the 70s even.

happened, every media outlet declared that the shooters were "social outcasts" who had been "bullied" and were part of the "trench-coat mafia". None of that information turned out to be true.

That's interesting, I've heard all this is vetted and have heard it rereported as such even recently. If you have another source for the info, please post it, I want to read up.

Funny seeing all the comments saying pigeon toed walking is caused by sitting seiza, but missing the fact that men who sit that way constantly do not have the problem. It IS a learned behavior even by those girls who do not sit that way, and is how you're taught to walk in kimono.

Interesting, no Japanese wins when the event isn't "thrown" like some of the Prides. I guess we'll see if it continues...

Wow.

Foreigners find it painful to sit on the floor, really?? Somehow not any of the foreigners I grew up with. Sounds a bit more like "what some Japanese think is confusing to foreigners".

Hearing a lot of "communal behavior = morality" in this article, which we know isn't always so. But humans being genetically communal, that's no news.

Curious to know how they used fiber optic cable which uses light particles to test lightspeed particle acceleration. I'm sure there's info on how it's setup, too late for work to look it up.

Yes, and I've always blamed the American government for half the problems, because they were so busy hunting down the communists they didn't give a damn whether or not many war criminals were given back comfortable jobs running the country and were more interested in keeping certain 'experimental results' carried out by the Japanese instead of punishing them.

After the war, all options were on the table including direct prosecution of the Emporer (who was directly responsible for war-like actions of the government at that time). It was decided the Japanese people/psyche would not allow execution of the supreme leader and god. Along with this, other "path of least resistance" type decisions were made as well. This is likewise why Nagoya and other cities were bombed/burned while Kyoto was left completely untouched.

Interesting point.

Haha when I first read charcoal burner, I was thinking of the slang term and wondered how it fit into the story. Racist alarms were going off for a second there, I had to reread it hehe.

For the record: Some14some well played sir!

For those saying the US should track the KKK and such, it does that's one of its primary functions, along with gang/mafia activity, and federal serial crimes (murder, rape, etc). There is a whole division devoted to investigation of hate groups of all kinds.

As far as any street in the US having higher crime than the US, that's pure hogwash. ALL types of crime has been steadily declining for decades and is currently at its lowest point since the 1960s despite what you see on tv. This is not true for Japan, however. But it's easy to verify, both countries post yearly reports on annual crime statistics on the net for all to see. A little research isn't hard to do, but an honest view of a country that gets too much unearned attention may not be what you're after.

I honestly thought we were a lot farther along than that. But as they said, it's where you come from.

It IS good to see western nations say "we've still got a long way to go," not something I ever here in Japan.

Okay for one year only, 2005, life expectancy was higher in three city places than the normal country locales? One year?? Nice sample size.

This isn't how statistics, or even the scientific method works people.

Don't believe everything you read. There is a lot less hawkish talk in the states, and noone wants to go to war. If there's anything that happens, it will likely be a NATO solution ala Libya.

I'm sure to the Greeks aren't protesting a system that protects them as much as the grift and corruption that expedited this crisis.

It's probably not fair to talk about them like they're petulant children who want a free ride, despite what you see on tv. The politicians and corporations aren't accepting their fair due and that will make people angry.

"the land of the free" is America as defined in that song, not Adghanistan. I'm not sure it applies here.

But I'm not sure about the "insurgent" term. I think the idea is that the Taliban wouldn't submit to the rule of either Afghanistan or Pakistan. I'm aware it's a loaded word now and I don't like it myself, as it's a neo-con invention, and they were heavy on the doublespeak.

But to claim the US is an insurgent force against the Taliban, who do not rule Afghanistan, or that the US are fighting against the Afghan government seems to be a stretch.

Exhaust pollution is also an oft used defense, but there have been studies about it (google it). And in no way does normal car exhaust, even for daily city walkers have similar effects as second-hand smoke (unless you're in a closed room with exhaust, for example, then it's often fatal).

Read up :-)

I don't want to be too partisan on this topic, but a few pro-smoking comments say things like you can just leave the smoking area, don't go where smokers go...

This is not do easy in Japan. It's not easy to get your money back if you decide to leave a restaurant or take your kids away from old men who decide to smoke at busstops. Sometimes you're more or less stuck.

Great article... For those that know more about the case and the time, is it fairly correct?

I'm not sure what "Japan doesn't have a 3G network." means in this context.

Haha so messaging, mail, video, AND twitter?? On a home PC? What will they think of next?

I'm sure there's some corporate rebates or kick backs going on as well. Or big tax breaks minimum.

is -1 shows that the people on this website aren't interested in hearing anything contrary to their views.

A stretch, no? More likely it show one person, ONE, disagreed with one of the assertions/points made. I myself have a hard time reckoning the "costs" when we still can't see the entire untold costs of nuclear accidents, death, lost crops, wages, real estate, cancer and treatment etc, of not just this one accident but many vs the history of fossil fuels. Likely we've not yet seen the worst nuclear accident yet not by a long shot. Relying on this technology, which is obviously not safe is playing with fire. Computing the costs, in my view is difficult. Anyway that was my thought when reading his point. But I didn't down vote him for it, yet.

Someone's never heard of honne and tatemae. Of course Japanese are going to tell you they love America when they meet you (or rather they'll tell your American friends since you're not American). They know more about America than other countries, because America is in the media more. But get the Japanese drunk and you'll finally hear their true views. Japanese are glad their country is nothing like that crime ridden hell hole. They'll tell you what they want to hear when they meet you, because they have a culture of politeness - something which Yanks find hard to get their heads around. You've been here for as long as you say and you haven't picked up on that yet?

Sounds like sour grapes or likely you are assuming too much. It's entirely possible for Americans to not understand why many Japanese until just recently actually, did tend to think highly of the US on average. In this Americans opinion, it was out of ignorance, or not knowing, so I didnt get it either. Then I read a historical book about the end of WWII written by a Yale History Professor called "Embracing Defeat," highly recommended. It's complicated but Japan was broke, gutted, and spiritually broken after the war. The Emporer, who you could not look at or had never been heard addressed the population directly to explain the surrender. When the monster like barbarians came they didnt rape and eat children. They rewrote the laws, and brought food, where Japan's own military leadership absconded with anything they could put their hand to. Remember that for years previous, people were begging, stealing, and over paying on the black market for almost anything to eat. It took a decade after the war in areas for protein to affect average heights of Japanese. Thus the myth that foreigners are tall because they eat meat all the time. America is far from a perfect place, but they did do the right thing at the end of WWII. (anytime after that is debatable) when they were expected to be monsters, they were more human in some cases than the Japanese leadership, and put an end to the suffering in the spirit of the Japanese war effort they'd endured for years. It's a long time since then of course, but the older generation (think 70+) still remember. But of course you should be wary of tatemae in Japan no matter the subject.