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Was talking to a Japanese guy yesterday and he asked me what the most expensive thing for me here. I told him the pension payments and he said I should stop paying because it’ll never pay out anyway. So, youngish people know they’re hosed on that front. As the even younger generation hits the workforce they’ll feel it even more.
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Dec 27, 2019 02:20
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mystes posted:Also, lots of older people haven't saved up enough money for retirement and they're going to be screwed over as the government raises pension ages and increases how much they have to pay for healthcare. It is impossible to "save up enough money for retirement" in the system as it is since the underlying problem is a local undersupply of labor and the price for these limited resources will simply rise until the the retained savings are all allocated. The higher prices should in theory be attracting lower priced supply from outside but...
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Dec 27, 2019 02:22
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mystes posted:The problem isn't so much the fact that the population will be lower in the future as the stuff that happens while the population is shrinking (a smaller working age population having to support a larger elderly population, regional areas continuing to become depopulated, etc.). This is all standard neoliberal stuff though. Macron is literally slashing pensions right now as we’re posting and France has the best demographics of any develoepd country and healthy immigration. Japanese demographics are a crisis only if you simultaneously buy into an orthodox neoliberal frame of How Are They Going To Pay For It in terms of public finance and deficits, but also are deeply troubled by the human suffering that comes after social spending is cut in the name of fiscal austerity. Nobody is both of those things at once, and that’s the tell that the whole discourse is in fundamentally bad faith like basically everything written about Japan. Well, to be fair, I guess people ARE those things at once, and you do get an analogous discourse of public spending and austerity from liberals with other countries too, but the point is that it’s incoherent and self-contradictory. Unless you think there’s going to be a real, catastrophic social collapse in Japan, or that the engine of Japanese capitalism will grind to a halt, then there’s no true crisis beyond what neoliberal capitalism produces in dozens of countries both developing and developed. That’s possible, but I don’t think it’s that likely. They’ll just cut pensions, old people will be poor, the cities will continue to slowly become more multicultural by attrition and the countryside will continue to empty out as it’s been doing for decades. Things can continue as they are for the foreseeable future, no matter how mad this makes the liberal expat pundit class icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Dec 27, 2019 |
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Dec 27, 2019 03:26
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I’m just a lazy poster but fwiw “Japanese retirees need to save more” sounded like neoliberal propaganda bullshit to me
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Dec 27, 2019 05:03
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Neoliberal or not neoliberal, having an ever increasing share of older people in a population is eventually going to put a larger strain on the younger portion to support them with their labor. There's no getting around this without massive automation.
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Dec 27, 2019 07:32
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AFancyQuestionMark posted:Neoliberal or not neoliberal, having an ever increasing share of older people in a population is eventually going to put a larger strain on the younger portion to support them with their labor. There's no getting around this without massive automation.
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Dec 27, 2019 07:56
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Grouchio posted:Or just letting them die off. I have a hunch this will become semi-popular policy this century in several nations.
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Dec 27, 2019 12:06
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Flayer posted:Depends who's in power. The right wing will want to keep them around as a voting bloc, the left shouldn't be so callous but the centre would happily kill them off. lol, the "right wing" (also, centrists) have been waging a war on poors for a long rear end time now, and old poors are no exception. the people in power today doesn't give a poo poo about who's gonna vote for their successors. people are just stupid and keep voting for them anyway because
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Dec 27, 2019 12:21
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Boy, am I glad I don't live in Japan.
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Dec 27, 2019 14:35
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Dunno where else to post this so here it goes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/business/carlos-ghosn-escape-japan.html New York Times posted:An official in Beirut said Mr. Ghosn had entered the country using a French passport, while at least one Lebanese outlet reported, without offering proof, that the former Nissan chairman had been spirited out inside a box meant for musical equipment.
