TSRnow comments

Dubbing is "shoganai" for non-english speaking countries. Just ignore it. In Japan, they always have the original version showing somewhere else if not in the same cinema complex. One time I saw Indiana Jones in Spanish while in spain. It was kind of funny:)

X-men films have been great so far. I hope this one is even better.

Rarely does these abusive parents get 10 years jail time. I hope some brave judge makes a decent decision and tells Japan what a child's life is really worth.

Guaranteed more than ten people die this summer due to heatstroke.

Sad, but could become true. I hope the warning is taken very seriously this year, so that it woudn't.

BTW, how does kids playing soccer protect their heads? I don't see them wearing hats, although they exist. Is taking fluids every now and then enough in Japan?

There is no excuse whatsoever in killing your own child, nor it may not be relevant to this case, but I think one of the problems in Japan are those check-ups (1 months, 3 month, 6 months, 1 year etc.) that they have at your local health office. If your child is slightly smaller than adverage, or does not do this or that, they say there may be something wrong with the child, and in some cases blames the mother indirectly. For some mothers, it's so much pressure. Both of my children weren't your adverage healthy baby, but since I had a regular check-up with an excellent doctor who guided me from the start, we came through just fine. I guess this sort of help was not there for this mother.

A lot of the elementary schools do have swimming lessons fully clothed (minus the shoes). I guess it didn't help. RIP poor boy.

"discrimination against Fukushima was causing far more real suffering, not radiation."

If only there were proof that the government is right!! We will only know in 20 or 30 years time I guess...

Understand all the talk, but TPP was unrealistic for Japan from the start since they have to protect local produce one way or another. Farmers in Japan really cannot compete internationally. Japan clearly does not want farmers to quit altogether, so I guess everything is back to as they were.

wontond, 4.9 seems small, but as it was Shindo 4 on the Japanese scale where I live, it felt as if another big one was coming. I think I will talk about it at lunch with the girls as if we were talking about today's weather.

Thank you some for the thumbs down, but it was really just an innocent question. I didn't know scissors were used so often in armed robberies or assaults! So google tells me...

I wonder, would I be confortable driving a car when I'm over 80?

he threatened the driver with a pair of scissors

Only in Japan....?

Monaka, I know this ariticle, but didn't want to give anybody the wrong idea by posting it because these youths had nothing to do with this incident happening. There were simply just too many people on the bridge with no control.

At first, Japanese reports said the same, but they turned out to be false. It is said that it came from the fact that there were a couple of people (including kids with yellow hair) on top of the bridge to try to control the crowd by asking(shouting sometimes) to get the people from the station to go back since it was already packed. Some even helped some children up to get some air when they were smothered in the crowd. These english reports only report at the time of the accident and a lot of them are not correct.

That's bull..! No generation of women in Japan has been taught to hit a baby's head in order to make him burp. A couple of small taps on the back will always do the trick.

It may not have been his sole fault, so I am not saying blame it on him, but the police and organizers were really inefficient at the time of this incident. I have been to many such places where things like this can happen, but most organizers with the full cooperation of the police have a way to control the traffic one way or another. Here, it was total caos, with people coming to and fro on a single bridge, whereas other bridges were not as crowded.

There are a lot of reports and blogs in Japanese, but I couldn't find a good article in English. You can google "Akashi fireworks stampede" for preliminary reports.

The tone of these articles sometimes suggests that mothers should put themselves in a lower position and be thankful to their surrounding for letting them be there or shameful that their presence is causing pain to others. Yes some mothers do not feel the pressure at all, but a lot of mothers are so afraid of such hostile surroundings that they cannot go out, period.

I do get annoyed at mothers bumping into me from the back with their baby cars while walking or standing in line, but if it was on the train and everybody was in a scrum including the baby car, I don't think it will be any different from people carrying large luggage or a sharp edged business bag.

"You all are worthless! I suggest you talk to your families about what you plan on doing to support them." Yeah... about that. I hope he had life insurance. :(

If this can be considered as dying in action, maybe they would get some compensation... hopefully.

How they abandoned the passengers and used the "Staff Only" escape routes behind the poor students' back really got my blood to boil. I know what's done cannot be undone, but if only some of them had the right mind, there would have been more survivors!

I guess to some, it's more nostalgia than a continuing culture. Some people I know tell me that whale meat was something they had to eat because other sources were scarce, or they had them at school lunches, but the taste... well... not very good. If they had a choice, as they do now, they would prefer other fish or meat.

For whatever the reason, I believe his family would have wanted him alive. It may sound harsh but people must understand committing suicide is plain selfish. Please, talk to someone. Get some help!

When I shouted "Earthquake!" this morning, my son quietly stood from his chair (he was having breakfast), then hid himself under the table until I said it was OK. I hope the predicted "Big one" will never come, but it's good to know your children are prepared.

I saw this on TV. Hanyu really has the guts to perform well in any situation. He was very calm and was talking like he was an actual prince!

Oh, I hope the poor girl recovers!! A skull fracture is not just a head injury. It's a serious one.

On TV, a tree doctor pointed out that some of the branches had cracks and others were completely dead, in just a glance. The property is owned by Tokyu which runs Fullel which they conveniently left out. They should have made the necessary inspections during these 30 something years.

I used to live close by a decade or something ago and walked under this very tree too often.

Unbelievable!! Playing Pazu-Dora or whatever should never come before feeding a child. But the same thing can happen in Japan to people addicted to Pachinko or obsessed with socializing (Remember that case in Osaka? I read in wiki that the mother in question got an amazing 30 years sentence.).

RIP little boy.

I hope too that they catch this apparently insane person. At 180 cm, I don't think he can hide forever.

SFJPN, what kind of neighborhood do you living in? I can't imagine ojiichans can be so hostile!

I hope the other missing person is found too. To be left alone in such a remote island... it must be painful for the families left behind.

I do not consider the risk low, if there are 1,000 children in the "expected to be increased" category. How about the young adults that are not so different from children compared to the elderly of maybe 70 years or older? How about their risks?

Some say it's was only a small tsunami but how do they know for sure without the coverage and warnings? Being prepared is silly? That is the kind of thinking that lead to so many deaths and damage. Better to be ready than be sorry.

I agree about the hidden inflation which someone mentioned above. Cheese here in Japan use to have 10 slices per pack ages ago, then they went down to 8, and it's now 7 slices for approximately the same price. Oh I wish I had a Costco next door with those huge packages of cheese which you don't have to bother with the awful thin films!

Now Mr. Abe, what happened to the raise in salary? We haven't seen much yet but everything from income tax to prefectural tax, health insurance, gas, and now finally daily necessities have risen big time!

No way I'm going to line up 80 metres to get popcorn unless it's at the movies.

BTW, I like the caramel pretzel popcorns sold at AEON theatres.

This article makes me wonder how I would feel. I love my mother and I really look up to her. She is the kind of person who, like Ms.A's mother, enjoys her life doing things and connecting to people. It's not exactly a life for me, but I envy her sometimes. She lives far away so I cannot just knock on her door but I have to do something so that there is no room for regret.