yokohamarides comments

Warmongers need to be crushed like the roaches they are.

Ever wonder why almost every English teaching position salary in Japan craps out at the same ¥2.5 million a year?

it’s because very few instructors join a union that would give them the legal right to demand a higher wage and, if necessary, to withhold labor(strike). Join a union. GU or Tozen are two good ones.

Absolutely not. Nuclear is a grift.

So like Abe’s assassin, the guy had some legit gripes. Not the best way to get your voice heard though…right?

Or maybe it’s the only way and that’s the problem.

Seems as though a condition that must be met in order to host a global elite coffee klatch like this must be a willingness by the host country to put on an all-out iron heel authoritarian display of power against the residents of the host city as entertainment for the VIPs.

I like to imagine my family is ready for this with 2 cargo bikes in the driveway ready to load up and go - but I could imagine the cops telling us to get off and walk the bikes.

Kishida pushes US led rule of law - some democracy ‘init?

Can't wait to wheel around with my Devo hat on my head.

Ridiculous law. Wearing a helmet is a good idea. Mandating helmet use is not.

I'd say this must be satire - but then this is Japan.

Most who were considering it were probably thinking it would be a way to save money but quickly realized that to make it work in the sticks they’d have to spend a lot of money on a car - which they never needed to do before.. Not worth it.

Cars are sofas on wheels.

It’s very hard to get the exercise you need everyday if you live in a car dependent area.

To abide by the new bicycle "make an effort to wear a helmet" law I'll be moving the mask to the top of my head on April 1.

Who's going to pay? A rhetorical question, innit? Short-term profits for the few and long term costs for the many ("externalities") is the economic model of nuclear fission power. Cheap, it ain't!

Yup - nuclear is the ultimate boondoggle.

The US will send just enough support to the Japanese people in their upcoming great proxy war with China to ensure that the war drags on in the region as long as possible - or until the very last Japanese life is sacrificed for the restoration of American hegemony and “(American) rule based order”.

The US team has a great batting order but the pitching isn't so great. The DR has a better all-around team.

Cars are deadly.

If you lost consciousness on a bicycle you’d just fall down.

When has the US invaded a country with the intention of making it part of the US? Any time in the past 100 years?

Come on mate. You know the US doesn't need to make a country officially a state or a possession for it to be "part of the US". US foreign policy over the past 100 years has been "you are with us or against us" - if against us your government will be overthrown and occupied until you are a reliable proxy.

Many area's of Yokohama are really dangerous. I've been to Kannai before and I'm never going back.

You’ve got to be kidding. Kannai, Noge, Kawasaki and Kamata have some sketchy businesses but they don’t feel dangerous to me at all - but I grew up in NYC - and most of NYC doesn’t either. What part of the world are you from?

Yawn

My 20 minute bicycle ride to and from work everyday is always one of the best parts of my day.

Banking generous govt subsidies while using the pandemic as an excuse to price gouge is very profitable - and despicable.

Wow - an actual attempt at some balance.

Push for a diplomatic solution while it is still possible.

Sending more and more weapons into Ukraine only ensures more and more fighting - and the constant possibility of the war spreading outside of Ukraine's borders - and then it's WW3 and no chance of putting the genie back into the bottle.

My sympathies to the people of Hiroshima who will have to deal with the heightened security. When they had the APEC conference in Yokohama it was pretty awful.

Another turn of the ratchet towards catastrophe. Escalation will be met in kind. Next they will be drafting our kids.

"...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification." - George Washington

Socialize the cost privatize the profit.

The US sounds like a bad used car salesman here.

Pretty shocking when you consider that there is a shortage of workers - even more so since the start of the pandemic. You would think workers would have a decent amount of leverage to demand a fair wage - but like others have pointed out, most unions here go along with whatever management wants.

So, expect to work even more to get paid even less - unless workers start to use the leverage that they have to demand a fair wage.

There is now a #15thOfTheMonthClub movement just getting going among underpaid contract workers and eikawa instructors where they won't be submitting schedules to work on the 15th of any month until wages are increased. Hopefully it gathers some steam.

"For the past 30 years, wages have not grown although corporate profits have risen,”

The only way is pressure from below. Strong unions and strike actions if necessary.

I heard many eikawa instructors won’t be submitting schedules to work the 15th of any month until wages are increased. Seems like a good idea. Pay is so low they have nothing to lose.

It bothers me that the people who thought this (environmentally disastrous) plan up are probably walking around with those “SDG” pins in their lapels.