|
ReindeerF posted:Hey! Since we're porting social issues in, let's talk racism in politics there. Renho is like half-Taiwanese and I remember there being a gigantic stir when she was heading those cost-cutting analysis panels because people were all like "how could a non-pure blooded Japanese understand Japan?" and other such bollocks because she was threatening to suggest cutting funding to all sorts of random peoples' pet projects. And then you've got who was it, Kan?, who stated that "we can't have those people [burakumin] in power" during a cabinet meeting. Tsurunen is just the token white dude that is so common in east Asia, just like that guy whose name escapes me who was the tourism minister or whatever for the ROK. Edit: I can't google up that Korean guy's name for the life of me, any help would be appreciated. Sheep fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Sep 6, 2012 |
#
¿
Sep 6, 2012 01:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 7, 2024 11:47 |
|
|
Well if those sankokujin would just leave Japan instead of trying to cause trouble in the event of natural disasters, we wouldn't have these problems, would we? *shakes fist, wins another election*
|
|
#
¿
Sep 6, 2012 02:53
|
|
|
ErIog posted:Maybe now with the LDP in power they'll make a lot of those make-work jobs into actual work jobs by turning them towards the recovery effort? There's still rubble to be cleared and processed, communities to rebuild, etc. Tons of people are still basically living in the same temporary housing they've been in for the last 2 years. The problem is that the employment generated is going to be the same as usual: temporary contract workers, probably listed as independent contractors (working for subcontractors hired by whoever is running cleanup) so they won't even have help paying health insurance or anything. There have been reports from people contracted to do cleanup work that everything about the job was totally subpar, including not even being told they'd be handling radioactive material until after the fact. A few months after 3/11 someone in the Japan thread actually found a job ad for doing cleanup in Fukushima for something paltry like 1000 yen an hour. It had all the hallmarks of a terrible dispatch labor job, as one would expect. The guy that stands at the intersection down the road from my house and presses the crosswalk button so cars can leave the HI Hirose parking lot - the very definition of a totally pointless job - makes more than that (1100 yen/hour from 5 to 9pm!).
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2013 14:43
|
|
|
Pretty much. Sadly I had no luck finding the job ad in question, but it's mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Fukushima cleanup anyways. And there are plenty of Google hits for the terrible working conditions there. Edit: And considering that something like half the workforce are now on temporary contracts, if there ever was going to be a popular movement against this sort of thing, you'd figure it would have happened by now. Sheep fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jan 11, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2013 15:32
|
|
|
It's just bullshit sabre rattling, but China is still sending planes and boats into Japanese airspace and waters like every other day. Edit: New Japan Times article this morning that kind of sums it up. Sheep fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jan 15, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2013 22:57
|
|
|
Kenishi posted:Wow this is kind of big. Last I heard the government is still going to give Japanese an out by allowing "verbal arguments" to count as domestic violence. So while they may or may not sign the actual treaty, it does precisely zero good unless the domestic laws are changed such that it isn't just smoke and mirrors to fend off foreign pressure. It all really comes down to their bullshit argument of "foreign spouses abusing Japanese women and children" that basically calls-out-without-actually-doing-so the court systems in other countries by suggesting that foreign courts would return children to abusive parents. I'd be far more worried about that occurring in Japan for a host of reasons, from the lack of a real CPS-like organization to the numerous problems with Japanese family law and family courts. Also new article about subcontractors at Fukushima since we were talking about that a bit earlier. This is precisely the kind of work you dont want to be creating for people. Sheep fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Jan 21, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2013 02:45
|
|
|
The "restrictions on free speech" is by far the least alarming entry in that list.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2013 04:57
|
|
|
Samurai Sanders posted:Well, that's not a typical case, I'm talking about the normal Japanese process of obtaining confession without lawyer present and without much thought to evidence, going straight to prison where talking is forbidden and unpaid work is compelled, and if the crime is bad enough getting surprise executed. Prison is a whole different bag of crazy. It's so incredibly regimented that it's pretty well close to psychological torture. You get what, three cups of water with which to watch yourself? Speaking when "not allowed to", among other things, is punished by chobatsu, for example. Not allowed to stand except when they tell you to, etc. It's hard to even know where to begin. quote:edit: has the lay judge system done anything yet to improve the transparency of the police actions before trial, or not? Nope. Lay judges are only used in things like murder and what not that are already all but decided before they even begin, and additionally, a guilty