MarkX comments

This to me Is a real cash grab by companies! For years they were profitable charging lower prices, but now with all this news about rising cost for raw materials and yen weakening they are going to try and get as much as they can out of the poor consumer who in this case are parents!

Asiaman7, unfortunately only a small number of people are lucky enough to have received those pay increases. They work at places like Toyota and Mitsubishi. But for the majority of people, they got next to nothing but with this insane inflation rise, they are not only making less, but they are getting gouged when they buy.

Obviously Mark, you haven't lived here in Japan very long to know the power that Johnny had over the entertainment industry. Hell, still his agency controls so many TV shows, and productions that if anybody speaks out they will be blacklisted and never heard from again. That is why people waited this long to come forward, and I applaud them and would really like to see this whole industry eradicated, not only the boy bands but also the girl groups that is probably worse.

And now some Tokyo politicians want to scrap or hinder the "Hometown Tax" system because too many of these small communities that are trying to make a better environment are getting too much money and they are not happy about it! So, how can they make this utopian place for families to want to move to without tax revenues?

As long as they don't start to cut pay if someone has a side hustle, then I have no problem with it! I just hope this isn't another way of keeping wages low!

Or is it more like the customers have given up and are paying whatever you charge them as they know they will always lose out. Domestic beef has gone from Y198/100g to Y298/100g more than a 50% increase. There is no reason for such a huge increase, but if people want to eat beef, you pay the price.

I wonder since the father has a fairly high profile, and deep pockets, this might not go away as easily as many of the other cases. I know that Ai-chan is loved here, but this may turn some against her, especially her many Chinese fans. Also, what does it say about her that she only abducted her son and just left her daughter to live in Taiwan? Doesn't she love and want both children?

The problem is, the tax not only hits foreign tourists, but anybody who visits these places. There are so many people that travel to Tokyo for business and they have to pay the tax even though it has nothing to do with tourism.

Isn't it a little late to carry out the psychiatric evaluation? Shouldn't they have done one before he was able to join and then murder two people because of his love of guns!

I think most of the sales are to foreigners, with only a few Japanese snapping up these high priced condos. I fear this might start a rise in rents making it very costly to live in Tokyo, just as it has become in other big cities.

What exactly is a suspended sentence? Is there any punishment at all. Are they not allowed to leave the country, or do they lose their right to vote? Please tell me there is some punishment!

Up until recently I was kind of leaning towards dumping the water as it seemed there was no other solution, and the gov't and TEPCO also stated this was the only option. But then I saw a report when the IAEA director visited Korea and they showed that there were at least 3 other options, but as Larr Flint said they are more expensive, but safer. Why does Japan allow TEPCO to destroy the Fukushima reputation again. For these poor people it is a repeat of what happened on March 11th, the stigma and the shame of saying you are from Fukushima!

Recently, I really get angry when I see some of these high profile Johnny's members on TV hosting shows, doing commercials, knowing that many young men were exposed to terrible things by this monster Johnny Kitagawa and they benefitted from it and are now stars, while these other poor boys were cast aside.

One strange thing reported in the Japanese press was that either on the day of her killing or a few days before, she woke up with him in her room, and still the police didn't seem to think it warranted any more action!

Not sure if openly calling yourself a fan of Donald Trump is a winning formula. Especially with everything that is going on in the US right now. I fear this group will gain more strength and the LDP will incorporate some of their more right wing policies and try to achieve their real goal of amending the constitution to get rid of Article 9!

Hopefully Tohoku University will get it and it will start the exodus out of Tokyo and back to more local areas. This would be a huge win for Sendai and Tohoku, and hopefully show that there are other places than just Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto!

I wonder which big developer has been selected for this redevelopment? I hope to god it's not Mori Building with their giant expensive concrete tombs built for the uber wealthy only!

Hopefully someone with Murakami's star power will draw enough bad press to make them rethink this terrible decision.

You are right Moonraker, once Japanese get something into their minds, whether it is right or wrong, they seem to never forget. Look at the HPV vaccine, and how after misleading news and rumors, nobody would get it. I think still now Japan has the lowest incidence of this vaccine use even though it was proven safe.

So good luck with all the bad press the my number cards are getting to rehabilitate its image.

As soon as I read the survey was carried out using a local company I knew the statistics would be wrong. As many have said if the US and Japan are the most untrustworthy why are Chinese paying thousands to fly to Central America to try and enter the US through the Southern border? And so many are coming to Japan to work and live? Come on, use common sense.

I was thinking the same thing. Do they not do a mental evaluation before they are accepted into the GSDF? OR are they so desperate these days, they will accept anybody?

I love watching the theatre of the police and prosecutors filing into the company's offices with loads of empty cardboard boxes ready to fill them with nothing, just to show that they are doing something. If the truck driver veered into the oncoming bus, as has been admitted, either he lost consciousness, was distracted, or something else happened. I think there was not a lot the company can do in this situation, other than apologize.

Not really sure how they figured out a barista in New York only makes $22,500, as the minimum wage in New York is $16,00/hour. If they work 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, 12 months a year that works out to almost $34,000. Now if it is a part time job, that is a different story, but that was not mentioned in the article.

Wow! Spotify paid them 20 million for 12 episodes of their podcast. Now that is the real definition of being taken to the cleaners!

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been critical of broadcasters, who he said offered "100 times less" to screen the Women's World Cup compared to the men's tournament.

I really hate this guy. He is just about money. Increased the men's draw to 64 just for money. Wants broadcasters to pay ridiculous amounts for a product they will lose most of their investment in, because he wants more money. And of course he can use this as a slight against women's soccer saying if you don't pay you are discriminating against women. But that is false. Unfortunately women's soccer is not the TV draw that men's soccer is now. Perhaps in the future. But for now is it economics.

That said, I hope they reach a deal and we can see the games. Why doesn't NHK step up, we pay them enough money every month!

Notice how Kishida quietly slipped in help for all the LDP's buddies in the construction industry.

providing homes for hundreds of thousands of such households

So who will build these homes for all these families? Why it will be the all corrupt construction industry who dutifully all repays the LDP.

I agree with Alongfortheride, what is the alternative? If you spread it over the land surrounding the nuclear power plant it will either make its way into the groundwater, and then into the ocean. You can't just let it evaporate. I'm sure they have looked at a million options but this one seems to be the best they could come up with. I'm not a big fan of this idea but something has to be done. I fear another strong quake and many of these tanks collapse letting the untreated water flow into the ocean!

Did anybody else hear any of the results of the team of South Korean officials who were invited to Fukushima to see the plan about releasing the water. I haven't heard boo about it whether they signed off on it or not. I was waiting for their response, but nada so far.

I agree with all of the above comments and would like to know who the hell is downvoting everyone. There is no way you can be living and working in Japan and feel that wages and working conditions are getting better, all the while corporations are raking in record profits!

Why would Mr. Tamaki do that? With his huge number of members in his party, maybe 5 or 6, he gets to be called a party leader, receiving a higher salary, and sometimes invited to talk to the press about how they are against PM Kishida. None of these so called leaders are looking after the citizens rights, they are only in it for themselves and whatever power they can get!

While I agree the government has been completely at fault for this situation, I will say that I have seen a big change at least around where I live. The number of solar panel farms built is amazing, along with huge wind turbines. Unfortunately it is not enough and not stable enough to make up for the lost electricity made by the idled nuclear reactors. I say, start a few of the newer reactors up again, until the situation is under control. Don't risk elderly and vulnerable people's health for nothing.