Japan needs a thread too

[garbon]

I don't see how this one incident actually speaks to underling the point the article raises in the first paragraph.

[Lettow77]

Note that tyr self-identifies as part of the problem that the brave men of the Japanese Restoration Party are working so tirelessly to amend

[Razgovory]

Bad drivers?  Inability to read a map?

[Eddie Teach]

Assuming he means dirty foreigners and not people who are secure in their gender identity, it applies equally to both.

[Josquius]

Note that tyr self-identifies as part of the problem that the brave men of the Japanese Restoration Party are working so tirelessly to amend

They're against people going through yellow lights now? Seems a bit small for them.

[Lettow77]

 Small for them? Hashimoto just got done losing a grinding, wasteful conflict to enforce green spaces in elementary playgrounds.

[Ed Anger]

Bad drivers?  Inability to read a map?

That's Asians all right. Plus the turn signal stays on.

[Josquius]

Chinese and Japanese relations take a positive step forward;

A Chinese student is the subject of serious internet backlash after attempting to order "cooked sushi" at the famed three Michelin-starred Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo. According to Rocket News 24, 23 year-old Chuhan Lin took to Weibo, the popular Chinese social media site, to complain about the service and the food at the esteemed sushi counter after she and her four friends showed up 40 minutes late to the dinner and then canceled the rest of their order. The group found the raw fish "hard to swallow." The diners then asked "to switch to 'cooked sushi' ... to go." The internet was not happy with the group's actions: In response to Lin's story on Weibo there was much outrage with some Chinese commenters even going so far as to call her a "national disgrace."

The restaurant's respected octogenarian owner Jiro Ono also wasn't so pleased with the group's behavior and apparently asked them, "Is sushi served cooked in your country?" He added, "If you can't handle raw food, you should have informed us when you made the reservation!" To which Lin supposedly responded, "Who knew!?" Perhaps she and her friends should have taken the time to do a quick internet search of the restaurant, which is the subject of the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, before making the notoriously difficult reservation.

Following the incident, Rocket News 24 writes Lin ranted on Weibo: "If we were Abe! If we were Obama! Would he dare to show such an attitude?" President Obama and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe dined at Sukiyabashi Jiro last month. It's probably safe to assume however that they knew the restaurant served raw fish. According to Rocket News 24, Lin posted to Weibo again the next day writing that following the internet scolding, she returned to the sushi bar to "apologize for her earlier behavior." Ono was apparently quite kind and told her "to visit them again when she has acquired a taste for sushi." Aside from Lin's Weibo posts, there appears to be no other proof of the incident however, which means it's possible she really could just be trolling everybody super hard.

http://eater.com/archives/2014/05/12/internet-vilifies-student-for-ordering-cooked-sushi-at-sukiyabashi-jiro.php



This wasn't true Jiro, it was his son's restaurant. But still, reservations have to be made months in advance and it costs well over 100 dollars a head. For this ignorant girl to then go on like this...ah Chinese new money. But big kudos to the Chinese for smacking her down.
Hope its real anyway.

[Monoriu]

I hate these guys.  They are the reason I find it so difficult to make reservations at some Japanese restaurants. 

[jimmy olsen]

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/12/world/asia/osaka-mascot-cull/index.html?hpt=wo_t2

Japanese cuteness overload could result in mascot cull
By Euan McKirdy, CNN
May 12, 2014 -- Updated 0857 GMT (1657 HKT)

(CNN) -- In the face of an army of cartoon characters, some Japanese officials are concerned the public is facing a cuteness overload.

Mascots, known locally as yuru-kyara ("loose" or "relaxed" characters), are ubiquitous in Japan, and are used to promote everything from soap, food and train lines, to regions of Japan and even prisons. They come in every conceivable shape and size, including some downright bizarre creations, and are often conceived of and designed by amateurs, a fact that is often all too apparent.

But despite the oftentimes amateur nature of some of these beloved characters, it's safe to say that Japan is truly enamored -- or obsessed, to quote one editorial -- with these guys.

Noriko Nakano of the Japan Local Character Association told CNN by email that the Japanese have a long-lasting, deep emotional bond to "non-human" characters, with roots buried deep in an ancient polytheism.
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With these noble antecedents, a generation of cute characters, with names like Hikonyan and Barysan were born.

And these characters turned out to be perfect for promoting local regions.

