Japanese Culture

[AnimeFan188]

Abandon Hope All Ye Tried in Japan:

"Japan’s criminal justice system has a stunning 99 per cent conviction rate (which
gives ironic new meaning to the sobriquet “the one percent”), and that could be
because it’s just so wonderfully efficient. But, no. Five years after an effort at major
reforms began, it’s clear that those stats have less to do with efficient law
enforcement than with forced confessions, trumped up charges, professional judges
who have no common sense, and gross prosecutorial misconduct."

See:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-in-japan.html

[deathcoy]

Does stuffing spring onion up the butt really helps in curing fever?

I've always wondered. First time i saw this cure is from anime...

[Zakoo]

Hello shokun, so well I will go work at a lab next year in Japan and I will meet my future chief in August. I heard and read that japeneses often offer presents, should I follow the custom and give something ?

In the case it's yes, the person a woman, probably in her fourties -probably-.

What could I offer ? They say japenese women don't put perfume ( true? ), and I don't see myself offering wine, feels weird, so I have my two national french treasures sealed off right at the beginning.

Foods maybe ? Nutella works on everybody, but still weird. Maybe foie gras, chocolate or champagne?

Last idea, sweets, nougat or things like that, what do you think?

Thanks in advance saviors.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Zakoo

Hello shokun, so well I will go work at a lab next year in Japan and I will meet my future chief in August. I heard and read that japeneses often offer presents, should I follow the custom and give something ?

In the case it's yes, the person a woman, probably in her fourties -probably-.

What could I offer ? They say japenese women don't put perfume ( true? ), and I don't see myself offering wine, feels weird, so I have my two national french treasures sealed off right at the beginning.

Foods maybe ? Nutella works on everybody, but still weird. Maybe foie gras, chocolate or champagne?

Last idea, sweets, nougat or things like that, what do you think?

Thanks in advance saviors.

Just act like a stereotypical Frenchman and she might cosplay as a ninja maid complete with a whip for you.

[JINNSK]

Originally Posted by deathcoy

Does stuffing spring onion up the butt really helps in curing fever?

I've always wondered. First time i saw this cure is from anime...

It's an old superstition though the recent youth doesn't know it.Correctly,it is wrapping spring onion around one's neck
Sticking it into xxx is a joke to ridicule a person doesn't know the old custom.

[SeijiSensei]

Why is Frozen so popular in Japan?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...-japan/373714/

Undoubtedly, Japanese audiences are responding to the same qualities that have turned Frozen into a global phenomenon. Not only is the music catchy, but the story is morally nuanced enough that adults seem to enjoy it as well as children. And then there’s the fact that Frozen revolves around the relationship between strong, commanding female characters who defy the “Disney princess” stereotype (even though they technically are monarchs).

That latter point is what makes Frozen‘s unexpected popularity—particularly among Japanese women—so striking.

Maybe it's the feminism; maybe it's the music. The reporter also discusses Abe's push to expand the number of women in the Japanese workforce. Apparently he wants to increase the percentage of female managers in the Japanese central government from 3% to 30% by 2020. Where are they going to find all those women in just six years?

Viewers of Welcome to the NHK! may recall how unhappy Kashiwa was with her treatment as a civil servant.

[AnimeFan188]

Japanese bullet train features foot baths:

"A Japanese train operator has unveiled two foot baths, each big enough for four
people. Another car of the train features a bar."

See:

http://www.today.com/video/today/55551714

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Why is Frozen so popular in Japan?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...-japan/373714/

I'm impressed that it surpassed even Princess Mononoke in box-office sales.

Spirited Away remains firmly on top, though. I've always felt that it's Hayao Miyazaki's strongest movie by far.

But imagine that: An American 3-D cartoon has trumped one of the most popular anime movies of all time, in the country that's supposed to show that 2-D is better than 3-D.

If that doesn't alarm the anime industry, I don't know what else would.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Maybe it's the feminism; maybe it's the music.

