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pentyne posted:Just a reminder of the competency of the Japanese police force, the manga Kuroko no Basket had someone so incredibly pissed off they would call in bomb threats to any event featuring the manga or author, and the police's response was to ask the author to stop showing up to places and to pull the manga from events. Yeah but the kid who kept calling in bomb threats to Takahashi+Hudson Soft a few years ago? He was busted in like two months flat. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/02/02/bomber-tries-to-destroy-hudson-soft/1 What's the precedent for that? If the was guy was doing this for a month straight and it's a prank he gets taken down but in the other instances people mentioned here the police couldn't care less. Do you just not gently caress around with the creators of Bomberman/Adventure Island/Star Soldier or is there more to it than that? This this less proactive aspect of the police get suddenly and significantly even worse in the past six years or so?
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Apr 6, 2014 03:59
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Riso posted:Japanese men work 18 hours a day, how are they supposed to have time for housework?
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Apr 6, 2014 04:01
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Wittgen posted:Japan almost universally displaying post tax prices that almost always ended in zero or five was one of the great little things about it as a country. The loss makes me sad. What's next? They institute America style tipping? Fear not, post-tax prices will end with a zero again from October 1 next year, when the consumption tax rises to 10%.
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Apr 6, 2014 09:08
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Samurai Sanders posted:Come to think of it, has Abe said anything about increasing productivity by trying to at least discourage that practice? The past few cabinets cabinets have encouraged fewer working hours and I think even the keidanren has made a statement about it. The problem has nothing to do with what the government says, it has everything to do with social culture. You get a lot of people that believe that's what is required to move up in the company to look "productive."
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Apr 6, 2014 10:09
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Samurai Sanders posted:Well uh...er...okay, maybe? That's not what I really had in mind. Is it not even worth considering that husbands could help with housework? Absolutely not. They can't be arsed to loving feed themselves a lot of the time let alone do laundry or use a vacuum.
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Apr 6, 2014 15:59
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Samurai Sanders posted:Abe: To support women entering the labor force, let's open the door to immigrants to do housework and such https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZiKAskjPF8
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Apr 6, 2014 16:23
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Dr.Radical posted:Absolutely not. They can't be arsed to loving feed themselves a lot of the time let alone do laundry or use a vacuum. put on clothing, clean self, etc. historically at least.
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Apr 6, 2014 16:33
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Kenishi posted:The past few cabinets cabinets have encouraged fewer working hours and I think even the keidanren has made a statement about it. The problem has nothing to do with what the government says, it has everything to do with social culture. You get a lot of people that believe that's what is required to move up in the company to look "productive."
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Apr 6, 2014 18:18
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Japan's government has been especially proactive in trying to shape culture. They could absolutely do something if they wanted to. Moral susation campaigns are like the bread and butter of ministries charged with creating benefits for society. It's arguable how effective these campaigns have been. I don't say that as a hidden way of expressing disapproval for them, I mean that people argue about how factually effective they have been with some scholars claiming that they were greatly effective and others saying that they were not so effective. Regardless of their relative factual effectiveness, the point is that if they wanted to they absolutely could flood the airwaves with PSAs, plaster train cars with posters, and put pressure on (or provide incentives for) the keidanren and other organizations. This is not a question of ability, but rather will.
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Apr 6, 2014 21:23
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What were some of the previous campaigns that had their effectiveness evaluated by scholars?
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Apr 7, 2014 10:28
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Paper Mac posted:What were some of the previous campaigns that had their effectiveness evaluated by scholars? Campaigns about saving in the 1960s, campaigns about raising consumption during the 1950s, campaigns about encouraging domestic travel in the 1970s and 80s just to name a few. "Molding Japanese Minds" by Sharon Garon is a good place to start if you're curious. That particular book spends half its time talking about the moral susation campaigns of the prewar period, which as you can imagine are a bit more eyebrow raising. During one period of Diet debate about the campaign to prohibit licensed prostitution one Diet member stood up in front of the the whole world and publicly declared some very interesting things about masturbation and its effect on Japanese masculinity. Edit: Corrected my dumb spelling mistake 
Shinobo fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Apr 8, 2014 |
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Apr 8, 2014 01:58
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Thanks for that recommendation, Shinobo, it's going on my reading list. The author's name seems to be Sheldon Garon, though, in case anyone else is looking for it.