verdict can only be given if the professional judge attending also votes guilty. They certainly aren't going to go questioning police interrogation methods or anything, I'll tell you that much. The fundamental problems of the justice system here, such as the prosecution still getting to determine what evidence is used in trial (see: Govinda Prasad Mainali case for a good example), still remain. Samurai Sanders posted:only me being told to gtfo until my country's crime rate is lower than theirs. Has anyone here had any better success? Nope. Comparing Japan to America is the standard get out of jail free card, nevermind how broken America's _____ may be or how hard the Japanese authorities may cook the books on crime/traffic deaths/average working hours/whatever you want to discuss. You'll notice they never compare Japanese prisons to those in Norway or anything, where there's markedly less institutional problems along the lines of the American system, while also treating the inmates much better. Sheep fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Feb 24, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 24, 2013 22:59
|
|
|
pentyne posted:Their laws regarding sexual assault, rights of woman, and sexual trafficking would astound anyone who thinks of Japan as a first world enlightened country. In some of those aspects, Japan was on the same list as a couple for third world hellholes for its laws or lack thereof on sexual slavery. Funnily enough, I just got done listening to the morning announcements here, and yet again another student was molested on the way home from school. I reckon during an average year, out of 900 female students we have about 50 cases of molestation reported to the school, and almost never are the police contacted. So during their 3 years here, around 15% of students (assuming there aren't any repeat cases) will report being molested. Then you've got the stigma associated with being a victim of crime, causing trouble by contacting the police, etc. and you can imagine how low reported crimes vs the actual crime rate is. Couple with that the fact that paying blood money is common practice and perfectly acceptable legally, and even reported crimes don't have to go on record because the police can just do settlement mediation and sort it all out. Japan is great in terms of violent crime if you're a guy (and not foreign), but the amount of sexual assaults here are unbelievable. I can't even begin to fathom what the actual crime rate is, but for certain categories it's certainly several multiples higher than the reported rate. Murder, any sort of sexual crime, and fraud are going to be pretty high up there. Also Japan routinely deports victims of human trafficking and sexual slavery instead of investigating their cases, so that's another way they fudge the numbers. Edit: I'm like 90% sure the NPA doesn't include jidan'd cases in reported/cleared statistics, but I'm not about to go digging through white papers at 9am on a Monday. Sheep fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Feb 25, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2013 00:50
|
|
|
As far as I know there are no Japanese people on the forums, much less in these kind of threads. For the most part the only people who would be able to follow this level of dialogue anyways would be those raised abroad, which kind of doesn't qualify. Do you have any links to some essays handy? I'd be interested in reading them even if you don't feel like translating. ozza posted:Also on the topic of sexual assaults and the Japanese justice system, if you haven't checked out a film called 'I Just Didn't Do It' ('それでもボクはやってない'), get on it. It's about a man (falsely) accused of groping a school girl on a train, and the nightmare that ensues once he is arrested. Although fictional, it's a real eye-opener. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%9D%E3%82%8C%E3%81%A7%E3%82%82%E3%83%9C%E3%82%AF%E3%81%AF%E3%82%84%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84 This is kind of what the public were being led to believe happened to that JR Kobe exec who hung himself in an Osaka public park bathroom in December after being caught molesting a chick on the train. Except he had been habitually molesting the same girl for two years straight. Link, link and link. Also one of the the scariest things here is the number of police officers and attorneys being caught doing illegal stuff. There have been so many reports in the news of police officers caught molesting girls, video taping up girls' skirts, etc. over the past year that I've quite literally lost count of them. Then you've got the public prosecutors forging evidence and being taught that foreigners don't have human rights (technically not wholly untrue) and the rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper. Sheep fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Feb 25, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2013 01:58
|
|
|
pentyne posted:I always hear horror stories about the treatment of foreigners by the legal system in Japan. The mentality towards outsiders in Japan is one of the worst in the world short of rounding them up and deporting them. Like you could move there as a young adult, live there for 30 years, and still always be regarded as a foreigner and get attacked during the ultra right wing nationalist rallies. Read interviews with the (few) white people left on Ogasawara island. Japanese citizens for the most part, but still regarded as gaijin by the Japanese. Relevant NY Times article here. quote:“They call me foreigner,” said Sutanrii Minami, 64, a tour guide who also goes by Stanley Gilley and who looks Polynesian. “I’m not a foreigner. I was born on this island.” Sheep fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Feb 25, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2013 03:24
