JeffLee comments

I won't be flying again until it becomes as easy as getting on the shinkansen

It was, before the mass-murdering actions of several Middle Eastern gentlemen on Sept. 11, 2001. Then there was the guy with the bomb in his shoes and the other in his underpants.

Before then, I remember being able to fly cheaply with lots of flexibility, like showing up at the airport 40 minutes beforehand for international flights and breezing through the lines. Changing dates was cheap and easy too, and all the free drinks you could handle in economy.

Thanks, guys.

@asdfgtr

this is why the Japanese were so eager to surrender to the U.S. as soon as the Soviets entered the war.

They weren't "eager" to surrender. The Supreme War Council was deadlocked after the Potsdam Declaration, which is why they left the decision to Hirohito.

n reality, what motivated Hirohito to surrender to the U.S. was a sense of personal survival...

He told Chamberlain Fujita in 1946 that the US aerial bombings were utmost in his mind ("motivation") when making his unilateral decision to surrender. When he met McArthur, he offered to take full responsibility for the war. Hanging was an option on the table at that point, so "personal survival" didn't seem to be much on his mind.

 I place much more value on the words of Brigadier General Carter Clarke:

I wouldn't. The US military brass resented the scientists, civilians and certain military members who were appointed to effect a quick end of the war. The generals and admirals didn't want their achievements in defeating the Japanese, that took years and cost many lives, to be overshadowed by the A-bombs, which could do the job almost instantly.

Truman's Interim Council of mostly science and geopolitical experts assured him the a-bombs could do the job, thereby avoiding what would be a devastating invasion of the home islands. The council turned out to be right, so you should place more value on the council rather than generals who knew a lot about battlefields but very little about the strategic value of the a-bombs.

The Japanese would have unconditionally given up and surrendered immediately and unconditionally to the US without the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the Soviet Union entered the war.

Except they didn't do that. The Soviets did enter the war and then the Japanese offered often fanatical resistance during the Manchurian invasion. It was a very brutal campaign that went on until Aug. 20th.

What's more, the Soviets had been building up its immense forces on the border shortly after Germany's surrender in spring, and Japan showed no inclination to surrender in the face of the Soviet juggernaut on its doorstep. That only changed after Hirohito's call for surrender, which he himself said afterward was primarily motivated by the US aerial bombings of Japan.

By the way, Ward Wilson is a disarmament advocate. He's not highly thought of as a historian. The other guy you cite is also a social advocate.

I found Sasebo burgers to be rather delicious and satisfying.

There used to be one in my Tokyo neighborhood. You'd wait more than half an hour and the burger would finally arrived saturated in ketchup and mayonaise. I remember titling my burger sideways so the liquid condiments would drip into a huge pile on my plate before I could eat it.

My wife asked me if this is what burgers are like in the US, and my response was it was either what Japanese thought US burgers were like or maybe what they were like in the 1940s.

The heat wave and typhoon have made this year's Bon pretty awful. I imagine that many of those people wish they had booked overseas trips.

"There was no evidence of any such activities."

There sure was in the lead-up to the invasion of Malaya. A considerable portion of the local Japanese community were military/government agents or working for them. They even bought property in strategic locations. The locals were often surprised by seeing Japanese "civilians" conducting land surveys in the weeks before the Japanese invasion.

See "Out in the Midday Sun" by Margaret Shennan.

There was also the Niihau Incident in Hawaii, which triggered concerns about the loyalty of some Japanese residents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niihau_incident

Before the attack, Pearl Harbor was spied on by a guy disguised as a Japanese tourist, he said in an interview in "World at War."

The en-mass incarceration was excessive. But the govt was right to be concerned at that early point in the war, given the tactics of imperial Japan's espionage activities. Perhaps establishing small military monitoring outposts in communities would have been better.

Nearly half said they are short-staffed, but only 24 percent said they are considering pay hikes

Note "considering". So how many will be implementing? Much lower, I'd expect. This is the fundamental problem with the Japanese economy: rich greedy employers/exploited low paid employees or can't or won't doing anything about it.

