Upgrayedd comments

Again, this... Can someone clearly explain to me WHY this simple formula of, increase of VAT on EVERYTHING including services while keep wages largely unchanged could possibly work out to improve the status of the economy?

As other posters have already pointed out, the tax increase was not a part of Abe's economic plan but a plan put into motion by the previous government in order to help improve the long term financial position of Japan.

It had a way more negative impact than people predicted. But without Abenomics, the recession would have been a while lot worse IMO.

The next quarter will certainly put Japan'e GDP growth back in the black on an annual basis and the next tax increase is going to be delayed for more than a year.

Hi Upgrayedd, here's a list:

Yea and there are a whole bunch of other films that take an antiwar line. Just off the top of my head here: 24 Eyes, Harp of Burma, Fires on the Plain (and the 2014 remake: Nobi), The Human Condition, Hoodlum Soldier, The Go Master, Grave of the Fireflys, The Wind Rises......

I'd love to see a war movie made by Japan where they examine their failures (USA: Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Prisoners of War, Green Zone, etc....) or about heroes who were the resistance fighters (Germany: Sophie Scholl, Black Book, etc...) instead I always get movies about Japan glorifying their war efforts.

You should really expand your knowledge of Japanese cinema because there are literally dozens of movies like this.

The vast majority of films made about the war since 1945 are extremely anti-war.

Japan needs a cheap, nationwide Wi-Fi service.

There are already 3 different (nearly) nationwide Wi-Fi services.

Just need to get them English and other language friendly in time for the Olympics.

SenseNotSoCommonAug. 04, 2014 - 09:29AM JST

Fairy tale. Likud's raison d'être is to settle the West Bank and establish all of Jerusalem as an Israeli capital.

“There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan," (Netanyahu) said July 11 (2014) at a press conference. But if Israel doesn't relinquish security control, Palestinians cannot establish a state. The alternative, then, would be a single state in which Palestinians are residents but not full citizens.

Likud has rolled back their party platform over the decades just as Hamas has rolled back many of their hardline positions over the same time.

Your quote doesn't have anything to do with the settlements. "Security control" of the Jordan Valley is up for interpretation and negotiation. During the last round of negotiations, the US and the Israelis were coming to the understanding that security control meant leaving behind high-tech early warning stations, security cameras and other equipment to monitor all border crossings, and other types of monitoring equipment.

Security control no longer means leaving soldiers on the ground or settlers in place. Most of the Israeli government had accepted that before the last rounds broke down.

LOL! And why would it? The Israelis appreciate a good joke, like most people.

Don't tell me you took him seriously...

The ultra right wing took it very seriously and the government almost broke up a few times during the last round of negotiations.

However, the majority of the Israeli people know what is going to happen when a final settlement comes. They will either pack their bags and leave the West Bank or live under the Palestinian flag.

And seriously delusional who think there's a two-state solution in the horizon actually believe these hundreds of settlements are going to be handed over?

Last January, Netanyahu made it very clear that after peace is negotiated, the settlers will stay in place and live under Palestinian rule.

Didn't seem to upset his popularity much.

Japan doesn't really have many Asian friends.

Japan has very positive and friendly relations with every Asian country except the two Koreas and China. Taiwan is sort of on and off, depending on the government there but the populace generally has positive feelings about Japan.

Where have you been..Japanese variety TV has always been about humiliation humor directed at airheads and unattractive people.

Whatevs, Rola is super hot.

My husband and I caught a glimpse of that. I had no idea how bad they were. My husband sat there muttering while I sat there laughing. The old guy (the leader/) kept stopping and looked like he was going to pass out. For god's sake, autotune please! Horrific. Reminds me of AKB and all the other girl bands that switch up singers that have zero talent. I can't for the life of me understand Exile but at least they have a few guys that can carry a tune. SMAP? Like a cat in heat.

Not sure if you actually follow Japan but everyone in this country already knows that Nakai (the guy who was passing out) cannot sing. It's a national joke and he gets teased for it at literally every show he goes on. He is quite gracious about it and does a really good job of turning it around and using it as a comedy tool for the group's benefit.

SMAP and boy-bands in general are not my thing but I do think they are highly entertaining.

Saddam kept these things under control.

So did the US until they decided to pack up and leave.

Tmarie -

The unemployment rate in Japan includes all people who are 1) unemployed, 2) looking for a job, 3) and ready to work if a job became available

I do wonder what the real rate would be if they included all the SAHW who want jobs but can't get hired. Wonder what the underemployed rate would be.

SAHW are included in the labor surveys. They unemployment rate would be exactly the same as it is now.

The underemployment rate is another story.

The Japanese and South Korean governments spent more than a decade negotiating the best way to handle this issue. The Japanese proposed that they compensate victims directly but the South Korean government insisted that they handle the distribution. Both parties came to the agreement that the best way forward was for the Japanese government to pay the South Korean government directly and let them handle the proper distribution. This makes sense because the South Korean government represents the Korean people and should know how to handle the distribution of compensation better than the Japanese government.

However, the South Korean government decided to channel all of those funds into developing the South Korean economy and did not use it to pay reparations to victims.

The Japanese government is not responsible for this.