|
|
|
Here's a really good article about some of the silliness of the legal system here.Weatherman posted:Don't leave us hanging, dude ... The government has stated repeatedly that the convention, when (and if) signed and laws are put in to place, will not be applicable retroactively; everyone who has already lost their children to abductors in Japan is SOL. And again, don't forget, "verbal arguments" are going to be classified as domestic violence so it won't matter anyways, provided you've ever argued with your spouse. Also there is at least one member of the LDP who is (or was, prior to the last election? I don't follow that poo poo) a child abductor - she absconded with her children from America citing the tried and true "domestic abuse" line while making zero attempt of going through the American court system, opting instead to kidnap her children from their country of habitual residence and take them to Japan. I can't recall her name off the top of my head but it's out there if anyone cares to look, I'm pretty sure there was a JT article on it back when the Hague convention was actually still in the domestic news. Sheep fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Feb 26, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2013 00:22
|
|
|
quote:Japan doesn't really have a "rule of law" system. Should really be in the OP.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2013 09:51
|
|
|
His youngest son even tried to turn up at a political rally in Tokyo and was turned away, so for what it's worth, Koizumi himself has basically washed his hands of the thought of even meeting the kid anymore. I know a JET couple here who is trying to adopt a Japanese kid. They were finally approved, but it boils down to the fact that basically they get to pick from the kids Japanese couples don't want to adopt. I feel disgusting even typing that out, but that's how it rolls here. Sheep fucked around with this message at 10:07 on Feb 26, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2013 10:05
|
|
|
Mercury_Storm posted:I don't think i understand this funny. So if the kids were to stay at their father's house, how would their grandmother just kidnap them? Since the mother has full custody couldn't she just get the authorities involved to get them back if it came down to that? Does the father and grandmother live overseas or something? The authorities won't get involved, that's the thing. Whoever physically has the children has de facto custody regardless of what the courts say. That's why if a Japanese mother let her kids go stay with their Japanese father in Japan, and the two were divorced, the dad could go "gently caress you, kids are mine now" and completely cut the mother off and there's absolutely nothing she can do about it. Case A: everyone involved is in Japan. Mother has legal custody and lets kids go see father for a weekend. Father says "gently caress you, kids are mine now." Mother doesn't get to see her children again until they become adults. Case B: everyone lives in 'the gaikoku', children born and raised there for ten years. Mother disappears with children one day, boards plane to Japan, goes to family court and gets legal custody in Japan citing "domestic abuse". Father is unlikely to have any contact with his children at all until they become adults. Case C: parents divorced, everyone living in 'the gaikoku', children born and raised there, father has legal custody in 'the gaikoku'. Mother disappears with children one day, boards plane to Japan, goes to family court and gets legal custody in Japan citing "domestic abuse". Father is unlikely to have any contact with his children at all until they become adults (unless the mother is retarded like that one chick that went to Hawaii to renew her PR and got arrested at immigrations for kidnapping, which is also the only case thus far in history of children being returned from Japan to America, and only because the judge offered to let her go free if the children were returned). Edit: Relevant story of that Emiko Inoue chick. And interesting point on Japanese legal theory: quote:An American father got custody from Japanese courts over the claims of a Japanese mother? That’s never happened before that I’ve heard of, so I asked Sakar about how that came about. Yep, visitation is at the whims of whoever has custody. As in, not going to happen. Sheep fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Feb 26, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2013 10:24
|
|
|
Mercury_Storm posted:Of course only now do I realize that I typed "funny" instead of "fully". As in "I don't understand this fully." Oh those child abductions, ha ha! My students generally don't get home from cram school until 8-10pm, by which time at least one parent is definitely home. They also show up to school on Saturday for tests/club stuff and then go to cram school again, but normally not as late. I did a survey and about 80% get only 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night on weekdays. 6 hours was rare, and nobody got more than 7. The amount of contact time that Japanese parents have with their children is miniscule once they enter school. If not for Sundays it would be under ten hours a week easily for the vast majority of my students.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2013 22:53
|
|
|
