Geoff Gillespie comments

@Roy SophveasonToday 

Japan has a high rate of mental illness,

It doesn't. The prevalence of CMD in Japan is much lower than in the USA (about a third) and Europe (about half). [Source: https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12894]

I think you may be having the wool pulled over your eyes a little here. You are quoting official figures. It is common knowledge that, due to the stigma attached, the vast majority of mental health issues go unreported and therefore undocumented in Japan, rendering these figures meaningless.

Japan’s cinema industry is savvy enough to take a wait-and-see approach to blockbuster films. If "Oppenheimer" fails at the box office in other markets, then Japan may decide on a quick opening in a smaller number of cinemas. If it is the global hit the producers hope, it may open across the country.

This from a supposed academic, a professor of English, Creative Writing and Film? He knows nothing about Japanese cinema. It has nothing at all to do with wait-and-see, how would that explain a six month delay for John Wick 4, the latest in a very successful franchise starring one of Japan's absolute favourite movie stars, Keanu Reeves? Christopher Nolan's movies are always hugely popular in Japan and it would be very painful for distributors for "Oppenheimer" not to open.

Simple answer to this. Would Japan welcome NATO assistance once China moves on Taiwan and Japan becomes a front line target due to its US military bases? If not, then the answer is a resounding no. If they do, the answer is logically yes.

I wouldn't spend ¥20 on it....

@ Matt

Not at all sure whether or not you‘re being obtuse here but to seriously copare the printing press or the spinning Jenny to AI technology is naive at best and ignorant at worst. Those machines were tools, tools that were operated and controlled by men. As long as AI remains a tool, there's no problem.

And Nobody mentioned anybody smashing things....

@ Mat

Standard Luddite fear mongering. 

Tell that to Homo Erectus. As soon as the intellectually superior Homo Sapien appeared, his days were numbered. So has it always been. We are at the beginning of a long road that ends in us having created our replacements. That's not Luddite thinking, that's common sense. For them, no death just software upgrades and spare parts. How long before they realise we are no longer of any practical use to them?

Purely practical question here ,so please don't collectively bite my head off for asking it, but my understanding is that elementary school in Japan is from ages 6 to 10. Do girls of that age even have 'breasts' to speak of? Whatever, creeps like this should never be allowed anywhere near a school...

@ Thuban

Nobody should be snubbed a handshake for reasons like ethnicity, the country they're born in or the color of their skin.

This type of behavior is rude and unsportsmanlike. Athletes are not politicians.

I wonder if you would feel the same way if it were your home being violated by invaders. Walk a mile in her shoes before you criticize her...

@ Marc Lowe

....exactly the pioneer spirit that made America the greatest nation on the planet. 

Wow. Seriously...?

@ Alongfortheride

So does that mean she will also be arrested for prostitution?

No, no, no...she's the "victim" here, isn't she?

@ sakurasuki

Celebrating 100 years of propaganda service

No, that'll be NHK you're thinking of. The BBC has, on numerous occasions, bitten the hand that supposedly feeds it and has at times been the governments harshest critic. True, there have sometimes been incidents that the beeb would rather forget - the whole Saville affair springs shamefully to mind here! - but overall the BBC has made the world a much better place during its century in existence.

Seriously? We are expected to show this 'man' sympathy because he's had a tough life and then allow that sympathy to excuse him murdering another human being? This could be very useful if true, I too have had a pretty difficult life, will I be entitled to the same consideration should I kill a public figure? Is everyone who has been dealt a poor hand in life going to be shown the same consideration...?

Yamagami is a cold, calculating murderer guilty of the predetermined assassination of another person. That the person in question was as high profile an individual as Abe is largely irrelevant. Murder is murder is murder and there can be NO justification for it and certainly no excusing it.

Traditionally, Russia acts first and deals with any consequences later. Take Afghanistan in 1979, for example or the Crimea just a few years ago. If they were going to do it, they would have done it by now. This is Putin flexing his muscles in order to see what the west's reaction will be....

@ Oxycodin

Lock the loony in the psychiatric ward for the rest of his life

Yes. Or - and here's a radical idea - they could treat his very obvious mental illness. Of course, locking him up and throwing away the key would be the easy thing to do. So we'll do that then, shall we...?

@ Larry Lacky

Wow, you are serious? Good thing you are just JT poster. Certainly wouldn’t want you in any position like government or being a cop.

Fascinating. Out of interest, what exactly would your problem be with this concept...?

'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'. Bought it on its release and have bought many copies since. Still the album by which I judge all other. A timeless classic....

@ Foreigner In Tokyo

Is anyone else disturbed by how much violent crime goes on here? Every other day there is a story about some horrific event, some of which would even make America revile in disgust. Japan may be spared by the lack of guns and related violence caused by them, but there is no shortage of mental illness, anger, and violence brewing under the surface.

