Disillusioned comments

Another death in custody in Japan. It'll be interesting to see what the cause of death was although, it will likely not be released to the media.

Life is cheap in Japan, especially for infants.

Two wrongs don't make a right!

Woo! Hoo! A whopping 40 bucks a month (ten bucks a week). It's time to party! Wages have not increased in Japan in 26 years right across the board in every industry. In most cases wages have decreased. I went to Japan in 2001 and the monthly salary for a public school ALT was ¥250,000 per month with salary for the vacation periods. Now, over twenty years later a few companies are still paying ¥250,000 a month with a reduced stipend payment for the holiday periods. However, many are now only paying an hourly rate of ¥5,000 with no salary at all for the vacation periods and public holidays, which amounts to around ¥180,000 a month and ¥1.5-¥2 million a year. I taught in. mostly private high schools. My first position in 2006 was ¥380,000 per month with full salary for the vacation periods. My final position in 2019 was ¥300,000 per month. In two decades salaries have decreased by around 20% and the cost of living has increased by around 20%, making it a 40% reduction in salaries over the last two decades. Japan is a great place to visit but don't expect to make a living there.

Yeah, that's all well and good but, these kids will not be able to keep a dual nationality. Japan will start to pressure them from around 12 years old to choose one or the other.

Why does Japan have to make everything so complicated? Just give them a fine and be done with it.

After spending the better part of two decades teaching English in private and public high school, colleges and universities I am not surprised by this statistic at all. You'd likely find most of the kids who make up the 12% have lived or studied abroad. Japanese students don't 'learn' English. They memorise set phrases, grammatical points and vocabulary in order to pass a test. As soon as the test is over they empty their heads to prepare for the next round of rote memorised garbage for the next test. The Eiken prep is no different. Eiken is 'supposed to be' an oral communication test, but it is just another round of rote memorised responses. TEAP is another one that doesn't really measure they communication skill. It only measure their ability to memorise answers. I made a test for a private senior high 3rd grade in which the students actually had to formulate answers. They all failed miserably and the school went nuts because the results would be reflected on their university applications and on the school's national status. I had to give every student 'bonus points' so nobody failed and the school could keep their national status. The test was't difficult and was made from material they had covered. They were given a review lesson and all test questions were clearly pointed out. The problem was, it was not multiple choice. They had to write answers. These kids were 17-18 years old in a top Tokyo private high school who had been getting 6-8 English lessons per week for the previous six years. They hadn't learned anything during that time except the teacher will make an easy rote test so I can breeze through high school without thinking. All I have to do is memorise any crap given to me and put it on paper.

Public high school English is just a joke. I cannot count the amount of times a teacher told me to make an easy test just to keep the averages up and for the kids to move to the next level. Japanese do not learn English. They just memorise enough rote rubbish to pass a test.

Just more drunken violence in Japan. Nothing new or unusual here.

tora - Why limit operation to X-number of years? As long as they well maintained and kept up to modern standards, they should be run indefinitely. Or, until we have fusion.

Why? Because it's 1970's technology. Perhaps you have heard of the Fukushima disaster. This happened because the plant was not well maintained or kept up to modern standards. Every plant in Japan is still prone to the same meltdown that happened in Fukushima. Way back in 2001 TEPCO was advised by a French team of experts to get the back up generators off the ground onto the top of the housings and to waterproof all the backup electrical systems, which they chose to ignore. If they had done it the Fukushima disaster would never have happened. Now, over twenty years later, every plant in Japan is susceptible to the same scenario.

Only one parent can take the children, though the other parent can gain visitation rights. In some cases, the parent with custody blocks contact with the other one.

Yep! Been there and done that! My ex-wife banned me from seeing my kids for no reason other than she could. I haven't seen my kids for 13 years. I tried crawling to her and appealing to her better judgement for the kids' wellbeing. I then tried through the local family court. She just said, "I fear violence" and my case didn't even get a hearing. I went to the apartment and begged her to let the kids see me and she called the cops which resulted in a restraining order. She demanded ¥200,000 a month for child support, which was impossible on an English teacher's salary and she knew it. I did nothing to this woman to warrant being banned from seeing my kids or the kids seeing me. She married me because I wasn't Japanese and then divorced me for the same reason. There is a part of me that says she only wanted 'hafu' kids and had planned to dump me as soon as she got them, which is pretty much what happened. We bought an apartment when we first got married. I filled out several loan applications with different banks and we eventually got finance approved. It wasn't until she kicked me out that I found out my name wasn't anywhere on the housing contract and her father had guarantored the loan for her only. Be careful guys!

The fallout from these meltdowns was much more extensive than the government and TEPCO would admit. There were many documented 'hot spots' found as far away as Kashiwa in Chiba. Nobody knows how many more remain undetected. One of my friends lived in Tonegawa on the boarder of Chiba and Ibaraki. He found alarming amounts of radiation in the gutters of his house. So much so that he sold his house and moved back to his home country with his young family. It is probable that these women are finding fall out from the original explosion over a decade ago. It's difficult to believe and trust anything the J-Gov states. They have a long history of covering up environmental disasters. Minamata is a good example. Let's just hope that they are correct in their assumption that there is no danger in releasing the trillions of tons of radiactive water into the ocean over the next 40-50 years.