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Jan 1, 2020 12:59
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So I watched this and apparently the Yakuza in Japan has their hand in nearly every major business in the country? Is that accurate? Just how common and powerful are the Yakuza? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6fm2JCrlMo (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 12, 2020 00:34
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punk rebel ecks posted:So I watched this and apparently the Yakuza in Japan has their hand in nearly every major business in the country? Is that accurate? Just how common and powerful are the Yakuza? I dunno the answer to your question because I stopped being interested in poo poo like that a long time ago but man Enson Inoue’s stance on the yakuza being “sure they do child porn and human trafficking but they have HONOR and LOYALTY” is, uh... something. What a dumb piece of poo poo.
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Jan 13, 2020 13:34
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Is the Ghosn escape getting a lot of attention in the Japanese media? Are people angry or indifferent about a foreign CEO fleeing Japanese justice? Knowing very little about his case, my guess is that he was probably corrupt in some meaningful ways, but not necessarily more so than is the norm for senior executives in a Japanese company, and was essentially so fled out because he’s foreign. Am I really far off the mark here? I feel like his story would be something the forums would be talking more about if Trump hadn’t almost started a war.
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Jan 13, 2020 21:03
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He seemed to be hailed as kind of a heroic figure in Japan but now they seem to make fun of his escape on Twitter, from what I saw.
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Jan 13, 2020 22:10
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Heer98 posted:Is the Ghosn escape getting a lot of attention in the Japanese media? Are people angry or indifferent about a foreign CEO fleeing Japanese justice? Oh god yes. On the news every night. On the talk shows (both very staid news shows and also “let’s ask celebrities what they think of the news” ones). Heer98 posted:Knowing very little about his case, my guess is that he was probably corrupt in some meaningful ways, but not necessarily more so than is the norm for senior executives in a Japanese company, and was essentially so fled out because he’s foreign. Am I really far off the mark here? So you need to know three things before you dive deeper into the story:
Ghosn is the CEO who brought Nissan into the alliance with Renault, and ran it as CEO of both for almost twenty years. As recently as mid-late 2018 he had been discussing a merger of Renault and Nissan. In early 2019, Ghosn was arrested on incredibly flimsy charges of financial impropriety regarding his pay, and almost immediately removed as CEO of Nissan. Tl;dr IMO this was a palace coups because factions didn’t want Japan’s second-largest automaker to be owned by a foreign company, which in turn is partially owned by a foreign country. It’s also bringing out questions of Japan and if the justice system needs reform, but what’s dominating conversation is Ghosn himself.
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Jan 14, 2020 04:33
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harperdc posted:Tl;dr IMO this was a palace coups because factions didn’t want Japan’s second-largest automaker to be owned by a foreign company, which in turn is partially owned by a foreign country. There have also been claims that Ghosn was embezzling money and IIRC even according to the first article in the Shuukan Bunshun after Ghosn's arrest they were reporting that it was actually suspicions of embezzlement that caused Nissan to launch an internal investigation initially. The prosecutors may only have charged him with understating his pay first because it was the easiest way to keep him in detention while looking into more serious charges, and we don't know what evidence prosecutors had about any other charges they hadn't indicted him for yet. Also, I think he is also under investigation for similar things in France now, although of course that investigation may also be purely political.. The negative foreign perception of the Japanese justice system had getting some attention before, but the coverage has become much more negative now that Ghosn has fled to Lebanon, with people saying that he shouldn't have been released on bail in the first place, so there is probably zero chance of any sort of justice reform now.
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Jan 14, 2020 14:53
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harperdc posted:Ghosn is the CEO who brought Nissan into the alliance with Renault, and ran it as CEO of both for almost twenty years. As recently as mid-late 2018 he had been discussing a merger of Renault and Nissan. In early 2019, Ghosn was arrested on incredibly flimsy charges of financial impropriety regarding his pay, and almost immediately removed as CEO of Nissan. This is an interesting aspect of the story that I hadn’t heard elsewhere, thanks! Unfortunately this awesome escape story hasn’t been present in the press at all, with the never ending trump/primary stories dominating the news cycle.
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Jan 16, 2020 16:40
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No reason why it can't both be politically motivated and also him being a typical rich fucker that does money crimes.
