A Snapshot of Japan’s Faltering Economy

Japan corporate performances are worsening, especially in the manufacturing sector

Instead of going bankrupt manufacturing automobiles, Japan’s auto industry ought to start doing something smart like building wind turbines

• The ratio of job offers to job seekers fell to 0.8 in October 2008, lowest since May 2004, labor ministry said.

• More than 330 job offers have been canceled [students graduating next March 2009, including 302 university and junior college students and 29 high school students.] The cancellation of a job offer is legally regarded as an annulment of a labor contract. The average number of annulments in the past 4 years was about 21 cancellations per year.
• The job offers were canceled by 87 companies [including real estate, 84 jobs; service sector, 66; manufacturing, 59.]

• Reasons for cancellations included 116 job offers nullified due to bankruptcies, and 212 offers were canceled because of the employers worsening financial situation.

• About  30,000 temporary workers will have their jobs during the six months ending March 2009 [including 90 percent in the manufacturing sector.]

• Aichi prefecture, where many of the auto manufacturers are based, topped the list of the job losses with 4,104 workers. Source

Aso: Big Mouth, Small Brain?

Q. Why is there a shortage of gynecologists in Japan?

A. Too many commit suicide, and many more are quitting to avoid performing abortions!

Never mind Aso’s jibe about “hiring doctors [being] difficult.” And the “lack common sense” being prevalent among doctors.

Some of the doctors who quit because they no longer wish to perform abortions say

1. They have recurring nightmares about their victims.

2. Feel suicidal because of how the fetus behaves during abortion. [Apparently the fetus tries to protect herself by moving away from danger!]

Abortion is endemic in Japan, especially among teenage girls. This slave culture has quick-fix traditions. Self respect and sex education aren’t among the mores.

More about the stats on unwanted pregnancy and cases of sexually transmitted diseases later.

Note: Abortion is legal in Japan provided that it is done within twenty-two weeks of conception.

Japan School Violence Hits Record High

Some 52,756 cases of school violence were recorded in 2007 school year - the highest number ever!

Here’s a summary of the breakdown of acts of violence committed by school students in 2007 [school year ended in March 2008] according to a recent education ministry survey:

• Elementary school pupils: 5,214 acts of violence [up 37 percent from the previous year]

• Junior high school students: 36,803 violent acts [up 20 percent]

• Senior high school students: 10,739 violent acts, up 5 percent

Breakdown of violence based on the type of crime:

1. A record 28,396 acts of violence were committed against fellow students [up 22 percent from 2006.]

2.  Some 15,718 cases of damaged or destroyed property were reported [up 18 percent.]

3. Cases of violence against teachers/school staff rose to 6,959 [up 9 percent.]

4. Acts of violence against students of other schools, members of the public rose to 1,683 cases [up 1 percent.] Source

In an agressive, take-what-you-can culture of ’slave’ bullying ’slave,’ the above stats, as mind-boggling as they seem, are just tip of the iceberg. Judging by the conduct of students at our local junior high school, the true numbers of acts of violence are much higher!

Related Links:

• Money for nothin’ and chicks for free!
• The Disneyfication of Japan Continues
• A Culture of Bullying, Sex, Suicide, Murder

• South Korea Improves, Japan Stagnates
• Oh, How Sick!
• Another Board of Education Official SCUMBAG

• Celebrating Penis!
• The Deliberate Dumbing Down of Japan!
• A Culture of Bullying

• More Scum Rises to the Surface
• Prefectural Boards of Education – Part 3
• Japan’s Boards of Education – Part 2

• Fruits of a Repressed Culture
• Ongoing Criminal Behavior

• Mr. Ando’s Thugs, the ‘10-Rule-90′ Principle and Slave Mentality
• Send your thugs to Okinawa for retaliatory action, Mr Ando!
• Xenophobic juvenile delinquents

• Japanese Teenagers and Cell phone
• Violating the Speed Limit (visiting the 10-rule-90 principle, again!)
• People Mean Nothing to Japanese Govt

• Vertical Society

Eight arrested for false labeling of grilled Chinese eel

Beware of the eel of Tokushima!

Eight people have been arrested in Kobe for false labeling of grilled eel produced in China, but sold in Japan as domestically cultivated.

