WesternerJapan87 comments

Posted in: Woman in coma after being hit by minivan fleeing from police car See in context

This girl will likely have permanent brain damage and disabilities if she survives. Poor girl.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Teen couple arrested for burying newborn baby in park See in context

Now the girl will be traumatized forever as she is guilty of abandoning her child. The baby had the right to live but died.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Posted in: 4 killed in car-motorbike collision in Gunma See in context

Among the dead are three girls/women in their teens, 30s and 60s.

Just now, another wagon accident in Osaka has left 5 people dead. Not a very good Sunday.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: 2020 Tokyo Olympic chief says payments legitimate consulting fees See in context

So where is the evidence?

The evidence has already been found by French prosecutors and once the final analysis is undertaken then Tokyo may be stripped off its title to host the 2020 Olympics.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: 2020 Tokyo Olympic chief says payments legitimate consulting fees See in context

I have been reading hundreds of angry comments on Japanese social media sites. So far, roughly 80% of the commentators are calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be called off.

I talked to a lot of my colleagues about this new scandal yesterday. Most of them said that they're not interested in the Tokyo Olympics and that it will add to the public debt, which already stands at 250% of Japan's GDP. Some of them said that it will be a chance to Japan to revive itself.

My stance on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (if it is held, that is) is that it will be a month of excitement, and after that, there will be very little future return on investment. With the global economy getting worse and worse, it seems like less than expected number of tourists will spend big money when they arrive in Japan in 2020. And more tourists/spectators in Tokyo isn't exactly better. It will only make Tokyo that much more crowded and chaotic, and there may be unwanted influences in the local area.

From a purely economic standpoint, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is a poor idea. The vast majority of recent past Olympics host cities have reported negative consequences from hosting the Olympic Games.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: 2020 Tokyo Olympic chief says payments legitimate consulting fees See in context

This news is all over social media now.

I highly suggest that Tokyo be stripped off its privilege to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The 2020 Olympics should be hosted in London, LA or another Asian city other than Tokyo.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Clash of Champions See in context

This photo was taken in Hong Kong. HK girls are hot!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Takata air bag recall in U.S. could more than double in size See in context

This is going to have big consequences on a lot of Japanese automakers. It will affect Honda the most. Honestly, Honda needs to improve its engine technology. Their engines' power output:RPM ratio lags far behind other automakers. Vtech technology is outdated.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: How France sank Japan's $40 bil Australian submarine dream See in context

Japan's bid was the favorite until early this year when they failed to attend several conferences regarding the submarine bid and the logistics associated with building the submarines. The Australian government realized that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries/Kawasaki Heavy Industries lacked experience in building submarines overseas. Furthermore, the French submarine is technologically superior over the Japanese submarine. The Japanese submarine isn't very fuel efficient and has less range. So there were many reasons why the French won and the Japanese lost, but the most significant reason was Japan Corp's lack of communication. This is unfortunate as this was a mega deal. $50 billion deals don't come easily. Most deals these days in the shipbuilding deals are worth $500 million to $2 billion at most. Furthermore, Australia is a country where strikes and other workplace mishaps are controlled, such that foreign companies are compensated for in terms of work time lost. So Australia is an excellent place to manufacture, if the final product is going to stay in Australia. The reason why Australia's manufacturing industry hasn't been doing well these days is because they weren't able to export many products overseas- a result of years of the strong Australian dollar, although that has changed these days.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan misses out as Australia awards sub contract to France See in context

Reasons why Japan (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) lost:

Lack of expertise dealing with doing business in foreign countries Lack of effective communication between the Japanese government and Australian government Recent Mitsubishi fuel economy scandal Comments made by Japanese delegates regarding Australia's technological capabilities as being inferior The French DCNS and German TKMS submarines were technologically superior and had greater range compared to the Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Soryu class submarines.

Politics had very little to do with Japan losing. If anything, politics would have been in Japan's favor considering that the US was pushing Australia to make the deal with Japan, rather than France or Germany, as it would strengthen their Pacific Alliance.

So the blame is on the Japanese government, particularly the Abe administration and Mitsubishi.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Posted in: M7.8 quake kills at least 77 in Ecuador See in context

M7.8 is much bigger than the M7.3 of the Kyushu earthquake. So I'm surprised only 41 people were killed in the Ecuador earthquake.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: Some sleep in cars after 2 nights of quakes kill 41 in Kyushu See in context

There are still many people unaccounted for. According to some media outlets, more than 1000 are still trapped inside one village alone due to landslides. Up to 100,000 or more have been displaced.. this is huge. I suspect a lot of injured people might have had rhabdomyolysis, a common condition that affects people after earthquakes due to muscle breakdown from multi-trauma. This condition is common in the Himalayas, New Zealand, Indonesia and other earthquake zones. The result is permanent kidney damage, which could result in early renal disease and kidney failure.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: Scores feared trapped as death toll from 2 Kyushu quakes hits 37 See in context

After all, Kyushu is supposed to be the place in Japan that is relatively safe from quakes.

