2018-07-30, 03:26 | Link #3661 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Quote:
There's currently a fair amount of angst in Singapore, over the perceived diminishing value of leasehold residential properties. About 90 per cent of Singaporeans are homeowners, thanks to generous government subsidies for public flats, which typically come with 99-year leases. Up until around 2008, such homes could fetch substantially higher resale prices and, as such, they were seen as nearly risk-free retirement assets. But a growing number of young, aspiring home buyers also felt that the housing market had raced out of their reach, and punished the ruling party heavily in the 2011 elections. The government responded by ramping up the supply of new public flats, and introducing stiff property-cooling measures. Prices of resale flats have since stabilised, as a result. But stable prices also mean that these homes are not necessarily as valuable as retirement assets as they used to be. Combine this with the fact that some of the oldest flats in Singapore are now close to 40 years old, and are about halfway through their land leases. This creates the growing anxiety about whether the public flats would retain any value at all, the nearer they get to the end of their lease. |
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2018-07-30, 15:01 | Link #3662 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Quote:
People do rent apartments or houses from their owners, but they hardly ever lease land for residential purposes.
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2018-08-01, 14:36 | Link #3663 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Casinos to come to Japan, but very slowly
Pachinko parlors will face new competition now that the Diet has allowed the establishment of three casinos. But I wouldn't worry too much about Konami; they're busy making slot machines. Quote:
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2018-08-02, 08:37 | Link #3664 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Sounds like the Koreans are facing all the same issues Japan has when it comes to low reproductive rates.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/...t-in-the-world
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2018-08-04, 18:32 | Link #3665 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Japan's middle-aged men hire themselves out
to regain their social status: "Middle-aged men in Japan have begun offering their advice for hire, in a bid to regain their masculinity. Once revered in a male-dominated Japanese society, ’ossan’, middle-aged men, are now struggling to maintain their social standing in the country’s evolving culture. The idea was thought up by Takanobu Nishimoto, 50, who spotted a gap in the market for young people seeking avuncular advice on life’s predicaments but feel unable to turn to their own family. Following the boom of self-employed workers that followed the financial crisis Mr Nishimoto said he founded Ossan Rental service to help older men "regain" their honour. The idea has proved popular, with around 10,000 men applying to the site since its inception." See: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...social-status/ |
2018-08-05, 06:38 | Link #3666 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Tattooed foreign tourists pose problems for onsen owners
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2018-08-05, 22:31 | Link #3667 |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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An old friend of mine recently shared a documentary about life at a Japanese nursing home. It was produced by an independent expatriate film-maker, who lives in Japan with his two children.
He does great work! This is the first of his four videos about homelessness in Japan. It's well worth a watch. You can find his other documentaries here. |
2018-08-18, 08:10 | Link #3668 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Fashion retailing for the twenty-first century
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2018-09-24, 23:14 | Link #3669 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
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New Super Mario Bros. U's Peachette Leads to 'Bowsette' Trend on Twitter:
"One thing led to another, and this new figure known as "Princess Bowser" in Japanese has taken the internet by storm, ranking at least as high as the #4 trending term on Twitter. She has mostly become known as "Bowsette" in English, and although fellow fans have created many variations, @ayyk92's original depiction of Bowsette as a horned blonde in a black dress is most popular. The original Bowsette tweet has received more than 70,000 retweets and 160,000 likes so far. Capitalizing on the trend, many other Twitter users have contributed their own versions of Bowsette, some pulling in inspiration from various Mario Bros. games." See: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...witter/.137244 & https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...e-meme/.137287 Last edited by AnimeFan188; 2018-09-25 at 23:25. |
2018-10-16, 09:39 | Link #3670 | |
ぼっち
Author
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Quote:
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2018-11-04, 14:29 | Link #3671 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Only seven Japanese women have won their nation's golf championship, the Japan Open, in its 43-year history. Today they were joined by 19-yo phenom Hataoka Nasa. Three women tied for second, two of them Japanese -- the veteran Ueda Mamoko and 23-yo Nagamine Saki.
The victory puts Hataoka in fourth place in the season-long "Race to the CME Globe" which gives her an advantage over players ranked below five when the final tournament is played in a couple of weeks. It was her second victory on the LPGA Tour this year. She picked up $225,000, a new Mercedes, and a pearl necklace. Hataoka-san has now earned over $1.4 million on the Tour this year alone. |
2018-11-06, 11:09 | Link #3672 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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A disturbing story in today's Times.
Suicides Among Japanese Children Reach Highest Level in 3 Decades https://nyti.ms/2D52sQW
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2018-11-12, 21:12 | Link #3673 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Despite depopulation, less than 15% in Japan feel local communities should accept foreign workers
Quote:
I find it interesting that it's the communities themselves that are calling for deregulation of Japan's agricultural sector, but I would be more careful about deregulating forestry and fisheries, to prevent over-exploitation. But on a national level, there's no escaping the fact that the Japanese economy is doomed to shrink, as no amount of productivity gain is going to make up for the persistent loss of population, and hence labour. Last edited by TinyRedLeaf; 2018-11-12 at 21:25. |
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2018-11-15, 13:02 | Link #3674 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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A recurring visual theme in Japanese media is the drop of water falling into a still pool and creating concentric circles. It's quite common in anime and appears, I've discovered, in live-action programs as well. Sometimes it's a single drop, sometimes as in the NHK's intriguing Yae no Sakura which I'm currently watching, it is drops of rain. Does anyone know why this image is so common? Does it have some symbolic meaning?
(Yae no Sakura was the NHK's Taiga drama for 2013. It follows the life of Yamamoto Yae (1843-1932), a young woman from an Aizu gunnery family who forces her father and brother to allow her to learn how to shoot a rifle. Later she uses that skill to help defend Aizu from the Choshu-Satsuma forces during the Boshin War that led to the Meiji Restoration. It stars Ayase Haruka in the title role, whom some of you may recognize from her performance as Balsa during the 2016-2018 NHK live-action version of the Moribito novels.)
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2018-11-23, 08:43 | Link #3675 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Tweet thread about travelling in Japan by American journalist Josh Barro.
https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/10...166570496?s=09 Like Josh I never understood "Bump of Chicken" either. "Lump" would make sense, but "bump?"
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2018-12-20, 23:07 | Link #3676 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Japan's Christmas KFC tradition was started, possibly, with a lie
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2019-02-02, 12:03 | Link #3677 | |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Japan’s Working Mothers: Record Responsibilities, Little Help from Dads
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2019-02-14, 21:21 | Link #3678 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Tokyo to ban physical punishment and verbal abuse of children
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2019-02-17, 18:51 | Link #3679 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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Currently airing on BBC World News, Mariko Oi investigates Japanese working life.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3ct5gsk One company with a day-care center, another with a mulitnational workforce all speaking English.
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2019-03-13, 11:20 | Link #3680 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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This story is just so sad and heartbreaking on so many levels.
Evaporated People Every year, nearly 100,000 Japanese vanish without a trace. They are known as johatsu, or "evaporated people". What drives them to engineer their own disappearances? Quote:
Last edited by TinyRedLeaf; 2019-03-13 at 12:10. Reason: Fixed some typos. |
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Tags |
culture, discussion, japan, japanese culture |
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