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Old 2018-05-27, 10:03   Link #3641
SeijiSensei
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
Statistics on the tourism boom (article cited today by Fareed Zakaria on CNN)

https://qz.com/1283090/going-to-japa...dented-levels/

Quote:
From 1995 to 2012, the annual number of tourists going to Japan increased from 3.3 million to 8.4 million, a growth rate of about 6% each year.

And then, the deluge.

In its most recent report, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that about 28.7 million tourists visited Japan in 2017. This increase, a change of more than 20 million over just five years, is the largest ever recorded by the organization, which keeps statistics going back to 1995.

It is likely the largest increase in tourists, in absolute numbers, a country has ever seen.
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Old 2018-06-03, 04:59   Link #3642
TinyRedLeaf
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Why are marriages in decline in East Asia?
Quote:
Hong Kong (June 3, 2018): Declining marriage rates are being seen around the world, but it is perhaps in the ageing societies of Asia that the growing number of singletons is worrying parents — and governments — the most.

While parallels of fewer marriages and plunging birth rates can be found in all East Asian societies, the broad trends almost always started in Japan.

It is not for the lack of trying. Studies suggest that many Japanese singletons still want to get married. When Japan experienced rapid economic growth in the 80s and 90s, men were a lot more enthusiastic about courting women. However, two decades of economic stagnation changed the game for young men.

CHANNEL NEWSASIA
The usual socio-economic reasons were cited. But a few points were new and surprising to me:
1) When Asians don't marry, they tend not to have children. In Britain, close to 50 per cent of new babies are now born out of wedlock. The figure is just 2.3 per cent in Japan, 1.9 per cent in Korea.

2) 51 per cent of single mothers in Japan live in poverty, and one in seven says she cannot afford basic necessities like food at least from time to time. The policy of requiring single mothers to work befuddles experts. The rate of poverty doesn't change very much even when the mothers are working, because of the weak position women occupy in the labour market.

3) Starting in the 90s, commercial marriage brokers took single Korean men to Vietnam to look for a spouse. For Korea though, it was an affront to the country's identity. The idea that being pure-blooded Korean is superior still lingers, and often means children of mixed heritage become targets of bullies.


On point (1), I'd say it's not as though single East Asian men and women aren't indulging in casual sex. They're no different from people in other urbanised and industrialised countries. But I'm amazed that so many more children are born out of wedlock in Britain, which either means contraceptives are being used more regularly in comparable East Asian countries (I doubt that), or that the rate of casual sex in East Asia is dramatically lower than I'd imagine.

On point (2), this passage on a single Japanese mother reminded me of Hana of Wolf Children:
Quote:
Masami Onishi, 24, works nine hours a day, six days a week to make US$800 a month. Having a full-time job is also a prerequisite for her to receive some government welfare. Though never married, she wears a wedding ring. "When I didn't wear the ring, strangers would come up and tell my girls that they had no father. It hurt them badly," she said.
And on point (3), well, today I learnt it's not just the Japanese who are hung up over their "pure race" mentality.
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Old 2018-06-03, 06:20   Link #3643
Dextro
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
On point (1), I'd say it's not as though single East Asian men and women aren't indulging in casual sex. They're no different from people in other urbanised and industrialised countries. But I'm amazed that so many more children are born out of wedlock in Britain, which either means contraceptives are being used more regularly in comparable East Asian countries (I doubt that), or that the rate of casual sex in East Asia is dramatically lower than I'd imagine.
You miss one very big point. In western societies it has become completely acceptable for a couple to live together and raise a child without ever getting married. For effects of this statistic then those children would be born out of wedlock but not out of a conventional family. It also seems that, thanks in part to the poor economic state of modern young adults in general but also to growing disinterest, more and more people are forgoing officially tying the knot (in the west at least).

For asian societies on the other hand, you get your answer to this right on the article you linked:

Quote:
Yet nothing seems to help. Marriage rates continue to slump across East Asia. It’s a pressing issue because in Confucian societies, no marriage often means no children, which could threaten a country's economic prospects and, arguably, its survival.
If most of your society views it as a moral mandate to not have children out of wedlock and if time, economics and other societal factors keep prevent people from getting married then you get plummeting birthrate. The only way you fix that is either by changing the accepted viewpoint to not having children being ok out of wedlock or to have an economic boom like in the 80s where people can just thrown themselves with reckless abandon into big life decisions
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Old 2018-06-12, 08:17   Link #3644
TwilightsCall
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I'm curious about the case of this Japanese single mother. If the numbers cited there are accurate, that means she is being paid less than half of the minimum wage. I have to assume that there's something else going on in that situation, otherwise...I don't know, it's just a baffling scenario to deal with.

Not that in her case bumping her to the minimum wage would solve the problem. I could certainly make do where I am now on $1600 a month by myself, but with two kids? That might be pushing it a little. I could see that plus government assistance being manageable though, if not particularly luxurious.
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Old 2018-06-14, 18:14   Link #3645
SeijiSensei
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Koshien never looked like this!