Kyushu is relatively safe from quakes, so I'm really surprised that a M7.3 earthquake struck this region. This is evidence that the Ring of Fire (which Japan, unfortunately, is included in) is a very unpredictable zone where earthquakes can happen several hundreds of kilometers away from the most earthquake-susceptible areas.

This is why everyone in Japan, irregardless of location, should live everyday with the expectation that an earthquake can hit where they live at any time.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Posted in: Scores feared trapped as death toll from 2 Kyushu quakes hits 37 See in context

Manufacturing plants shut down because nobody is going to go to work.

Incorrect. They shut down because the companies' inspectors wanted to assess the damage and logistical disruptions.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Posted in: Plants shut down after quake, fueling economic fears See in context

Yeah, this is just from the M6.5 earthquake though. I wonder how much damage this new M7.3 quake will have done. And they still wont shut down the nuclear power plants! This is a good example of a country that considers the economy more important than safety.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Posted in: Scores feared trapped as death toll from 2 Kyushu quakes hits 37 See in context

So electronics and car manufacturing plants have shut down.

Yet they refuse to shut down the nuclear plants. How about they focus on safety first?

-4 ( +11 / -15 )

Posted in: 3 bodies found in car in Nara in suspected group suicide See in context

Car suicide pacts usually involve young people. They are most common in Japan, however they also take place in other Asian countries.

The reason why they are most common in Japan is because Japan has a higher youth suicide rate than most countries in the world, even higher than Korea. I've read in Korea, the high suicide rate is mainly attributed to the elderly, mostly due to cultural reasons.

In Japan, the high youth suicide rate is mostly driven by socio-economic reasons as well as rural residence. Most of the world's suicides happen in rural areas.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Abenomics on the ropes as yen soars, markets plunge See in context

Abenomics is working just fine! It is shifting public funds to the corporate and financial elite, as intended, and they are enjoying a consumptive boom, as a walk around Aoyama and Omotesando will reveal.

Omotesando is now a tourist cluster****. I don't enjoy going there at all now.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Abenomics on the ropes as yen soars, markets plunge See in context

Yep the news is out. -1.4% YoY (-0.4% QoQ) decline in GDP vs forecast of -0.8% YoY (-0.2% QoQ) decline.

Expect more attempts at quantitative easing and expect Japan Inc. to reduce wages further. Oh, and probably expect more NIRP as we approach mid to late 2016.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Bodies of woman, 8-month-old son found in car in Gifu See in context

People should stop using women as a means of increasing the birth rate. All these ridiculous comments like "oh there's minus 2 for Japan's birth rate" are unwarranted. Even if 1000 young people die today, there will be negligible differences to Japan's overall population.

Furthermore, stop blaming everything on the mother. Yes, there was a similar incident yesterday where another mother killed 2 of her children. They were most likely suffering from desperation brought on by either financial problems or high family pressure, or both.

It's not surprising that these incidents are becoming more and more common. Real household income shrunk massively in 2015 due to the weakening of the yen and Abenomic's anti-deflation drive.

Some of my friends in Japan are planning to leave soon because their wages are stagnating in yen terms (shrinking in dollar terms). It's just not economic to live in Japan anymore, and I'm not surprised that even Japanese people are now questioning their wages now. The Japanese are usually very resilient to changes like these, but there's only so much pressure they can handle.

It's a sad reality that people living in Japan are being failed by the Japanese government's pro-big business drive. Only the big corporations like Toyota, Sony and Mitsubishi are benefiting from Abenomics, while salarymen (including expats) are the victims of falling wages and rising prices of necessities. Once the 10% tax rise comes into effect soon, I think more people will leave Japan.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Google parent Alphabet passes Apple as biggest company -- now what? See in context

The next US bubble to burst is technology. As gajinfo has pointed out Apple and Google are grossly overvalued and, in particular, Apple's growth engine is very limited.

Profits are probably the least accurate way to measure a company's size. For example, BP Plc (British Petroleum Plc) posted a loss of US$-6.8 billion. If a company selling tissue boxes posts a profit of US$500,000, does it make it a bigger company than BP Plc?

The size of a company should primarily be assessed on revenues, and the value of assets and liabilities. This means Samsung is a larger company than Apple and Google combined. Heck, Samsung is even larger than Toyota and Volkswagen.

