So, South Africa's ambassador to Japan wrote a letter to the Sankei Shinbun criticizing that awful Ayako Sono article. Can anyone find a Japanese translation of the letter? I didn't have much time, but I couldn't find one.

Patients in three Tokyo　seniors apartment complexes were commonly restrained to their beds; administrators in Tokyo-to label the practice abusive, vow to seek reforms from administrators of the Iwae Clinic.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20150217...71000.html

Tzadeck Wrote:So, South Africa's ambassador to Japan wrote a letter to the Sankei Shinbun criticizing that awful Ayako Sono article. Can anyone find a Japanese translation of the letter? I didn't have much time, but I couldn't find one.

I found the letter from the South Africa Forum: http://mainichi.jp/graph/2015/02/14/2015...c/001.html

I'm not finding the ambassador's letter, though.

Tzadeck Wrote:So, South Africa's ambassador to Japan wrote a letter to the Sankei Shinbun criticizing that awful Ayako Sono article. Can anyone find a Japanese translation of the letter? I didn't have much time, but I couldn't find one.

Just to provide context, since people might not know about this, Ayako Sono is friends with and was an Education Advisor to Abe. She is also quoted in the textbooks used in Japanese public schools. She wrote an article in Sankei Shinbun talking about how if Japan was going to get more foreign workers then that's fine, but they should live separately since foreigners have strange customs or something.

Here's the letter that the ambassador sent to Sankei:

My students told me that there's no racism in Japan the other day

Quote:Japan has a 200% of GDP government debt already. So opening the windows during recess is probably a better idea than borrowing even more.

Or, if the parents really want it, they can always just pay for it themselves.

Sounds like this school has a fair case for not opening the windows though - I imagine having a military base nearby could interfere with studies. Having a comfortable place to study is fairly important too, I think - I can't imagine anyone's grades have ever improved by sitting in a disgustingly hot room. Seems like a reasonable use of the budget to me.
Though that said, IIRC my school raised half the money for air conditioning from the parents, and I think that's fair.

Aikynaro Wrote:Sounds like this school has a fair case for not opening the windows though - I imagine having a military base nearby could interfere with studies.

I decided to look on Google maps to see how close some schools were to the base.
Check it out: https://goo.gl/maps/izhMZ
There are 2-3 schools literally smack dab right up against the fence for the base; 2 even have LINE OF SIGHT to the runway!
Two of the schools, Irumano JHS and ES (Line of Sight schools) even have a train line that runs right freaking next to them. If anything, these schools should receive ACs. Some of the other schools farther away should be fine IMO, I grew up on air force bases and attended DoD schools. Jets can be loud but when you aren't close its not a problem. Those 3 schools are way too close.

Quote:Having a comfortable place to study is fairly important too, I think - I can't imagine anyone's grades have ever improved by sitting in a disgustingly hot room. Seems like a reasonable use of the budget to me.
Though that said, IIRC my school raised half the money for air conditioning from the parents, and I think that's fair.

You'll get a lot of old farts saying, "In MY day! We didn't need AC!!"

erlog Wrote:http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH225GRYH22ULFA023.html :
French economist Thomas Piketty, author of 'Capital in the 21st Century', visited Japan and answered questions on Nico Nico Douga. 民主党 met with him, and was pretty pumped about it. Abe's response was interesting in how similar it was to how all "pro-business" politicians answer these questions; Growth uber alles and a rising tide raises all boats.

It's also interesting how similar all physicists sound when discussing perpetual motion machines or cars that run on water. It's almost like they're repeating an objective, unchangeable truth about the nature of reality or something. Weird.

erlog Wrote:Just to provide context, since people might not know about this, Ayako Sono is friends with and was an Education Advisor to Abe. She is also quoted in the textbooks used in Japanese public schools. She wrote an article in Sankei Shinbun talking about how if Japan was going to get more foreign workers then that's fine, but they should live separately since foreigners have strange customs or something.

So Abe is planning to liberalize the Japanese economy (including by easing restrictions on immigration), and the answer from the far left is to latch on to something charmingly old fashioned (I'm joking, she's a racist idiot) an 86 year old woman he once knew, said?