Frankly, I think the music, as well as the voices of Takako Matsu (Elsa) and Sayaka Kanda (Anna), played the bigger role.

I especially like Kanda's voice. She literally reminds me of Kristine Bell. And Matsu is a huge name in Japan. She's one of the most popular actresses in J-Drama and she's been in show business since at least the late 90s. (I didn't know she could sing!)

YouTube

https://youtu.be/7xQNGI527ng

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Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

The reporter also discusses Abe's push to expand the number of women in the Japanese workforce. Apparently he wants to increase the percentage of female managers in the Japanese central government from 3% to 30% by 2020. Where are they going to find all those women in just six years?

They're already there. They're ready to go back to work, any time... if they can get affordable childcare. As for the glass ceiling and the existing chauvinism, that won't change before more women can afford to stay employed.

And let's face it: Japan's not alone in this problem. Women in corporate America's highest echelons don't find it any easier.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

They're already there. They're ready to go back to work, any time... if they can get affordable childcare. As for the glass ceiling and the existing chauvinism, that won't change before more women can afford to stay employed.

I guess it depends on what is meant by "central government managers." I looked this morning for articles in English that present data on the size of the Japanese civil service. Most of the information is fairly out-of-date, especially since privatization. Nevertheless it looks like we're talking about 200,000-300,000 bureaucrats if we take a broad view but exclude the post office and the military, according to Wiki the two largest organizations.

If we suppose that "managers" make up a fifth of these people, say 50,000 employees, then increasing the share of women from 3% to 30% would mean recruiting some 14,000 people. Normal turnover and retirements are unlikely to open up that many places in just six years. Would these new recruits displace current male placeholders or be added on? If the latter, then the number of women required would rise to about 20,000 recruits.

I'm not sure I know what you mean when you say the women are already "there." Are you suggesting there's a large pool of unemployed women with professional credentials who have left the workforce to have children and raise a family and are now ready to return? How many of these women have the degrees and training required to jump into managerial roles in a very hierarchical and inbred organization? And how many of them are likely to break into the ranks of the "elite corps," the 10,000 or so bureaucrats most responsible for public policy? Women who leave the workforce in this country to raise families find it very hard to return to positions similar in rank and responsibility to the ones they left behind a decade or more earlier. I would imagine 45-yo Japanese professional women who have been out of the workforce since their late 20's would face similiar problems.

One other problem of such "affirmative action" programs is getting the current incumbents to accept their new colleagues as peers. I could see a number of newly-recruited women becoming quickly disillusioned in the face of resentment from their male colleagues and, perhaps even more, from underlings suddenly required to take direction from a newly-appointed female boss.

I'm not saying this is impossible, but I'm still dubious we could see such a massive change in just six years. Childcare is certainly an issue, but it's hardly the only one.

[Magin]

I'm not sure if this question has been answered before in here (since I'd rather not go through all the pages of this thread), but I'm curious: I understand that if you go as a visitor to japan and only temporarily stay there, then the Japanese will treat you very courteously as a guest... but then if you decide to make Japan your country of residence, the xenophobia kicks in and they go from friendly to hostile. How much truth is there to this, especially the latter part?

[Zakoo]

Without knowing anything about it, I guess it depends from where you come.
For US, it's mexican people, for Europe it's African people, for Japan it's probably other countries around it.

They should change their mentality in a decade or so-so when the average age will be 70 years old.

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by Magin

I'm not sure if this question has been answered before in here (since I'd rather not go through all the pages of this thread),

You can also try the search function of the forum

Originally Posted by Magin

but I'm curious: I understand that if you go as a visitor to japan and only temporarily stay there, then the Japanese will treat you very courteously as a guest... but then if you decide to make Japan your country of residence, the xenophobia kicks in and they go from friendly to hostile. How much truth is there to this, especially the latter part?

