VoiceOfReason comments

I can't see how the US comes out of this looking good.

SMH. When a parent disciplines a child, it's not about "looking good", it's about the result.

Any country who has scores of people that entered the US illegally is obviously not going to willingly expend the resources or effort to get them back. Which is why you have to take a hard line.

In life and in business it is about the result. Do optics play a role, sure, but come on, this is the country whose most famous figure is Pablo Escobar.

My stocks are hedged for the brand new day.

I bet on the private prison stocks in the weeks before the election and now I am making bank!

Just remember, people. Trump is only in it for himself. He doesn't care about you, unless you've got something he needs.

Let me put this in simple terms for plastic.

2016, Trump elected, my savings and investments thrive

Biden elected, savings and investments go down the toilet

2024, just a hunch but I bet my pocketbook is going to be doing much better. He can be in it for himself while benefiting the everyday American at the same time. If you do not believe so, perhaps you have financial issues and require bailing out from the government.

I believe a few years ago it came to light that you had a government official in charge of cybersecurity and he was asked by reports about MFA and he did not know what that was.

Remember that this is Japan. Everyone says the same thing. It's not about qualifications. If you're an old Japanese man the hierarchy just gives you power regardless of how unqualified you are.

The only people I know who use the word "occupier" frequently are radical Islamic jihadists

Remember folks. Bluesky exists because the left thought Joe Rogan was too right wing. Let that sink in.

Yearly pollution floats over from China.

Japan wants to overwork itself to manage the miniscule percentage of pollution it produces. Japan then wonders why we still have climate issues. Couldn't be China at all, right?

Any foreigner who comes here to live should study and speak the language ..Simple as !

True! However...

Japan is at a point where it must globalize. Japan imports EVERYTHING and I feel it exports very little. English is the language of the world and Japan has to get on board. We are seeing the consequences of Japan's hubris by not adopting a more global mindset every day.

260 yen for a regular sized apple? It's only going to get worse from here

Totally agree with the CEO,but Japan has still a very inward and xenophobic mindset which is hard to eradicate in just one generation.

To this point, I have a Japanese wife and I remember moving to Tokyo because I found a new job and we needed an apartment. I remember going to the real estate agent and he showed us a layout of a place and we were super interested. He calls up the landlord and I can hear the conversation. "foreigner? Nope. I don't rent to foreigners."

All I could think of is, my wife is a Japanese national. Her parents could act as guarantors if a guarantor was needed, but nope, my race just automatically disqualifies us both from renting.

Now think about how this article says we need 1 million more immigrants.

slippery slope

Complete lack of empathy from the left, as evidenced by the comments in this thread.

My experience as an American in Japan is that even here in Japan the most staunch DEI supporters tend to be incredibly successful white people. These very people have had no issue trying to throw every disadvantage possible at any white person, including myself, in order to preserve their own power.

And that's all it is, people. There is no genuine desire to boost minorities. It's all about preservation of one's power and money.

As someone who has lived here many years this remains a sore spot for me.

I pay taxes, which includes an exorbitant residence tax.

I pay A LOT into the pension system.

By these actions I am helping to keep Japan afloat and support the elderly population that continues to bleed money from the young.

I should be entitled to vote.

Says the fox news watcher! ($750 billion they've paid for their lies, and counting!)

I guess I should go to MSNBC for all my news but then I wouldn't learn anything other than that I should feel ashamed for being white.

The disadvantage to Kamala for having muted mics is that she wont get to accuse Trump of mansplaining everything like she did when she debated Mike Pence.

There is a supermarket chain I go to that has an amazing selection. Top notch bentos, meat, fish, produce, etc., for amazing prices. This place is CASH only. By shielding themselves from charges that come with people using credit cards, this place I went to is able to pass on the savings to its shoppers. Other places should follow suit.

I live in Japan and have a vegan friend. She took me to a vegan restaurant in Osaka where I ate a pizza that was 100% soy-based. It was one of the most disgusting things I ever ate. Even the cheese was soy.

Then a year or two later we went to a vegan place in Shibuya (this was to cater to her because my friend is vegan). I had vegan karaage with tartar sauce. The "chicken" was just massive balls of soy and the tartar sauce was yellow for some reason. Had to force every morsel down my throat it was so gross.

Cater to vegetarians, go ahead. Cater to vegans, at least try and make the food palatable.