YouTube
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Old 2018-06-14, 20:41   Link #3646
Toukairin
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Wrestling is all about lots of theatrics in Japan, even a lot more than in North America. I really enjoyed that video.
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Old 2018-06-14, 22:35   Link #3647
AnimeFan188
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Prize-Winning ‘Shoplifters’: Japan’s PM Hates
This Movie Because It’s Just Too True:


"Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for "Shoplifters,”
a critically acclaimed family drama about a poverty-stricken quasi-family that
manages to eke out a living via petty larceny and fraud. The film is now playing
widely in Japan, but there were moments when it looked like it wouldn’t. Japanese
film distributors often shun anything with political connotations, and the government
here just hates this movie.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been working for years to promote “Cool Japan” and
anything Japanese or anyone Japanese, that does well. Everyone expected the
director would at least get a congratulatory call from the ever-opportunistic Abe.
Instead, Kore-eda has been more or less snubbed by the prime minister and reviled
by Abe’s cronies and ideological allies.

What is it about this heart-warming film that gets the cold shoulder from the ruling
class?"

See:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/prize-...-true?ref=home
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Old 2018-06-19, 12:42   Link #3648
SeijiSensei
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Japan hands Colombia a loss at the World Cup

Quote:
Scoring multiple goals for only the fourth time in 18 World Cup matches, Japan stunned Colombia, one of the darlings from the 2014 World Cup, with a 2-1 victory in their Group H match Tuesday in Saransk. The win was the first for an Asian team against a South American team in 18 World Cup meetings.
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Old 2018-06-21, 09:12   Link #3649
TinyRedLeaf
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Also at the World Cup:
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Quote:
After their team swept Colombia off the pitch, Japanese fans also did their share of sweeping: meticulously cleaning up their rows and seats in the stadium.

Equipped with large rubbish bags they brought along, the fans marched through the rows picking up rubbish, to leave the place just as neat as they had found it.

"Cleaning up after football matches is an extension of basic behaviours that are taught in school, where the children clean their school classrooms and hallways," explains Scott North, professor of sociology at Osaka University.

"With constant reminders throughout childhood, these behaviours become habits for much of the population."
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Old 2018-06-23, 01:58   Link #3650
AnimeFan188
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Quarter of Japanese workers confess they want to kill their boss:

"More than one-quarter of the Japanese workers taking part in a survey admitted that
the thought of killing their boss had crossed their mind on at least one occasion,
underlining the stresses that employees here are often under.

Fully 27 percent of the 1,006 men and women aged between 20 and 69 who
responded to the recent survey by Shirabee confessed to having had homicidal
thoughts towards a superior - with younger people in particular expressing sympathy
for the frustrations and anger that are apparently bubbling just beneath the surface in
many Japanese companies.

“I would never kill anyone, but I can understand why so many people are driven to
the brink by the way they are treated by their companies”, said Mayao Shibata, a
translator from Tokyo.

“I worked part-time in a high-end bistro in central Tokyo for a while and the manager
was himself a frustrated 30-something employee who simply did not like me because I
was at a good university and going places”, she told The Telegraph. “He made my life
miserable; nothing I ever did was good enough.

“If he treated a man like that, then I can imagine things could get violent”, she
added."

See:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ant-kill-boss/
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Old 2018-06-24, 07:39   Link #3651
Dextro
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf View Post
I'm genuinely impressed
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Old 2018-06-24, 14:48   Link #3652
SeijiSensei
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Me, too.

So by my understanding, if Senegal goes on to beat Colombia in Group H, then Japan will get through even if they lose to Poland. Senegal will have seven points, Japan four, and Colombia three. If Senegal and Colombia tie, then Japan has to tie Poland to guarantee an advance. If Japan loses, then some kind of tie-breaking process would happen, right? Colombia is currently +2 in scoring, to +1 for Japan, though that could easily change at the end of the round. Is that how it's decided? Does it matter that Japan beat Colombia head-to-head in their match?

Why is it "samurai blue?"

I know I can look this stuff up

And now for ten minutes of Japanese people cheering and jumping off bridges.

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Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2018-06-24 at 15:09.
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Old 2018-06-24, 18:10   Link #3653
Toukairin
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I was in a top sports bar in Montreal today, and I would say that 75% of the place was filled with Japanese fans. It was incredible to see that many people of Japanese descent in Montreal when one might think they are not that many in town.

With the way Colombia have played against Poland today, I think they can and will defeat Senegal by at least 2 goals. If that's the case, goal difference would be lower for Senegal than Japan's. With the way Poland have played, they are probably crushed right now. My guess is that Poland will send its reserves against Japan, and Japan can actually beat them if they keep attacking as often as they did today while scoring when it matters.
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Old 2018-06-25, 21:34   Link #3654
TinyRedLeaf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei View Post
Why is it "samurai blue?"
I assume you've probably found your answer by now, as it took only 5min of Googlefu on my part.