Swimming skills are not regarded highly enough in Japan. Every year there are too many kids drowning due to poor swimming skills and no water sense. Swimming is part of the school curriculum in Australia and you must pass it just like any other subject to advance. There is no importance put on swimming skills in Japan. It should not be surprising kids don't learn to swim because most parents can't swim either. It is the responsibilty of the parents to ensure their kids can swim and have water sense. It should not be left to the schools. I taught all my kids to swim from around three years old. I've also ensured my kids have taught their kids to swim as well. It's difficult to say this incident was an accident. Teach your kids to swim people!

I wonder if these are covered by insurance. Fruit thefts seem to happen quite often in Japan.

At least the kid will get three meals a day in an orphanage, for a little while anyway. Her mother will get a suspended sentence and the child will be returned to her. They will get monthly visits from welfare workers for a year or so and all will be forgotten. Hope the kid makes it.

Dee - From looking at this picture, they are going to do this regardless of what any industry, agency and people in Japan and in the world think.

It's been the plan since day one of the storage opperation. They sat on their hands for over a decade watching this water build up to a point where there was no alternative than to release it into the sea. The secondary filter system, pumps and piping has taken over five years to build. They started bulding it long before they announced the plan to dump it into the sea. All the secrecy and misinformation make it difficult to believe anything the J-Gov and TEPCO say. Hopefully, they are correct and this release will have a "negligible" impact on the environment. However, if they are not correct it will be an irreversable environmental nuclear disaster on a scale never before seen.

Isn't this murder?

Based on the information they have it is safe. However, this amount of tritium tainted water has never been released into the environment. This means that this is all 'best guess' science. There are no models to compare to. Nobody knows what effect releasing this water over the next forty to fifty years will have on the environment and fish populations. If they are wrong it will be be an environmental disaster on an unprecented scale.

Roy Sophveason

They say that water release is safe but don't swim?

Yes, that is exactly what he implied. Of course with no intention to spread "bad rumors".

There is a huge difference between a 'bad rumor' and a genuine concern. Can you state without a doubt there will be no adverse effects on the environment or the tens of thousands of surfers and swimmers who frequent the east coast all year round? If you can you are a superman because not one of the scientists or 'experts' can enequivocally state this. There is too much doubt and unkown to accept this release easily.

A very misleading headline. It should read, man commits suicide in custody........

The Japanese justice system of being locked up indefinitely without a charge has to change. This guy was facing a minor drug charge. Now, he is dead. Many countries have security cameras in watch house cells just to avoid this kind of situation.

It's her drunken word against his drunken word. He will likely be held indefinitely until they can force a confession from him. If they can't force a confession he will go free. It's a shame the cameras didn't get footage of what he did to her.

Mr Kipling - Just get on with it. The diluted water is safe to release out into the huge ocean. People hear radiation and radioactive and imagine fish growing two heads. Far more toxic waste is dumped legally into the sea around the world every hour of every day. This water is not a problem.

How do you know this? Are you an expert? Or, are you just believing the government sponsored media reports? The comment about fish growing two heads is ridiculous. However, it is a documented fact that exposure to radiation does effect fertility and cause sterility. If this water breaks the breeding cycle of just one species of marine life it could destroy the whole eco system of the east coast fishery. This is not just the release of the stored water. This is release of trillions of tons radioactive water over the next 40-50 years until they they figure out how to decommission the plant.

The red water poses no danger to humans or the marine ecosystem, 

If this is do why is this chemical banned in the EU? The local fishery must be very concerned.

Ticks carry many serious infections. It is wise to check yourself thuroughly if you have been in the forest. I got one that had been on a poisonous snake when I was a teenager. It put me in hospital for three days.

David Brent - The water being released is cleaner than the drinking water from your kitchen tap.

Ignorant people just don’t understand science.

If this is so, why isn't it being bottled and sold as drinking water? It seems the ignorant people are the ones who blindly believe the government sponsored science. There are just as many (possibly more) scientists who condemn the release of this water. The report from a few years ago stating this water contains many more isotopes than just tritium due to poor filtering especially in the early days has conveniently been swept under the carpet. The ignorant ones are those who believe the Japanese government stating the release of this contaminated water is safe. How many years did it take the Japanese government to acknowledge the deliberate mercury poisoning in Minamata? Destroying the east coast fisheries and contaminating the beaches with radioactive isotopes is not going to be solved with a deep bow and an apology.

MSK -What about the biological father? Why Japan always avoid the matter?

In most cases the father becomes a ghost in Japan. There are no laws governing joint custody or child support.

I am not a religious person but these two creeps deserve to rot in hell.

Arrested? Serously? What's next? Will they deport him too? If my mother-in-law cuts my hair is that illegal? She doesn't have a licence but does a good job on a buzz cut.

“I didn’t have anyone I could consult with, particularly regarding financial matters.”

A phone call to city hall would have solved this problem. It seems odd that his brother and mother died within a few weeks of each other. A likely repeating scenario is, he killed his mother because he was tired of caring for her. He then killed his brother because he was going to inform the police. Being smothered with a pillow leaves no marks, especially after a few months.

This all sounds good on paper. However, the fact is, nobody knows what effect large amounts of radioactive water have on the environment. This plan should be aborted just for thst single reason. It's too late after it is released to find out there is a problem. There is a possibilty this release will disrupt the breeding cycles of fishes and may even cause mass fish kills. A deep bow and solemn apology is not going to repair any damage to the ocean and fish populations. This is massive gamble on a global scale and should be stopped!

Get out of your house and into the sun.

It is a good thing in theory, but there is still too much paper involved. The paper trail is where mistakes and misuse happen. Japan also still has a big problem with poor cyber security. It's one thing to go digitsl, but it is a completely different thing to provide adequate cyber security for a digital service.