Another thought is some women become pregnant even with contraceptives. Others are raped or victims of incest. In many states denied the morning-after pill.

The left always defaults to this when trying to take the smallest minority and paint with a big brush.

One position I have always held is "Do you want more abortion or less rape?" I have yet to hear "less rape" come out of the mouths of those on the left which tells me it's not really about that.

Most all states support abortion in the case of incest.

Lastly, I went to a party in college once and it was truly unfortunate but a rape did take place there. When it was discovered the party was called off and I hung around to help support since I was a neighbor. The police were immediately involved and the victim was given a morning-after-pill.

Only my feeling but if these cases are reported immediately then the issue can be addressed immediately.

You might argue that one might feel uncomfortable coming forward, however in that scenario the child is coming to term and people will notice regardless.

Avoid sex workers and unprotected homosexual sexual activities seems the best way to not catch this in the region.

-Unless you think children are using sex services you could not be more wrong.

Come on now, virus, we all know about the breakout that happened in the UK and the key demographic behind it.

To answer someone's question, it was rebranded as MPOX, because, as with most leftist run organizations, someone deemed the term "monkeypox" to be offensive and/or racist, because it's about being PC, right? Not about speaking facts about the actual disease and how it's spreading.

Gotta say, as a heterosexual male in Japan who doesn't shake hands (as bowing is the custom) I'm not too worried that it'll ever be an issue for me here in Japan.

Um, today?

That unhinged screed was political panic and it was all him.

None of his advisors thought that was a good idea.

How you gauge panic here exemplifies my point. You are crying "wolf" here.

To me, it's more annoying than it is anything else, but all the people who are like "look! Trump is shaking in his boots!" Like really? Have you ever seen him ONCE express fear about anything?

What I see is a LOT of projection from our friends on the left. It's not even so much that they hate Trump. It's that high school energy where if your side wins you get to pretend for a few moments like you're smart and somehow you made everything happen.

I can only see this attitude as a hinderance to one's ability to be financially successful

As a new parent with a son yet to turn two, I have thought about how I would handle the bullying situation in Japan now that I have been here quite awhile. ALT work was long ago but it also gave me good insight as to the school system and BOE and how they work. And yes, agreed with what everyone says about how it takes a death for somebody to act. Japan is a super REACTIVE country and that is why you only see people at the top apologizing, mostly because there are sooooo many layers of hierarchy that problems voiced from the bottom rarely make their way up. So anyway, knowing this, here's what I'd do:

If my son is bullied and I am aware of it...

I go to the school and request to see the Vice Principal. I tell him or her that the bullying is taking place and they need to be watchful and ensure it doesn't happen again. AND...I will let them know that I have a two strike policy. I will tell the VP that if my son tells me he is still being bullied I will go to the BOE and report the issue there. Making noise higher up the chain would be undesirable by the school so hopefully that threat would be enough.

BUT...I would also tell the VP that after I report the bullying to the Board of Education that if it still continues that I will go bang on the door of the Asahi Shinbun or local news until I receive an audience. No district wants to be in the news for a bullying scandal and hopefully the threat of such action would make them pay attention.

As long as I'm willing to follow through I expect positive results.

Please keep in mind that this is coming from someone who was bullied from elementary school to high school. And the difference with my home country is that we can at least change classrooms and teachers. In Japan, you are stuck with the same people for YEARS. So if you are being bullied you really have no means of escape.

As is typical, a lot of bias in this article. Trump has to be the villain so the article has to be skewed in Kamala's favor regardless.

And I'm sorry, was there a mention in THIS article about how the Sept 10th debate that was schedule was planned to be with Joe Biden and not Kamala? What happened to Joe btw? Oh yeah...

So once again another brutal assassination reminds the world that the Israelis have the right to defend themselves, but the Gazans don't, just as the Jews of Europe didn't. As the famous old Serbian saying has it: "the wolf has the right to the lamb", which describes to a tee today's lawless international order of impunity for a select few that the "democracies" have now inflicted on us all.

Dude, Israel is getting attacked from all sides. Why aren't all these Gaza defenders that support Hamas taking in these destitute Palestinians? I'll tell you why. Because countries like Iran want Israel wiped off the map and they don't care if Palestine becomes fodder as long as the end goal is achieved.

Israel, you keep up the good fight!

