browny1 comments

Regardless of whether you like women's soccer/football or not, there is no escaping the fact that the world cup to date has been phenomenally successful. Both in monetary and attendance terms.

Audiences have been down in some of the "lesser" stadiums eg Dunedin(sorry), but overall many games have been packed out.

All of this in Aust / NZ where soccer takes a backseat to AFL & Rugby in Aust and a way behind 2nd to Rugby in NZ.

They naysayers were wrong in their pre-tournament assumptions. The games have delivered.

And comparing to men's soccer is well...just lame.

It's like saying I don't like watching Women's grand slam events like Wimbledom because women don't hit the ball as hard and fast and move slower.

Or I have no interest in watching women's world championship swimming because, you know .... the men are so much quicker.

Tack 10 more years onto women's soccer/football and the level of play and the interest will be beyond huge.

Guarantee esp in soccer crazy countries, the women's game will absorb an enormous amount of the total corporate sponsorship and investment.

And they won't have to beat men to get it.

Yubaru - yes I recall that embarrassing elevation of Kisenosato to Yokuzuna.

As you stated he never fulfilled the established requirements for promotion - but was anyway to satisfy the "need" for a Japanese born champion.

And the ruling limiting only 1 foreigner to each stable was way off line. Especially so when some had taken Japanese Nationality only to be told, "Well you may be Japanese now, but you weren't born here" so the rule was clear - only 1 "foreign-born" wrestler per stable!!!!!!

And with all the gambling, match fixing, hazing, Yakuza linked scandals etc over the course I could still enjoy watching Hakuho who was on another level - much to the chagrin of the traditionalists.

But what really was an eye opener to me and millions of others was the disgraceful conduct in a 2018 tournament. A local politician was giving a speech in the dohyo, when he had a stroke(?). 2 nurses rushed to his side with one starting first aid. The referee called out over the audio system for the 2 women to immediately leave the ring as women are banned to set foot upon the scared ground. Why? Because historically they are considered unclean. Thankfully someone took over aid and the ambulance arrived and the guy was taken to hospital. He fully recovered and has thanked profusely the women.

After that any shine that was on Sumo quickly dulled. And when Hakuho retired a couple of years later then the dulling was complete.

Pretty full throttle women's football.

The development of that style of football over the next decade is where the game is heading.

And everyone hates penalties - but that was pressure from beyond.

Potentially some over the top contests next week.

Only blip was my feed kept dropping out/buffering. I guess record numbers tuning in.

Main cinema in my city on opening day - yesterday - had only 3 showings.

1 dubbed showing at 5:05pm and 2 with subtitles showing at 12:50 and 9:50.

Pretty weird I thought esp for opening weekend.

Usually a Big movie would have any number of showings for the 1st week and then take it from there.

Certainly seems like some external pressure to knock it down. Or maybe it's internal.

Regardless if you like the movie or not, the fantasy, coz-play, pink party fever that's happening in many other countries seems tailor made for Japan esp younger audiences.

What gives?

rainyday - spot on.

Japan likes to preach about it's "mottainai" society.

But the insane waste that goes into the whole build-knockdown housing culture is beyond words.

That houses for most common folks - their biggest expenditure in a lifetime - can be firstly not built so well and then decrease in value every year like a car to finally be abandoned or knocked down is bordering on criminal waste.

I've accompanied many Japanese groups overseas over the years and all marvel at the beautiful homes and suburbs. They are often amazed when I tell them they are between 60 - 150 years old. And the shock when I tell them they are more often than not valued higher than new homes is funny to see.

I tell them people cherish their homes, they spend time/energy/money on maintenance and renovations and develop lovely outside areas and gardens.

A 70 year old well looked after updated house with established gardens will always be sought after.

The idea that new is best hence of more value is a lie created by Inc to perpetuate the waste cycle and garner more money for them.

I don't know any other OECD country where this happens.

TheDalaiLamas..... - Great clip that one.

I also was exposed to The Weight in Easy Rider. Saw it in 1970. Such a travellers tale. That movie also opened my eyes to Steppenwolf, Jimi, Roger McGuinn, Electric Prunes etc. Actually the Weight in the movie was a cover because they didn't have the rights to the original.