I went to that huge Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals plant in Osaka like five or six years ago as part of a pathology lecture. They have women with veterinary medicine licensure and PhDs serving the guests tea and stuff while all the male staff members take off to the smoke room to sit around and chimney up the place. It's mind blowing how poorly women are treated here. All of the western doctors with us were like "wait, really?" and just couldn't comprehend the situation. They've also got their own little fake traditional Japanese restaurant on the company grounds they use to entertain guests. Decent food but something was incredibly off about the entire experience. Kenishi posted:Saw this in news today. Laughed when I remembered your post. I think we're up to four or five Japanese teachers from my BOE being punished for engaging in child prostitution and child pornography this academic year. Sheep fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Feb 27, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2013 06:02
|
|
|
Reverend Cheddar posted:I couldn't tell you how big of an issue this is demographics-wise, but Japan is one of the most progressive countries on the planet in regards to abortion. Oral contraceptives were basically the result of a smear campaign back when they were first introduced (the condom industry is very powerful in Japan That article is kind of misleading. Yes, abortion is legal in Japan - in cases of rape, incest, where it would cause damage to the mother's health, or for "socioeconomic circumstances" ie the big loophole that everyone uses. I would not go so far as to call Japan's implementation of abortion law progressive, nor would I call it, strictly speaking, "legal" without qualifying the statement. Relevant Wikipedia article which explains it much better. I also swear to god that condom use statistics for Japan are almost wholly a fabrication. You will absolutely never, ever convince me that more than like 10% of the sexually active population actually uses them. LyonsLions posted:I don't know anybody who pays a non-related babysitter to watch their kids though. I only know one couple that does this, and they're both incredibly progressive, the wife being Canadian. The day where I could see a Japanese couple doing this is still pretty far off, I think. Sheep fucked around with this message at 11:43 on Feb 27, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2013 11:38
|
|
) and even today, there's a weird stigma about the pill -- so abortion kind of ended up being a major method of contraception and still is today. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a ton of these women just axed her pregnancy if they happened to get knocked up.
|
Pretty much, yes. Edit: I have been informed that it occurs during PE class, second year, at least in the Saga boondocks. It is not required for graduation though. Sheep fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Feb 27, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2013 15:11
|
|
|
New article on childcare up on JT this morning.quote:Mothers should remember that the responsibility of raising children lies first with each household before making “shameless” demands for more nursery schools
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2013 22:48
|
|
|
The top five for my students was housewife, hostess, nurse, teacher, flight attendant, in that order. Such ambition for one of the top schools in the prefecture.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2013 14:29
|
|
|
Kenishi posted:This makes me want to throttle someone. I'm sure the guys aren't any better. This country really really needs to start pushing "make your own business" as a thing. I imagine most guys don't have aspirations to go out and make something innovative or to make a start-up that does something. This is one of many things killing Japan. Unthinkable. Bucking the status quo would push out the keiretsu and the old boys' club isn't having any of that. Just look at what happened to Takafumi Horie. Couple that with the innate fear of change that seems to exist here and you've got perpetual stagnation unless foreign pressure is applied, which is pretty well defines Japan. Everything about the place screams 'by rich old men for rich old men' sometimes and I really don't see that changing any time soon. I figure they'll take the place down with them if they have to. pentyne posted:I thought hostess was more or less prostitution. Is there some glamour to flirting and making salarymen buy you drinks and presents before having to retire at 30? It can be, but it's (theoretically) just flirting with men twice your age and pouring their drinks and lighting their smokes and letting them hit on you and acting like it's working. Basically professional ego massage, so it's actually one of the higher earning jobs for women who don't have PhDs, especially right out of college. 30man a month letting dudes hit on you for six hours a night, no training or education needed, versus 18 man a month doing 12 hour days 6 days a week at some company that requires a university degree? Of course hostessing looks attractive. It's even got upward mobility, if you're good at it you can become the mamasan of some snack bar and make a bit more money once you've hit 30 and can't compete with the younger girls, plus with the societal insistence that women get married before 25/26 why bother going to uni at all if you can make decent money for a few years then get some guy to marry you? It makes sense when you think about it from a Japanese woman's point of view. Samurai Sanders posted:Not that kind of hostess silly. Also for another talking point, let's throw this out there: quote:Half the nation's talent is squandered. Only 8% of managers are female, compared with around 40% in America and about 20% in China. There are more women on corporate boards in Kuwait than Tokyo. Women are paid 60-70% as much as their male counterparts. A manager at one of Japan's biggest conglomerates says that 70% of qualified job applicants are women, but fewer than 10% of new hires are, since the work may entail visits to factories or mines, where they might perspire in an unladylike way. Kirin, a brewer, seeks to double the number of its female managers by 2015—to a mere 6% of the total. Sheep fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Feb 28, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2013 22:20
