yyj72 comments

This could explain why no one from Nara ever leaves.

Stalking, or at least unhealthy fixation, is the dark flip side to Japan's reverence for "gambaru" perseverance.

What a pathetic pair of losers these two countries are sometimes. "China, stop poking your sister. Japan, stop teasing her." Get real and grow up, you bunch of snivelling twerps, before Uncle Sam has to come along with a giant paddle and provide some adult supervision.

As if Merkel didn't know her cell phone wasn't a secure line! Of course she did. That's why she had a secure land line in her office. The pretend outrage is amusing.

Go Pi-chan!

Introducing high school dances would help. That's where a lot us in North America, especially guys, first learned how to muster up the courage to approach someone of the opposite sex and reap the rewards (and how to deal with rejection). Just getting over that mental hurdle is important. The first step is always the hardest, as they say.

"Movember" is getting a bit old.

So, focusing on Cui's remarks:

“Japan was defeated in the Second World War not just by two atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. but by all the peace-loving, anti-fascist countries and people—the peoples of the United Nations—including China and the United States, of course,” Cui said.

The above statement is true. However, this claim:

“I think politicians in Japan have to realize this is the post-World War II international order. You cannot challenge that,” he said.

This is merely a self-interested assertion. Many countries would like to change the post-WWII international order, including a rising China. What Cui alluding to is Japan's desire for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (and China's opposition thereto). There are good reasons for not adding more permanent members to the Security Council, increased vetoes and gridlock chief among them, but reform of the Council is needed. The proposal by many middle size states to do away with permanent members and hold regular votes for a fixed number of seats (the "Uniting for Consensus" proposal) is the best way forward.

The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands were simply assumed by the Chinese Imperial rulers to be a part of their realm, but they were not actively administered as Chinese territory and essentially neglected; no one lived there and they were really only used as navigational aids. Then China woke up one day to find that Japan had taken them over and they (China) were powerless to stop them because China at that time (the early 20th century) was essentially a failed state with more urgent problems. Since then they have been Japanese territory in both the legal and physical occupation senses of the word. The only way for China to get them back is through "facts on the ground", and while those rocks are hardly worth the cost in lives and money that such an action would cost, there is a risk that foolish pride or miscalculation on either side will turn into a larger conflict. Let's hope that cool heads prevail so that both countries can stay focused on more important issues (pollution, the economy, etc.) than settling old scores or maintaining their rep. Peace.

Hey, look who's regretting that they made their baseballs lighter - it's the Nippon Professional Baseball league!

Guess what lady,there already is a system for that, and Japanese taxpayers don't even have to pay for it - the United States justice system! Aho.

Typhoons are a great excuse to snuggle.

WTF, where's the tako-yaki?!

Well said, Triumvere. This will all likely change as fashion tattoos become more commonplace in Japan. In the meantime, there's Google to help folks change minds and markets: http://www.tattoo.ne.jp/spot.asp

Like I said, I don't think it's the best solution, but if you're an onsen owner you're faced with few options. If you let the tattooed people in, you can watch your regular customers disappear. If you bar the tattooed people, your business stays alive. Which would you choose? They have to follow the market and their customer base. Do you seriously expect Japanese people to spend their already precious little spare time educating themselves on global tattooing practices? The idea is noble but unrealistic. (BTW, Hokkaido has lots of Russian mafiya because they control the Sea of Okhotsk crab fishing industry which supplies most of Japan's crab meat.)

The "no tattoos" rule is much too blunt an instrument for avoiding unwanted criminal customers, but I'm not sure onsen owners have many other options. I've been to onsen that allowed tattoos and when the yakuza arrived the relaxing vibe immediately evaporated. Fact is, they make a living by intimidating people, and who wants that while they're trying to chill out in a bath? Also, many (most?) foreign gangsters have a tattoo culture as well (e.g. Russian mafiya, Central American gangs like MS 13 and Mara Salvatrucha, North American biker gangs like the Hells Angels). How can a simple bath owner in Japan be expected to keep up with which tattooed gaikokujin are criminals and which are not? A better solution would be to ask onsen owners to keep a supply or band aids or stick on skin pads that customers can buy in order to cover up their ink.

Most visitors to Japan actually like the fact that it is somewhat challenging to navigate. It adds to the experience of being somewhere exotic (as long as it's safe, which Japan is). Better ATM connectivity to the outside world would be useful. And a reduction in taxi rates for the duration of the games.

Biggest obstacle will be convincing people from North America or Europe to make the trip in the first place. In their minds Japan = too far, too expensive, too difficult linguistically. A massive PR campaign to overcome these perceptions, something akin to "Amazing Thailand", would be a good start.

Lol. The Chinese Olympic judo program just got ramped up big time!

Istanbul gets it by a nose with a big leap of faith from the IOC because the 2018 Winter Games are probably going to Pyeongchang, Korea, so a summer games in Asia two years later is out of the question.

Biggest factor in falling birth rates is the "mendokusai" mind-set of many young people in Japan, also sometimes referred to as the "taihen cloud". Everything is so convenient and smooth in Japan that they are actually shocked when they have to do anything requiring physical effort and the ability to overlook unpleasantness, like child-rearing. So most young people conclude that they would rather avoid it all, especially if they are still living at home with their parents and shopping and travel are just so...much...easier...(" Ooh, the sweet, sweet high of consumerism...pass me the credit card and give me another hit...yeahhh....")

Leaving the toilet seat up is nasty and inconsiderate. Don't do it. That said, anyone who puts their bare butt down on something without looking at it first deserves what they get. Don't blame others for your carelessness. Now shake hands and place nicely, children.

Yet another example of why "kokusan" = "safe"....jyanai.

Those aren't guns, they're rifles. A gun is an artillery piece. (My pedantry for today.)

China's growth is going to slow to a crawl as the one child policy intersects with an aging population. As they say, "Japan got rich before it got old, but China will get old before it gets rich." As this unfolds, look for the CCP to increasingly try to distract the Chinese populace from domestic problems with foreign diversions like the Senkakus.

When I say humiliation, I don't mean standing in front of the school with your pants down. I mean going to detention after class for a week for example. Perhaps humiliation is too strong a word, maybe i mean embarrassment (i.e. something which singles out the transgressor for having done something unacceptable).

Corporal punishment teaches a child that the consequence for bad behaviour is pain, and if the authority figure dispensing the beating is not viewed as legitimate by the child, then the additional lesson is "don't get caught by that jerk". Corporal punishment doesn't instil the more important quality of empathy for others that, once learned, prevents future transgressions. For instiling empathy in a child, explanation and shaming/humiliation (of a proportionate sort) are for more useful and effective. The problem is that teachers in Japan have too few options at their disposal for disciplining students. They need more options than either simple scolding or flipping out and laying the beats on.

Hitting the children teaches them that authority figures are free to use violence as they see fit, and as such the main lesson learned is "don't get caught". He should have explained why what they did was wrong, suspended them, and when they returned to school made them perform extracurricular social services, like cleaning, washing, moving things, etc. Humiliation is far more effective over the long term than corporal punishment.

This is a useful reference tool on radiation exposure levels:

http://xkcd.com/radiation/

Whether in a bikini or a one-piece, most Japanese women look great in swimwear. As long as you look healthy, then it's all good.