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The secretive world of traditional Japanese tattooing | CNNGo.com

The secretive world of traditional Japanese tattooing | CNNGo.com.

Just wanted to mention two things on this article.  THe first being it’s not only japan that is weary of tatoos, but china, taiwan and korea as well.  All of probably stems from China’s viewpoint of tattoos way way back when.

Also, another thing is japanese people love their hot spring baths and you can’t enter 90% of them if you have any tattoos what so ever.  I think the reasoning is that they don’t want you intimidating the other customers.

Online gaming law set to take effect in China – CNN.com

Online gaming law set to take effect in China – CNN.com.

sometimes people who know nothing of the gaming industry shouldn’t comment on it….

While it may not have been a law before, the things laid out in this article were already being enforced before this law came out.

Point in case, when Blizzard released WoW (world of warcraft) in china, they were required to implement the time restriction into their system to limit the amount of time people could play online.  This was seen on the american side as a FEATURE for parental controls.  Second, there is an undead race in WoW, which was not permitted, so the chinese version changed ALL the undead into normal people and completely changed the lore behind them to explain it.  This later became an issue with the 2nd expansion back which was based almost entirely around fighting the undead, and thus was never released in china.

Side point, WTF CHINA!  dieing in a rehabilitation center… You’re doing it wrong…

English teacher used hangman game at school where student hung himself

English teacher used “hangman”-like game at school where student hung himself – The Mainichi Daily News.

he use of the pictures (Hangman) could almost be considered a form of “power harassment,”

granted playing hangman as a teaching tool after a kid has just hung himself in the school is a little tactless. But then again, america doesn’t really have an issue with middle school suicides like japan does.

Also suing the school cause the school didn’t inform the parents that their son was a suicide risk is just beyond stupid…

Five students tie up and strip female classmate, send videos to other students

Five students tie up and strip female classmate, send videos to other students – The Mainichi Daily News.

If this was america, there would be criminal charges and possibly labeling all of the 5 bullies as sex offenders. But what is even crazier is the fact that the principal had the audacity to call the victim and the bullies to a meeting together. That’s just asking the girl to get picked on more, not to mention the american idea of allowing victims of sex crimes not to face their molester.

Uniqlo operator to make English its official company language from March 2012

Uniqlo operator to make English its official company language from March 2012 – The Mainichi Daily News.

what’s more interesting is that these companies feel that they need to be speaking english internally to be competitive. Also the standardization of wages for executives means that japanese exec will see a HUGE increase in their salaries. If you look at the following link.

Japanese CEO salaries

I can only hope that this international competitiveness with salaries will force everyone’s salaries to go up. As the difference in salary between working a big name company like Sony and working at a 250 person company is more than twice as much… And what’s worse, that is what the expectation is form the employees who are basically trapped in their jobs as it is extremely difficult to change jobs once you are 30.

And this just in today on CNN about toyoto firing all of its japanese presidents at foreign offices.

Toyoto fires overseas japanese execs

this comment i thought captured my feelings as well in another practice of shipping of managers until they retire.

“It’s unfortunate that it took a situation like this for Japanese companies to start realizing that placing older inept executives in charge of overseas affiliates is neither efficient or productive for business. I’ve seen this over and over and there is even a Japanese term referred to this practice.” -j.silzer

Report: Women could boost Japanese workforce if concessions are made – CNN.com

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via Report: Women could boost Japanese workforce if concessions are made – CNN.com.

I couldn’t agree more… But what i think they need to change is the idea of working overtime and that anybody can do any work if they work hard enough… Some people just aren’t cut to be programmers, so don’t make them.

DPJ to scrap pledge to pay 26,000 yen in monthly child allowances – The Mainichi Daily News

DPJ to scrap pledge to pay 26,000 yen in monthly child allowances – The Mainichi Daily News.

while i have no children of my own, i was really hoping that this would have at least survived the regime change cause japan really needs to be having more children.  This works out ot about $275/month.  Let’s just hope they don’t decide to can the making high school free too.

More Japanese women think wives should stay at home to focus on housework, childcare

By occupation, the number of married women who believe wives should stay home was the highest among full-time housewives, at 55.3 percent.

via More Japanese women think wives should stay at home to focus on housework, childcare – The Mainichi Daily News.

what’s interesting about that last comment is that, out of all the people who are ACTUALLY staying home time to raise their children’s only HALF of them think that it’s good for the family.

But to put things in perspective from my own observations, the idea of marriage out of love is rather scarce here, and there seems to be a higher percent than in the u.s. of people marrying just to be able to have a family and kids and not really care who they marry.

Man convicted of rape by all-female panel of citizen judges

Man convicted of rape sentenced to 6 years by all-female panel of citizen judges – The Mainichi Daily News.

Yeah that wasn’t a biased conviction…. at all…

For those of you who don’t know,japan JUST changed over to trial by jury system last year.  Before trials were held with 1-3 judges who’d hear all the evidence and make a decision.  I think the old japanese system is a copy of the British system judicial system

‘Obscene’ U.S. Manga Collector Jailed 6 Months | Threat Level | Wired.com

‘Obscene’ U.S. Manga Collector Jailed 6 Months | Threat Level | Wired.com.

So my stanc eon this is that i’m all for these manga being illegal, in japan and america.  Did he break teh law by importing the manga? Yes. Does he deserve to go to jail for 5 years when he ONLY had manga? No.  Should he be labeled a sex offender for the rest of his life? Fuck no.  Do i think real sexual offenders should get leniency? Fuck no.

In a related note, japan was trying ot outlaw sexually depictations of minors in CG, anime, and manga last year, but the industry got so upset, that the government dropped pursuing the legislation.

What are your opinions?  Do you think the punishment in this case justifies the crime?