|
|
|
It really is crazy to think that the GDP peaked almost 20 years ago. Think of all that's changed in that time period - arguably one of the strongest periods of technological advancement in human history.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2013 00:31
|
|
|
There is a very, very definite "gently caress you, got mine" mentality up top here, both in business and in politics. Parliamentary seats, for one, are practically hereditary now, and the amount of money those guys make is insane - go look around Aso's hometown and see all the Aso ____ hospitals and what have you, it's unreal. I really like the concept of a parliamentary democracy but Japan is a pretty good example of how not to do it, I think. The economic stagnation I think is a dual problem - the LDP is so entrenched, corrupt, and subject to lobbyists that there's no way they'll shake the status quo if it would affect their pockets or those of their backers, and I really don't think they genuinely have much concern about how the future generations are going to pay for their mistakes. On the other hand, the DPJ and the other scattered parties aren't much better but at least they aren't so blatant about it all. Fundamentally though, nobody wants to ruffle the feathers of the voter base - old people - which is exactly what needs to be done if things are actually going to improve. Had Japan peaked and collapsed in the early 70s instead of early 90s I absolutely think America would have stepped in, because our interests in Asia were much closer then - the Vietnam war, Korea was still fresh, Taiwan issues heating up, containing Communism, etc - than now, especially since if nothing else we can rely on Japan, South Korea, and the SE Asian nations to, at the very least, rattle sabres at China and make an attempt at standing up to them, which is realistically our only real concern in East Asia at the moment. I don't see the DPRK collapsing any time soon and even if it did that's pretty much the ROK's problem anyways, not ours. Also we controlled Okinawa until like '76 so that would play into it as wall. America still has a vested interest in Japan and all that but it's not like our sole bastion of hope/power/whatever like it was back then. Lots of other Asian nations are coming into their own which means that Japan, though still important, isn't nearly as important as it was back then. I dunno, doing much other than pointing out poo poo I think is totally broken about Japan I'm not much qualified to really speak about it other than to offer my opinion. I've got Kissinger's tome on Diplomacy but haven't had a chance to read through it yet. This being D&D, though, I'm sure someone else has read it and will be able to offer a better answer. Sheep fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Mar 1, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2013 03:02
|
|
|
Kenishi posted:(I hadn't heard the construction bonds thing. Are they seriously thinking they can do what they did in the 70-80s again? Build Baby BUILD!) Read Philip Brasor's blog on housing in Japan, it's really informative. One thing you can take away from it is that the government is perpetually banking on housing (and construction) to save the economy, and with less people, that's just not going to be feasible for much longer. He posted a source citing that something like 20% of residences in the entire country were unoccupied. And yet they're still building shittons of condos. That's why it's actually in the government's interest for house prices to go into freefall the second they're bought, and to be pretty much worthless after 10-30 years, which is pretty contrary to the western way of thinking where a house is an investment. Also bonus points for construction companies having deep ties to yakuza, so you get the usual politicians and literal criminals in bed together. Kenishi posted:My take on this is that they are trying to raise inflation but haven't been interested in raising salaries. The best part of the strong yen being at like 75 yen to the dollar was that consumer prices didn't budge an inch, despite the fact that so much stuff is imported, and importers were able to buy so much more product with their yen. People were making money (notably expats sending shittons of money home) but the average Japanese person sure as hell wasn't seeing much of a benefit. The only people it should have been (and was) bad for were exporters, but it wound up sucking for pretty much everyone. Sheep fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Mar 1, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2013 07:02
|
|
|
I just don't get the obsession with comparing Japan to America. The countries literally could not be more different - to start with, America has three times the population, so those participant disparities (though still incredibly huge) aren't quite as large as they look to be. Ask any European in Japan how often they're asked about America if you want to hear a well-founded rant. Anyways big ups on your school for even dispensing literature like that. I've never seen anything about organ donation here and I'm approaching year 7 quickly.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2013 08:56
|
|
|
New immigration-related article. The statistics actually look nice until you examine the inverse and then it all goes to hell. 12.9% of respondents reject even part-Japanese, and 40.3% of respondents not up for helping immigrants assimilate. Sheep fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Mar 2, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2013 11:00
