Disillusioned comments

"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots" Einstein

Personally, I haven't drunk alcohol for many years and do not miss it at all. I've been through the stigma of Japanese salarymen treating me like a lepper for turning down their drinks and toasting with coke. People are always boasting how drinking is part of a culture. I say it's a cultural weakness. Head into Ueno Park during the first week of April to see the cherry blossoms and you'll see the culture that drinking creates. If you are regularly drinking alcohol more than 2-3 times a week you have a drinking problem.

Protect and serve yourself.

As soon as I read the headline I said to myself, "I bet he was drunk."

Another politician with short sighted views. This might help the US in the immediate future but in the long run it will do more harm than good.

In the 18 years I lived in Japan I saw this many times. The first time I saw it was at a train station. The goon was filming up the skirt of one of my high school students on the escolator. I grabbed him at the top of the escolator and called the station staff. We were both escorted to the station office and the police were called. We were put in different rooms. The police interrogated him for about 15 minutes and let him go. On the other hand, I was held for over two hours while they checked my visa, called my wife and called the school and the agency I worked for. They asked me all kinds of questions as if I was the criminal. At the end of it all the J-cop said to me in English, "Stay out of Japan business." - I never grabbed another one after that joyless experience. I just walk up to them and ask them to show me the photo they took. The reaction is always hilarious. They run out of the station as quickly as their little legs will carry them. Sickos abound in Tokyo.

wallace - TEPCO is responsible for the man-made nuclear disaster. They admitted that.

Responsibility and accountability are two very different things in Japan. Just because your responsible doesn't necessarily mean you are accountable. They were warned to move the back up generators onto the top of the reactor housings way back in 2001, which they ignored. They admitted to falsifying maintenance reports. I distincly remember the Prime Minister at the time screaming at the TEPCO boss to get his butt back into the plant and start cooling the reactors. They hold full repsonsibility but no accountability. Que jusge Dread, "I am the law!"

I voted yes but it depends on the country. Australia has a great backpacking network with hundreds of backpacking hostels and cheap buses between destinations. On the other hand, Japan does not have a good network for backpackers. There are very few backpacker hostels and travelling around Japan is wuite expensive.

Make hay while the sun shines. These places are pretty much ghost towns for the other 8 months of the year. If they can't make any money for the other 2/3 of the year it makes perfect sense their prices should be 2/3 higher during the boom period.

Sign him up! Japan could definitely do with some more enthisiastic police officers.

@ P_C - Further, if one looks at per capita fatalities Japan is extremely low at 2.1 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants. This ranks #184 globally. Per capita fatalities for China = 17, India = 11 and USA = 13.

Do these global per-capita statistics take into account that less than 50% of the adult population drives and most drive less than 5,000 kilometers per year? This makes those statistics a load of crap.

These is a lot more to it than just low pay. The prejudices and xenophobia contribute greatly to how these workers are treated. It is good to see this company promoting education but the education should match the level necessary to complete their jobs. A person does not need a JLPT1 to sort gyoza.

Does that mean they will extend the life span of the 60 year old reactors again? Or, do they intend to build new reactors to use modern tech and modern fuel to achieve this? This is just something to say to the reporters to feed the masses. It's easy to sell to the reporters but Japan does not have the resources (or the money) to build new reactors. The only way to achieve this is to extend the lives of the existing reactors again. They'll be relying on 50+ year old technology. How wonderful!

I'm not victim blaming but why do so many young girls go to love hotels with older men? What do they think they are going to do there? Make green tea or flash for cash? Stop going to love hotels with older men and this problem will go away.

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This is a great idea. It will open the mountain up to many people. It should decrease the impact on the environment greatly with less people trundling up there and leaving their garbage behind. They can leave it on the train.

Just another vote grubbing lie. The way the Japanse economy is they are more likely to increase it. People are really struggling in Japan with zero wage growth in more than twenty years and an ever increasing cost of living. Add to that 60% of workers are on part time or short term working contracts and the failed pension scam. You quickly realize Japan is not the 'rich country' it continually boasts about.

What is going to happen if the results show high levels of radioactivity in the local sealife and seabed? Of course the results will not show this because they have been assurig us all along that it is safe, right?

Unfortunately, there are also many creepy predators lurking on these sites which have resulted in assaults and deaths.

sakurasuki - Couldn't blame driver 100%, 

Drivers must drive to the conditions and are 100% responsible.

Tokyo argues that eating whale is part of Japanese culture and an issue of "food security" in the resource-poor country, which imports large amounts of animal meat.

This is not an answer to the whaling issue. Japanese people do not rely on whale meat to sustain themselves. In fact, very few people eat it regularly. The majority of the population do not eat it all. It is served as a special menu in specialised restaurants at ridiculous prices. This has nothing to do with 'food security'. It is only about profiting from the slaughter of whales. The answer to the question is, Japan has billions of dollars invested in their whaling industry and they will not let it go. It's not culture or food security. It's money!

You have more chance of winning the Lotto than predicting where and when an earthquake will happen somewhere in the Japanese archipelago. I admire their diligence but this has cost the tourist industry ￥￥￥￥.

Earthquakes happen in Japan and have been happening for thousadns of years. Stating a megaquake is coming Is a bit of a given. The likelyhood is no more today than it was 10 years ago, 100 years ago or 1,000 years ago. None of the previous 'megaquakes' in Japan have been predicted so why should anyone believe the next one will be. Being prepared for the inevitable is a good thing though.

It's pretty clear that Trump's agenda is only to leave his mark on history and not to be the leader of a nation. Hopefully, Americans will have the common sense not to vote for this fool.

Which came first? The mountain or the convenience store? Get rid of the convenience store and create a viewing platform for an excellent view of Mt. Fuji.

Yey, there are still those in the community who believe Covid is a scam and refuse to get vaccinations.

So, now this unemployed brat doesn't have anywhere to live as well. 46 years old and carries on like a spoiuled teenager.

Each year in Japan there are over 200,000 abortions. Every two weeks, a newborn infant dies of abandonment. And each year, more than 50 children lose their lives to physical abuse at the hands of their parents.

Some pretty disturbing statistics there.

It's only taken 50 years for Japan to start to catch up with the modern world. Hopefully, they will structure child support as well. Currently, there is no structure. It's only what the ex says (usually the mother). My ex-wife demanded I pay her ¥200,000 per month and she would let me see my kids to take them out to lunch once a month. I told her I couldn't afford to pay it and wanted to negotiate to an affordable amount. I also told he I wanted to see my kids every second weekend. She refused to negotiate and cut me off completely. I haven't seen my kids for ten years and there is nothing I can do about it. I approached the family court and was told that was no way of getting to see my kids unless she agreed to it. I went to the apartment to beg her to let me see my kids through the intercom and she called the cops. I waited outside my kids' school so I could see them. I saw them, they told their mother and she put a restraining order on me. I did nothing to this woman to make her act like this. The only reason she did it is, because she could. Hopefully, this new structure will stop these unruly tyrants making their kids become estranged from their fathers.

Articles like this evoke a lot of emotion. Anger, sadness, sorrow, confusion and resentment. As much as it sounds very callous, this poor child is in a better place now.

More fuel for the move to make all international trainees use contraception.