Now to the question, as Zakoo said, in this respect Japan is no different than any other country. But let me add that Japan has very few foreigners, in addition to being a populous country with limited contact with foreign cultures outside immigrants and expatriates (like United States, France, etc). It is hard to distinguish as a foreigner, cultural unfamiliarity, misunderstanding, xenophobia and racism. Another thing is how the perception of the foreigner changes the longer he stays in her host country.

[SeijiSensei]

The Strange Odyssey of Marty Friedman

How the lead guitarist for metal band Megadeth moved to Japan to play J-Pop.

So in 1999 Friedman quit his gig to make the kind of music that he was passionate about. Which, it turns out, was arguably the opposite of heavy metal: Japanese pop music, or J-Pop. It's high-pitched, desperately catchy and what Friedman calls "embarrassingly happy."

That, he says, was the point.

"There's not a whole lot of happy music going on," he says. "Especially in the heavy metal world, where everybody's just trying to out-lame each other, you know, with darkness and monsters and crap like that."

The other thing that drew him to the music was its hidden complexity. Friedman says the best J-pop songs are far more daring in terms of chord choices, song structure and key changes compared to Megadeth's hits. And yet, you'd never know it on first listen.

Here he is backing Momoiro Clover Z: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpm...en-no-ai_music

[Hero of the day]

Seems to me Marty is still bitter towards Dave. Really, dissing on a toute le monde? about not being 'happy' or 'melodic' at that, it supposed to be a song about suicide anyway. The main riff itself is already melodic and surprisingly 'cheery' if you ask me.

I'm not really hating on Marty he's actually my favorite guitarist, but whenever he's talking about Megadeth I can sense a hint of bitterness as if he's holding a grudge or whatever. Anyway linking some of my favorite tracks of his solo career which I actually prefer than Megadeth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Fd6dVYBjM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puvDOktm76Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiIx4gWUEBk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHFIG0SgMDw

The solo in Rio still freaking amazes me till this day. His best solo in my opinion. His Japanese covers are good too you probably heard of his little braver cover from angel beats, I'm not just too fond of the percussions in his Tokyo Jukebox albums.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I guess it depends on what is meant by "central government managers."

My mistake. I was thinking about the Japanese workforce as a whole and overlooked your comment about central government measures.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Are you suggesting there's a large pool of unemployed women with professional credentials who have left the workforce to have children and raise a family and are now ready to return?

Yes, I believe so. The figures (tables I-1 and I-2) strongly suggest that far too many Japanese women leave the workforce after getting married and having children.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

How many of these women have the degrees and training required to jump into managerial roles in a very hierarchical and inbred organization? And how many of them are likely to break into the ranks of the "elite corps," the 10,000 or so bureaucrats most responsible for public policy? Women who leave the workforce in this country to raise families find it very hard to return to positions similar in rank and responsibility to the ones they left behind a decade or more earlier. I would imagine 45-yo Japanese professional women who have been out of the workforce since their late 20's would face similiar problems.

I'm afraid all of those are speculative questions that few, if anyone, has done research on. It'll be very hard to define the scope of any study into such areas. How is a survey respondent supposed to answer? You could ask a woman in the workforce how she feels about her prospects about moving up the corporate ranks, but to what extent would her opinion be an accurate reflection of the reality?

In the meantime, government will have to do what it can to monitor concrete figures of women in managerial positions, and adjust its policies accordingly. I'd say that Abe's "Shine" campaign is a step in the right direction.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

One other problem of such "affirmative action" programs is getting the current incumbents to accept their new colleagues as peers. I could see a number of newly-recruited women becoming quickly disillusioned in the face of resentment from their male colleagues and, perhaps even more, from underlings suddenly required to take direction from a newly-appointed female boss.

Again, it's a chicken-and-egg problem. Chauvinism and misogyny remain rampant in corporate Japan mainly because women are so poorly represented in management. The first and most urgent priority would be to get the women back into the workforce. They would then have the strength in numbers to bring about substantive change.

