finally rich comments

I use expressways 2, 3x times a week and I'm still totally clueless how can someone manage to even drive in the wrong direction.

Weirdly positioned entrances that make you go into the expressway all of the sudden? Yes.

Exits/junctions marked at last minute that almost makes you miss your exit? Yes.

Super random Parking areas that don't allow you to exit the expressway? Yes.

But how on earth you manage to get into the wrong side of expressway?

You'd have to be driving in the wrong direction before even getting into the expressway to be able to pull that off (driving into an exp. way exit).

Besides, all these incidents seem to happen mostly in inaka areas with very well marked highways, not comparison with Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya. Mind-boggling.

Because of these people, I feel much safer driving a SUV now. Wished I'd drive something even taller if there weren't so many height restrictions here in Tokyo.

They’re copying American hood rats.

Exactly! But at least they're not riding those annoying dirt bikes and ATVs, at least not yet

 Everywhere you go full of very noizy and rude Chinese and Taiwanese tourist

Taiwanese? Are you sure? Have you ever been to Taiwan or talked to taiwanese people living in Japan?

However, I did notice that Asuka II will be offering three cruises this year that they term “international,” indicating that onboard guidance will be provided in English. Nice to see.

Unfortunately "International" (国際) is just a appealing cute word in Japan, nothing to do with english or foreigners at all.

I've seen so many companies using this word its amusing, kokusai taxi, kokusai bus, kokusai bowling, etc..try going to one of those kokusai ski resorts in the alps and watch the shocked faces as you walk in.

"a depraved act" Without a doubt.. But more likely of anti genocide not "anti-Semitic terrorism."

Ooohh so this ethnically motivated brutal murder was an act... of "anti genocide". Interesting....

I can guarantee one poster on this thread has zero legal training and has never been inside a prison or met real tough guys.

Most detainees I met in my interpreting jobs in jails, police stations and immigration detention centers deserve to be there. But I also met quite a handful of "tough guys" who thought it would be a good idea to restrain while suffocating a groper and other stuff that would make everyone around cheering for you but that in Japan it only lands you in jail. Most foreigners come and leave Japan anyway so no use teaching others about this cultural difference though, people who live in the long term know their whole lives are at stake in this kind of situation.

I'm a bit confused here.

Usually this kind of action isn't met with punishment to the victims?

"Assault" "Attempted murder" and other nonsense?

I would never to this while in this country, unless my family's life is in imminent danger.

Yay! Let's go to a tiny island so crowded we can't drive a few clicks north/south without waiting in traffic for hours to almost miss our flight back out.

Nearly 0% traffic during this last Golden Week, you can transverse most of the island in like 1h30min.

Free parking also fully available, never waited 1 min. to be seated anywhere. This during Golden Week.

Let's pray for this venture to be a success. It surely matters to all of us who live here.

I chuckled with this picture.

Literally 100s of places to watch Mount Fuji the way you want, a 1000 combinations with whatever object you want.

Get a car and spend 2 days there instead of fighting and queuing to take a picture climbing random stairs.

A male eyewitness managed to restrain Sakihama while police were called.

Kudos to this guy.

This is the kind of scene you literally shake to go do something but the stakes are too high as a foreigner good samaritan, next thing you're arrested for "assault", max 23 days incommunicado while the police figure things out.

Tons of "stop bullying" ads etc. but it seems principals and teachers are not very interested in the topic.

Reason number #234 I wrestle with my boy in the futon from age 2, not enrolling him in any sort of martial arts is not an option, he's very kind but I also want him to be tough when needed, most bullies never pick on strong minded people and as we can't really rely on teachers to solve the problem....

I think this discussion isn't quite understood by people who aren't parents yet.

If you have a kid you

1-Think a 100 times before doing something risky/jumping into action as you can't bear the thought of being separated from your children (by death or jail)

but at the same time

2-You don't think for a split second before jumping onto a feral animal or a psycho threatening your kid, consequences simply don't matter

In Japan, that will get a foreigner arrested, and the foreigner would have to pay compensation to the original attacker (the knife wielder). It does not matter of you are the victim or a good samaritan.

The "good samaritan" laws in China are far worse.

This should be reverberated as a service to the foreign community.

Regardless of the circunstances, when the cops arrive all they will see is a japanese (99% very quiet and peaceful) Vs. a violent foreigner disrupting the harmony of Japan.

I hope nothing happened to the Nepali guy.

Law books are scarier than knives and psychos.

What would you do if you saw one of these madmen crossing the street in front of your car toward a group of people?

Being a hero and doing the right thing is not an option here, unless you manage to subdue the perpetrator using judo skills or something, even tackling someone is already an extreme dangerous act for your own freedom and records, and if you think this is bs and you'll be hailed as a hero for doing the right thing you haven't lived here long enough.

Can't blame the poor fellas...whenever I'm in a situation that gets me with no other option but to eat the (mostly pricy) traditional banquet of kaiseki ryori, I start getting hungry again the minute I'm looking for my shoes to go home, nothing else in mind but a succulent whopper or the like.

Not a global warming denier but 2060, really?

Imagine saying the usage of smartphones will be deeply affected for the lack of materials... by 2060!

Or that will be unable to drive our cars because rubber will be scarce around 2100......