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Apr 8, 2014 02:42
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Public smoking (major streets, trains, public spaces) went from pervasive to almost gone during my half decade in Japan when they were running lots of ads and gradually tightening rules. You can still smoke if you go waaay to the end of the train platform, but I assume that will be gone eventually. When I first arrived you could actually smoke on the train.
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Apr 8, 2014 03:07
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In Tokyo at least, it's easier to smoke indoors than out.
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Apr 8, 2014 03:11
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Yup. It was ridiculous that I found it easier to smoke in bars and restaurants than the outdoors. Not to mention the public smoking points in places like Shibuya are like gas chambers.
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Apr 8, 2014 03:22
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shrike82 posted:Yup. It was ridiculous that I found it easier to smoke in bars and restaurants than the outdoors. Why is that ridiculous? If anything this is one thing in japan that makes sense. If people don't like smoke they can always choose to not go into those private business establishments and pick places with non-smoking hours/sections. Public spaces can't be avoided so the ban makes sense there. My buddy has asthma and has been able to basically avoid second hand smoke for years thanks to this.
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Apr 8, 2014 03:33
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Cycling rules are very poorly adhered to but there seems to be the lack of a campaign even with crazy new rules like 'drive on the proper side of the road.'
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Apr 8, 2014 05:04
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hadji murad posted:Cycling rules are very poorly adhered to but there seems to be the lack of a campaign even with crazy new rules like 'drive on the proper side of the road.' edit: wait, what does this have to do with the previous conversation?
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Apr 8, 2014 05:38
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Samurai Sanders posted:edit: wait, what does this have to do with the previous conversation? Mixing up this thread with the LAN thread?
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Apr 8, 2014 05:46
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Personally I like the campaign reminding people not to use firearms in public, as if Japan somehow had a problem with that in the first place.
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Apr 8, 2014 06:01
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Lemmi Caution posted:Public smoking (major streets, trains, public spaces) went from pervasive to almost gone during my half decade in Japan when they were running lots of ads and gradually tightening rules. You can still smoke if you go waaay to the end of the train platform, but I assume that will be gone eventually. When I first arrived you could actually smoke on the train. As far as I know, you can't smoke on platforms at all any more but that's a pretty recent thing. I see people smoking on the street all the time and even at the station on rare occasions (although dudes smoking at the station are almost universally old and clearly don't give a gently caress) but you're supposed to be fined for doing that. I live in a suburb of Tokyo in Chiba and those rules seem to get stricter the farther into Tokyo you get. I wouldn't be surprised if smoking rules are much more lax in Buttfuck-shi, Inaka-ken.
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Apr 8, 2014 07:17
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Reverend Cheddar posted:Personally I like the campaign reminding people not to use firearms in public, as if Japan somehow had a problem with that in the first place. Why do you think it's not a problem, baka gaijin? ArchangeI fucked around with this message at 10:19 on Apr 8, 2014 |
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Apr 8, 2014 09:20
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Dr.Radical posted:As far as I know, you can't smoke on platforms at all any more but that's a pretty recent thing. I see people smoking on the street all the time and even at the station on rare occasions (although dudes smoking at the station are almost universally old and clearly don't give a gently caress) but you're supposed to be fined for doing that. I live in a suburb of Tokyo in Chiba and those rules seem to get stricter the farther into Tokyo you get. I wouldn't be surprised if smoking rules are much more lax in Buttfuck-shi, Inaka-ken. The commuter trains here still have smoking rooms on the platforms but I noticed in Tokyo there are no smoking spots other than those in the Shinkansen stations. Kyushu is a little bit more behind the times when it comes to smoking.
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Apr 8, 2014 09:37
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Tokyo items have been trained to smoke like chimneys around convenience stores making a new annoyance on every major street.
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Apr 8, 2014 11:40
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ArchangeI posted:Why do you think it's not a problem, baka gaijin? Where do you get your news about the mean Japanese streets, Aibou? 
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Apr 8, 2014 16:20
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So how is Abenomics working?
