Thousands in Japan claim same address earthtimes.org: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:48:01 GMT , OSAKA, Japan–Japanese authorities are trying to figure out how 3,300 people could all claim a 500-square-foot lot in Osaka as their legal residence. The lot, located in a residential area of the city, has a five-story building on it that contains a day laborer support office …
Let’s do the math.
Ignoring the space needed for walls, elevators, etc…
Five floors of 500 square feet comes to a total 2,500 square feet to be shared by 3,300 people which equals 1.32 people per square foot or 14.2 people per square meter.
Yes, folks…Despite the false impression given to the outside world, Japan has plenty of homeless people. The-rest-of-the-story is that homeless people in Osaka just used this one address to get their residents’ card, which they need to applying for a job or to collect from the national pension system that they paid into for 40 years or their working life.
In Japan, homeless people and day laborers are constantly harassed for “you have no address” and “you have no residential card” which prevents them from applying for a real jobs or receiving any social benefits.
Factory denies Muslim basic human rights The Yomiuri Shimbun Dec 5, 2006– A sewing factory in eastern Japan required an Indonesian Muslim trainee to sign a note promising to forgo praying five times a day and Ramadan fasting as a condition of her employment…The firm also prohibited her from owning a cell phone … exchanging letters domestically, sending money to her family or traveling in vehicles. In addition, she had a curfew of 9 p.m. at her dormitory and was not allowed to invite friends there…more…
These employment terms are on the extreme end of typical Japanese labor contracts. I have been surprised at work with such screwy written oaths (the translation of “note” in the above Yomiuri report is wrong) many times: I have had to sign at various times at work that I would not: drive a car, go skydiving, eat kimchi at work, engage in “severe” political action, and moonlight at another job on the weekends. For younger recruits, there are off-duty dress codes and long lists of “rules.”
However, these employment terms against the practice religion of the “trainee” (slave) is insane. Sadly, I bet the out of court settlement of the this case will amount to a trivial amount such a just one year’s wages –the length of her job contract– and a one-way ticket back to Indonesia, meh.
Viet Nam pimps Putin, Bush & Japanese PM Abe into wearing clown gowns! Check out these pictures of Japanese Prime Minister Abe, Putin of Russia and President Bush in these Zippy fashions.
Zippy the Pinhead did so well as the fashion coordinator last year that his stylings are back for the close of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. This year Viet Nam tricked President Bush and Russia’s Putin as well as Japanese Prime Minister Abe and the rest of the APEC leaders into wearing Zippy’s clown robes.
APEC leaders to shine as they dress up in Vietnamese ao dai Vietnam News Agency.com, 18 Nov 2006, HA NOI —Wearing the Vietnamese traditional dress ao dai, leaders from 21 APEC member economies will line up for a group photo tomorrow at the National Convention Centre in Ha Noi… the dress for APEC leaders has been tailored to a more loose-fitting shape according to the original ao dai style of the olden days.…
The saddest looking places in Japan are its dead-zone playgrounds of concrete and rubble. Cramped and devoid of life, the schoolyards serve as a grim reminder of what the future will hold for students. This green program is amazing change of heart for the Land-of-Concrete(tm), Japan.
Tokyo schoolyards to go green The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov 18, 2006 —The Tokyo metropolitan government has decided to turf the schoolyards of all the capital’s primary and middle schools over the next 10 years… government hopes the move will moderate the so-called heat island phenomenon and provide children with an improved environment for outdoor activities.….more…
Japan’s parliament passes bill to instill school ‘patriotism’ AFP via Yahoo! News, Nov 16, 2006 — Japan’s lower house of parliament passed a bill requiring schools to teach patriotism, a taboo since World War II, despite an opposition boycott and street protests by liberals…more…
I know this sounds very odd to all of you in the Real World. However, there are many Japanese who love their country but think flag waving classes in school is a return to the ultranationalism of imperial Japan and World War Two. Everybody here in Japan hates to think of the f:ck-up of WWII that sent the country on a kamikaze mission and ruin. Japanese critics worry that a legal duty to teach patriotism would override the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of thought and conscience.