After I saw Easy Rider I bought their "Brown Album"

So many great compositions on that record - "The night they drove old Dixie down", "Up on Cripple Creek", "Rag Mama Rag", "King Harvest" - in fact all of them.

RR - a true musical great.

kohakuebisu - agree - most alcohol/drug users even abusers are not impoverished zombies. And yes bit strange saying others will lose trust in you doesn't really fit the "helpful mold".

Anecdotal I know - but have known many users over the course - mainly marijuana - who have been good citizens and contributed to their communities.

2 cases of close friends : 1 became the financial manager of a very large University Hospital. Another was a senior manger of a world wide Optometrist chain. Both smoked mj for decades. Both now very happily retired.

Others have been successful teachers, public servants, small business operators etc.

As others indicated the world wide toll of alcohol abuse is terrifying.

WHO statistics tell a sad tale of 3 million annual deaths directly related to alcohol, not taking into account the untold misery and costs caused for millions of others.

And statistics for tobacco are also shocking.

Empirical evidence for cannabis use disorders is not so well researched but there is no doubt that incidents such as accidents, lung/blood health and neurological problems to name a few are evident.

Of course more potent drugs create more potent problems - ie opioids in the US or meth etc.

And the notion of soft drugs are a gateway to hard drugs has little merit. Association with certain people will be the major factor not the drug itself. If that was the case all beer drinkers (about 4% alc) would graduate to wine to gin to vodka to whiskey (50%+). It does happen but for most it doesn't.

The best way to deal with drug addiction is to firstly come clean on what drugs are, followed by social / educational programs with necessary backup support esp from govt agencies.

Putting out Scare Headlines won't cut it imo.

Few games in the world can be played and lost by the strongly dominant team, but that's soccer.

The US looked as powerful as any team I've seen in the tournament to date - I haven't seen all of course.

21 - 8 shots at goal: 12 - 1 on target : 13 - 5 from inside the penalty area.

Insane saves by Musovic. Compared to the Norwegian goalie in Japan's win the other day, Musovics performance was like super pro to amateur.

Haven't seen England play, but the remaining teams are lucky they don't have to meet the US.

Sweden will have it's match up against a skillful Japan and wouldn't want to rest on it's laurels as the giant killers, because that would bring them back to the reality really quickly.

Skillful win by Japan.

Norway just seemed lost for a game plan.

No threat whatsoever.

One of the things of this tournament is getting too carried away with big wins over fledgling teams ie - Norway 6 - Phillipines 0.

And I agree about the news here.

Suddenly Nadeshiko are talk of the town.

Funny considering a week before the tournament no channel wanted to telecast the WORLD CUP and only late minute negotiations and pressure saw NHK take it up - but only for Japan's games.

Classic fairweather support.

Commercial stations must be spewing now. NHK has to fill in all the pre-game - break times - post game with actual soccer bits - even fluff pieces - whereas a commercial network would have had a million ads.

Be great to see the team go all the way and the networks get zilch revenue.

Global oil prices have been steadily declining the past year from a June 2022 high of $116/bl to now $79/bl.

The blame for the cost

here can be directly attributed to the govts economic and fiscal policies which

have rendered the value of the ￥ to way below

any sense of parity.

The low ￥　has created a ton of

misery for many businesses - esp small and local - and for ordinary citizens on

basic incomes.

Marc Lowe -

Best advice.

Many places of interest, sight-seeing, museums, other world heritage sites eg Yakushima, etc have limited entry based on crowd control, safety, environmental concerns, respect and so on.

In addition charging a "proper fee" for entrance of at

least ￥3000 + will deter some

and raise much needed funds to safely maintain and promote.

And as this is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, they need to

up the ante and demand local govts improve the situation or risk Fuji losing

it's status.

kibousha -

Actually they can - at least 20% don't speak English at home.

Spanish, Chinese Vietnamese etc speaking people are bi-lingual.

Japanese industries now and will in the future - esp in the IT world - demand English.

Many reasons as others noted, one main being imo the curriculum is way too academic esp in high school.

My private high school has some great teachers who know this, but they're forced to teach to the Center Test requirements. From my observations and interactions these teachers try hard to converse with their students.

