Thomas Twatt comments

Posted in: Japan society on transgender issues to drop 'disorder' from name See in context

“Biological sex is recorded at birth.”

nabelito: It's the same meaning, essentially. But even sex is on a spectrum. We are all biologically female in the womb. Intersex babies are born every day. They're more common than redheads.

“Nowadays that’s developed to mean the ‘type of personality’ a person chooses to assume and present.”

This is not true.

“I can simply choose a different one for myself today and tomorrow.”

That's not how it works.

So much willful ignorance here…

You said it!

TT

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Posted in: Japan society on transgender issues to drop 'disorder' from name See in context

based on the latest understanding of people with gender identities differing from those assigned at birth.

Nothing is ‘assigned’ at birth. Biological sex is recorded at birth.

Gender? Nowadays that’s developed to mean the ‘type of personality’ a person chooses to assume and present.

As such, it’s currently regarded as ‘fluid’ and ‘on a spectrum’.

In which case, it doesn’t matter what ‘gender’ I was at birth or last week or yesterday, as I can simply choose a different one for myself today and tomorrow.

(I’ll never be a woman, though, however much I pretend.)

TT

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Posted in: Coming-of-Age Day ceremonies held across Japan See in context

As usual, Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea were popular spots for young adults to celebrate the day after their ceremonies.

Fair enough, and each to his own.

I celebrated my own ‘coming of age’ 20th birthday in my U. K. hometown with twelve pints of snakebite and a handful of magic mushrooms in the White Horse pub. Can’t remember much of the evening after the fourth pint, truth be told.

‘Culture’, I guess: same same but different, as the Thai bargirls say.

TT

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Posted in: Man arrested for attempted murder of friend at bar in Sapporo See in context

Keepyer InternetpointsOct. 5  11:49 am JST

“Police said his wounds were not life-threatening.”

That suggests a lot, including the idea that this was NOT attempted murder.

Or that he genuinely ‘attempted’ murder, but was really bad at it.

TT

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Posted in: Japan school absenteeism at record high of nearly 300,000 in FY2022 See in context

u_s__reamerToday  07:19 am JST

Absenteeism should be taken as the canary in the cage for Japan's insufferable, suffocating system of what passes for education which bores the kids to death.

Really? And yet over the last decade there’s been highly a significant rapid and visible ‘westernisation’ of the Japanese school system, directly accompanied by the suddenly skyrocketing levels of absenteeism to which the article refers?

Howdya join them dots, Sherlock?

TT

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Posted in: 80 women arrested Jan-Sept in Tokyo's Kabukicho for alleged prostitution See in context

wanderlustToday  05:12 pm JST

Only 80 in 6 months? There were 5 [prostitutes] sitting on the wall outside my hotel in Roppongi last week, soliciting everyone going in and out! Zero interest from the police box around the corner.

That’s disgraceful.

Er, which hotel was it? (Asking for a friend.)

TT

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Posted in: 74-year-old man arrested for stalking 23-year-old woman See in context

sakurasukiToday  06:42 am JST

Why she gave her number to him in the first place? Should just gave him shop number.

Yes, entirely her fault. She should be sent to prison, not him.

[sigh]

TT

5 ( +13 / -8 )

Posted in: Man given 6 years for killing student at her request in Sapporo See in context

Marc LoweSep. 23  10:18 am JST

The media tries to make it sound bad that he mutilated her body after killing her. Had she died of natural causes, her family would have cremated her, And, in Japan, the body is cremated at a lower temperature than in developing nations so as to preserve bone fragments. At the funeral, family and close friends use chopsticks and move the bones around. It's not very different from what he did, at the deceased's request, by the way.

Good point. Come to think of it, suffocating someone to death isn’t all that serious either. They should have just let him off with a warning.

[sigh]

TT

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Posted in: Man arrested over death of woman at Yokohama hotel See in context

MarkSep. 11  03:54 am JST

So why aren't hotel guests aren't being registered or showing ID.?? these love hotels need to be treated same as other hotels where guests are registered when checking inn.

The hotel in question is not a ‘love hotel’; it appears to be just a bog standard cheapish hotel in front of the station. (Hotel name not given in most reports, but a quick google in Japanese and you can easily find it.)

Your (excellent) point still pertains, of course.

TT

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Posted in: Tokyo scraps gender quota for public high school admissions from 2024 See in context

RoyToday  08:33 am JST

"Many students who were either transgender or binary" does not mean "many students were either transgender or binary".

Reading comprehension, so very important.

I think you are misreading ’binary’ for ‘non binary’, buddy?

Many here means ‘many’. As you state: reading comprehension is so very important indeed.

TT

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Posted in: Tokyo scraps gender quota for public high school admissions from 2024 See in context

Many students who were either transgender or binary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with.

Many? I doubt that very much.

Those few poor naïve deluded narcissists that have been duped into adopting the American ‘expressive individualism’ model, perhaps. But not ‘many’.

TT

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Posted in: External team to present findings on Johnny's abuse claims handling See in context

Still no police involvement? What does it take?