But, there are companies even bigger than this. They include Walmart, Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Unless Apple finds a new growth engine soon, it will follow the same path as IBM did back in the 1990s. Apple's dependence on the iPhone is starting to scare investors away, hence why it's stock value has dropped 30% since May 2015.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Posted in: 12-year-old girl dies after colliding with snowboarder See in context

Negligence by the skier, most likely. What a waste of 12 years of life.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Posted in: Apple's iPhone success may be reaching its peak See in context

daito_hak: Samsung is still much larger than Apple. Yes, Apple makes more profits, but it makes much less revenue, its assets are worth much less and has less equity value. Overall, Samsung is more than double the size of Apple. Sony, Kyocera, Toshiba, etc all these Japanese companies used to have a stronghold in global electronics market back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Look at where they are now, because they failed to find new growth engines and delayed restructuring. Sony, Kyocera, Toshiba, Hitachi, Panasonic and all the other Japanese electronics added up make less profit than Samsung.

You can't just look at profits. Future growth is all about rising revenues. A flat revenue and consistently high profit is dangerous as smartphones have reached market saturation in even developing markets now. And with China's slowdown and the dominance of Huawei and Xiaomi which the Chinese increasingly think are on-par with Apple and Samsung phones will mean that Apple needs to find a new growth engine.

Samsung is investing heavily into home appliances, a market which it topped in the US in 2015, even performing better than Whirlpool and General Electric. Furthermore, Samsung is also investing heavily into electric vehicle batteries, a market currently dominated by LG and Panasonic. But with Samsung's huge capital, I think it's likely Samsung will overtake these two companies within 2 years.

Apple's main growth engine right now is the iPhone. I doubt this growth engine will last very long. Profits are already forecast to fall in the next financial year.

I personally own a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. I bought it because it looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye and it performs just as well as the iPhone 6S, if not better. It also has the best smartphone camera on the market by far and has an excellent "tap the home button twice to launch camera" function.

Honestly, the faster iPhone sales decline, the faster Apple will want find a new growth engine.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Posted in: Woman, partner arrested over death of her 3-year-old daughter See in context

Another murder of a 3 year old girl in the span of a few days. Another piece of evidence that Japan is a poor place to raise children. I'm not saying Japan isn't safe. But the corporate culture and the decrease in real wages really hits households hard. The Japanese stock market and big companies like Toyota and Sony has been the only beneficiary since Abenomics.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: 37-year-old woman arrested for attempting to kill 3-year-old daughter See in context

Anyone with knowledge in medicine and physiology would know that a 3 year old in a coma will likely die or have permanent brain damage for the rest of her life. This is because the brain is at its peak developmental stage in this early stage of life.

The mother should be jailed for this for attempted murder or murder.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: More rivers burst their banks triggering further floods; 25 missing See in context

I remember the massive floods and landslides that hit Hiroshima in 2014, which killed more than 70 people. And now, the same thing is happening in Ibaraku, Fukushima and other parts of eastern/northern Japan. While natural disasters cannot be prevented, I think Japan still lacks fundamentals regarding disaster preparedness.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Posted in: 3-year-old boy found dead in apartment in Ibaraki; mother arrested See in context

Well the 3 year old boy "living at the residence" WAS living at the residence. Now that he is dead, there are technically 5 children remaining. And it's highly possible that the children aren't hers, the article is open to interpretation since it lacks the details.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Posted in: More than 100,000 flee floods in eastern Japan; 7 missing See in context

The footage provided by NHK really highlight the huge scale of this flood. Massive property damage, numerous people missing and overflowing of nuclear radiation-contaminated water into the surrounding environment.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: Heavy rain causes floods; sends tainted water from Fukushima plant into sea See in context

I just had a look at the footage on NHK and wow those towns look like they were hit by a tsunami, reminiscent of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake & tsunami. This monster El Nino will persist for a whole year well into the end of 2016. Island countries in and around the Pacific Ocean like Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines will be disproportionately affected. It may be best for these residents to relocate to evacuate to Tokyo. The Japanese government should set up temporary shelters with adequate clothing and food for the affected people rather than focusing on Abenomics and business profits. In real terms, wages have decreased, the Japanese middle class is shrinking, all the while a large proportion of the Japanese population is suffering from an environmental disaster. However, I think we all know what direction Abe will continue on.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Heavy rain causes floods; sends tainted water from Fukushima plant into sea See in context

What seemed like just another mild typhoon has ended up being a wide-scale disaster. Multiple people missing, nuclear radiation-contaminated water tainting the land in Fukushima and the sea, as well as landslides and floods. Perhaps it's a problem with the drainage system? I'm fearing a lot of this radiation-contaminated water will end up in the water system. And what's up with Fukushima? I thought TEPCO had it "under control". More reasons for Japan to shut down its recently restarted nuclear power plant once again.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

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