How about this: Forget about the old lady, and address the merits of Abe's proposals for radical changes in the Japanese government and economy, instead? And also address the merit of continuing current policies, which have lead to two lost decades for Japan?

vix86 Wrote:

Aikynaro Wrote:Sounds like this school has a fair case for not opening the windows though - I imagine having a military base nearby could interfere with studies.

I decided to look on Google maps to see how close some schools were to the base.
Check it out: https://goo.gl/maps/izhMZ
There are 2-3 schools literally smack dab right up against the fence for the base; 2 even have LINE OF SIGHT to the runway!
Two of the schools, Irumano JHS and ES (Line of Sight schools) even have a train line that runs right freaking next to them. If anything, these schools should receive ACs. Some of the other schools farther away should be fine IMO, I grew up on air force bases and attended DoD schools. Jets can be loud but when you aren't close its not a problem. Those 3 schools are way too close.

Quote:Having a comfortable place to study is fairly important too, I think - I can't imagine anyone's grades have ever improved by sitting in a disgustingly hot room. Seems like a reasonable use of the budget to me.
Though that said, IIRC my school raised half the money for air conditioning from the parents, and I think that's fair.

You'll get a lot of old farts saying, "In MY day! We didn't need AC!!"

Actually my high school (in North America) lacked air conditioning. We got ventilation the old fashioned way: open the windows.

I still remember walking up to the school in the mornings and seeing students sitting on the window ledges of the open windows (the windows didn't have screens; they were in wood frames and you slid the windows up to open them). The building also had steam radiators, cracked plaster, etc. The school was built when people were dancing the Charleston.

Alas, the school was torn down nearly twenty years ago.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Japan has a 200% of GDP government debt already.

Is this a lot?

erlog Wrote:

Stansfield123 Wrote:Japan has a 200% of GDP government debt already.

Is this a lot?

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/g...t-table-en

Japan is winning the race to the cliff.

Though, opinions if it is a lot or not differs... a lot. Politicians have tendencies to shrug it off as a non issue.

Japanese total tax income is around 30% of GDP (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...age_of_GDP). So, it would take 7 years to pay the debt if entire government budget went into repaying, which is, of course, impossible.

On the other hand, governments, unlike common people, don't have to pay the the debt. They can either default (rare) or print the new money (common). Either of these will have bad consequences for someone, but who cares... politicians certainly don't.

erlog Wrote:

Stansfield123 Wrote:Japan has a 200% of GDP government debt already.

Is this a lot?

The 200% figure though is usually domestic debt owed to the country it self (pensioners, banks, bond holders); not the debt owed to say the US, China, or other countries.

That said, Japan is in a tight spot in terms of its debt all around and its not one I think can be solved easily if you are trying to be humane and responsible.

Stansfield123 Wrote:

erlog Wrote:Just to provide context, since people might not know about this, Ayako Sono is friends with and was an Education Advisor to Abe. She is also quoted in the textbooks used in Japanese public schools. She wrote an article in Sankei Shinbun talking about how if Japan was going to get more foreign workers then that's fine, but they should live separately since foreigners have strange customs or something.

So Abe is planning to liberalize the Japanese economy (including by easing restrictions on immigration), and the answer from the far left is to latch on to something charmingly old fashioned (I'm joking, she's a racist idiot) an 86 year old woman he once knew, said?

How about this: Forget about the old lady, and address the merits of Abe's proposals for radical changes in the Japanese government and economy, instead? And also address the merit of continuing current policies, which have lead to two lost decades for Japan?

What does a South African Ambassador to Japan have to do with the far-left? And all we know about Abe and his right-wing abenomics is that it's been catastrophic for the Japanese economy. So I hope whatever proposals are being discussed are good.

This story is dumb, but it's trending on Twitter right now.

http://japan.cnet.com/digital/av/35060617 :
Sony to release audiophile quality micro SD card that cuts down on the noise of reading/writing data. It's a 64GB card aimed at the high end solid state audio player market.

It's hilarious pseudoscience, but I bet it'll sell pretty well to people who don't understand how digital audio actually works.

Also, thanks to the people who posted real information about Japanese sovereign debt in response to my flippant jokey question to Stansfield. I'm pretty familiar with the economic issues involved, but a lot of people here probably aren't. I didn't have time to get into it, and so I'm glad other people took the opportunity to do more with it.

Quote:Alas, the school was torn down nearly twenty years ago.