The interesting answer is that no one knows why the Japan men's football team stuck with a blue-and-white uniform. They apparently adopted those colours after the Second World War, and stuck with it by tradition. Someone speculated that it's possibly because of an aversion to a red jersey, as red in immediate post-war Japan was associated with communism.

The Samurai Blue tag came more recently (the women's team are Nadeshiko Japan, despite also wearing blue-and-white; the nadeshiko flower is pink). If I remember correctly, I first heard of "Samurai Blue" during the World Cup jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan in 2002 (which, incidentally, was when the international media first became aware of the Japanese penchant for cleaning stadiums after matches), but it may have been used even before then.

South Korea under Dutch coach Guus Hiddink were an exciting team to watch during the 2002 tournament (they ended up fourth overall). Japan did not fare as well — they made it past the group stage, but were knocked out in the round-of-16. Still, as it was the first time Japan ever played in a World Cup final, they were a regional team to root for during the first and only "Asian" World Cup so far.
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Old 2018-06-30, 13:28   Link #3655
SeijiSensei
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Nasa blasts off!

Nineteen-year-old Hataoka Nasa clobbered the competition in last weekend's Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament in Arkansas picking up a cool $300,000 in the process. She shot -21 over three days and won by fully six strokes. A couple of weeks earlier she made a hole-in-one and won a car as a prize. Nasa has earned over $600,000 so far in 2018; last year she won about $35,000. Not bad for a nineteen-year-old.
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Old 2018-07-04, 23:44   Link #3656
TinyRedLeaf
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A 'Japanese tip': the origami art left by diners
Quote:
Kyoto (July 5, 2018): Yuki Tatsumi was waiting tables at an izakaya pub in Japan's Kyoto when something on the table caught his eye: a chopstick wrapper folded and fiddled into an abstract shape.

It was the catalyst for a collection that now includes some 15,000 pieces of found "origami art" made by customers folding the paper sleeves that cover chopsticks at Japanese restaurants.

"The very first one I found just looked like a bit of junk," 27-year-old Tatsumi admitted, but it made him think.

"What if this is a message for me from customers? Cleaning tables suddenly became something fun, just by thinking about it that way."

Tipping at restaurants is not standard in Japan, but Tatsumi came to see the little folded paper pieces left behind by customers as a "Japanese tip", and started watching out for different types.

He soon found there was a huge variety in the pieces left behind by customers, perhaps no surprise in a country where origami is a popular hobby and taught at schools.

"Japan is a very wealthy country, where you can find something to eat anywhere at any time, but I think people are becoming less appreciative of what they have or who makes the food," said Tatsumi.

"Cash isn't the only way to show your warm feelings."

AFP
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Old 2018-07-25, 22:52   Link #3657
AnimeFan188
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Sex robots being blamed for turning Japanese
people into ‘endangered species’:


"According to experts, popularity of love dolls and sex robots might be to blame for
Japan's declining birth rate with one scientist even claiming that Japanese people had
become "an endangered species" as the nation falls in love with silicon women.

The worrying trend of sex doll addiction has been revealed in an RT documentary called
Substitutes that focuses on how life-size love dolls – fake versions of women with silicon
vaginas—are fuelling “a national mood of loneliness and alienation.”"

See:

https://deccanchronicle.com/lifestyl...-endanger.html
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Old 2018-07-25, 23:44   Link #3658
Toukairin
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Where is the good old-fashioned way to teach on human interactions nowadays? Having those love dolls and sex robots available is such a disgrace.
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Old 2018-07-28, 07:58   Link #3659
SeijiSensei
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Japanese young adults more content than preceding generations, but perhaps too content?

Quote:
[Sociologist Noritoshi] Furuichi believes that one reason why young people are becoming more satisfied with their current lives is precisely because they see little to look forward to. They focus on enjoying the here and now. According to a survey in 2013, only two-thirds of Japanese 13- to 29-year-olds thought they would be happy when they are 40, compared with over 80% in six other developed countries.

Yohei Harada of the Youth Research Centre at Hakuhodo, an advertising firm, has a rosier view. He calls today’s young men and women the satori sedai, or enlightened generation, meaning that Buddha-like, they eschew big aspirations and seek happiness in simple things. That may indeed be the path to nirvana.
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Old 2018-07-29, 06:26   Link #3660
SeijiSensei
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The Surprisingly Short Life of a Japanese House

Quote:
According to Nomura, a brokerage, the value of the average Japanese house depreciates to zero in 22 years. (It is calculated separately from the land, which is more likely to hold its value.) Most are knocked down and rebuilt. Sales of new homes far outstrip those of used ones, which usually change hands in the expectation that they will be demolished and replaced. In America and Europe second-hand houses accounted for 90% of sales and new-builds for 10% in 2017. In Japan the proportions are the other way around.
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