More importantly, there are encouraging signs that attitudes are changing. The massive public backlash against the LDP lawmakers who heckled Ms Ayaka Shiomura being a case in point. The way I see it, the only way forward is to capitalise on this momentum. Keep pushing it, allowing it to snowball into critical mass.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Childcare is certainly an issue, but it's hardly the only one.

Of course it isn't the only issue. But it's the one that would likely bring the most potential benefit in the short to medium term. Someone has to take care of the kids: If not a parent or a member of the extended family, then it has to be childcare services. Singapore itself is only now beginning to tackle the same issue — the setting up more preschool services, both public and private — in the past three years. For us, the prime motive is tackling our dismal birth rates, but that's closely related to the issue of whether women feel they can progress in their careers without sacrificing their families.

[AnimeFan188]

Feral Parrots of Tokyo Are a Spooky Presence Flocking Above:

"Birds are a traditional subject of nature photography, and usually are seen as
specimens of beauty. But the parrots that soar and roost around Tokyo are
portrayed in the work of Yoshinori Mizutani quite differently.

The birds, actually parakeets, are not native to Tokyo. They were originally imported
in large quantities as pets in the 1960s, and since have spawned feral flocks that
inhabit the surrounding areas. Mizutani's images, shot with a flash, often at
nighttime, are off-kilter and frenetic, reflecting the conflicted relationship of the
foreign species to the surrounding urban environment. It's a stark contrast to the
pristine, action-freezing conventions of wildlife photography."

See:

http://reframe.gizmodo.com/feral-par...70738/+barrett

[GDiddy]

Stay safe for whoever's in Japan...the super typhoon Neoguri's coming...

[AnimeFan188]

Japan plans giant Gundam robot:

"A team of Japanese animators and engineers on Wednesday unveiled plans to
build a moving 18-metre (60-foot) tall Gundam robot, in a nod to millions of science
fiction fans.

The "Mobile Suit Gundam" anime series first aired in Japan in 1979, and spin-offs
featuring robots locked in intergalactic battles have won legions of enthusiastic fans
in Asia, Europe and elsewhere.

In 2009, the 30th anniversary of the show saw an 18-metre-tall Gundam statue
erected in a Tokyo park."


"Now, the plan is to give a new giant Gundam some moves, and organisers are
calling on the public for ideas about how to make it happen."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-plans-gi...100919475.html


So, now they want to make one that moves. I wonder what comes next?

[SeijiSensei]

Japan enters the era of smartphones and 'dumbwalking'

Japan has been a late adopter when it comes to smartphones, but it's catching up quickly - already more than half the population owns one. But Tokyo is a crowded city, and warnings are being issued about the risk of mass collisions among phone-using pedestrians at one busy crossing [Shibuya].

Recently the Japanese mobile giant NTT Docomo released a simulation of what would happen there if everyone crossing was doing the smartphone walk.

There would be more than 400 collisions every time, it said, and most likely just 36% of people would get across. Orderly Japanese society as we know it, would be at an end.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Tokyo Station celebrates 100 years with anime short film

Tokyo (July 16, Wed): It's been 100 years since the opening of Tokyo Station. For many people, it's more than just a rail hub, it's a symbol of the city and the lives of those who live in and around it.

With just about everyone in Japan's capital passing through sooner or later, Tokyo Station serves as the backdrop for a lot of nostalgic memories, not to mention some life-changing events for workers and travelers alike. So it's fitting that the anime made to commemorate Tokyo Station's 100th birthday is filled with both comforting looks back at the past and hopeful expectations for the future.

Commissioned by Tokyo Station City, the shopping, dining, and entertainment complex attached to the station, the five-minute short was produced by A-1 Pictures, which has been involved with such fan favorites as Big Windup!, Black Butler, Fairy Tail, Blue Exorcist, and Sword Art Online.

ROCKETNEWS24

YouTube

https://youtu.be/b0HGHsRwNd0

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