For it to have been women instead of blokes that were fiddled with, in which case you’d have the ‘all men are rapists/misogynists’ performative feminist brigade out on the streets demanding (male) heads to roll?

Just a wild guess.

TT

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Posted in: Jason Mraz is feeling free and curious — in music and in love See in context

… continuing a personal journey, [Mraz] revealed he’s bisexual… learning to embrace his identity, and the unknown paths that lie ahead.

“I realize I’m not final. And the more we grow and spread our wings, I think the more queer all of us may become. Because when we don’t limit ourselves to some construct of who we’re supposed to be in love with based on our society’s laws … 

Another narcissist slave to the contemporary ‘society’s laws’ that dictate that to be ‘queer’ is to be fashionable and cool, and to be otherwise is to be bigoted and ‘old fashioned’. [sigh]

I look forward to next year’s update when he’s switching pronouns and telling us he was always gay.

Cheerio, Jason.

TT

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Posted in: Abe shooter spends time reading; awaits unscheduled trial See in context

There have been death penalties for a single murder.

Not strictly true.

Since 1955 in Japan capital punishment has been handed down in 0.2 percent of murder trials.

In less than a third of these cases there was only one victim, but all were

a) not the offender’s first murder (offender had been released on parole or served full sentence for a previous murder), and

b) cases of not simple homicide but aggravated homicide (usually involving torture).

(see Japan Legal Training and Research Institute website)

TT

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Posted in: Michelle Yeoh urges women to resist being 'put in a box' See in context

"I have been very blessed [which] has enabled me to fight for what I truly believe in: representation, diversity, especially empowerment of women... We should never allow somebody to put us in a box.”

Blessed? Yes. Daughter of one of the richest capitalists in Malaysia, privately educated in the U.K., top private stage school, never worked a real job in her life and never wanted for anything.

A box? Empowering women? Well, you were keen enough to be Miss Malaysia and Miss World runner up. Who put you in those empowering boxes? Oh, it was you.

Entitled pampered posh rich salt pot tells ordinary folks struggling to make ends meet amid a global recession that ‘you can be what you want to be!’ Dontcha just love it.

TT

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Man arrested over sexual assault of woman at her apartment See in context

girl_in_tokyo Today  07:31 am I recall sending you numerous links to sites where these stats were quoted from a book written by a prosecutor in the sex crimes unit. 

But go ahead and call women liars. We are taking note.

I recall no such 'links' and I would say again: citing one or two published studies by name would be more persuasive than blithely claiming that 'stats' and 'various research' (sic) exists.

Is anyone here calling 'women liars'? I certainly didn't.

I don't think you're a 'liar'. You do exaggerate and generalise and cherrypick, and attribute every single problem in the world exclusively to 'men' though, and that's why it's so difficult to take you seriously.

TT

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Posted in: Japanese musician, actor Ryuichi Sakamoto dies of cancer at 71 See in context

An elegant man.

TT

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Posted in: Man arrested over sexual assault of woman at her apartment See in context

Let's not forget, though, that the vast majority of sexual assaults, including rape (95%) are never reported in Japan (according to various research).

[sigh] Well if ‘never reported’ they would be alleged assaults, then.

And might be a tad more persuasive if instances of this, ahem, ‘various research’ were cited by name?

TT

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Posted in: Paris Hilton is ready to reclaim her story, share ups and downs See in context

@LoveJapan

Criticism and judgement of any person is unnecessary really when it's just for the sake of it.

A ridiculous statement. All legitimate criticism carries with it the implicit suggestion of potential betterment.

Conversely, spurious knee-jerk shrieks of ‘misogyny’ and unwarranted ad hominem attacks on the critic, by way of response, simply smack of petulance.

TT

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Posted in: Paris Hilton is ready to reclaim her story, share ups and downs See in context

 I was at the premiere of Demi Lovato’s documentary a couple of years ago, and I was just so blown away by her honesty and her vulnerability and talking about so many private moments in her life. That really inspired me just to be able to feel free, to be open and to be more honest about what I was going through

Oh, shut up.

Go and ‘reclaim’ your boring stories, but push off and keep it to your vapid whining entitled self-indulgent C-list past-sell-by-date celebrity selves.

Sweetheart… Nobody cares.

TT

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: 70% of Japan flight attendants report photos taken of them secretly See in context

"It is a very serious issue," Akira Naito, chairman of the union association, said during a press conference. "Tougher penalties will deter" people from taking illicit photographs, he said.

99% of flight attendants in Japan are female* but the head of their union is a bloke?!

Bwahahahaha, good old Japan!

TT

*https://hrmasia.com/japanese-airlines-now-accept-male-cabin-crew/

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Posted in: Man arrested for abducting, sexually molesting teenage boy in car See in context

Police in Sapporo, Hokkaido, have arrested a 46-year-old man on suspicion of abducting and sexually molesting a teenage boy in his car.

This is unhelpful lazy reporting, sadly not atypical of this publication. Depending on the age of the victim here, 'boy' may be appropriate in terms of the law (if he is aged 13-17) or pruriently misleading (if aged 18 or 19). If he is the latter, 'molesting another man' would be better.

