User1991 comments

This is utterly ridiculous. It is a complete joke. As a foreigner living here, I am witness to the number of bars, restaurants and cafes which continue to remain open despite the emergency declaration on 8th April.

Japan is the only country which I know to seem incapable of making its citizens stay home. I read that this was because of their constitution (and possibly is a clause inserted by the Americans after the Second World War). I’m an avid supporter of democracy. There are times when civil liberties need to be suspended. Other countries have found a way of doing this. I don’t believe the constant narrative that Japan is incapable of doing so. The government was originally concerned about saving the Olympics and now is focused on the ailing economy which is on the brink of a recession. This was exacerbated by the tax hike. Understandably, economic woes are a concern. The government should offer economic aid to small - medium sized enterprises and economic relief to poorer individuals. Some sources suggest that in Japan, suicide is more dangerous than Covid 19.

The Japanese government is calling an emergency and at the same time sending mixed messages to the people. It’s no wonder that I see so many old people out and about in the cafes around my town. They haven’t really understood the severity of this situation. By the way, I’m still leaving my home because my company refuses to close.

Japan seems adamant to be part of the Covid 19 denial club. Sweden is part of that club too but at least Sweden are following a consistent policy of herd immunity and no lockdown.

This emergency is a complete sham and the government are deliberately not testing enough people. Europe will take months before everything is opened. At the rate Japan are going, they will be lucky if the emergency ends in 2021.

A topic as monumental as capital punishment creates a very polarising debate. The family of the victims were satisfied to see these Aum terrorists executed. Some might argue that this is an emotional reaction to their losses. It could be but I also see it as the only logical and normal reaction to terrorists committing terrible atrocities on the subway in Tokyo. It is disgusting and abhorrent what these terrorists did. Of course, several groups of people did not agree with the executions on grounds of human rights among other things. Personally, I believe that if a person commits murder, they should indeed be murdered as well in a legal way. That is why I support the result of these executions. For those who wanted to hear more about the motives by these Aum members and feel like a part of history has gone with them to the ground, I would say that there are ways to research more about them. Besides, why give them greater publicity? They took lives of other people who have no chance to live in this world anymore. They could be insane and that brings up a greater debate which I shall not go into here. However, these attacks seem far too planned and premediated to have been carried out by insane people unless of course we assume that being insane is a rather multi-layered term which is not so easily defined. I would prefer not to normalise insanity and use it as an excuse for executing people who clearly planned attacks. Execution has never been the greatest deterrent but humans will always commit crimes. Some will and they should be punished. I would rather see them executed than waste the cell in a prison that could be used by an inmate who has not committed so heinous a crime and also wastes taxpayers money to feed them. Rehabilitation could work for those who have committed lesser crimes but these people were in my opinion beyond any sort of rehabilitation. Moreover, capital punishment is reserved for the most awful of crimes. Politicians have their own motives for doing things and are certainly not model examples to live up to. I fail to see how discourses of corrupt politicians bares any relation to capital punishment. In the same vein that you have a victors justice in war, there is only those who we elect or the parties we elect who can represent our voices in society. Politicians are vested with the power to make laws and I would prefer that to anarchy. Sometimes they make decisions I agree with, sometimes they do not. In this case, I agree with the decision to execute these scumbags whom I would personally be prepared to execute for their cowardly, unnecessary and evil acts of terrorism and murder in a public place.

Working in airports is going to be very tough; long hours and low pay. If Japan wants to attract millions more foreigners to Tokyo and the country in general, they need to cut out all this outsourcing to inspector companies and invest in an academy for training these members of staff. Giving unacceptably low salaries for airport staff and at the same time expecting to prevent terrorist attacks is rather ridiculous. These individuals need to be incentivised to work hard. If increasing their salaries is not on the agenda, at the very least they should be provided with housing near the airport. Give them free English lessons and subsidized training otherwise God knows what will happen during the 2020 Olympics.....

It is difficult to really know the level of success that they might have attained. If you look at the most famous bands in the world, they are from Britain and America. Therefore, it would seem that being born in Britain or American would have been in their favour. Besides this, there is the issue of which language to sing in. If they only sing in Japanese, this makes it harder for a foreign audience to access them. Unfortunately even if they sing in English, I believe that simply being from a non western or anglophone country will label them as being simply imitators of western rock no matter how hard they try. They end up relying too much on Japanophiles which is of course an extremely niche market of people to reach out to. Will Japanese and non American/British bands gain huge international success in the future? Only time will tell.

I do not see this as a great achievement. Working till 8pm? That is still a much longer time than people in other countries are willing to work for. There needs to be better rights for workers in Japan. Also, I wonder if Japanese people want to finish working at 8pm. Some of them might feel bad leaving early. It will take a while for things to change.

I hope this young woman is found and that there is some good reason for her disappearance. I really hope the police can find her.

good luck to them. I am very pleased to hear this news.

I'm not too keen on the military style outfits.