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On Dec. 6 2021, the U.S. Embassy in Japan tweeted a warning to U.S. citizens about foreigners being stopped and searched by Japanese police in suspected racial profiling incidents.

Oh the irony.....

USA currently in the middle of the greatest, racist round up based on "racial profiling " since the enforced internment of Japanese during WW2.

When the US Embassy issued that warning in 2021, IIRC, the GOJ raised the warning and asked that it be rescinded, much like the current USG tariffs. It is ironical, indeed, that what goes around comes around. The USG is scrutinizing foreign arrivals now as they try to enter the US in the worst way in the 70 years since I have been alive. This scrutiny even goes to US citizens, especially those making land border crossings. And on more than one occassion, when my family and I were returning to the US from Japan, my adopted Japanese children were pulled into secondary questioning even with their US passports until I learned that I should stand behind them in line as we went through immigration so that if they were being pulled over into secondary just followed them and when I was challenged and told to keep going through immigration, I said that I would stay with my children. On all occassions when I was behind my children my white face ended the extra scrutiny. It was on the occassions when I was in front of them that they were separated from me by the immigration officials. The only reason that I could find for any additional questioning was once when immigration wanted to make sure I was not trafficing minors across the Pacific. It took a few times before I had to concede to my children that there did appear to be racial profiling.

Meanwhile, the husbands in Kyushu were said "Teishu Kanpaku ." (Husbands are dominant in Kyushu).

I have lived in Kyushu for ten years and used to hear that Kyushu men were so weak that they had to go home to their mothers if the wives went home to give birth. The reasoning was that Kyushu men even had a hard time cooking instant raman and would starve if they had to cook for themselves. Today's Kyushu men seem to be better at cooking then the Teishu Kanpaku men, but I always got the impression that the older Kyushu image of a man was someone who couldn't do anything for himself in the house. Perhaps that was because husbands are so dominant in Kyushu. I like strong women. They are great to work with and to be married to.

Gunma looks scary, the women look strong, and there's a part of me that's attracted to them.

My dad always told me to marry a smart woman because she would ensure that our family finances were in order, our children well educated and I would walk a strait line. I followed my dad's advice and we have a very happy relationship now 50 years on. Dad also said that many men were afraid of smart women, and those who married bimbos seemed ashamed of them and of their children afterwards. I am not sure about that, but I can attest to the fact that strong and smart women make great partners - and reflect well upon successful men.

Now they are in small groups, wheeling enormous suitcases along pavements, up and down stairs, and through tourist spots and train stations. Some starting to travel off the Golden trail of Tokyo Kyoto Osaka and Hiroshima, to places like Hakone Nara Himeji and Kanazawa.

I lived in the Sapporo area pre-Corona, and there were quite a few large Chinese and Korean groups throughout the Hokkaido tourism areas even then. I am not surprised at the east Asian groups that find Japan interesting. They do remind me of the package tour Japanese groups I used to see in Hawaii. I prefer areas without large busloads of tourists, even though that is how I saw many things when I went to Vietnam last year.

I've been offered Japanese citizenship but in return would have to abandon my American one. No deal.

In accepting Japanese citizenship, it is not a US law that Americans renounce their US citizenship. The State Department has stated that a person who renounces US citizenship only for the reason of accepting a foreign citizenship is not intentionally renouncing US citizenship. This is based on the 1980 US Supreme Court decision. Until 1980, the United States did not recognize dual citizenship for American citizens. As such, Americans who renounce US citizenship solely to gain Japanese citizenship do not loose their US citizenship. Japan does not have any legal authority to determine who is a US citizen and who is not.

Most children from international marriages keep both their Japanese passport and their other nationality.

Japanese law is that those children with dual nationality have two years from when they reach the age of majority (used to be 22) before they have to decide which nationality to keep. At least for dual nationals with US citizenship, many reccommend that they declare Japanese preference to the GOJ. This is not an considered a denaturalizing act by the USG. Again, Japan does not have any legal authority to determine who is a US citizen and who is not. There have been discussions on whether the GOJ can require proof of loss of foreign citizenship in these cases, but when I checked years ago, the GOJ had no legal standing to require such. However, holding a foreign passport issued more than two years beyond the age of majority could be considered as proof that someone did not give up foreign nationality. The GOJ does not have the authority AFAIK to require a person entering Japan with a Japanese passport to show a passport for any other country if in their possession. If, however, a person showed such a passport voluntarily, the immigration authorities would be in a vexing position.