|
|
|
New article on women in Japan up today. Also check out the grill on the one on the right! Yikes. I'll never get the whole yaiba thing. And bonus Ishihara hospitalized with a cold.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2013 01:25
|
|
|
Kenishi posted:I spoke too soon. Although this isn't actual proof of anything until it actually happens. The keidanren straight up said a 1% wage hike was out of the question. "We don't raise wages until we make more money" but people won't spend more money unless they have more and thus it's a vicious, retarded cycle. Ardennes posted:Granted, Sony has been the market leader in self-sabotage in the past. Everything from Betamax, Minidics to their consumer electronics have either been proprietary to a pretty horrific extent or just loaded down with some much DRM it is unusable. Honestly the sooner Sony just crumbles, the better, in my opinion. The PS3 (and by extension, Vita) are complete loving jokes when you look at anything other than pretty game graphics, and they should have fixed the major glaring faults in the PS3 with the first big firmware and hardware revisions - the fact that a bunch of these same faults are present in the Vita's OS just shows how far into the sand they've stuck their heads. Edit: you've also got to admit that Minidisc did really well in Japan, which is the most important market in the world for Japanese people. z0glin Warchief posted:I can't find the article at the moment, but there was a pretty good one about this issue (thought it spent a lot of time relating it to 過労死, deaths by overwork). Japan actually has pretty moderate (better than the US, at any rate) labor laws, for things like paid vacation, overtime, etc., but they aren't respected at all; the article gave a pretty good look at some of the cultural factors of why people don't or can't take vacation days. Peer pressure was one, the (not-)Protestant work ethic was another. If I can find it I might translate it if anyone is interested. On paper, Japan looks pretty good. Great labor laws, vacation, whistle blower protection, a really well-structured health care system, etc. The problem is, as I've said before, the rule of law just isn't that strong here and the laws aren't respected. The crazy thing is the government is part of the problem, and society is just complicit. Take, for example, the work week - for your average standard employee it's set at 40 hours (inclusive of break time, ~5 hours) unless you pay overtime and has a bunch of other provisions there to protect workers, and it's all spelled out extremely clearly, but the Japanese go on and on about how they all work so hard (ie long), but they generally don't get paid for it. The only reason their numbers aren't through the roof like South Korea, who in a BBC article comparing working hours reported an average of 45 a week (versus Japan's 33ish), is because so many people in Japan are on temporary contracts and/or can only get part time work. Here's a couple of articles that contain basically the same information; sadly I can't find the exact article I'm thinking of. article 1 and article 2. Anyways, you'd figure for all those hours worked, you'd get a lot of productivity, but Japanese workers are actually incredibly underproductive per hour worked compared to the other OECD nations. American, French and German workers in particular put them to shame. Sheep fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Mar 3, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2013 13:39
|
|
|
Kenishi posted:O There's a guy down the road that makes 1000 yen/hour to direct traffic at a traffic light. There's a traffic light there. Why would you pay a man to impede traffic? Because Japan. I guess it's better than having poor/homeless people everywhere but yeah from a western perspective it just looks hugely wasteful a lot of the time. A lady at the post office whose job it is to read the labels on the number printing machine and ask me which I'd like, then press the button for me? Guy directing traffic at a traffic light? 3 dudes organizing parking in a parking lot of moderate size? The list just goes on and on.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2013 14:42
|
|
|
The BBC seems to think consumer prices (excluding food, obviously) have fallen for the third straight month in a row. Could have fooled me.quote:Japan's new government has said that stoking consumer price growth is key to reviving Japan's sluggish economy. I like how nobody addresses the problem of what happens after the tax hikes or prices rise, and people have already made all their big purchases. It all seems so incredibly shortsighted that it must be a huge joke I wasn't let in on. Sheep fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Mar 3, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2013 23:22
|
|
|
Japanese society really is obsessed with the latest, shiniest, newest things and fads, but I think in this case they may be overshooting a bit. vv I see bargain stuff sell out all the time, though not on stuff like electronics where there are often very marked differences in products. Sheep fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Mar 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 02:24
|
|
|