Michio Kaku suggested that humanity could achieve a Type I civilization within the next 100 years!

Still thinking we will be burning fussil fuel by then?

Abolish the rear-end collision/car running over a cyclist = driver automatically at fault nonsense for starters.

Make cyclists pay the damage they've done to your car after jumping right in front of you expecting you to brake and put everyone else behind in danger.

Here's a link to the video and the article that mentions the speed of the car. It doesn't look like they were driving slowly.

https://news.ntv.co.jp/category/society/76ff8f9beff14cd096c836b41117c885

Thank you for the video.

Honestly these are the kind of places (one way riverbank roads, etc.) that makes you itching to speed and "test" your car, as there is virtually 0 people walking and also no space for speed traps or cops hiding in the bushes in the straight road with clear view , but as auto mechanics these people should have known better.

From the video the road is way too narrow to do 130km/h, it doesnt even take a small mistake to send you flying.

Thing is culture here can be quite awkward in comparison with other countries.

Any other country I can think of, moonlighting as a prostitute is something completely shocking, shameful and socially unnaceptable, meanwhile in Japan students, retirees and even housewives do this kind of "gig" as if it's nothing!

I believe the approach here is different, this or they have some kind of mental euphemism for prostitution ingrained in their culture, they might think of having "non-penetrative sex" with someone for money the same as an being an entertainer, serving tea while talking with a tired salaryman.

I thought they already had this kind of musem inside the Yasukuni Shrine?

She was born in Azabu but only hold Indonesian nationality.

From my experience if you don't have any relatives in Japan, Assault charges = PR cancelled, order to voluntarily self-deport.

Chance of that happen?

“We came here to do honest work. To fight for our family," Ortiz said through a translator. "

There are 33 countries in Central/South America and you decide to flee to the US why???

Albeit, this is in part using my favorite theory that the human civlization is an early civilization (sort of one of the old ones) in the galaxy.

To be honest things like GTA and smartphones kind of gave away one of the strongerst answers for the Fermi Paradox. Imagine if in 20 years we have a much more advanced Apple Vision Pro combined with "live" Street View that enables to actually walk/fly by any city in the world without leaving your couch?

Alien species may isolate themselves in virtual worlds

Avi Loeb suggests that one possible explanation for the Fermi paradox is virtual reality technology. Individuals of extraterrestrial civilizations may prefer to spend time in virtual worlds or metaverses that have different physical law constraints as opposed to focusing on colonizing planets.[127] Nick Bostrom suggests that some advanced beings may divest themselves entirely of physical form, create massive artificial virtual environments, transfer themselves into these environments through mind uploading, and exist totally within virtual worlds, ignoring the external physical universe.[128]

Well IF it turns out to be true, it'll discount the Fermi Paradox. Then the Dark Forest theory may turn out to be true. Maybe it was a mistake to include info on earth and humans in the Voyager probe.

What the heck does it have to do with the Fermi Paradox??

We're probably witnessing microbial life the same way other advanced civilizations witnessed here at some point, alien civilizations had 4.5 billion years to find life on Earth, the first radio signal ever sent was in 1895, mere 125 years ago. Until then, Earth was just another quiet planet devoided of any kind of life in the eyes of aliens that have exactly the same level of technology we currently have. Dinosaurs lived on Earth for about 165 million years completely undetected.

Kanto area relatively stable, but aging rapidly, meanwhile rest of the country emptying out, especially up North, Shikoku and local areas in general at a very high rate.

They're basically dumping the whole country into Tokyo area

https://uub.jp/pdr/j/inout.html

Ah so that’s how justice works here now - just "reflect" on your crimes and you’re good to go!

Would this "reflection" work if it was a foreign living in Japan?

Allow rice import for months and 5kg bag will go down below 2000yen

Buying Californian rice at Costco these days. Delicious and cheap. Bring foreign rice to the domestic market and watch the prices drop like magic, just please keep toxic plastic rice from that country out.

When taking a rush-hour train in Tokyo does anyone feel that the population of Japan is declining?

Meanwhile, you can walk around the beautiful clean wide streets of downtown Tottori, Toyama, Aomori, Yamaguchi or even bigger capitals like Sendai or Nagoya and almost feel like the city was made for you, very few people walking around even during the rush-hour, which is a shame.

There is no doubt one of the main factors for the population decline is the centralization of everything in Tokyo, believe me, once you come from another prefecture you have to start your social life from scratch in a place where people barely talk to each other.

Relocating the Agency for Cultural Affairs from Tokyo to Kyoto was the clue for what has to be done on a large scale, to create incentives to make people actually inclined to think about moving to Ehime, Nagasaki or Yamanashi for a better life.

“Visitor satisfaction” is unfortunately lost among those consistently focused on greater attendance numbers.

Haven't been to USJ these days but I can confirm that unless you're Disney wise regarding the apps, reservations and all the other tricks required to enjoy what the park was supposed to offer, you're basically paying ￥10.000 to walk around, you can't even eat what you want as there is also a reservation system for restaurants, unless you want to spend 1 or 2 hours in a queue, hungry.

I will be in Osaka during Obon, hopefully it will be easy to get in and have a look.

I hate crowds and unnecessary queuing