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Jan 17, 2020 14:55
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Tuxedo Gin posted:No reason why it can't both be politically motivated and also him being a typical rich fucker that does money crimes. It’s definitely a mix of this — Ghosn was very well respected for leading Nissan out of the shits in the 1990s, but was also viewed in recent years as taking “too much” for a CEO in compensation, which reflects right into this case. There was also talk that he would only want to talk with the very top of politicians in France — presidents, not ministers. That just makes him an all-world ego case, but doesn’t necessarily make him incorrect. IMO the more interesting and valuable legal case now is Scott McIntyre’s. https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1217409660917112832
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Jan 17, 2020 15:09
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harperdc posted:
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Jan 17, 2020 15:37
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mystes posted:This isn't an international abduction case or anything, right? They were both living in Japan and his wife just left with the kids when they separated? International no, but stacked in one favor yes. The more interesting angle is how Japanese law does or does not comply with international treaties to which Japan is a party.
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Jan 18, 2020 01:52
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harperdc posted:International no, but stacked in one favor yes. quote:The more interesting angle is how Japanese law does or does not comply with international treaties to which Japan is a party. In theory someone could try to sue the government on the basis of treaties being self-executing under Article 98 of the constitution but that's a joke at this point. I suspect the Japanese government will eventually change the law to clarify how visitations work and enforce them, anyway. It would be better if they also added the idea of joint custody as an option but I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening any time soon.
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Jan 18, 2020 02:38
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I mean, a parent can absolutely kidnap their own children. You see it sometimes, especially when an abusive parent uses their visitation rights as an opening to just disappear with them. It's a terrible thing. I feel like this story is only really giving the guy's version of events. Maybe the wife just disappeared with the kids and is being really horrible through this divorce. Maybe she's protecting them and herself from a monster. Who knows. Given that he got fired for criticizing a national holiday and also is willing to make news of it, I would assume more towards the wife being kind of lovely. It does seem really bad that there is no recourse to make sure the kids are OK. Courts can mess up when deciding custody rights, but it seems pretty bad if one parent can just take the kids with impunity. It also seems bad that a guy arrested for non-forceful unauthorized entry would be put in a cell with a convicted murderer. And also the lights never shut off? Gotta love the criminal justice system.
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Jan 18, 2020 03:57
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mystes posted:What do you mean by "stacked in one favor"? Stacked in favor of the wife in the case of a divorce? Or something else? To my knowledge, one side can file papers and get a unilateral divorce in Japan. And in most cases the mother retains 100% custody of kids.
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Jan 18, 2020 05:03
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harperdc posted:To my knowledge, one side can file papers and get a unilateral divorce in Japan. And in most cases the mother retains 100% custody of kids. There's no such thing as shared custody in Japan, iirc, so whoever gets custody gets 100%.
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Jan 18, 2020 05:22
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harperdc posted:To my knowledge, one side can file papers and get a unilateral divorce in Japan. And in most cases the mother retains 100% custody of kids. I thought it was more that one spouse could easily take the others hanko and do it without them knowing, rather than truly unilaterally being able to do so.
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Jan 18, 2020 07:37
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As Mr. Fix It said, there is no such thing as joint custody in Japan. In almost all cases the mother will get custody. As of the 2011 version of the civil code, visitation theoretically can/should be worked out in divorce mediation but it seems like there isn't any enforcement if the parent with custody doesn't allow the other parent access. From the perspective of the Japanese legal system, it is totally normal for the mother to take the kids and leave in a separation and there is no obligation to provide the father access while the divorce in progress (and still virtually no obligation even if visitation is arranged in mediation). Since the guy in this story has no right to access to his kids, in the eyes of the Japanese legal system, he's just a creep who broke into the common area of his soon-to-be ex wife's apartment building when she didn't want him there. If the cops got called it's not at all surprising that he was charged with trespassing. Unfortunately, if his wife doesn't want to allow him visitations with his kids there's not really anything he can do, but saying that he should be able to go into his wife's apartment building when she doesn't want him there is absolutely not the solution.