Samurai Sanders posted:Maybe I am just thinking about electronics, since those were the the only things I wanted when I was over there that were expensive enough that I got thinking about the price gap with the US. I mean, they'd start at a similar price, but in the US the price would drop much faster. My favorite example of Japanese consumer prices is my Canon camera. It's built down the road from where I live in Japan now, but it was ~540 USD at K's Denki versus $300 at Best Buy in America on the east coast when I went two weeks later. Things in Japan are just retarded expensive because the consumers will pay that much, as far as I can tell. Just look at CD prices. Edit: Japanese consumers are basically paying European prices on stuff, except they're not in Europe and the consumption tax is only 5%, not 15-20%. The retailers are just making a complete killing as far as I can tell, which is why it's so confusing for the keidanren to be bitching about raising wages a meager 1%. Sheep fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Mar 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 03:31
|
|
|
ErIog posted:Japan has a 5% consumption tax that is required by law to be factored into all displayed prices. I do understand your point, though. I was referring to UK VAT-level prices - ie a 20% consumption tax. Should have been clearer, sorry. I edited my post. Ardennes posted:So as far as Japanese domestic spending goes, in a social sense is there social prestige in paying more for a Japanese especially if it is a "premium" item like Sony? It seems like social currency would be the only way to justify paying much more for an item that faces so much international competition. I think they would equate cheaper prices with being less successful - only poor countries are cheap, right? - and thus expensive equals better. Sheep fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Mar 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 05:07
|
|
|
Koramei posted:Is knowledge of the specialty products of every prefecture actually incredibly common knowledge in Japan? I've lived in the US for years now and I couldn't say poo poo about what 9/10ths the country produces. Depends, if you're talking about "Osaka is famous for takoyaki", "Ehime is famous for mikan" or "Hiroshima is famous for oysters" then yes. If you're talking "inaka-machi with a population of 700 in Tottori is famous for eggplant" or something then no. It's a lot worse in Kyushu since the governor of Oita started a trend with the 一村一品 movement in the 70s and now its like a dick measuring contest. Edit: can't forget Ehime mikan. Sheep fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Mar 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 05:14
|
|
|
I've had my coworkers be blown away by the fact that I do such mundane things as pay taxes and am enrolled in kenko hoken. Our employer takes care of all this poo poo for us, so it's not even like I could opt out if I wanted to (or knew how). I work and thus I pay taxes, how is that in any way surprising? I can't tell if people here really are that daft or if it's all one gigantic joke starting with chopstick usage and just working its way from there. I know that they don't really learn critical thinking skills in school here but goddamn, sometimes it just leaves me at a loss for words.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 09:46
|
|
|
CronoGamer posted:I don't know what you're talking about Weatherman. Obviously the rest of your statement checked out 100% so pentyne just wanted to make sure about that tax thing. He was being sarcastic. Lots of Japanese people seem to believe that foreigners don't pay taxes even if they're working here, rather that they are literally just parasites here to take jobs and women and create crime and then leave halfu kids and AIDS when they inevitably go back to their home countries.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 10:43
|
|
|
アメリカンジョーク。
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 11:01
|
|
|
The tax exemption thing is actually not only reciprocal - it applies to Japanese citizens working in America as well - but also only applies to teachers and professors working at accredited institutions. This also ignores the fact that there are ~190 other countries in the world whose citizens are not covered by this treaty and thus not exempt from taxes in Japan. But every foreigner who isn't Asian is American anyways, so let's read on!quote:ARTICLE 19 Students and trainees are also exempt, again, reciprocally, for a period of five years (article 20). The only way you could hate on the exemption is if you dislike reciprocal tax agreements for some obscure reason. Treaty text here. Sheep fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Mar 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 11:34
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 7, 2024 11:47 |
|
|
ookiimarukochan posted:Other countries don't make you pay tax if you're a citizen of that country but non-resident, so they don't NEED a reciprocal treaty. You kind of missed the point. Japanese students, trainees, and educators are exempt from federal income taxes for two (or five) years while in America (and vice versa). The rest of the treaty does cover double taxation (among various other issues) but that's not even something we are discussing. We're discussing "foreigners in Japan don't pay tax!!!" which is almost a complete non-issue given how few foreigners here actually qualify for the exemption, which again, also applies to Japanese in America, which kind of negates any right to get pissed at foreigners about it unless they simply have issues with the fundamental idea of tax treaties altogether. I think you got tripped up where I mentioned the other countries of the world. Japanese people tend to think "foreigners = American" or "foreigners = English speakers" and I was taking a jab at that (frankly ridiculous) world view. Sorry for the confusion. Sheep fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Mar 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2013 14:11
|
|