Posted in: What Japanese women think about money and marriage See in context
I'm not surprised. Younger Japanese are more realistic because of the economic deterioration. We are no longer sure if we can receive pention. Some readers mentioned about Japanese wives demanding bankbooks or credit cards. It's very natural for Japanese. My husband gave them to me before I demand him. How could women feel secure when companies pay much less to women and fire women when they get married or pregnant?
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Posted in: Humanoid robot to keep Japanese astronaut company on space station See in context
Space experiments are now aimed at long duration stay for coming Mars projects. It would be very interesting to know how this cute little robot will psychologically affect Wakata san. I don't know why some people feel that this is childish. We can explore the possibility of robot utilization in space by this project, which is great, too.
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Posted in: Police probe claim U.S. serviceman punched 13-yr-old boy in Okinawan home See in context
Jimmy Mills
According to Okinawa Times, the bar owner told him to go at around 23:00 and the serviceman got violent.
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20121102-00000029-okinawat-oki 男はアパート1階の飲食店で1日午後8時半ごろから酒を飲み、同11時ごろに店主が帰宅を促すと店内で暴れだしたという。
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Posted in: Okinawa says U.S. military not doing enough to control its personnel See in context
What Okinawa wants to is to be recognized as Japanese citizen. They have been sacrificing so much for mainland Japan but mainlander don't really care about them. One time former prime minister Hatoyama promised that he would remove/reduce US base from Okinawa, but he never did. Okinawa can't trust Japanese government anymore. Now Nakaima is trying hard to draw attention from mainland. His visit will force Japanese government to seriously consider removing/reducing US bases in Okinawa. The way Okinawan people are protesting might be unreasonable, but what else could they do when they can't rely on their own government. Enemy of Okinawa is not US military. We should recognize them as Japanese citizen in a real sense and share the big burden that has been weighing on them for a long time.
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Posted in: U.S. military to impose curfew in Japan after alleged rape See in context
Gurukun, I'm sorry if I hurt your feeling, but this time the US military in Japan is not to be blamed.
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Posted in: Hashimoto says he will no longer answer questions from Asahi reporters See in context
This issue should be discussed separately from many controversial remarks he has made. I don't like him and I hate lots of his remarks, but I have to side with him on this one. Someone said that you should read articles in Japanese but that's not enough. You should watch regular press conference. (http://www.pref.osaka.jp/gikai_giji/teireikaiken/teireikisyakaiken.html)
Asahi and Mainich are especially disgusting for its way of information manipulation. By the way, he didn't say that he will give no more interview to Asahi. What he said was they can come to the conference but he won't answer their question. Anyway, they have apologized and I hope they will start reporting based on the real story.
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Posted in: U.S. military to impose curfew in Japan after alleged rape See in context
Strangely, this incident changed my view of American military in Japan. I am impressed by how US is dealing with this issue. They've never made any excuse and just apologize. There is something Japan really should learn from them. I'm Japanese and my Japanese husband agree with me.
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Posted in: Japan angered by French TV host's Fukushima joke about goalkeeper Kawashima See in context
This news wouldn't have been this big if this joke was made by a comedian. It is big because this remark was made in a state-run broadcasting station. There was a horrible joke that was made two days after the big earthquake in 2011, "Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them." Has anyone ever heard Japanese government sent to US a letter of protest? No. Because he was just an actor. This might sound weird to some of you, but this is the point.
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Posted in: Why Japan doesn’t give a Gangnam about PSY See in context
I am Japanese and I love Gangnam style. My two-year-old daughter loves it, too. I dont remember how many times I have seen it with her. I like his voice. I love it especially because it makes me forget something that is weighing on me. Religious conflict, economic crisis, island disputes, many part of the world is stressed out. I guess that's why lots of people are attracted to his video. (okay, now I feel sorry that I cited island disputes here. This might be incomparable to other two. But I am stressd out because of this.)
I think the Japanese cannot see that it has elements of parody,self mocking and irony in it which they probably dont understand.
I believe many can understand that because we do that, too. But the song is in Korean and you wouldnt know about this if you are interested in PSY.
PSY has been on US TV and his English is very good which is also probably annoying to the Japanese.
Many Japanese dont even know he is fluent English speaker because we dont have much information about him. I didn't know that, either.
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Posted in: Australia hits out at Japan at whale tracking tech launch See in context
whales are an endangered animal.
Are you sure that all the whales are endangered? If so it contradicts what Japan Whaling Association is saying. http://www.whaling.jp/qa.html#01_04 (This is only wirtten in Japanese.) They say the whales they are hunting is not endangered one and they try to minimise the number to kill.
English is not my mother tongue. I hope what I said above does not sound too harsh.
One of the reason why some Japanese people can't accept criticism might be because they feel inequity because of the difference of how anti-whaling countries treat Japan and other whaling countries.
I appreciate all of your comments. I am against hunting whales and dolphines because of emotional reason. I can't come up with a good explanation when people bring scientific things to justify killing dolphines and whales. It is confusing because what I hear from Japanese association/government and anti-whaling people are different. I believe there are many people like me in Japan.
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Posted in: Trump says he wants to negotiate about Ukraine. It's not clear if Putin really does
Posted in: Baltic nations switch off Russian power grid
Posted in: Anti-far-right protest draws 250,000 in Munich
Posted in: Trump pressure to boost Japan defense spending could strain alliance