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Jan 18, 2020 10:12
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I feel like a regime that rips apart children and their parents doesn't really have the legitimacy to act when one of the parents takes matters into their own hands to try to confirm whether their children are even still alive after a natural disaster. If he kidnapped those kids back to his country of origin I can't say I'd have a problem with it - just by virtue of the parent denying their own children the ability to see their other parent, they have demonstrated they are unfit to raise them. The Japanese government is free to deal with these matters justly if they feel they have an interest in people not behaving like this. Until then, gently caress 'em. I've got an acquaintance going through exactly this: his wife, who has a history of violence, just loving took off and instigated a divorce, and as far as the Japanese authorities are concerned he has no rights. He will probably not see his children again for many years, if ever. MSDOS KAPITAL fucked around with this message at 11:16 on Jan 18, 2020 |
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Jan 18, 2020 11:07
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MSDOS KAPITAL posted:I've got an acquaintance going through exactly this: his wife, who has a history of violence, just loving took off and instigated a divorce, and as far as the Japanese authorities are concerned he has no rights. He will probably not see his children again for many years, if ever. The main problems with this seem to be 1) having to go through the whole process and getting the court to arrange visitations, wait for the ex wife to refuse them, and then try to sue which will take a long time, 2) visitations are supposed to be based on the best interests of the child and the ex wife's lawyers will naturally try to argue that the child doesn't want to see his/her father and is upset by the visitations, and 3) even if this works, the frequency of visitations is usually extremely low anyway (like once per month). I do think fact that the fines are increasing may be a sign that there is some awareness of this issue and something will eventually happen, but it will probably still be at least 5-10 years before any changes happen (since the civil code doesn't get revised that often and there is already a revision that was enacted a while ago and is scheduled to go into effect in a couple months). Also, it appears that the spouse with custody will often state fear of abduction as a reason for not wanting to allow visitations, so if there are cases where spouses who aren't Japanese citizens actually use visitations to abduct the children this might lead to courts not wanting to grant visitations.
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Jan 18, 2020 17:31
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mystes posted:Also, it appears that the spouse with custody will often state fear of abduction as a reason for not wanting to allow visitations, so if there are cases where spouses who aren't Japanese citizens actually use visitations to abduct the children this might lead to courts not wanting to grant visitations.
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Jan 18, 2020 20:51
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Trying to abduct your children back also just seems like an extremely bad idea in all sorts of other ways, but what do I know.
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Jan 18, 2020 21:28
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mystes posted:Trying to abduct your children back also just seems like an extremely bad idea in all sorts of other ways, but what do I know. 
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Jan 18, 2020 22:47
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Yeah it's definitely a bad situation all around no matter what you do. If only Japan could put together some kind of coherent legal framework in the best interests of justice for the children and their parents. If only there were examples they could draw upon to do this  Like I said if you think there is a state and societal interest here in smoothing these things over I'm completely in agreement of course. If the position of the state is that first parent to kidnap wins, well then the state has effectively abdicated their responsibility here.
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Jan 19, 2020 00:41
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOJAxf9XpoQ
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Jan 27, 2020 18:55
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https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1222076615783522304
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Jan 28, 2020 09:46
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Yeah. Looks like there's secondary spread in multiple countries now.
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Jan 28, 2020 18:24
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https://twitter.com/Buckeye_Blue/status/1227939317567381507
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Feb 13, 2020 14:32
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I think this comic was originally made to show Japan government and civilians being supportive of China, but feel free to make more jokes.
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Feb 18, 2020 13:46
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Japan is about to be on the sick bed too. It seems like the government there is not doing a good job at containment, even compared to China. Maybe I'm wrong.
America Inc. fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Feb 18, 2020 |
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Feb 18, 2020 21:35
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As someone who pays into the pension system in Japan, I can't say I am overly worried about it.
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Feb 19, 2020 00:36
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