For dual national children, we always recommend using the Japanese passport when going in and out through Japanese immigration, and the foreign passport when entering or leaving the foreign country. When traveling in or out of any other country, either passport may be used.

The core issue is whether foreign leaders should hold American citizenship when they also enjoy broad immunity from U.S. laws, said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor and an expert on citizenship law. Such immunity clashes with the constitutional principle that no U.S. citizen should be above the law.

I think a core issue is whether anyone should hold American citizenship when enjoying broad immunity from U.S. laws precisely since this clashes with the constitutional principle that no U.S. citizen should be above the law. In fact, no one in the United States should be above the law. We have specific instances of diplomatic immunity for foreign officials who are in the United States.

As such, if Pope Leo enters the United States with his US passport, he should be subject to US laws. If he enters as the head of state for the Vatican, he should be using a Vatican passport for such an entry and be engaged in Vatican government business - during which time he would have claim to diplomatic immunity.

Nice to see a younger minister in such a prominent position, someone born after the Showa era. I have yet to figure out why genmai prices are so high when there is so much less processing involved. I stopped buying rice about 6 months ago and have switched to eating wheat pearls, which cook in about the same time in my rice cooker. The wheat pearls are about 300 yen for a kilogram and are as healthy as genmai.

If this ends the conflict, it is indeed a great piece of news. Godspeed on the way forward!

Lets see. A child may be being bullied. The mother goes and complains. Being unsatisfied, she calls a couple of thug friends. They go to the school and bully the teacher in front of the students. Is this a case of kill a chicken, scare the monkeys (Chinese proverb)? That is, bully the teacher in front of the students to warn students not to bully the child? It seems like if so, it is perpetuating the problem of bullying and setting a bad example for the students. What kind of a society is this? Now, the student may be scarred for life, not only by the bullying she had been receiving, but also by the escalation of having her teacher beaten in front of her. And imagine how afraid of her mother she could be.

I visited a supurb collection of wisteria plants last week in Kagoshima's Wake Jinja gardens in Kirishima City. These large collections of wisteria showcase the variety of different wisteria, including the purple, blue, cream, and white colours, and, as is shown here with the picture of the Yae Kokuryu Fuji, the differences between the single and double blossomed varieties. Although I have enjoyed seeing wisteria blooming for over 55 years, I was unaware until this Golden Week that there were so many varieties, especially the double blossomed varieties that I had never noticed before.

Amazing how many of us remember this incident, and of the young engineer/driver who appeared to have been speeding a bit on th curve because he had been punished for being a bit behind schgedule on previous occassions. IIRC, he was blamed and, as he lost his life in the accident, was the scapegoat for the JR West executives who continued the corporate culture which led in part to the accident. I lived on a Hankyu line, and so was as familiar with the  JR Fukuchiyama Line, but for all of us who were commuters in the area, this was an especially eye-opening example of the risks we were in in traveling in trains with 150 percent capacity during the rush hours in the Osaka area. Condolences to those who lost loved ones, those still alive who were injured, and to the first-responders who suffered in the cleanup.

One man has disrupted the entire world. That's a lot of power.

Used foolishly... Tanking the US economy.

Unfortunately for the US and the world, President Trump's mantra is in direct contrast to those of President Theodore Roosevelt, who suggested that "speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far".  The American press during his time, as well as many modern historians today, used the term "big stick" to describe the foreign policy positions during his administration. Roosevelt described his style of foreign policy as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis". His foreign policy had five tenets; have a serious military capability that was visible but understated; to act fairly toward other nations; never to bluff; to strike only when prepared to strike hard; and to be willing to allow others to save face in defeat. This was ultimate diplomacy. It was based on understatement. The power was best when seen in the shadow, not paraded out front.

In contrast, the Trump rhetoric is overstatement; bluster without planning; vacilating threats and bluffs without the exercise of intelligent forethought; indecisive action which causes crisis; and acting without considering allies. The US economy is tanking, and dragging down the rest of the world. The world will make painful adjustments. It is not clear whether the US will be part of the constructive adjustments, or be isolated outside of them. Trump is exercising a lot of power and risks losing all that previous generations have fairly built up. Unfortunate for the US. Maybe for the entire world. Who will rise up and take the position the US has held for the past 80 years?