My thoughts exactly. It amazes me that, every time anyone posts an opinion like this on this site, it gets voted down. It's almost as if people don't want to face facts here. In the UK, crime is obviously higher but we don't have the number of crazies Japan has. Yes, you are more likely to be mugged for your phone or whatever but you are very unlikely to be stabbed by a suicidal 17 year old. In short, crime in this country is random and senseless. Also, cases of murder within families is astonishingly high here. Almost every day there's a new story about about a son killing his parents, a grandson killing his grandparents, a middle aged stay-at-home man killing his elderly mother...it goes on and on.

As somebody generally ambivalent towards Japan's obsession with anime, I came to this aware of Cowboy Bebop but having never watched it. I really liked it and I can easily imagine that those who didn't simply had too much invested in the anime and couldn't accept anything that didn't stick very closely to it. To succeed, I guess this show and any future shows like it will need to carry a warning along the lines of "Avoid If You Are A Fan Of The Original Animated Series. If You Have An Open Mind, Please Proceed..."

@ Garthgoyle

An 11 year old should not be at home alone.

Why not?

Oh, I dunno. Because he might fall from a balcony 10 floors up...?

Oh...wait a minute.

All the debate here as if she has any chance AT ALL of winning the party leadership and thus the top job - c'mon, people, she's a woman!!!! She stands about as much chance of winning as I do of growing wings and flying. It's Japan....

@ WilliB

Girls with sexy clothing can and do move freely, alone, and at night anywhere in the city. That is NOT something you can say about current cities in e.g. Europe.

Really? I've lived in Tokyo for 18 years and prior to that I was born and raised in London. No women - not one, and that thankfully includes my daughter! - had ever been physically accosted in the UK. Amongst my female students here in Tokyo, something approaching 80% have confided in me that at some point in their lives they have been touched on a train. I actually caught a low life filming up a girl's skirt one evening. Does that fit your image of Japan, because that is the reality.

@ Zaphod

 Isnt this just about the most well-behaved society on the planet?

That's very much what they would like you to believe but in reality, problems of this kind are no less prevalent than elsewhere. And that's no fantasy.

I am starting to believe that the crime figures here in Japan are being massaged in order to fit the image that Japan wants to project to the rest of the world.

@ Hokkaidoboy

It is terrible from my POV that they cannot be named at 19 for being "minors"

It's nonsense, isn't it? The very idea that, at 19, they are not responsible as adults for their

actions is a blight on Japanese society.

While there is a lack of direct evidence, it is believed that the Wakayama District Public Prosecutors Office feels it can establish guilt on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

That sentence leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable.....

@ Scarce

The American prison system will welcome her with open arms. America isn't like the Japanese legal system where she would get 5 years in prison. She will get at least 20 years, with no chance of parole. 

Sounds to me like she'll be claiming diminished responsibility due to some form of mental illness, an insanity plea if you will. Who knows, she may actually be insane, in which case it'll be a cushy enough 20 plus years in a secure facility....

@ snowymountainhell

So, actually, keeping with the spirit of finding some commonality, will give SW:TLJ a second view, from Your different perspectives.

Good for you. I came here, read your initial remarks and then planned to reply to them in a manner that was bound to spark a flame war of some kind. Then I read the comment above and I have renewed respect for you.

I, too, loved TLJ and, though I can't profess to being a SW fan boy, I very much appreciated Rian Johnson’s attempts to do something new and unexpected with the franchise. The majority of SW fans were not open in any way to this concept but, coming as it did so soon after Rogue One, I felt that it gave the whole shebang a lift that JJ was unable to benefit from. TROS was a dreadful end to the saga. Anyway, I for one look forward to these Netflix movies. Knives Out was a lot of fun...

Foggy London? Seriously, get out of the fifties. I'm so sick of hearing this epithet applied to my home town. Has any one ever actually been to London and seen this fog...?

@ marcelito

Unless you have a family member with serious disability you don't know what you are talking about.

Took care of my severely disabled wife day in day out for a decade while holding down a job and raising a daughter. Never once considered killing her. Not sure what your point is, to be honest...

@ Vanessa Carlisle

If anybody really wants to put an end to this sexualisation of children, they should start here in the land of the rising pervert....

You have never been behind the 'adult' curtain in an DVD store and seen the DVD-Rs of pre-teen girls in bikinis and swimming costumes, have you? By all means delude yourself if it helps you sleep at night.

Oh the irony of reading this on a site in Japan, the country that sexualizes female minors like no other. Middle aged men dribbling over junior idols the way they do is truly nauseating. If anybody really wants to put an end to this sexualisation of children, they should start here in the land of the rising pervert....