"In an era when local governments are in need, (many have) considered a strategy of including emotional warmth and therefore creating 'local characters'," Nakano said. "I had noticed that, for selling local products, it isn't possible to increase the name recognition (if) there is no 'face' to the municipality."

Bona fide celebrity

Hence the rise of the regional character, some of whose fame has spread far beyond their territorial boundaries.

You don't, for example, need to go to Kumamoto Prefecture to bump into Kumamon. The Japanese region's mascot is a bona fide celebrity throughout the country, and appears on everything from promotional posters advertising his home prefecture and household goods like chopstick holders, to a 100 million-yen ($982,000) gold figurine, made by a Tokyo goldsmith.

Kumamon is the current undisputed king of the mascots, as his YouTube offerings make clear. He's also the most visual symbol of the character wars that Japan's prefectures -- akin to states -- are involved in.

Osaka is no exception. Perhaps surprisingly for the city that was the gritty inspiration for "Blade Runner," Japan's second city is as cute-obsessed as the rest of the country, if not more so, with some 45 Osaka-themed mascots plying their trade in the city.

But this town might not be big enough for all of them. According to the Osaka's local government, some of the city's cartoon representatives may be stepping out of the limelight, sidelined in favor of the chosen one, the city's Moppi, as Osaka's "core mascot."

"The prefecture has too many mascots," the Asahi Shimbun quoted Osaka Governor Ichiro Matsui as saying. "People do not know what they are promoting or what policy they are trying to raise awareness of."

Used sparingly

Overkill and dilution of brand identity has meant that other stalwarts of the city, such as the kushiyaki-inspired Kushitan, designed to resemble a deep-fried Osaka delicacy, may soon be surplus to requirements. While the plan is not to kill the characters off -- such barbarism is clearly beyond the pale -- they will from now be used only sparingly, if at all.

Instead, the focus is being put on the narrow, bird-like shoulders of Moppi, who designed in the 1990s to resemble one of the prefecture's native avian species. There are plans to work on the Moppi brand, perhaps pairing him up with a Mrs. Moppi, and even having the lovebirds produce offspring. These characters, officials say, can help promote women's and childrens' issues.

Not everybody is in favor of the cull, including the prefecture's vice governor, who said "respective departments devoted their energy to creating their mascots, and each mascot has been loved by department officials... I hope such situations will be taken into consideration."

However, while there are dissenting voices, the benefits of honing one's yuru-kyara image to one or two distinctive faces makes sense, especially in modern Japan's crowded mascot marketplace.

[Viking]

Imagine a German chancellor visiting a shrine that contains the ashes of Himmler, Goring, Heydrich etc.  He has the freedom to go, of course.  But others also have the freedom to dislike him for that.

It was actually a minor scandal when Reagan visited Germany in the 80s, that he and Helmut Kohl wanted to commemorate the fallen of WW2 and chose to visit a soldier cemetery where not only Wehrmacht soldiers but also members to the Waffen-SS had been buried.

How many cemeteries only have Wehrmacht soldiers and no SS?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Wache

Germany doesn't really do formal shrines to the fallen on the german side. The Neue Wache (in old east berlin) commemorates the victims of war and dictatorship. Their war memorials are usually more like this


The Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche in Berlin

and


The Frauenkriche in Dresden (until it got rebuilt after the fall after much acrimony)

Only Soviet soldiers get memorials in germany (not western allied ones afaik), this one in berlin tiergarten




The poles and russians bulldozed the tannenberg denkmal after ww2, which was the german equivalent for the fallen in ww1. 

The big differnece between Germany and Japan here is that Germany culturally emotionally and legally took as much of a break with it's nazi past as possible while japan has maintained some level of continuity between the pre and post ww2 societies. Do note the japanese are just as pacifist as the germans. The japanese do live in a worse neighborhood with less reasonable neighbors.

The Yasukuni shrine is dedicated to everybody who died in the service of the emperor. The perpetual chinese desire to be insulted (and to benefit from the placating that must be done afterwards) and nutjobs like Mishima has prevented the shrine from being quietly forgotten as as japanese version of the Cenotaph or any other shrine to the unknown soldier.

[Syt]

The big differnece between Germany and Japan here is that Germany culturally emotionally and legally took as much of a break with it's nazi past as possible

Pravda informs me, that fascism is actually on the rise in Germany.

