Liberal Japan
japan.shadowofiris.com



Back when Japanese knew manners ? (Mar 26)
According to the Times online: There was a time in Japan when courtesy was second nature. If you saw an elderly person, a pregnant woman or somebody on crutches, you would leap up and offer them your seat. These days, you pretend to be asleep and avoid eye contact at all costs. Is this true? Or is [...]


Dog learns to pray in Japan (Mar 25)
This picture along with an associated article seems to be making the AP rounds. Basically the article has nothing to do with Japan, yet I wonder what kind of impression people get of Japan when they read articles like this. Perhaps some would say it’s quintessentially Japanese — because it’s cute and weird. Sometimes it’s [...]


Butler?s cafe (Feb 23)
For those with an interest in this type of thing, here is a funny article in the Japanese press today about a “butler’s cafe”. I don’t doubt other blogs on Japan have reported about this already. Here’s the Japanese blurb: You have to make reservations and pay about 5000 yen, but then you are treated like royalty [...]


Voices made me do it. (Feb 18)
Mentally ill child-killer gets 22 years in prison … According to the ruling, Ujiie stole a knife at an Ito-Yokado Co. supermarket in Anjo at around 10:40 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2005. He then stabbed to death 11-month-old Shoma Aoyama of Okazaki in the prefecture, who was in a baby buggy near his mother around the children’s [...]


Sleeping it off in a strangers house. (Feb 18)
U.S. marine held over illegal entry in Okinawa NAHA–A 21-year-old U.S. Marine Corps corporal was arrested Monday on suspicion of breaking into a house in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, and falling asleep on a sofa, police said. Cpl. Shawn Jake, stationed at Camp Schwab, was arrested on suspicion of trespassing after the prefectural police arrived at the [...]


Hotel faces left versus right struggle. (Feb 16)
Here’s a link to a fascinating article. A large hotel refused to allow a union organization to have its annual meeting on its premises. The main reason for this was that the hotel felt threatened by rightest organizations. So there is a kind of leftists versus rightest feel to the article. Interestingly enough, the owners [...]


Education ministry to teach students to think. (Feb 15)
Government eyes increase in class hours The education ministry on Friday unveiled a draft of new teaching guidelines for primary and middle schools that would increase classroom hours for arithmetic and mathematics as well as science subjects by around 15 percent during the nine-year study period, in a departure from the current guidelines, which emphasize “education [...]


Transportation Ministry puts on a road show. (Feb 15)
Transport ministry spent 526 mil. yen on musicals The Construction and Transport Ministry spent more than 500 million yen on staging musicals using funds earmarked for roads, it was revealed in a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting Thursday. In response to a question posed by the Social Democratic Party’s Nobuto Hosaka, the ministry revealed it had [...]


Foreign students to be exempt from fingerprinting. (Feb 15)
Foreign students may get to skip fingerprinting The Justice Ministry will consider exempting foreign students attending Japanese high schools from having their fingerprints and mug shots taken at immigration sections when they return to Japan from school excursions, if the schools make a request. Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama on Thursday said he will consider taking necessary measures [...]


Strict constitutionalism and anti-tax: the JCP (Jan 23)
Some of the people who have been kind enough to read this blog have referred to me as a libertarian. Of course, I’d prefer to think of myself as a liberal of the classical mold, but I have to admit in many ways that aligns me with modern libertarians. Anyway, let me pose a question. [...]