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Apr 30, 2014 01:46
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I honestly think it's a good start but some of the fundamental problems are so vast - they will literally take a generation or more to get under control. Fiscal stimulus and monetary easing – I would give them both a solid B+ Structural reforms – Such a mixed bag here but there has been real and substantial progress in some areas (education and energy) while other areas haven’t really been touched at all - or went backwards. Agriculture: B- Healthcare: D Energy: B Education: A- Government: C+ Employment: B- Corporate governance: B Tax: C+ Immigration: D- Electoral reform: F
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Apr 30, 2014 03:04
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It's all about the wage growth. The primary goal behind the whole Abenomics program is to reduce the government's debt by stimulating wage growth, which will lead to more spending and more taxes collected. Optimistically speaking, inflation finally seems to be happening consistently and wage growth appears to be moving into positive territory. Pessimistically speaking, however, inflation currently exceeds wage growth by a significant margin, the stock market has plateaued, and consumer confidence is decreasing. The question being asked now is whether BOJ will expand their bond purchasing program. I continue to convert my savings out of yen.
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Apr 30, 2014 03:50
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You also forgot the part where sales tax went up 3% and will go up another 2% in something like a year. The wage growth has only been enough to balance out these changes really. I also believe it was mentioned (maybe in here) that there was some directive by the govt. that forced businesses to pass on the sales tax to the consumers instead of just sucking up the loses by not bumping prices. Maybe the expectation was that consumers would just get pissed and complain to their companies that they need hire salaries (ya right).
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Apr 30, 2014 05:14
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[quote="Womacks-JP-23" post=""428974886"[/quote"] Electoral reform: F [/quote] great post. This caught my attention though. I find it insane that the same party has been in charge of the country for half a century except for like four years. How are they so strong?
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Apr 30, 2014 05:30
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My friend made a funny comment about that one time: "If you can't have an emperor anymore then you'll just have to elect your own."
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Apr 30, 2014 05:34
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punk rebel ecks posted:great post. This caught my attention though. I find it insane that the same party has been in charge of the country for half a century except for like four years. How are they so strong? edit: even though the LDP and DPJ are only almost imperceptibly different to me.
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Apr 30, 2014 05:36
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The consumption tax debate is a sideshow. Even if things go according to the exact best-case scenario laid out by the cabinet, the tax increases would only raise about 10 trillion in in additional revenue, compared to a fiscal deficit of 53 trillion in 2012. Japan's deficits are so absurdly large that no conceivable tax hike could correct them. Japan's choices are rather limited and I think you'll start seeing some real radical changes on the structural reform front in the next few years. There really are no alternative choices. The old farts are just buying their time right now but the day of reckoning is coming fast. If the reforms fail, I would honestly recommend bailing out of Japan if you can, because I can't see a situation where Japan isn't forced to raise the consumption tax to over 15% and reduce per-capita benefits for the elderly by 20+% by 2020.
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Apr 30, 2014 06:17
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quote:great post. This caught my attention though. I find it insane that the same party has been in charge of the country for half a century except for like four years. How are they so strong? This is a very good question, but that grade is probably a little unfair. At least since 1994. The simple answer is that there are about six different factors people usually cite as a reason, from cunning institutional usage to sheer political skill. The complex answer is that it depended on a huge host of different reasons that are the basis of very long books.
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Apr 30, 2014 08:10
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Womacks-JP-23 posted:The consumption tax debate is a sideshow. Even if things go according to the exact best-case scenario laid out by the cabinet, the tax increases would only raise about 10 trillion in in additional revenue, compared to a fiscal deficit of 53 trillion in 2012. Surprised we haven't had the obligatory "but the debt is held by the Japanese people!!!" post in response to this yet. Anyways, I find sorting the list of countries by public debt Wikipedia page by public debt as a % of GDP every few months to be interesting, certainly some ominous company to be keeping there. 
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Apr 30, 2014 11:52
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^^^All your post does is prove that argument. Greece doesn't own or issue its own currency. Zimbabwe is mismanaged to kingdom come with debt being the least of its issues.
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Apr 30, 2014 16:51
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Not to mention, last I checked, that Zimbabwe has actually been doing a lot better than it was six or seven years ago. I mean its still a mismanaged shithole but its not on the verge of civil war or anything. Things can truly get better!
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May 1, 2014 03:07
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One of the reasons might be that Zimbabwe doesn't even have their own currency anymore and is forced to have more sensible policies.
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May 1, 2014 08:27
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On another topic, is there any political will in Japan at all to make immigration easier? Is the demographic situation sustainable politically or will they be forced to do something about it?
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May 1, 2014 10:50
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icantfindaname posted:On another topic, is there any political will in Japan at all to make immigration easier? Is the demographic situation sustainable politically or will they be forced to do something about it? I had read that they want to open borders to get immigrants to clean houses so that women can enter the labour market. Not sure how that works exactly though.
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May 1, 2014 10:54
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