My approach with my students is to make sure every student is asked 1, 2, or more questions a lesson with direct eye contact and a smile, and then await a reply or help them as non-threateningly as possible.

I'm sure some of my 1st year students (H.S.) freak out when asked for the first time but most adapt.

And speaking with clarity, neutral as possible accent, not fast and repeating if necessary imo allows them to catch the words hence the meaning hence they can reply.

My method is nothing special - quite the norm in other countries language courses - but until students are encouraged to listen / catch and speak then not much will improve.

Sounds self-explanatory, but I guess the practice of "dialogue" is not so widespread.

Just a point - most of my students are above average academically and many of those have excellent skills, but also my lower level students can / do improve.

And a heap of native English teachers is not necessary. Training and developing local teachers skills is paramount. That should be a focus.

And of course dismantling the horrid difficult grammar based exam focused courses also.

The horrors that were the obliteration of Hiroshima & Nagasaki certainly are stains on our humanity.

Regardless of viewpoints, one reality exists, that in an instance 100,000s of mainly citizens, were vaporized or horrifically burnt, shredded or poisoned to die agonizingly later.

So if one takes the view that it stopped the Russian invasion, then one has to consider was the terrible deaths of so many innocent the best option to do so? The choice to drop on a prominent but more isolated low-population area, ie mountainous, is always fobbed off as implausible. We will never know.

But with all of this, the reaction it seems by some elements here in Japan to a Barbie movie promotion with some background from the Oppenheimer movie, is way way overboard. Can such a level of sensitivity to what amounts to nothing much at all, still control the narrative of some / many?

Cherry-picking what offends is pretty rampant these days, but I hope common sense prevails and the movie Oppenheimer is released sooner rather than later and widely, so all can view it for what it is and then make up their own minds.

Of course never having seen it as yet, I'm pretty sure it's not a "Hollywood War Movie".

Australia were just outstanding - esp the women.

13 golds with 5 World Records to boot.

Never heard of 5 WR in one meet by one team.

I love that line -

We feel that customers have taken a break......

I've got this image of a bunch of shoppers saying - "Well hell yeah, we've been saving for too long now, let's get out there and Shop!!!"

As if.

And maybe people aren't complaining about the prices at department stores, because perhaps they are loyal customers who can either afford it, or would never complain, or both.

Take a step out of the Ginza-esque world and you'd find a different discussion altogether.

Incredible to be a legend at the young age of 26, but that's Ledecky.

The big talking point of these championships though is the ultra dominance of the Australian team.

13 golds to date and a number of world records.

Swimming is such a great sport.

Can never understand why NHK weather reporters never mention the paths of typhoons and there destruction over OTHER countries. Like Never.

The forecasts only focus on Japan.

Last night they mentioned the winds picking up over Ishigaki Island.

While Philippines and now Taiwan have been crushed.

All a bit weird.

As hurricanes approach southern USA the paths of devastation over Caribbean countries are always mentioned - even alienated Cuba.

Cyclones approaching Australia are always reported by forecasters from their start and what damage they are causing in the east side - Oceania/South Pacific or the west side - Indonesia, Timor etc.

Why?

Didn't watch the first half, but apparently Japan were running well.

The 2nd half was way below par for a world cup match.

Partly understandable as Costa Rica are ranked so low (34th) and Japan appeared to have it in the bag.

But still you'd expect a better skill show.

And that heavy bump on CR goalkeeper Solera looked really bad. She was down for the count. No free kick, in fact Japan got a corner??? How's that???

But what really amazed me was where's the concussion protocol??? She should have been looked at by doctors off-field.

I think someone erred there. Head knocks are serious business these days.

And as the tournament grows and the minnows are out, so will the game quality and tension - I hope.

Most of the above comments are right.

Time certainly doesn't stand still - yes it's not Showa - and embracing new technologies, cultural shifts, demographics is essential for growth.

The monolithic ldp has known of these forces and the consequences for decades, but has done little but pay lip service so as not to "upset the constituents". Now reality bites.

Also the chronic worker shortage is at the base of all these woes.

My friend runs a busy successful small truck/coach building company transforming stock trucks to oreder-made products like refrigerated vans, specialized delivery vans etc.