In any case, though, as girl_in_tokyo is at pains correctly to point out, it is entirely unacceptable to blame a victim of sexual assault for 'asking for it/'walking into it' (sic) based on their behaviour and/or appearance prior to the assault. The only person responsible and culpable for sexual assaulting another is the assaulting party.

Aged 15, I accepted a lift from an adult (aged at least 50, maybe even 60) who sexually assaulted me before allowing me to leave the vehicle. At one point I thought I was about to be murdered. It was not my fault, and I didn't report it because I was embarrassed, but I am still troubled by it today. (The same thing happened to at least 3 female friends of mine.)

A culture of 'victim shaming' is a culture enabling of evil and has a lot to answer for.

TT

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Suspect charged with third murder in Christmas Day killing of family of 3 See in context

(from Asahi Shimbun)

In January, a police officer on a stakeout caught Saito throwing a stone at the car, and he was arrested on suspicion of destruction of property.

But the case was dropped as prosecutors said there was no clear connection between the stone and the scratches on the car.

Prefectural police later arrested Saito two more times on similar suspicions based on security camera footage. Both cases were dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Bishop and his wife told police during the investigation that they had “no idea” why they were being targeted.

Saito never gave a clear explanation of why he had apparently attacked the car.

That is very scary indeed. An appalling and tragic crime that surely could have been averted? This Saito character is obviously deranged and was exhibiting a clear and escalating pattern of violent criminal conduct. A more meaningful intervention ought to have been made some time ago. That poor family.

TT

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Posted in: Public expresses anger, concern at Kishida aide's anti-LGBT remarks See in context

Online, LGBT people expressed concern that the remarks by a high official in government could be used to excuse discrimination.

Japanese literature scholar and TV personality Robert Campbell, who is gay, tweeted his anger and dismissed Arai's apologies.

The official's remarks were "not 'expressions that gave a false impression.' They were abusive words that threaten people's dignity and peace," he wrote.

A gay member of the House of Councillors, Taiga Ishikawa, called the situation "beyond one's patience" on Twitter and noted that Arai had also said that all of Kishida's executive secretaries are against same-sex marriage.

Good grief, this makes it sound like everyone except Kishida is 100% behind (pun unintended) gays. But one in 3 Japanese citizens who express an opinion on the matter disapprove of homosexuality, so why does this article not reflect that significant segment of the populace at all?

TT

-8 ( +10 / -18 )

Posted in: Japan's 'King Kazu' joins Portuguese side at 55 See in context

Not sure why he keeps playing 

When he does play, which is not often, it is only for a few minutes

Really? Good regular income, good healthy regular lifestyle, regular exercise and supervised training programme, adulation from fans, and teams will appreciate him for the positive publicity and shirt sales: he’s an ambassador for J-soccer.

And why shouldn’t he, while he’s still fit and capable? He can start the full time TV pundit gig later. 55 isn’t old.

Why all the hating? King Kazu’s alright!

TT

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Posted in: Man arrested for breaking glass door at supermarket because ‘there was nothing he wanted to buy’ See in context

While I wouldn't get violent, it is frustrating that the cookie isle in ALL Japanese supermarkets have the exact same lame products.

Yes, that’s deeply infuriating. I scoured the cookie aisle of my local supermarket yesterday for hours looking for a paraffin heater and some horseradish sauce, and all I could find were biscuits!

[sigh]

TT

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Groper arrested in Nikko insists he did not grab both breasts, but just one See in context

when the man was told he was being arrested for touching the woman’s mune… he wanted to make it clear that while he was admitting to touching the woman’s mune, he denied touching ryomune

In a nation so absolutely fixated on strict linguistic rigour, ‘correctness’ and formal exactitude, it seems bizarre that this would be worthy of mockery.

TT

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Actress Kristen Bell becomes Hers' first Mental Health Ambassador See in context

Kristen’s genuine personality and openness about her mental health resonates with people in a really honest and authentic way. 

Glad they made that clear. Folks might’ve thought they chose her because she’s drop-dead gorgeous and extremely sexy.

TT

PS. Hims & Hers Health Inc? What a ridiculous name for a company.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 21-year-old man arrested over murder of girlfriend See in context

The girl wants to break up and they end up dead. It’s no surprise so many women want to remain single. No doubt this is contributing greatly to the declining birthrate.

Don’t think you’ll be winning any prizes for logical reasoning this week, chief. (You might wanna check out ‘third-cause fallacy’ and look up the difference between ‘correlation’ and ‘causation’.)

TT

-9 ( +7 / -16 )

Posted in: U.S. actor Kevin Spacey denies committing 7 sex offenses See in context

a New York court dismissed a $40 million sexual misconduct lawsuit brought against Spacey.

The complainant, actor Anthony Rapp, alleged the star had assaulted him when he was 14.

Yeah, it’s funny how it’s always only the really rich dudes who get sued by these gold-digging nobodies.

The ‘actor’ Anthony Rapp? Yeah, sure, buddy.

TT

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

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