Japan Probe - Latest Comments

Re: Photo: Tommy Lee Jones as General Douglas MacArthur

Anonymous Seven — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:03:10 -0000

Oh! This movie is about Bonner Fellers! The guy who helped the accused at the Tokyo Tribunal get their stories straight so the emperor wouldn't be executed. So nice to see that Hollywood has turned it into a love story!

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Aceface — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:36:22 -0000

Answer:Bobby Ologun.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

joe — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:08:03 -0000

ever been to ropongi?

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

flowby — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:05:47 -0000

Interesting - and good to know that Japan is perceived well around the world - even with all that negative media reporting. lol.

Looking superficially at the data one very interesting point I noticed was, that in the pdf file listing regarding countries mainly +ive views of other countries influence, Japan's mainly positive influence %'s for said countries never once went over 50% (highest was Canada at 39% - only 39% for a nice country???). In fact EVERY positive appraisal of another countries influence was below or well below the global average. Even Japan's appraisal of itself at 41% was well below the global average of 58%.

In fairness( a little) it didn't have lots of strong negativity, but plenty of undecided - surprise surprise!

Which all leads to the questions - why is Japan so hard on itself and why does Japan see little positivity in other countries influence???

Quite a massive dose of pessimism???

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Ap — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:24:43 -0000

Eventhough they've asked 24k people, they've only asked in 22 countries.
Not sure why they didn't spread it further.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Derpde — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:11:05 -0000

Looks like their neighboors are still salty.

Re: Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Masaffen — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:30:58 -0000

Well then the Australian CG conspires with terrorist in the same way that Pakistan's ISI conspires with Al Qaeda and similar groups.

Don't say no one is going to the extreme of calling them terrorists. Many in Japan would. Just because some misguided fools in Aus support their cause doesn't make it any more justifiable (nor their tactics - especially their tactics) than supporters of other terrorist organizations such as the LTTE. Plenty of people support the LTTE, too.

Re: Japanese women getting thinner as American women become fatter

Kevin — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:22:22 -0000

And they have such beautiful teeth.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Rob Allegretti — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:08:46 -0000

There is quite a bit about the numbers in this survey and the way the title/description is worded that seems a little dishonest.

There is a difference between being thought by the most number of people to have had a sum total positive influence, and being thought to have had more positive influence on the world than any country on the list.

Re: Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Reina Todoroki — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:05:37 -0000

Hopefully he likes rotting in a Costa Rica prison, they are very bad. Makes being wanted and arrested by the Japanese look very tempting.

Re: Tokyo Disney Resort Allows Gay Weddings

Reina Todoroki — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:03:10 -0000

Let them marry. They have every right to be as miserable as the rest of us.

Re: Tokyo Disney Resort Allows Gay Weddings

Rob Allegretti — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:00:02 -0000

Be above this, Japan. Don't get involved with this religious nonsense from a minority of the US fundamental right.

Do not buy into the bullshit and hype they are and will be spinning all year for this sham of an 'election' taking place.

Re: Tokyo Disney Resort Allows Gay Weddings

Rob Allegretti — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:56:36 -0000

It's really not even exclusively human.

There are all sorts of animals that mate for life and stay with a single partner their whole life, whether they are doing it with a ceremony and blessing of an imaginary bimillenial bearded guy or not.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Akira — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:38:06 -0000

Why is Japan popular in Nigeria???

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

James — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:14:50 -0000

Both countries learned from the mistakes they made in WW2 and pursued postwar foreign policies that totally avoided military interventions in other countries. The poll's results reflect that.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

James — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:11:51 -0000

As I quoted from the report: "Japan is seen as having the most　positive influence in the world　among all countries evaluated, and　views have improved slightly since 2011. "

And:

"Germany, the most positively regarded nation last year, has seen its positive ratings drop
from 60 to 56 per cent. This puts Germany in second place behind Japan, which is now
rated most positively—by 58 per cent on average, up two points from last year."

Global Average positive rating for Japan: 58

Global Average positive rating for Germany: 56

Japan is below 40 ratings in two countries (but thanks to the hate-fueled nationalist of those two countries, Japan is gets a slightly higher average negative rating). Germany has below 40 ratings in four countries.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Zero — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:03:29 -0000

The two instigators of WWII now the most popular countries on Earth. Bit of an ironic twist, really.

Re: Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Txexpat — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:52:48 -0000

Actually, they only managed to raise a little over half of the money for the 1.4 million dollar bond. The ship was eventually released because they convinced a judge that the ship wasn't WORTH 1.4 million. So, the bond was lowered to match the approximate value of the ship. Which was in the vicinity of 800,000 or so.
The civil case in regards to those proceedings will start at the end of May. If the court rules against SS they will lose the bond money and will, most likely, have to pay additional fines, as well.

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Peter Junk — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:30:11 -0000

Not that it really matters, but if you actually read the report, Japan actually comes out number two, behind Germany.

"Germany—rated for the first time this year—gets the most positive ratings of all countries. On
average 56 per cent say it is having a positive influence with just 18 per cent saying it is having a
negative influence. No country gives Germany a majority negative rating.

"Japan continues to be one of the countries with the most positive ratings. On average 56 per
cent say that it has a mostly positive influence and 21 per cent say mostly negative—statistically
unchanged from a year ago. Two countries—China and South Korea—continue to have a
majority with a negative view of Japan."

Re: BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

Aceface — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:49:20 -0000

It probably means Japan actually possess no powers over international politcs.

Re: Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Claude — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:43:15 -0000

@masaffin If it's considered a legitimate terrorist organization then there has to be the international inter-agency coordination taking place to curb it's financing. Supposedly these efforts have done wonder's in reigning in al-qaeda. What does it tell us when these efforts have been put in place? That no one is really going to go to the extreme of calling SSCS terrorists. How would it look if a Government call an organization trying to stop the killing of whales terrorists?
It's a open secret that the Australian coast guard (or someone in) has tipped them off on the whereabouts of the Japanese when in or close to their waters, has anyone intervened or been dismissed? SSCS aren't going anywhere, they are here to stay.

Re: Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Karina1003 — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:48:27 -0000

I don't really think they are a true environmental group---they use violence and terrorism tactics to express their views. I don't like to eat whales, and I don't like whaling, but Sea Shepherd are so extreme and unreasonable. Tactics like this only alienate and infuriate the Japanese people, even those who may be neutral or apathetic about whaling or other things.

Re: Tokyo Disney Resort Allows Gay Weddings

Masaffen — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:31:53 -0000

Ridiculous. Marriage - ESPECIALLY in Japan - has nothing to do with God. It's a commitment of two people to each other, period. The state shouldn't care about the gender of the consenting adults that want to get married.

Re: Takeru Kobayashi Interview: “I’m not gay, I’m Japanese.”

Guest — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:31:34 -0000

Just to clarify, he says later in the interview that he's not gay, that he's hetero and has a girlfriend (who I think from past articles is his "manager" in New York). The "I'm not gay, I'm Japanese" comment was spoken in the context not of evading the question or answering it in the affirmative in a cutesy manner, but rather to say he had nothing against gays and thus wasn't going to answer in a way that implied he might, as "No, I'm *not* gay" would sound.

Re: Sea Shepherd Leader Paul Watson Detained in Germany

Masaffen — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:24:55 -0000

And they are a terrorist organization!