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/12-05-2014/127554-fascism_europe-0/

Fascism experiencing rebirth throughout Europe and the world

Many Germans have been increasingly interested in the persona of Adolf Hitler, The Telegraph wrote. Today, the Germans are interested in the Fuhrer more than ever before, since the defeat of the Third Reich during World War II, a recent study said. However, even without this study, it is clear that fascism in Europe is experiencing a rebirth.

The research conducted by a group of German media monitoring specialists provided a multitude of facts testifying to the growing interest that many Germans have in the history of Nazism and Hitler. The study also pointed out the increasing number of documentaries and books about Adolf Hitler.

According to Western sociologists, most people of the current generation has nothing to do with the experience of World War II, are less ashamed of that historical period and seek to learn more truth about it.

Images of Hitler would appear in advertising of German Bonn-based hat manufacturer, Hut Weber, German condom maker Doc Morris Pharmacies, as well as in a social campaign against AIDS. A commercial campaign conducted on the German province of Saarland caused strong outrage among the general public. In 2009, under the slogan "AIDS ist ein Massenmörder!" which translates as "AIDS is a mass murderer!" (a variant of translation also includes a 'war criminal'), the ad showed an act of sexual intercourse with the participation of a Hitler lookalike. [They also had a Stalin poster - Syt]

It seems that nostalgia for Nazi ideology has embraced not only Germany and Europe, but also in the whole world. Below are a few facts.

[...]

[Josquius]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/12/world/asia/osaka-mascot-cull/index.html?hpt=wo_t2

Japanese cuteness overload could result in mascot cull
By Euan McKirdy, CNN
May 12, 2014 -- Updated 0857 GMT (1657 HKT)

(CNN) -- In the face of an army of cartoon characters, some Japanese officials are concerned tistinctive faces makes sense, especially in modern Japan's crowded mascot marketplace.

Yeah, the mascot obsession here is crazy. My crappy little town of 50,000 or so people has tonnes of them, it even has bad guys. They're all over the place.
I do quite like the whole home town pride thing Japan has, I wish Britain had some of it, but the mascots for every little municipality thing goes too far.

[Josquius]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/17/world/asia/japan-child-porn-law/

Japan has finally made the possession of child pornography a punishable offense.

The country's upper house of parliament passed a bill Wednesday, which will see people found with explicit images of children jailed for up to year or fined up to $10,000.
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The bill was a long time coming for activists who argued that Japan's relatively lax laws put children at risk by banning the production and distribution of child pornography, but not people found with it in their possession.

"It's been 10 years and it's finally changed. I'm so pleased that Japan finally moved one step toward the international standard," said Shihoko Fujiwara, from Lighthouse, a nonprofit group that helps exploited children.

"Under the existing circumstances, the suffering and damage has become more critical. I really hope that the law rescues suffering child victims, as well as the victims damaged in the past by stopping the circulation of child porn. This is the epoch-making event for Japan," she said.

Notable exclusions

The bill notably excludes the possession of explicit anime or manga, a point of contention for campaigners who say that cartoons depicting child sexual abuse should also be banned.

Representatives of those industries say that while they support the ban on real child pornography, any move to censor their products would be an unjustified restriction of freedom of expression.

Daisuke Okeda, a lawyer and inspector for the Japan Animation Creators Association, said it was "natural that animation is exempted."

"The goal of the law itself is to protect children from crime," he said. "Banning such expression in animation under this law would not satisfy the goal of the law."

Hiroshi Chiba, the manager of Chiba Tetsuya Production, one of the country's best known manga production houses, said that more could be done in terms of age restrictions on graphic content featuring children and to distinguish it more clearly from other comics. And he admitted that some products of the industry leave him and his colleagues "disgusted."

"But rich, deep culture is born from something that might not be accepted by all," Chiba said. "We need to allow the gray zone to exist as a necessary evil."

Child abuse in Japan

Statistics show that child pornography remains a big problem in Japan.
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The U.S. State Department's 2013 report on human rights practices in Japan labels the country "an international hub for the production and trafficking of child pornography."

It cited Japanese police data showing the number of child pornography investigations in 2012 rose 9.7% from a year earlier to a record of 1,596. The cases involved 1,264 child victims, almost twice as many as in the previous year.


Under the new law, people in possession of child pornography have one year to dispose of it before they risk prosecution.

About damn time.
Lets hope it steadily extends to cover the disturbing and all too common softcore stuff that is everywhere too.

[The Brain]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vahiTJaNU