My least favorite time of year in Japan. I usually leave (escape) right now, but family obligations are making me stay and suffer this year.

I have no idea why foreign tourists want to come to Japan this time of year. In my mind, the country is a no-go zone. Oppressively heat that makes going outdoors an ordeal, or hit by rain storms.

The cigarette smoking and the increasing monopoly of Asahi Superdry beer are what have driven me away from izakaya in recent years.

I used to love going when I first came to Japan, but no more. The last place in my neighborhood NOT to have SuperDry (Malts and Premium) gave in to the monopoly about a year ago. Anyway the main floor is smoking and upstairs is non-smoking, although the space is mostly families with very young children and has the atmosphere of a family restaurant. So we don't go anymore.

Thankfully there are now a decent number of British pubs in Tokyo, including the suburbs, that are smoke-free, have a rich and diverse choices of quality beers, great food and lively social vibe. Also a neighborhood Korean yaki-niku place stocks Yebisu beer, is no smoking and the food is great. Reservations required even on weekdays. Which just goes to show...

I read the fairly lengthy article, and it's ridiculous: not a single mention of pay or salary. Like, hello? The management doesn't think financial compensation might have something to do with the fact that people don't want to work there?

So they think, "Oh, I know, let's exploit desperate single moms!" One woman keeps her kids in the company's daycare center from 9 to 6 every day. The facility is fully subsidized by the govt, too, so it's not as if this company is doing anything charitable. Another case of taxpayers rescuing a greedy, exploiting businesses.

Too bad the reporter didn't figure out that this company's actions harm - rather than help - the economy overall, if not society.

@Zoroto

There is no other avenue of growth in Japan. 

Yep, the world's biggest maker of industrial robots, automobiles, semiconductor machine tools, and so on and so on has so little potential. The only solution to this is expanding a stingy minimum-wage service industry amid a severe labor shortage. Well, that idea certainly deserves the Nobel Prize for Economics.

The more the effects on the global economy of Russia and China recede, the more the businesses and economies of the advanced countries will improve.

72.6 percent of companies in the hotel industry said they do not have enough full-time workers,

The govt is pushing an industry that is notorious for its low wages and for which there aren't nearly enough workers. Great policy there, folks.

Japanese buyers preferring new over used homes.

That doesn't really tell the story. The houses and condos built in Japan in the 70s, 80s and 90s were atrocious, in terms of functionality and appearance. If I, or most people in Western countries, had houses like that, we would demolish them too.

Ten billions of Saudi money managed by Masayoshi Son evaporates into thin air. I love it. Those two deserve each other.

Is the movie out yet? One of the greatest business failures of all time is an extraordinary story.

@strangerland

this is offset by the fact that most Japanese people want to live in Japan.

We aren't talking about "most Japanese." We're talking about talented people in science. Ever notice the inordinate number of Japanese science Nobel laureates who live and work overseas?

It's a sad story about any country that can not afford to fund it's history and museums like this.

The govt can afford it. It collected record high tax revenues in the last fiscal year and turned in a budget surplus, half of which is earmarked for increased military spending. This is about the LDP's spending priorities, not about a lack of funds.

The classic case is Shuji Nakamura, investor of the blue diode, which revolutionized lighting systems around the world. His Japanese employer paid him an extra 20,000 yen (!!!) for the main patent. LOL.

He later sued for 8 million dollars, still way too low, as unfortunately the court was Japanese, and he ended up at the University of California.

If a system, ie "Japan Inc.," routinely exploits and abuses its people, then the best people will leave. Pretty simple. I guess Japan can replace them by ramping up the immigration of Indians and Chinese to work in its labs. I'm just kidding. Japan won't do that.

It was a very good idea. The problem is that Japan's private-sector employers are dinosaurs, and sadistic ones at that.

The government does have some good ideas on work-life balance. The problem is trying to convince employers that holding their workers hostage for 10 to 14 hours a day is damaging to society on many levels.