The gang included the president of Osaka-based seafood importer Uohide, the section chief of Kobe-based seafood wholesaler Shinko Gyorui Ltd., and the head of Uohide’s Fukuoka sales office.

It is thought that the gang of eight “violated the Unfair Competition Prevention Law banning false labeling by falsifying the origins of about 256 tons of grilled eel imported by Uohide and its parent company Tokushima Uoichiba.” Ashai Shimbun reported.

Japanese eel population in steep decline

Populations of the Japanese eel, along with anguillid eel populations worldwide, have declined drastically in recent years. This is presumably due to changing water conditions, interfering with spawning and the transport of their young larvae, also called leptocephili. In the case of the Japanese eel, spawning is likely affected by the gradual northward shift of a salinity front created by the meeting of high and low salinity waters. The front is detected by the adult spawning eels and recognised as the spawning grounds. The northward shift has been documented over the past 30 years and has had an adverse impact on larval transport. This is because larvae that hatch too far north arrive at their nursing grounds in freshwater habitats at times when upstream migration is not favourable. (Wikipedia)

Air Self-Defense Force: We Forgot!

Oh, Really? How convenient!

The Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) forgot [sic] to report it had dismissed in September a major general who had sexually harassed a subordinate.

The Defense Ministry removed Major General Kesayoshi Miyashita, 55, from his post as the ASDF’s First Technical School in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on September 18, 2008.

Contrary to their established procedure, ASDF failed to disclose Miyashita’s dismissal because they said  the sexual harassment case was still being investigated.

SDF Member Fined for Photos of Women’s Behind

Another reason why SDF members have 2-digit IQs

I must admit my jaws dropped when I read this article. The first question that came to mind was when so many politicians, employees of the prefectural boards of education and metropolitan police forces throughout Japan get away with raping and molesting underage school girls, what exactly are “widely accepted sexual and moral values” that the judges refer to? Do the judges live on another planet, or do they think the rest of us parachuted in yesterday?

If people are allowed to watch somebody’s backside without the fear of being arrested

If convenient stores, which are public places, can freely display and sell pornographic materials

If the streets, shops, restaurants AND schools, all of which are public places, allow female students to dress provocatively …

Anyway, here’s the story:

SDF Member loses obscenity appeal

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN – 2008/11/14

The Supreme Court has ruled that surreptitiously taking photos of a woman’s behind in a public place constitutes an obscene act, rejecting an appeal from a Self-Defense Forces member found guilty of snapping nearly a dozen such images in five minutes.

The 31-year-old man was indicted for violating a Hokkaido ordinance prohibiting acts in public places that could cause humiliation or concern.

He took 11 photos with his cellphone of the trousers-clad backside of a woman, then aged 27, at a shopping mall in Asahikawa on July 21, 2006.

The man filed an appeal after the Sapporo High Court fined him 300,000 yen in September 2007.

Four of the five Supreme Court justices wrote that the man’s actions clearly constituted an indecent and obscene act that goes against widely accepted sexual and moral values. (IHT/Asahi: November 14,2008).

Related Links:

• Tonguing the Explosives!
• Another Board of Education Official SCUMBAG

• A country Obsessed with Underage Sex
• More Scum Rises to the Surface
• Japan’s Boards of Education – Part 2
• Money for nothin and chicks for free!

Thieves by any other name!

The Kids’ Scooter

Here’s an update on the thugs who stole my kids’ scooter.  You may recall that a gang of junior high thieves stole the scooter, which I subsequently recovered, just over a months ago. Well, they struck again yesterday and stole the scooter for a second time. Additionally, the stole the contents of our letterbox (there were at least three items in there, which I saw on my way out to pick the kids up from school).

Called the police again; they photographed just about everything in sight and took a lengthy statement. [Filing a complaint with the Japanese police is not an easy procedure!]

The following photos show the thieves as they stole the scooter, round one. The faces will be revealed pending police investigation.

Stealing from gaijin was sooooo easy!  [Five of the thugs from a gang of about 9 or so.]

Looks almost new. How much do you think I can get for this? This is the actual thief. I saw him moments after he stole the scooter from the bicycle shed. He is the trendiest thug in the pack, and seems to come from a wealthy family.

Will you tell anyone? Front: He is the patsy. He was probably bullied to take the blame. He came to the house with his teacher the following day [after round one] and apologized! [Go-apologize-if-you-are-caught day?]