And yet, we are still left with the fact that the comfort women have never received compensation from the Japanese government, and have never received an official apology from the Japanese government. Justify it all you want, it doesn't change the facts.

Japan directly paid the government of South Korea to settle all compensation issues. If the comfort women have not yet received compensation from this pool of money that Japan paid into, it is the fault of the Korean government, not Japan.

The volleys of rocketfire from Gaza that instigated this invasion, while definitely an outrage, did not actually kill anyone. The Israeli invasion, on the other hand, has killed over 500, including large numbers of innocent civilians.

What would be the appropriate response to the launching of 1,000+ rockets into your country?

The number is just the amount of being entering the ticket gate at JR Shinjuku. It doesn't include the massive amounts of people transferring at Shinjuku or people using the separate metro system.

like any nail that sticks out in japan, it will be driven down. the gov't and the airline industry, in collusion, will make sure that air asia have the most turbulent time taking off in japan. i guess mr. fernandez forgot that japan doesn't do competition.

Good thing he picked Rakuten to partner up with - they don't play games with the government here.

None of the released prisoners had a trial which is the norm under democracy?

It is the international norm to not try prisoners of armed conflict unless in very special cases.

It is also not a norm anywhere in the world to release people who are members of an organization you are still in open armed conflict with. As long as the US and/or Afghan government is in armed conflict with the Taliban, they shouldn't be releasing captured members back into the fight.

It's like if the US started releasing captured German POWs in 1944 and sent them back to Germany to join the fight again before the war was over.

Chidorigafuchi only honors the unidentified war dead. The identified dead are honored at Yasukuni. One of the criteria of being interred at Yasukuni is that they must know your name.

Personally, I think the government should build or sponsor a secular memorial at Chidorigafuchi which honors both unidentified and identified dead without the racist undertones that come through across the street at Yasukuni.

What specific government policies are the biggest obstacles to you moving to Japan?

@jerseyboy

You are just listing your own stereotypes. 60% of Japanese view foreigners in a bad light? Thank you for your opinion but I don't believe it. Not at all. What evidence do you have to support those numbers? Opinion polls, academic surveys, or are you just making things up?

And your finance getting stopped twice a month by immigration for 20 years? So she's been stopped and questioned over 200 times? I find that hard to believe. I must be living in a crazy bubble because I have been stopped by Japanese police a grand total of one time in five years.

Oh please, there are literally hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of people who would jump at the opportunity to work in Japan.

I agree, Japanese language ability is the only real barrier for a professional immigrating to Japan. Any foreigner with skills and Japanese ability can easily find a company in Japan to sponsor their visa and make a decent long-term career and even take on Japanese citizenship after a decade or so.

The people have the real problems are the ones who cannot speak Japanese. The opportunities for professionals who cannot speak Japanese are very limited. Companies are just not interested in hiring people who are illiterate and cannot communicate in the local language.

According to AP, Ukrainian national guard (consisting mostly of "Right Sector" activists from West Ukraine) opened fire on the referendum day on unarmed crowd outside a town hall of Krasnoarmeisk (in Eastern Ukraine), and there were fatalities.

According to the AP, many of the Russians in the crowd were armed.

On the historical matter, one reason that guns did not proliferate so widely in Japan, was because when firearms first came to Japan, the Samurai and ruling cast considered the use of firearms, un-honorable and even un-civilized, preferring the face to face combat. A shame though, that this modern days, that view has begun to blur.

Sorry but that is a historical myth largely perpetrated by the film "The Last Samurai".

The Japanese samurai were absolutely obsessed with guns and at no time in Japanese history were they considered to be "un-honorable". Every samurai would have been expected to carry guns into battle, only switching to swords or other weapons when they ran out of ammo.

This is good. Japan needs some moderate inflation after a decade and a half of deflation.

Mitsui actually just got a deal of the century.

If you look at capital costs in 1930s values and take into account the 80 or so years of accrued interest...

You are arguing semantics and ignoring the popular and most common usages of those words; not to mention completely ignoring the absolutely huge cultural, political, even physical differences that have grown between South and North Korea since 1945.

"Chosen-jin" doesn't refer to the people of the Korean peninsula anymore because there are simply too many differences between the North and South. "(Kita) Chosen-jin" is understood by most of Japan as being a North Korean and "Kankoku-jin" as a South Korean.

99.9% of Koreans visiting Japan would be offended if someone started calling them a "Chosen-jin" or if someone asked if they could practice their "Chosen-go" with them. This is because the rest of Japan and Korea have come to see this word used in this context as a racist slur.

Seriously?

Do you even live in Japan?

It's 2014 - In popular usage, "Chosen-jin" means NORTH Korean only. In fact, most dictionaries say something like "Korean, especially North Korean". Sure, the word technically refers to all Koreans of the peninsula but it stopped being used that way 70 years ago.

Now we have to consider the facts that North Koreans do not get to travel to Shikoku (or Japan) to take part in religious pilgrimages, and the Zainichi Koreans who continue to identify with the North would not need Hangul signage to get around Shikoku because they read Japanese natively. It becomes quite clear that whoever made the signs was making an anti-Korean racist statement. And again, the local police, governments, and temple associations agree the signs are pure racism.

Lastly, there are nowhere near 1,000,000 zainichi North Kroeans living in Japan :)