One of the best articles I have seen in JT. Thanks. Really informative, especially withe the Japanese word lists.

British Rail has been defunct since 1997.

Probably just a slip for National Rail, like when I refer to JR as kokutetsu (JNR), before it was privatized in 1987. Old habits die hard.

Lines to Tokyo Station and to Shinjuku will be nice additions to the Haneda options.

I was not even aware there was a US pavilion at the expo this year. Who paid for it?

America will never again become the great manufacturing nation it once was. The decline of an empire.

The first sentence here is correct. The second is mistaken, especially if it suggests that a nation is only great if it is a manufacturing nation. American inventiveness is the key to American progress; outsourcing manufacturing is fine as long as the new ideas are still flowing.

He had looked for ways to make the chairs in the U.S. and had discussions with potential suppliers in Michigan, but the costs would have been 25% to 30% higher. "They didn’t have the skilled labor to do this stuff, and they didn’t have the desire to do it,” Rosenberg said.

He described Trump’s call for factories to return to the U.S. as “a joke." “I have been looking for American manufacturers for a long time ... and I have come up with zero companies to partner with,” he said.

So the Tarriff King wants to bring back manufacturing to the United States while at the same time closing the doors to immigrants who will work for lower wages and counting on Americans to work in these assembly lines. Unless the Tarriff King can convince American manufacturers to mass produce these low-priced products, there is no way that his efforts will being this type of manufacturing close to the United States. He may be able to slow the imports from China, but there needs to be some place with adequate workers that will produce these goods to replace those coming from China.

If Trump was just Joe Citizen and he complained about everything, all day and every day, you would be looking at a diagnosis of depression

If Trump weren't Presidedt, I wouldn't be looking at anything to do with him. I wish that the AMCITs and the news media would ignore him; the US Congress would ignore him and cease to enable him or approve his nominees, and legislate as it should be doing, and US courts including SCOTUS would make concise and quick rulings against his attempts to ignore the rule of law. Congress should cut off all funding for the White House without hiding behind any fig leaf that it is doing so to save money. The Executive Departments would do much better without the Trump appointed Cabinet members. And the international communicy would be much better off if he were just ignored into oblivion.

So what exactly has caused this sign to go up? The Japanese is as vague as is the English. An interesting Picture of the Day - the picture would be enhanced if the story behind its necessity were here too. The short set of words below the picture, "A manners poster is seen at riverside Shioiri Park in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo", tells us nothing. And an Internet search shows several sites featuring Shiori Park, but no explanation about what the sign is about.

I am living in Japan and have an active Yucho account. However, I was living in Japan in the past, too, and had about 200000 in a different yucho account. I moved back to the states without closing it, and intended to use it when I returned to Japan for vacations. Much easier than bringing fresh cash and having to exchange it in the evening when arriving in Haneda, I thought. Well, Covid kept me from coming back to Japan for a while, and when I did, I stopped in at the Yucho Haneda cash machine to withdraw some funds, and the account was blocked because I had been out of the country for so long. I had to go to the Sapporo office to get my funds out and close my account. I recount this because there are several reasons that people might want to keep accounts in Japan when they are no longer residents. For foreigners, it is getting harder and harder to maintain Japanese ties if one is no longer a resident. This summer, when I return to the states, I will make sure I close out my accounts as my Yucho account is open in Kagoshima and I see no reason to travel all the way down here again if I make further trips to Honshu in the future. Wise and Schwab allow accounts in foreign currencies now, and it is much easier to withdraw yen funds from ATM machines than it used to be.

I have had this experience when I was coming through Haneda, too. Why do the digital stuff if in the end the line for filling out the yellow card is going to put you in the faster line? I also came through Kagoshima International Airport in January, and there was no guidance as to what to do. When I came to the counter and didn't have the form (I didn't see any places to fill it out before getting into the line) I was given a form and told to fill it out and get back in the end of the line. It was the first time I came into the country at Kagoshima, and it really felt like an inaka airport. Most of the other passengers were Korean and seemed to have been given the form by their travel agents, and it appeared that the international terminal at the airport was not used to non-Korean visitors on that flight.