In October of 2004, Kunio Yonenaga, a Tokyo education board member who wants mandatory patriotism taught in the schools, told the emperor in a formal meeting— “Making sure that students and teachers raise the rising-sun flag and sing the national anthem at schools across the country is my job. I’m doing my best.” Yonenaga expected encouragement in reply but the emperor hissed back, “It’s not desirable to do it by force.” ‘Nuf said.
“I didn’t want to do this job. I wanted to be… a lumberjack!….”
Tokyo launches cedar pollen reduction project in Tama The Japan Times/Kyodo News, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006—The Tokyo Metropolitan Government started a project Monday to cut down 1.8 million cedar trees in the mountainous Tama region west of Tokyo to help people with cedar pollen allergies….Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara chops a 48-year-old cedar tree during a ceremony to kick off a pollen reduction project in Ome, western Tokyo…more…
Japan has one hell of a hay fever season lasting from late January to mid summer. Pollen-filled cypress and cedar trees release thick clouds of power fine powder which look so much like smoke that it often mistakenly reported as a forest fire. With mega-tons of pollen in the air the majority of Japanese over the age of 30 suffer watery eyes and runny noses.
However, part of the problem is that rapidly aging Japan has lacked enough lumberjacks to harvest these pollen-bearing trees so it will take decades before this cedar pollen reduction project will produce any effect. JAPAN NEEDS MORE LUMBERJACKS…
“I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay / I sleep all night and I work all day….I cut down trees / I skip and jump / like to press wild flowers / I put on women’s clothing / and hang around in bars….” — Watch the YouTube video “Monty Python - Lumberjack Song”
The logo of Yokohama’s Kanagawa prefecture is a penis.
Tokyo’s logo is a good gay companion to Yokohama’s logo: The old Tokyo logo was a puckered anus…
After years of complaints from city workers who had puckered anus logos on their business cards and uniforms, Tokyo –which is a city and a prefecture– changed its logo in 1990 to a leaf of the Tokyo’s official tree, the gingko as well as a stylized “T” of Tokyo . ( 東京 ロゴ)
However, you can see the old puckered anus logo on the covers of most sewer manholes and flying proudly as the formal city flag in the front of the stately Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
Somebody just needs to get in touch with their feminine side
N. Korea leader has diabetes, may make nuke attack on Japan: Nakagawa Kyodo News, Friday October 20, 8:48 PM; TOKYO—- North Korea’s leader could make a nuclear attack on Japan because he suffers from diabetes, ruling Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa said Friday. “One does not do such a thing normally. But because that country’s leader has overeaten luxurious food and suffers from diabetes, he could think about it,” he said in a speech in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, referring to the possibility of North Korea using a nuclear weapon against Japan…more...
The first thing I thought was, “WTF!? Diabetes causes nuke attacks?” All that “Dearest Leader,” Kim Jong-Il, really just needs to get in touch with his feminine side. Generally speaking, I thought that all that diabetes could do mental health-wise is to contribute to depession.
There are plenty of studies that suggest that diabetes doubles the risk of depression. It turns out that Japan policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa is not being glib about a nuclear attack on Japan because Kim Jong-Il suffers from diabetes—the rest-of-the-story on diabetes is not that simple. Psychologically, anger symptoms seem to be common for people with diabetes but it has, “received much less attention in the literature and studies addressing anger have relied on qualitative designs.” Of course, whether or not Kim Jong-Il does have diabetes is only speculation and is whether any of his possible anger is diabetes related. Hmmm, that’s a speculation about speculations of a medically unproven theory.
Yahoo! News UK, REUTERS, September 28, 2006—Actors promoting a Japanese children’s show due to appear in Thailand next week are taken away in a police pick-up truck after posing in front of a tank in Bangkok. Thailand’s military rulers, installed in a coup last week, have banned dancers or actors using tanks as a backdrop.
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Viet Nam pimps Putin, Bush & Japanese PM Abe into wearing clown gowns! Check out these pictures of Japanese Prime Minister Abe, Putin of Russia and President Bush in these Zippy fashions.
( 東京 ロゴ)
