Roger Gusain comments

The LDP never disappoint -- they are constantly reinventing themselves and coming up with wonderful policies like cash handouts that make our lives so much better. I love the LDP!

There are opposition parties, but you don't need to worry about them. Why waste your precious vote on losers who only became politicians because they had failed in life and couldn't think of anything else to do. The LDP will rule Japan forever!

Ishiba is going to be one of the greatest PMs in Japanese history. I just love him -- he can do no wrong in my eyes. We are so lucky to be part of the ongoing LDP success story.

The LDP hopes that 2,000 yen bags of rice will secure victory in next month's election. The CDP plans to offer 20,000 yen handouts to bribe pensioners. It's really hopeless.

Love Back to the Future and MJF -- rewatch at least once a year. Movies were so much better in the 80s.

Got any recommendations for my eldest son who will graduate high school next year? How about Yale or MIT?

Needless to say, he won't be applying to Todai (or any other Japanese university that offers toilet paper degrees).

Going to HARVARD doesn't make you a genius. Its just a name, I know people who have attended the university of Connections and still they are clueless. Going to HARVARD is just a name associated with status. One thinks that Harvard is were the best students go, no its where the elite use their money and power to buy seats for their children to go there. The best schools you never hear of and they produce the most Rhode Scholars they attend Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, these are the students that become the movers and shakers. You never hear about them because they are so closed and secretive!

Got any recommendations for my eldest son who will graduate high school next year? How about Yale or MIT?

Eto is living proof that the LDP only recruits the best and brightest. Our family is eating spuds from Hokkaido as an alternative to overpriced rice.

Never underestimate the importance of money in Japanese marriages. Many Japanese women think getting hitched is a meal ticket for life and they will never have to work again.

His remarks about his wife are surely digging the hole even deeper

His wife apparently does all the shopping -- just like the US or the UK in the 1950s. I wonder if he has ever been to a supermarket?

Interesting topic:

Negative Nancy wrote: They become fat, bald alcoholics, they can't drive, they can't interact with anyone properly, they still need help with everything... it's no longer an attractive situation to be in

I think Nancy has hit the nail on the head here. They do have Google Translate though. The problem of long-term gaijin alcoholics deserves a separate thread!

Foreigners can't be blamed for Japan's many long-term structural problems around demographics, debt, etc.

That's the logical response. The inept, corrupt LDP is the REAL problem. The brainwashed public may not think that way though. I have always felt safe in Japan, but I fear something may be changing...

Taro Aso was gaslighting pensioners when he said (in 2019) that they could live on the pittance the state provides and didn't need to save 20 million yen. It's got a lot worse since then, Taro, not that you would know of course.

Food should never have been taxed in the first place. Drastic reform is obviously needed, but Japan's fiscal situation is not going to improve under the LDP. I fear the increasingly impoverished native population is going to start looking for scapegoats. Foreigners could become targets for their frustration.

Thanks for an uplifting article that really makes me think that Japan has a great future. I'm fired up with optimism now!

I'm not worried as I am confident the LDP will look after everybody. No-one is going to starve. Japan is the only successful communist country.

Japanese people don't have to travel abroad, even if they can afford it. The world is coming to Japan!

Went out for a walk this afternoon in my Tokyo hood and the ratio of tourists/foreign residents to native-born Japanese was about 10 to 1.

Average actress with average looks that for some reason became a star and let it go to her head

That's a bit unfair. Okuribito (2008) is probably her best film -- well worth a watch.

If only the Krays were still around -- those were the good old days:

https://ok.ru/video/4202272066126?fromTime=4642

They should ask the government for a subsidy

Or UNESCO World Heritage Status? Not sure if they are worth preserving, but I personally felt a lot safer with the old punch perm guys than their sinister Chinese and Vietnamese equivalents.

In a parallel universe, Shinzo Abe is still alive and Trump gave Japan special treatment. \

But we have Ishiba ...

Where is Nakai now? Has he fled the country? Plastic surgery is another option, I suppose.

Eric Clapton's tickets for his April 2025 concerts at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo typically cost ¥24,000 to ¥25,000 (S and A seats).

Not a lot of money these days. Comments like these are an indication of the growing poverty in this country.

Don't be surprised if the LDP offers Joe Public a "bribe" of 100,000 yen each (1,000,000 yen would ensure an LDP landslide in this summer's Upper House election IMO). Japan just keeps kicking the can down the road -- people who haven't been born yet will be burdened with this debt.

Who was guilty of the four murders then? I guess we will never know.

The Star Trek episode "The Deadly Years" is a prophetic vision of what Japan will be like in a few years. It won't be pretty.

The 70s were bad in the UK, but I don't remember anything like this happening. Airports were pleasant places with few passengers because hardly anyone could afford the fares. Along came Freddie Laker with his Skytrain tickets to NYC for 79 quid and travel was never the same again...

Mick doesn't need to run any scams -- he's been ripping off Stones fans with ludicrously overpriced live shows for decades now.

Canada, Greenland and Panama would all be better off under US rule. As would the UK. Starmer is the worst PM we have ever had.

As Hamlet said: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend". I feel so sorry for poor Airi-san.