Kumagaijin comments

Near the train station? 1.5 kms away? Relevance of that headline escapes me.

Probably more significant that it was outside a ramen restaurant. Seems organized crime has strong ties to the ramen industry in Japan.

Israel's missile defence system is called the "Iron Dome". Japan's will be called the Kin Kabuto (Gold Samurai Helmet).

There are thousands of women out there in Japan that would be willing to do a job paying over 300000 yen a month.

Men too, and elderly folk who can push a cart around. Doesn't have to be young women all the time. I often take the Green Car when I'm travelling into Tokyo from Saitama and visa versa. Nothing like getting served a nice bevy after a long day.

Japan needs to move into the 21st Century. Refusal to recognize Joint Custody, refusal to recognize Dual Citizenshup...these are all far more critical issues than transgender bathroom rights.

I have to agree 100%!!!

As a divorced father who hasn't seen his children in 2 years, this story hits home. Hopefully the issue of custody and parental rights gets some attention.

However, Japanese law makers are very stubborn and don't want to make changes to any laws because of a news story. They prefer to wait and wait and wait so the decision doesn't look reckless and hasty.

(as well as every Marvel movie this year)

I think a lot of people are just really getting sick of Marvel movies.

Several years ago a friend of mine's two little girls had their legs burnt from hot Starbucks coffee spilled onto their lap. They never got a penny.

its been like this for ages, actually mind boggling how many japanese elders erase their own existence whenever they step out of the house, fully masked and wearing their bucket hats in a way you can barely see their eyes.

Yes, I saw dozens of them playing in a gateball tourny in the park last weekend. Almost all fully masked in 35+ degree heat. I couldn't believe it.

Want to speed up deliveries? Make the motorways free. There. Solved it.

Yes, and try eliminating (or improving) some of the traffic lights, build more overpasses for pedestrians. Sometimes you're at a light and there isn't even a car waiting to go the other way. Making some of the roads wider too would help with safety. Underground power lines. This country is a mess the more I think about it and it doesn't have to be that way.

Try driving the speed limit anywhere in Japan. You’ll have a Voxy or Probox riding your ass within a minute.

Yup! Maybe a HiAce or an Elf absolutely loaded with scaffolding too.

The country is already facing a shortage of truck drivers due to aging, poor wages and extensive working hours.

Age, extensive working hours and speed don't mix!

My high school's initials were SESS and so we used to joke around and say that if we had a pool at the school, it would be called a SESS pool. Nah, but seriously, Victoria BC (where I went to university) pumped raw sewage into the ocean for over a century. Only recently, after a long public campaign with the help of "Mr. Floaty" did the city finally do something and build a sewage treatment facility.

@1glenn Lets also be clear about different septic systems. Having a septic tank is different from a cesspool. A septic tank gets emptied every few years once full, and it protects the soil from harmful bacteria and viruses. Just because your house isn't hooked up to a sewer line, doesn't mean you have a cesspool.

What world are you living in? This isnt about "theory" but reality, and your assumption here is totally wrong!

You don't take your car to the dentist to get it fixed, so why in the hell do you assume a doctor is qualified to "take care of a dozen seniors"? Let alone his untrained wife!

I'm saying that no one would die if a doctor and (husband/wife) had to take care of a dozen seniors. No bankruptcy. Just like how (untrained) children take care of their elderly parents with an occasional visit to the hospital or clinic. I realize that nowadays you have to have a huge staff to run a facility (security, cook, cleaning staff, nurses, secretary, management etc) but in theory (and probably a reality in many countries) there are simply people doing things that aren't keeping people alive.

In theory, a single doctor and his wife should be able to take care of a dozen seniors. Nowadays, it takes 3+ nurses and a few secretaries because doctors don't want to do the messy work and they want to live a comfortable lifestyle (big house, fast cars, expensive vacations).

I have a friend that works in a nursing home. They are short staffed and people are quitting like crazy. The pay is not very good and they often have to work a 12 hour night shift. They can't afford to pay the nurses a higher salary because the doctors (who are at home sleeping during the night shifts) and management (family members in most cases) are paying themselves comfortably.

Even in the educational institution I work at, teachers have not been given a raise and tuition has not increased for the wealthy families that send their children to the institution. Many businesses are using the "inflation" excuse to fill their pockets.