The Japanese govt wants to build many of their weapons systems themselves or through licensing, rather than buying them relatively cheaply from the US or Europe off the shelf. It costs lots and lots of money to develop a defense hardware industry from close to scratch, which the govt is aiming to do. So expect massive government govt spending in this area in the years ahead. Way more than now.

So, don't be surprised if the govt cuts our pension or healthcare services in the future as it fund corporate military R&D.

Smart idea. The Vietnamese have long been the most pro-American people on Earth after Poland, with a healthy and robust fear and hatred of China. The timing is right for the West to drive a wedge between China and its next-door neighbors.

 all these countries still have drugs in them

Yep, Japan's heroin crisis is clearly out of control.

I'm always reminded of that when I walk the grim dangerous streets of Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei and Singapore, then later the cheery safe and wholesome streets of downtown LA, Vancouver, Portland, SFO, etc.

Two different parts of the world: two diametrically opposed approaches to narcotics use. It's soooo obviously clear which side got it right, and which side is failing miserably, right?

I supposed to ignore reality for some sort of ideology or something?

Don't know about you, but I look at policy outcomes, OD numbers, and other boring empirical stuff.

but only idiots think making drugs illegal is the solution to them, 

That would be the vast majority of Japanese....and Koreans and Taiwanese and other "idiots" around the world (excluding the superior West, of course).

I'm glad I live in Japan, where the policies and attitudes toward narcotics are generally the right ones. My home country, Canada, by contrast, has failed with its permissive and empathetic policies.

Just ask my friends who have to live there. My home province officially declared a narcotics crisis a few years back. It's awful and depressing. Thank god for safe and stable Japan.

I don't think any outdoor mass event should be held during summer in this part of the world, also keeping in mind the scout jamboree in Korea and all the other dangerous fiascos that happen every year. Swimming might be an exception.

 the natural comparison is with white people because historically that race has received the best treatment.

Not it hasn't. It's because whites have long been the majority in the US and remain the majority. Societies draw up standards and guidelines largely using trends among the majority as a baseline, which is not controversial. Do you think any society in Asia would do otherwise? LOL. The exception would be an Apartheid type society, which is maybe what the author would like to see.

As for best treatment, a set of socio-economic indicators show that Asians receive the best treatment in the US. A cop, for example, is twice as likely to shoot a white person than an Asian person, to cite just one of a large number of indicators.

Corporations are people.

No they aren't. They're organizations.

Rather, it is like having rules that ensure a dull boring game,

Earning the highest profits in your history and becoming the darling of global investors thanks largely to the lowest borrowing costs around and lower inflation than your peers is "boring" for them? Um, if you say so.

 If an when the average salary of the private sector salary men and women reach their levels then I am all for this rise,

Why? The worst and most incompetent service I've receive in Japan is always from the private sector. The best is nearly always from government offices. My commercial bank takes months to conduct procedures that take a day or two in other countries. My ward office, by contrast, issues important documents in minutes for a couple of hundred yen that would take hours in other countries and cost 10 times more.

If anyone deserves a raise in Japan, it's civil servants.

So someone who has endured torture is going to be traumatized by staying in a brand-new purpose built hostel...because it floats!?! Gotta love the arguments of these NGOs. How about they pay the hotel bills for the seekers instead of the British taxpayer? Anyway, someone with that much trauma would be a huge burden to UK's health/mental-care system for many years or decades. How about the NGOs expend their energy on waging a war against torture in the countries where it takes place instead of blaming the people who are trying to accommodate them?

Anyone still interested to go to UK for asylums even after Brexit? 

Yeah, they should choose Japan instead, where they'd be locked in a prison cell and given a .00001% chance of approval. Or they go to Canada, where even local full-time working people cannot afford or even find a one-room apartment or a doctor. The UK is VERY popular.

Why not have horizontal sleeping pods instead? Then they wouldn't need that elaborate and crazy arrangement of supports.