The chip shortage impacted his business, which gave him time to try to recruit new young workers. Zero luck. A few started and quit. He said they don't want to learn welding, electrical installations, machining etc as it's hard, dirty work in all seasons.

He now works 6 days a week 12 hours a day and has only 2 employees, 1 young guy and an old master in his 70s. He used to employ around 7-8 full time. I said "why don't you source OS workers like from Vietnam or Philippines etc"

He didn't give a definitive answer. I didn't pursue the question.

Tough days ahead.

The whole car insurance industry here is collusive.

A small - I mean really small incident with another car - must be reported to the police, who then come usually in twos and spend a lot of time and paper getting every detail, then the insurance companies become involved and negotiate a settlement, then the favored car repair shops become involved and give inflated quotes, then the persons involved "accept" this as "well the insurance is paying it anyway.

My wife's 12 year old cars bumper (plastic) was scraped / scratched by a guy renting an adjoining parking space. Private land so no police. His Insurance company agreed to all costs at their body shop. I thought they'd just fill in the very minor dent and re-spray (common grey). But no!. A new bumper was sourced and fitted. My wife asked when the fixed car was brought back "BTW how much did that cost?" ￥230,000 all up. Cars value is about ￥100,000 at the most. Just give us the money and we'll drive around with the scratch.

Everyone gets a penny or two out of the system except we the consumers / citizens pay for it all in our premiums and taxes.

Tragic.

Kids being kids on the first day of summer holidays.

Yes they shouldn't have been playing there.

Yes they were warned.

No point condemning parents as more than likely they weren't aware they were going "swimming".

But water survival skills in Japan and a general sense of awareness of water safety are lacking.

As others have said - swimming in shallow water a few metres in a crowded school pool will NOT prepare kids for untimely dangerous situations in rivers, lakes and the sea. It just won't.

According to last nights news report it seems the kids suddenly found themselves out of their depths ie. couldn't touch the bottom. Rivers are notorious for sudden changes in depth.

A basic skills survival course as a required part of school swimming program would help - not perfect, but a big help.

Others noted the attention to water safety in Australia.

I can attest. As a teacher and swimming instructor years ago in Australia, the emphasis from the 1980s esp has been on water safety/survival developing confidence and calmness in kids, while of course developing their swimming strokes and abilities.

Panic kills.

A sad story for that community that will impact many forever.

YrralToday  01:14 pm JST

Browny,if you do not critical think,all the education you learn is useless

Thanks for the reply.

Yes - I think we all know that.

The comments / info were in regards to high maths / science scores by girls and then not going onto those fields in numbers.

And interestingly girls reading literacy rates were much higher than boys and much much higher than the OECD average.

And as we know high literacy enables us to engage in critical thinking activities much more readily.

So it seems there is a potentially valuable talent pool going to waste so as to speak.

Ian - 2018 PISA Results

In reading literacy, the main topic of PISA 2018, 15-year-olds in Japan score 504 points compared to an average of 487 points in OECD countries. Girls perform better than boys with a statistically significant difference of 20 points (OECD average: 30 points higher for girls).

On average, 15-year-olds score 527 points in mathematics compared to an average of 489 points in OECD countries. Boys perform better than girls with a statistically significant difference of 10 points (OECD average: 5 points higher for boys).

In Japan, the average performance in science of 15-year-olds is 529 points, compared to an average of 489 points in OECD countries. Boys perform better than girls with a non statistically significant difference of 3 points (OECD average: 2 points higher for girls).

So in the 3 critical fields a pretty well balanced outcome for Japanese boys and girls.

In 2018 Japan was in the top 4 countries meaning girls were in the top group in the world.

Yes - the terror fear of past was one of the big reasons for their removal esp in high foot traffic areas in big cities.

In my city the Big reason was as others indicated, to stop people using them as a dumping site.

The city govt publicly said such at that time.

First were the central train stations, followed by the shopping districts and finally general street areas.

It was common years ago to see literally mountains of garbage stuffed in and dumped around small public rubbish receptacles. People who have been here long enough would have witnessed that.

Now the open area / streets are largely free of rubbish.

But just a bit out of sight places are still used to dump stuff.

Cemetry near my house has a caged trash area for mourners / visitors to place old flowers, paper offerings etc, I guess as a service to them.

