Ubesh comments

I expect that the foreigner will be Vietnamese or Chinese. The former tends to act in gangs but target small things, the latter tends to have yuzuka style groupings and target bigger things.

South Korea has a much higher illegal immigration rate.

I think it is a good way to keep post offices alive - may do the same thing for rural railway stations?

Why should Japan be compared to other countries? The question should be do we have enough holidays for the culture involved? I think Vesak and Japanese New Year should be a public holiday in Japan for traditional/cultural reasons.

Buddhism is basically a reform of the "Hinduism" (a term that did not exist at the time, which basically describes the cultural practices of Indians) at the time of founding and the Buddha nor his disciples did not actually legislate on marriage.

Hinduism itself has a decentralised approach to marriage, and there are many types of marriage (hence why it is possible to marry a tree in India). It is forbidden for a gay man to marry a woman in Hinduism, but nothing in the history of pre-colonial Hinduism actually states that it is forbidden for homosexuality to be allowed or for a gay man to marry another gay man.

Therefore it should be acceptable for a Buddhism marriage to be conducted between homosexuals, and there have been several common law Hindu marriages conducted in India between homosexuals even decades ago (most Hindu heterosexuals are still practicing common law marriage based on local customs and not registered/legal marriage).

The cost-of-living is pleasant.

Food is delicious.

People are nice and friendly.

I thought that the idea was that tourists could use them? I particularly used the convenience store wifi a lot.

@Moonraker something that a lot of foreigners overlook about Japan is the sheer cultural difference. Apart from India and a few Islamic countries, Japan is literally the least westernized country out there.

Singapore Airlines is the best airline that I have flown with. The worst include the likes of Jetstar (uncomfortable) and EVA Air (low cost service and incredibly rude staff).

In fact we should be worrying even more and banning Chinese travel I think.

Too much concentration of power in Silicon Valley.

I stated in a previous comment about how the strength of the US dollar was destroying middle class purchasing power globally - and this is the key point in that this is happening all over the world due to the strength of the US dollar.

France is the most pro-Qatar country in Europe. The government actively lobbied for Qatar to get chosen to host the World Cup and the main sporting broadcaster in France is owned by Qatar (beIn Sports). Corruption not football.

I think a large part of the success is due to very low morale among European teams. Germany faced a massive boycott due to Qatar human rights abuses for example.

I think a large part of the success is due to very low morale among European teams. Germany faced a massive boycott due to Qatar human rights abuses for example.

In India they have something called live-in couples, and recently the Supreme Court equalised all rights between live-in couples (cohabitation) and married couples including LGBTQ live-in couples. This is important because most Hindu marriages aren't registered with government anyway.

In China they have something called the guardianship system, which provides some basic rights to LGBTQ couples.

In other countries around Japan there are usually lots of vegetarian and vegan shops derived from Buddhist veganism.

Yesterday, Singapore repealed a colonial-era law criminalising homosexual sex. It does not treat immigrant workers inhumanely and actively fights racism against South East Asians and South Asians. Why can't Qatar be more like Singapore?

Recently I hear about Germany buying more gas and oil from Qatar. French media is not doing enough to boycott Qatar, but then it's largest sports media network is owned by the Qataris (beIn Sports). Qatar is now claiming that the UK is racist for exposing its human rights abuses.

I read an article a while back that stated how homophobia may actually get worse in Qatar and the GCC because LGBTQ have been put on the spotlight in what is otherwise a very strict Islamic region, almost like shining a torch on the witches in a place that loves witchhunts.

What shocked me was the increase in price of a bento I like to eat by 100 yen. It is something that I can easily suck up but I certainly did more than a double take because I view Japan as inflation-free!

Japan is mostly a right-wing country so I doubt it will have a major negative impact here.

Finding out that the kpop star Jungkook performed at the World Cup completely disgusted me. It was clear from the numerous boycotts that many people consider Qatar crossing a moral line in terms of racism, homophobia and misogyny.

The majority of those indentured labourers come from Africa, South Asia and South East Asia, including home markets like Indonesia and the Philippines. How is it acceptable to host and enjoy a sporting event built on the backs of racism, homophobia and misogyny?

And western tourists do routinely get harassed in Qatar. A British make-up artists was arrested during a flyover, an Emeriti gay man was jailed for several months, many LGBTQ migrant workers who didn't realise the true horror of Qatar have been arrested and jailed by Qatar authorities as well.

Christmas is not about the lights and presents. Turn them off and have a normal Christmas.

I doubt China will open the gates to tourists anytime soon. It will never allow its citizens to travel and spend abroad before spending a significant amount of money domestically, so outbound travel will probably remain closed until the end of 2023 at least. China will not be open for another two years?

I am supportive of a boycott of Qatar (as an Indian). The vast majority of Indians do not care about the world cup and why they would support Brazil/Argentina is beyond me. Furthermore there is a huge issue with labour rights, women/gay rights and the like which has not been addressed.

Is this really a top news story for Japan Today? They were still in the wider lion enclousre

I actually think that Japanese housing is fairly good considering the traditional mild temperatures. The UK and much of the US has a lot worse housing stock in comparison and urban housing can be very poorly insulated in more southern regions of the UK and Europe. A house that is built to last a long time is useless if its aged and going to be demolished in a few years anyway.

I read that the reason was because a celebrity was in the area and people started to "swarm". Or was that a piece of a larger puzzle?

Olympics are useless and can be replaced with a newly created international sports event.

There was a other incident yesterday between an unknown group and Nepalis. I suspect it was a racist attack by Chinese against Nepalis, because tensions between the Chinese and Indians seem to be really high recently, and Chinese do not have good behavioral instincts.

South Korea has always been a tinderbox for safety. I never understand the clueless foreigners who never lived in South Korea bemoaning Japan despite the latter being far safer. Even in places such as India these things tend to happen in rural sites when people fall off a mountain or into a river.