I was with them, but I didn’t inhale (!)

Yahh … well! So what!

I was Just a lookout, honestly!

This is the first time someone caught us.

What does the future hold for these kids? There isn’t enough room for all of them to become politicians!

Related Links:

• Japan Politics of Shame: Corruption, Bribery and Sex

• Should Japanese Politicians who Poison the Public Receive Immunity from Prosecution?
• Certainties!
• Another Criminal Resigns from Fukuda’s Rotten Cabinet
• Endemic Corruption: Hallmark of Japanese Politics
• Good riddance! NO one will ever miss a bad PM!
• Since when breaking the law is a crime in Japan?
• People Mean Nothing to Japanese Govt

Japan Dictatorial LDP Blocks Govt Info!

The Specter of Fascism Looms!

Japan: A de facto single-party state

Definition: A de facto single-party state is a dominant-party system where the opposition is prevented from legally obtaining power. [Dictatorship thrives on the single-party system.]

In a move that would make GOP, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Co. turn green and purple with envy, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party instructed all government ministries and agencies not to release any information to the opposition before consulting the party.

Naoto Kan, acting president of opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), who has recently embarrassed the ruling LDP by exposing scandals using government data, said: “The fact that the ruling party can exert direct control over the management of government information is an act that destroys democracy.”

The Cabinet secretariat’s Cabinet Affairs Office, which serves as a liaison between the Diet and the Cabinet, said the request came from Yoshitaka Murata [Karl Rove?] deputy chairman of the LDP Diet Affairs Committee on Sept. 12, Asahi Shimbun reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries issued an in-house memo on Sept. 12, instructing its employees to “refrain from providing information at the ministry’s own judgment, and to first consult the chief deputy chairman of the LDP Diet Affairs Committee.”

Vice Finance Minister Kazuyuki Sugimoto said his ministry received Murata’s instructions. However, he said: “Since we have a parliamentary Cabinet system, there should be no problem in the government consulting the ruling party on Diet affairs.”

Prime Minister Taro Aso said he considered Murata’s instructions were issued to “grasp the current situation.” [So 'we' have another wiseguy for PM, again!]

Relate Links:

• LDP accused of trying to control information

Up to 9 Million School Lunches Used Tainted Rice

Should Japanese Politicians who Poison the Public Receive Immunity from Prosecution?

Tainted rice may have hit 8.6 million school lunches

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN – October 1, 2008

Rice contaminated with pesticides or mold [mostly imported from China] may have been used in up to 8.6 million lunch meals served at schools and kindergartens in 40 prefectures, The Asahi Shimbun has found.

Local school lunch associations and other entities tasked with selecting and buying food and ingredients deemed safe for children usually purchase processed food in bulk. This practice raises the possibility that a large number of children may have been exposed to the tainted rice. More …

Related Links:

• Vertical Society
• Endemic Corruption: Hallmark of Japanese Politics
• Another Criminal Resigns from Fukuda’s Rotten Cabinet

• Finally, Fukuda makes a good decision!
• Since when breaking the law is a crime in Japan?

• People Mean Nothing to Japanese Govt
• A Haiku for Fukuda (Shortly before he resigned!)
• Japanese Politicketeers

• Japan’s Corporacketeers
• Japanese Banks Commit Crimes Against Humanity

Another Day, Another Mass Murder

Osaka Man Started a Fire at Video Parlor Killing 15, Injuring 10

More victims of a dysfunctional society

Kazuhiro Ogawa, 46, of Osaka Prefecture, has allegedly admitted to starting the fire which killed 15 and injured another ten in an all-night video parlor. One of the injured was in critical condition and two others were in serious condition, reports said.

Most of the victims had slight burns, but died of carbon monoxide poisoning, police investigators said. (Source)

Related Links:

• A Culture of Bullying, Sex, Suicide, Murder
• The Bad, The Ugly and The Unreasonable!
• Tomohiro Kato: An exception, or the rule?

• Fruits of a Repressed Culture
• A Culture of Bullying

• Time to OBLITERATE the Prefectural Boards of Education?

• The Deliberate Dumbing Down of Japan!
• Prefectural Boards of Education – Part 3
• Japan’s Boards of Education – Part 2