It is constantly used by "others" to dump trash as they know the city will pick it up as part of their monthly rounds.

So in my city it seems if you have a specialized rubbish place / receptacle, it will soon be fouled by irresponsible people - which is why the bins and cans have all but gone.

Thuban - How about gender parity in sewage cleaning and among garbage truck workers.

The obvious answer is this article is about the Sciences.

The article mentions -

Japanese girls scoring second-highest in the world in maths and third in science, according to the OECD.

This is the crux of the matter. Why do Japanese school girls - world leaders in science and maths abilities - not utilize these skills in university and the workforce to the level of their male counterparts?

One could argue strongly as others and the articles notes, social / cultural biases are the significant reasons.

My close friend's daughter, now in her late 40s, has been a medical research doctor for decades specializing in brain trauma.

She married a fellow med school student and said from the outset that she wasn't interested in children, but he pursued her and they got married.

Soon the pressure started from the husband and in-laws to produce children. She knew in her male dominated highly pressurized field that time off to raise a family would not meet the demands required so she basically never gave in.

They separated for a couple of years - apparently mother in laws request for him to find a "good" wife - but he loved her ( I guess) and moved back in and 20 years on they both have fulfilling important careers, she working in a famous research institute in Hyogo. And they are still together.

Govt is a classic johnny-come-lately to this issue. It has been reluctant to upset the social cart, scared of alienating it's voter/support base too much, but now sees it as a necessary solution to appeasing the mind-boggling labor shortage -

 In the IT field alone, the country is looking at a shortfall of 790,000 workers by 2030, largely due to a severe underrepresentation of women.

Business has been on this way ahead of govt, but may be too little too late. Hope not.

As anyone who regularly travels on highways will know trucks rarely if ever sit on 80.

90 to 110 is pretty much the norm with some in excess of that.

In winter I often use major highways (to go skiing) at 3:00am or the like, and 1,000s of trucks line the outside lanes moving at a fairly constant speed - depending on truck and load - and can often top out at 120 when passing.

So in effect all these drivers are breaking the law and if the police did a crackdown the hue and cry from the industry would be enormous.

Solution to keep them within the law - raise the speed limit to their pretty much normal speed.

Speeding up deliveries is just the excuse they have to give to justify(?) it.

John - a short answer. A longer reply went into the ether.

Clothes were found over 1 year later in a miso tank where the crime took place.

The pants were way too small for Hakamada. The bloodstains on the shirt appeared fresh and inconsistent with a long time submerged in miso. Looking at pics of the items, no normal human would guess these light colored clothes spent such a time fermenting in a miso tank - no way.

As DNA tech improved over the years not one result, not one, showed the blood to be consistent with Hakamadas.

He was arrested 2 months after the crime when there was immense pressure by the public. the media. the judiciary, the govt to "Find us a culprit". It seems anyone was ok - just find someone.

Hakamada was interrogated, beaten and tortured for hours on hours for days on days until he confessed. Sign, Sign, Sign.

ANd eventually he did.

At the trial recanted his confession as it was coerced.

Prosecutors Inc just can never, ever, be seen to be wrong - so fast forward 50 years and the same intolerable system is still working against him.

Where's the govt.

Wimps.

Or the insane amount of chemicals in our everyday environment.

Exposing children - from infancy to adulthood - to colossal amounts of PFASs, Dioxins, Benzene, EDCs, synthesized food additives, etc etc etc etc DOES have a severe impact on life quality including allergies.

The primordial soup that generated life and then sustained life for billions of years has always had naturally occuring environmental pollution, no doubt impacting living creatures - but the sheer weight of the Chemical Bomb dropped on the world in the name of advancement in the last 100 years - esp 50 years - is drowning us all.

Kids are often the 1st to suffer with telltale signs like allergies.

While not condoning the act - pretty duh - a fingernail scratching a pillar hardly seems to be at the top of the table re vandalism.

Mt Fuji - the spiritual icon of Japan, a World Heritage site gets "vandalized" and disrespected every year by 100,000s of climbers, mostly Japanese, traipsing all over, dumping garbage and not paying heed to guidelines.

Focussing on the real problems re environment, culture and heritage would be better.