That ... doesn't sound like a bad thing at all.

[Zgarbas]

I had never been to a school with AC or lived in a house with AC before Japan; that being said, with Japan's weather AC is a necessity. Japanese weather is terrible and there's a reason why they have a 'heat stroke death' toll on the NHK. Opening the windows only lets the humidity in.

Stansfield123 Wrote:So Abe is planning to liberalize the Japanese economy (including by easing restrictions on immigration), and the answer from the far left is to latch on to something charmingly old fashioned (I'm joking, she's a racist idiot) an 86 year old woman he once knew, said?

How about this: Forget about the old lady, and address the merits of Abe's proposals for radical changes in the Japanese government and economy, instead? And also address the merit of continuing current policies, which have lead to two lost decades for Japan?

If you are a foreigner living in a country, and the prime minister of that country is buddy-buddy with people who want to implement policies to force foreigners to live in special areas... wouldn't you be like wtf? A lot of older conservative Japanese are pretty racist when it comes down to it, and they're in power, so it's natural to feel a bit uneasy about it.

Aikynaro Wrote:

Quote:Alas, the school was torn down nearly twenty years ago.

That ... doesn't sound like a bad thing at all.

Probably it wasn't.

They built a brand new high school right on the same site. I suppose the old building was un-renovatible (i.e., loaded with asbestos behind the walls etc.). Still, I feel a bit heartsick when I drive past the new building.

ryuudou Wrote:What does a South African Ambassador to Japan have to do with the far-left?

Nothing. But I wasn't talking to the South African Ambassador. Erlog, the person I was talking to, is pretty obviously a leftist.

Instead of attempting to refute the substance of the claim that immigrants should be segregated from the general population to protect the social harmony of Japan (a claim that can be answered, though not easily: Japan does enjoy exceptionally low crime rates, and has a thriving, productive society far superior to the societies would be immigrants would come from, especially South Africa: which is a hell hole, so immigrants from there would clearly be a threat), he is trying to shut up the person making the argument.

That's an extremely unhelpful, and a generally despicable tactic used to stifle open public debate. The more helpful answer to those comments would've been to point out the long history of immigrants assimilating into the culture of their new country, when given the chance. That means that Japan should do the exact opposite of segregation: they should seek to disperse immigrants, encourage them to live among the natives, to insure that they are absorbed and become Japanese, rather than members of a foreign enclave that perpetuates the same dysfunctional cultural environment they sought to escape by leaving their home countries in the first place.

ryuudou Wrote:And all we know about Abe and his right-wing abenomics is that it's been catastrophic for the Japanese economy. So I hope whatever proposals are being discussed are good.

Abe's policies haven't been catastrophic. They were about neutral as far as GDP growth (obtained about the same result, so far, as previous governments), and they had a positive fiscal effect: he reduced the percentage of borrowed money in the Japanese government's budget. Somewhat.

Most importantly, they were NOT RIGHT WING measures. He raised taxes, overall, and also implemented a program of economic stimulus spending. HE DID NOT CUT OVERALL TAXATION, OR GOVERNMENT SPENDING. His biggest merit, frankly, is that he only applied these typical left wing measures with moderation, thus setting the stage for some real reforms.

The mildly right wing policies are the ones he is announcing for 2015: he is proposing a modest cut in corporate taxes and a mild liberalization of the regulatory environment, while postponing a second consumption tax hike. I expect that will result in some economic growth, without having a lasting effect on fiscal balance (because there's still going to be a consumption tax hike, to address the long term trend of deficit spending, it's just been delayed by a few years). Whether that growth can gain momentum depends on his ability to remain fiscally responsible in terms of spending. If the tax cuts are accompanied by excess spending, then they will be meaningless, since they will inevitably have to be reversed to pay for the spending. So any economic growth will be short lived.

vix86 Wrote:The 200% figure though is usually domestic debt owed to the country it self (pensioners, banks, bond holders); not the debt owed to say the US, China, or other countries.

Makes no difference. They're obligations the government has assumed, and will have to pay out. The biggest harm that debt does isn't even the threat of a default. A civilized country like Japan could probably handle a financial collapse in a fairly orderly fashion, maybe even come out at the other end better for it. The biggest harm is the prospect of the government having to make those payments.