I can understand the son's position here. It reminds me of the 1984 Juzo Itami film お葬式, or The Funeral, where Itami has a strong social commentary on funerals in Japan, and family issues surrounding funerals. The son in this case lives in Saitama, and his dad lived in Tochigi. Plenty of akiya that could be still unfound with corpses in them throughout Japan. What is another dead person who hasn't been disposed of when the family, or in this case a son, doesn't know what to do or have the time to do anything right away. How long it takes for him to decide has nothing to do with the final outcome. When dad is dead, he is dead. And in the winter he would be well preserved. After all, it is not like many of the cases in Japan where someone else is living in the house and just closes the room to where the deceased is, and goes on with life in the same house without doing anything. Perhaps he was waiting for it to be warmer so that he could get out his spade and bury dad in the back yard in the homestead in Tochigi and save the cost of having a funeral.

So Murayama dived into reams of records and chivvied prosecutors.

Kudos to Judge Murayama for his continued chivving of prosecutors in behalf of Hakamata. And to Japan Times for publishing this article. I had to look up the word chivvy. Is it a particularly British word? I hope I can remember to use it as I need to chivvy my children to do things from time to time.

chivvy *verb *British tell (someone) repeatedly to do something. Similar: nag badger hound harass harry keep after keep on at

People can acquire their integrated card at driver's license centers across the country. The My Number card is valid for 10 years.

It would be an incentive to get an integrated card if DL validity is upped to ten years as well. Some US states issue ten-year licenses and my Korean DL was valid for ten years too.

I, too, am an elderly driver at 70. I expect that I will not get another Japanese DL when mine expires in 2029. I live in a town of about 100,000 with limited bus service and NO/NO train service within an hour's drive. When I look at the taxi drivers out here in the boonies, most of them look older than I am. Japan's laws have always stressed that it is the driver's responsiblility not to hit anyone. While I applaud efforts to stress safe driving, I am reminded of what my mother taught me 60 years ago - it doesn't matter whose fault it is if you are hit and die, you are still dead. I think we as a nation need to teach people safe walking, too, or in this case safe bicycle riding. So many times when we are walking or riding in groups we are more involved in talking to each other than moving defensively. Many times we j-walk, walk in the middle of the road, weave in and out when we are bicycling, move around on the sidewalks if we are playing around with our phones, and just are unaware of what is going around us. Yes, drivers should be more careful; so should bicyclists and walkers/runners. When someone is killed in a traffic accident, it is a tragedy for all no matter who is legally at fault

 Somewhere a 30 minute drive from Niseko will be barely affected by it. For inaka people, this will seem far away. 

Glad you realized that you guessed at 30 minutes. With the increased traffic, 30 minutes away is not as far these days as it used to be, even with some improvement in the road infrastructure. I recall looking at some rural land in the 30 minute out vicinity about 7 years ago, and was surprised at how expensive it was compared to lands in other parts of Hokkaido. The buying up is pretty strong in the general area. Perhaps something like 40 or 50 kilos out from Niseko would be a better benchmark for saying that the prices would not be increasing much. That boom has long tentacles.

Put him on the no flying list and have this loser travel only by Shinkansen. Good luck paying the train fares from Osaka to Sapporo.

Better yet, put him on a no reservation list so that he can't get reservations on any transportation in Japan. Cash payments for any tickets. Make him have to ride regular trains to Sapporo from Osaka.

Never bathe with your window open.

It is hard to believe that it is 30 years since the sarin attacks. It seems like just a few years ago.

Interesting that this Kyodo News Service article has no byline on it and conflates several different hot spring areas of Japan. I am really surprised at the start to see Ureshino hot spring listed as having not enough hot water. I have been to the Saga hot springs, including Ureshino, and don't remember seeing any other foreigners there besides myself and my two Chinese friends that I took. Ureshino is popular locally, but not on any foreign tourism track. It is not between any important foreign tourism areas either. I find that this article mentions foreigners as a hot spring problem in the first and last paragraphs, but they are not mentioned in any of the specific information in the middle of the article. This is just another poorly written Kyodo article that links foreigners to hot spring problems without any specific examples - and therefore seems to be something that comes up in Kyodo from time to time without any basis in fact.