Here's what I don't get. It's become a habit now, every Olympics, to talk about how the beds are specifically made to be a bit uncomfortable so as to discourage sexual relations among athletes, and yet the equivalent of a small, hotel room safe can't be installed in any of the rooms? If you have millions to spend on the event, small safes seem like real low-hanging fruit.

Could be slightly more could be slightly less. Based on being a person of color who was living in America and being military veteran with 10 years of service basically meeting variety of people from different states. People of color don't say slurs towards or about white people just because, some don't and some do but only as a form of self defense. While you have white people who thing it is funny to say slurs just for the hell of it. But again issues you would not understand unless you are part of the problem or experiencing the problem with front row seats.

Because it doesn't affect you it means it doesn't exist is what you are telling me right? The same people who love to have the abbreviation "DEI" in their everyday vocabulary for example

In other words, based on the color of your skin, the numbers you put forward based on your personal lived experience must be held to be true to someone with the color of my skin.

I understand what you are saying but it is deeper than that. As a person of color I can tell you that about 90% of us had parents who did not teach us to have racist viewpoints, and the 10% that did probably have been affected by some traumatic events that made them think a certain way. For Caucasian folk in America maybe 60% were raised by parents who did not teach racist viewpoints to their children. But that 40% that is using slurs around their children behind closed doors, telling their children they will disown them if they ever bring home a lover of a different race, the ones with KKK or Nazi roots in their families are teaching their kids some really cruel and unspeakable things that make them grow up to be that way.

Even if you were not raised by parents who did any of the things that I mentioned, I will at least ask that you be open minded and don't pretend things like that don't happen. When he said the majority of the comments were from jealous white males he did not say all or only, he said the majority meaning some people of other race groups, as well as some white males have the opposite opinion.

I've been a victim of racism on numerous occasions (by POC believe it or not). Notice how your comments suggest that racism only works one way.

You completely jumped over the person who callously uses the phrase "jealous white males" and go after the white guy. The cycle of victimhood has to end, dude.

Yasuke was not a samurai and your comment suggests that I am a racist for not buying into the lie that he was a samurai because, what? I might hurt the feelings of non-Japanese, non-white people who want to wish it into fact?

All your stats about how much of the white population has been raised racist...based on what facts???? What does this have to do with a video game buying into a false narrative in the interest of making money??? How is your blanket assumption of how certain races are raised and what they believe in NOT super racist?

The majority of compaints are not from Japanese residents, but are from jealous White males that makes up the second largest demographic of RPG players after Asian males.

They are jealous that they cannot get a character that looks like them in a "cool RPG game" about ninjas and samurai, so they troll online.

White male here, and not jealous at all. What I will say is that on Facebook Japan group pages a statue of Yasuke is repeatedly posted and claims him to be a real samurai.

People of all races have, for months, provided evidence and debunked this repeatedly. No one is jealous. We ARE tired of super progressives rewriting history and presenting it as fact.

It's really not about how the Japanese feel about their own history. ALL of this is a result of the culture war that is predominantly American. And I say that as a fellow American.

The far left will just spew falsehoods repeatedly until those who advocate for truth simply give up.

No disrespect to your job, but I don’t think being an ALT qualifies you in this area.

We’ve had WW2 scholars, conspiracy theorists, spammers and a blizzard of sock puppet accounts weighing in here.

Truly ridiculous.

You know, one could be a doctor and have come to Japan to be an ALT for the experience. Way to assume.

Second, never said I was a health expert, you really came off nasty here.

Three, did not Fauci admit this year that he pulled social distancing out of his bum with no real science to back it up?

Now let me finish by explaining this in a simple way you should understand. As a parent of a child in this country and as someone who has worked with small children and has assimilated into the culture and watched how other parents raise their children I HAVE seen 2 years olds wearing masks and parents imposing groupthink on their children and when asked why they do things a certain way they have no logic to back it up.

Yes if you shelter yourself from everything you are not giving your body a chance to build immunity. That is common knowledge.

There are a lot of sickly and under nourished children in this country and in some cases the mask may be warranted but there absolutely is a fear for fear's sake mentality that is hurting children here

There are about 30 million unvaccinated people in Japan.

They had made it through 11 waves now.

The human body is amazing and natural immunity works.

We don't need corporate products from Pfizer or Moderna to live on this Earth.

Amen!