If everything goes as planned, and Japan remains fiscally stable, the government will still have to find the revenue to make those payments. And since the government gets its revenue from taxation, everyone in the Japanese economy has to be mindful of that debt, and account for it. People wishing to work in Japan or invest into the Japanese economy have to account for being forced to pay that debt.

It also means that if there's a major war, or any other kind of disaster (and Japan is in a disaster area), the government has no leeway left to pay for fighting it/reconstruction. They've already borrowed pretty much all they can borrow. So it ensures that Japan is in no position to win a potential war against China, or to come out economically intact in case of a major natural disaster.

All because of the entirely unwarranted fiscal brinkmanship of its peacetime leaders. There was no rational justification for building up this debt these past few decades. There is no rational justification for maintaining it, and for not acting to immediately reverse the trend of deficit spending.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Erlog.... he is trying to shut up the person making the argument.

No he wasn't. All he did was share a link. This is just you being eager to cause controversy in the thread.

Stansfield123 Wrote:The more helpful answer to those comments would've been to point out the long history of immigrants assimilating into the culture of their new country, when given the chance. That means that Japan should do the exact opposite of segregation: they should seek to disperse immigrants, encourage them to live among the natives, to insure that they are absorbed and become Japanese, rather than members of a foreign enclave that perpetuates the same dysfunctional cultural environment they sought to escape by leaving their home countries in the first place.

This, however, is surprisingly logical and reasonable. Agreed.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Abe's policies haven't been catastrophic.

http://www.ibtimes.com/japan-recession-2...ng-1743270
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-failure-...1416246853
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/11/a...ailed.html
http://www.elliottwave.com/freeupdates/a...z3SJtPChvn
http://www.theland.com.au/news/agricultu...20573.aspx
http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/201...t-to-fail/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-18...apologizes

ryuudou Wrote:

Stansfield123 Wrote:Erlog.... he is trying to shut up the person making the argument.

No he wasn't. All he did was share a link. This is just you being eager to cause controversy in the thread.

Saltiest person on koohii award goes to...

and no one was surprised.

Stansfield123 Wrote:There was no rational justification for building up this debt these past few decades. There is no rational justification for maintaining it, and for not acting to immediately reverse the trend of deficit spending.

I did a little bit of Googling and from the sounds of it, a fair bit of the debt was unavoidable. Some of the biggest budget sinks in developed countries goes towards welfare, such as social security, and it seems this holds true for Japan. I don't know if they mismanaged their social security in the same way the US has, but the inverting population demographics in Japan are a big part of what has caused the debt to increase.

How do you fairly and responsibly tackle debt incurred through a social security/pension program? Just as it is in the US, the people collecting on their pension paid into it when they were younger and working. Do you just tell them "Tough shit, we are out of money" and leave them to eat cat food?

EDIT: Guess I will add though that the other half of the debt came from the LDP dumping money into spending projects back in the 90s in an attempt to jump start the economy again. Kind of like what Abe is doing now.

Stansfield123 Wrote:If everything goes as planned, and Japan remains fiscally stable, the government will still have to find the revenue to make those payments. And since the government gets its revenue from taxation, everyone in the Japanese economy has to be mindful of that debt, and account for it. People wishing to work in Japan or invest into the Japanese economy have to account for being forced to pay that debt.

You do understand that Japan isn't on the gold standard, right?

vix86 Wrote:How do you fairly and responsibly tackle debt incurred through a social security/pension program? Just as it is in the US, the people collecting on their pension paid into it when they were younger and working. Do you just tell them "Tough shit, we are out of money" and leave them to eat cat food?

Well, I don't know if there is any good solution at this point. You are either throwing the older population under the bus (by drastically reducing SS payments and changing the system, so it is not vulnerable to declining population), or your productive population will collapse eventually and everyone will end up under the bus anyway.

I am not going to claim that SS is ponzi scheme (though similarities are striking), but the fact is, that it can work only as long as there are enough new people that join the system or someone has to pay the difference.

And paying pensions by increasing the debt is really only kicking the can down the road and not a solution. Postponing the inevitable is what politicians do most of the time, because their focus is to the next election, not decades in the future. Who can blame them though? Would voters vote in politicians with painful but necessary policy proposals? Yes, but history teaches us, that everything must be in shambles before that happen.