NATO should share office space with the IAEA to save money.

materials critical for the green energy transition

I don't buy it. Reducing the carbon footprint isn't going to come from making ocean floor footprints. Even when the whales and other sea life start washing ashore, they'll say there is "no connection" to the seabed mining and won't stop.

Absolutely sick. However, I do understand people's hatred of cats. Thats fine. You don't have to love all animals. Lots of people hate spiders, snakes, sharks, even dogs. Nothing wrong with hating cats. Just don't kill them to make yourself feel better.

Thats my thought with all the crazy crimes you hear about in Japan, especially the abandoned corpses.

You wonder how many times the same corpse was abandoned before the person doing it was caught?

I wonder how many corpses are still out there, and family members collection those pensions.

who knows how many times this happened before

Thats my thought with all the crazy crimes you hear about in Japan, especially the abandoned corpses.

From my experience in Japan as an educator, my Japanese co-workers often wait until the last day of the school year to tell the students and staff they are leaving. The hard part though is telling everyone WHY they are leaving or quitting. They'll often lie and say its health related or that they got married and want to be closer to their husband or wife or their parents who are getting older. In most cases however, its 100% bs and they just hate the place and found something better.

This happens virtually every year in the Western provinces. I grew up in BC. Typically in the summers (especially after 1993) there would be on average 1-2 fires per year that would leave the skies hazy. Nowadays, its virtually the entire summer unless there is a massive rainfall. But, it doesn't have to be this way. The country doesn't manage its forests, at least, not like Japan or Europe does. Trees aren't typically spaced or pruned. Its simply too expensive and to expansive to care for every forested area. Its not impossible, but its perhaps the only solution to stopping these fires.

In only 8 years we'll be commemorating Japan's invasion of Manchuria, and 8 years after that, the start of WWII in Europe. I find it hard to fathom that we'll still be living in the shadows of WWII 100 years on. I'd like to think that once everyone who fought or lived during the war is no longer alive, that the world could move on. Of course, its not so much WWII memories, but the military industrial complex that keeps the tensions on going.

So how long does the stadium need to remain? 100 more years? Its not Wrigley, its not Fenway. Its a bland outdated stadium that is falling apart. The trees are getting old too. They aren't going to be around forever either.

Time to mask up again in public, especially on trains. Otherwise you might get some dirty looks. "Don't you know there is another wave?"

The US dollar is about to TANK with countries joining BRICS and OPEC moving away from the US dollar. I think that around this time next year, we'll be seeing the Yen at around 110 to the dollar.

I remember applying to become a firefighter for the BC Forest Service back in 2004. Took the required first aid courses and everything. I even had previous experience as I had took a training course in high school. Nope. Didn't get hired. HR was committed to hiring an equal number of men and women. So basically every girl that applied was hired, while I was about 250th on a wait list. Never again.

I still use a Suica card. I don't trust swiping it while its inside my wallet or in my phone case either. Just the card itself. I fear that it won't work or the magnetism will fade if its amongst all the other cards. I worry that there will be a huge line of people behind me, waiting for me to take my card out because it didn't work. Its happened before. So I just swipe the card itself.

I took the Gotemba Trail when I did the hike. Its the longest route. No taxis involved either. I saw the sunset on the way up from the first hut where you buy the hiking stick you get the stamps on. Took about 6 hours to get to the top, spent an hour or so wandering around, and then 5 hours to get back to the parking lot.

I've witnessed several houses in my neighborhood being torn down and ripped to shreds with excavators. I've wondered why they don't try to recycle some of the wood, especially the larger planks and the fancy wood that surrounds tatami rooms. Even beautifully carved Ranma 欄間 is discarded.

Of course, the reason this wood isn't recycled is because it takes too much time to take all the nails and screws out and carefully extract all the high value wood. The demolition companies would have to work together with the recycle companies and demolish the house piece by piece simultaneously and its often quite dangerous going into a half demolished house to extract beams. Then, there is the extra cost involved along with the cronyism between the lumber companies and the home builders.

On top of all that, there are some deep-seeded cultural norms in Japan about how things need to be "brand new" because old wood might bring the evil spirits of the old home along with it.