Tony W. comments

Governments are slack if they allow foreign companies to take over businesses in theirs, even if they are already foreign owned, it will see more profits siphoned off to go abroad.

Puzzling that the forecast comes from meteorologists and not geologists. Maybe they are in joint communication and only the meteorologists give regular (weather) forecasts?

If Israel had dealt with the Hamas people in Gaza with invading foot soldiers and tanks instead of seemingly indiscriminate bombing, it's modus operandi would have now a better image, and foreign politicians would not have to think twice about whether to invite Israeli politicians to their events.

Of course people are suspicious of China's claim of not doping, given their history. But to judge in this case we really need to know how close to the race they were tested, and how long the drug, if taken, has an effect and how long that effect lasts.

Of China behaved better it would have approached Japan first about the buoy before installing it. Japan should examine the buoy to see whether it really is there to measure earth tremors, and if it isn't, then publish widely what they have found, and express disappointment to China.

Obviously Fat Boy is starting to get worried; keep up the joint operations!

It's probably always relaxing to go back to somewhere where you were happy, in her case studying and free of regal duties that she later acquired by marriage!

Joint parent responsibility and access to the child is the best solution for all parties, except where violence is a concern, but it needs the courts to say clearly how often and how long at a time the child should be with each parent, and to have a clearly stated channel for complaints if one parent fails to keep to the rules. I would also suggest that parents should be obliged to report if a child is added to their passport, so that if the other parent is concerned that the passport holder is taking the child abroad, the immigration authorities can be alerted and the "kidnapper" questioned or even detained.

In the two countries I've lived in, mountain rescue services are done by a combination of volunteers and police and air force rescue. The registration to be required of climbers sounds a good idea though.

An important piece of information is missing here, did the parents know their daughter had a baby, or had even been pregnant? Another sad story!

Kyoto is a great city, as I discovered very recently, but thr privacy of its 0eople should be paramount, and so authorities have to do what it takes. But perhaps the geisha organisers have not been very inventive in their training methods. Why are the girls dressed up out on the streets anyway, why not have all their gear and the classes in one building., or let the girls bring their gear from home and dress up when they get to their lessons? This way neither the girls nor the locals will be inconvenienced.

The problem is that wihen you are learning to use hand grenades, you have to get used to the time lapse between pulling the pin out and the explosion. Used to be 4 seconds when I was in the school cadets in the'50's, and in that time you have to throw it at the target. Si you need to be really focused!

Having travelled on the Shinkansen recently on my first trip to Japan, I can well imagine the difficulty slowing or stopping the train on wet rails, there be a slide!

Maybe they are feeling lost. I've read that it is believed birds navigate by "compass " provided by magnetite molecules in a part of their brain. Currently the magnetic north pole is drifting eastwards towards Russia, so this could possibly be a bit of a problem for them!

Of course women should be able to ascend the throne. Look at how great monarchs Queens Elizabeth the First and Second have been in the United Kingdom! Moreover, a woman is less likely to approve of traditions that are pointless or unfair, and more likely to champion if needed the cause of women in society generally. No bad thing at all.

Given the importance of the Amazon rain forest to the World in general and the region especially. Japan is doing well to offer assistance. If the rainforest is cut down, the local rainfall will decrease, as much of it is recycled from the vegetation by the heat, so potentially the land could move toward desert.

Is it possible to committed suicude in a cell? From time to time prisoners do. Apart from the wretched Epstein, in Australia the suicide of Aboriginal prisoners, in the Northern Tertitory in particular, has been an issue for some years now. All you need is a means.

On her terms no doubt!

The wishes of the local people, in this case Okinawans, should always be given serious consideration by governments. It's bad enough that they have had to have not just a one-time conquering power, but a now peacetime friendly power, on their territory. But to move its base around using more Okinawan land against the wishes of the people, that is very bad.

I can understand that it makes it easier for the government to avoid the consequences, financall and otherwise, of the women getting pregnant, but surely it is immoral to force them to have it!

Well they would, wouldn't they, an entirely predictable response from a country that thinks it has a right to grab back another that doesn't want to be reclaimed. Well done Japan to stick up for the Taiwanese.

Editor, it's actually "tremor", (the correct term for shaking earth in or after an earthquake).

David Van Den BergJan. 4  08:00 am JST

Two non-native-english speakers forced to communicate in English. Wouldn't surprise me that something was misheard.

6( +14 / -8 )

Good point. In view of its worldwide use as a second language, I can understand its requirement for use at airports. However, it is obvious from this incident that that requirement could perhaps be relaxed where local pilots. whose spoken language is known to the traffic controllers, are involved, so that there is no possibility of the local ones misunderstanding, and the international ones who might hear it will know that the controller is not talking to them. Both will of course have to made fully aware that this is a standard worldwide practice.

Altitude sickness at that height in a (presumably fit) naval officer does seem a little surprising to me, having myself once had to break into a trot at 12,000 feet in China to get back to the touring bus in time, and had no adverse reactions whatsoever; but no doubt people's ability to cope at altitude varies, so he should have acted more quickly and stopped driving as soon as he started having adverse sensations, and that would have been acting responsibly on his part.

As for the way the Japanese authorities handled the affair, this could be improved a little as regards his medical condition, for had they been able to confirm his diagnosis (if that is in fact possible), then their case for negligence on his part in not reacting appropriately to symptoms would have been clearer. Still, he's off their hands now so they've saved some money in prison costs!

On the other hand, would Japan want an ally whose equipment isn't sound; apart from these helicoptors, think faulty Iran rescue ones, poor maintenance on that space shuttle that blew up, was they've not won (Vietnam), ones they've started on dodgy intelligence (Iraq), and so on.

As I said before when the same thing was happening with the Somali pirates, arm the crew and double the watch in the Red Sea. Otherwise, have a Japanese Navy gunboat on duty in the Red Sea for, say, six months at a time until this Middle-Eastern nonsense stops.

Good job, though not before time it would seem.

I wonder were they people who kept themselves fit in the normal course of their lives, because if so then, accidents aside, climbing a mountain shouldn't have been a problem, even in those temperatures. But if not in this case, then they were being irresponsibly adventurous and risking not only their lives but those of the rescuers.

Cricket, in the Olympics, what is the world coming to, waste of a field!

Unfortunately he'll be wasting money, no country currently with them will want do that, especially those ruled by communist dictatorial presidents so the rest can't afford to.