JRO comments

Problem is that it's learning on our stuff to replace us at what ever we are currently doing to make a living. All this to transfer the money we are making to a few rich elites. Training on unlicensed content should absolutely not be legal, that's basically getting a non exclusive resell license to our content for free. I actually do have a contract where a company is allowed to train on some of my content which they pay for, which I'm totally okay with, every person part of the process need to be paid, otherwise it doesn't work.

Even then at some point there will be a need for some type of UBI, not everyone can become a plumber.

All so lazy people can pretend they are artists or writers, biggest waste of resources since crypto.

Please stop being so passive, they don't listen to anything but action, just go get rid of it. These statements just makes them more confident no one will stope them, and they will continue to escalate it until most people just assumes it belongs to China.

Honestly, I haven't seen anyone who cares about Michelin ratings outside of Japan, and Michelin must be laughing itself all the way to the bank.

I mean people do at least know about it, but usually it just ends up being a reason to avoid it because it's probably expensive :P.

But feels like there are a lot of international rankings that are a way bigger deal here in Japan then it is in other countries, like I didn't even know what Unesco world heritage sites was before I came here in 2004, but here there was like articles about it almost every week during that period, whether certain places would be approved etc and that Japan has the most out of any country. Never really was a thing where I was born, and when I looked it up in my own country an old mine 100m away from the house I grew up in was on the list, even then no one talked about it.

I think as mentioned above, friendly and polite is two different things, but I honestly prefer polite over friendly when it comes to hotels, not there to hang out with the staff. The good thing about the service industry in Japan is that you can go to a 1 - 3 star hotel and get the same kind of polite attitude as you would at a 5 star hotel. In most countries if you go to a 1 - 3 star hotel the politeness and service drop with the rating, in the case of France the politeness of staff is probably worse at a 5 star hotel than at a Japanese 1 star hotel, at least if you don't speak french.

Japan is not a poor country (at least not yet)... what is happening right now is that Japan was an extreemly wealthy country that has become above average wealthy country (it is still in the top 5 World economies).

Saying that Japan is a poor country is basically slandering and even extremistic... by that you either are in the top 3 or you are nothing (so 192 countries are nothing)

Stop looking at GDP as an indicator of how individuals in a country are doing. GDP per capita is what you want to base that on, there you will find Japan on rank 38, currently a couple of ranks below South Korea. At the top you will see countries like Norway and Luxemburg, The US is currently at 8.

In response to why foreign companies do this and not Japanese. Many foreign countries see value in individual ability, might not mean much at Costco, but overall Japanese companies just see a job as a position to fill, as long as the person has the credentials they should be able to do the exact same job as the person before them, that's how most companies here see it. In other countries you can have the same position but one person can make more than double the salary, because they know they can't easily replace the skills of that person.

We encountered this problem when we tried to hire skilled/famous programmers & artists from abroad, after being told we needed foreign expertise and were asked to look around. Of course the asking salary will be more than 4 times the salary of a Japanese in the same position. Management insisted that we should send them an offer off 3 times less than they are currently making. Most Japanese companies don't pay for skills, they pay for the amount of years you are at a company and how old you are and just expect skilled people to fall in line, that's why they are failing on the global market.

The answer lies in who's relatives owns or have money invested in these construction companies, I'd say I would be very surprised if there is no connection to those making these decisions.

I think the main issue is that 90% of foreign tourists mainly just go to 3 spots, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and even within those cities most go to the same few spots. There are so much to see in Japan but everyone just knows of those places, if it was more spread out it would be less noticeable even with an increase.

Definitely is though, I can use one of those apps to make something that sounds good enough to be mistaken for something made by a professional. Or I can just feed a famous song into it and have it launder it to be different enough to not break the copyright threshold, and I have absolutely no musical background.

Ultimately anything made with gAI devalues the content in that industry, it might take money from the real creators directly through sales or it makes it harder to find the real content by flooding the marketplaces. In the end the only one that will make money from gAI is the ones that runs the services, the unskilled and lazy people jumping on gAI thinking they now have a shot at making money by pressing a button don't understand that if someone as unskilled and lazy as they can do it, what stops the person living on $1 a day from doing it. When anyone can do something only the ones that already have money and an audience will be able to stick out.

This wasn't an armed attack by any measure - actually a maritime coast guard safety-enforcement action relating to a derelict, illegally grounded vessel that is a hazard to navigation.

The Chinese are literally holding up a knife in the main picture of this article.

JJE

Not sure if you are Chinese or whether you live there or here in Japan, but you have absolutely nothing to gain from sucking up to the CCP, they are not working for the Chinese people, the Chinese are working for them and as they gain more control and power you will see more and more rights and freedoms disappear, you are only able to live a good life now (If you live in one of the big cities) because they still need you happy, once they don't we are back to the 1940s of Japan.

I'd suggest these ships be treated as any other pirate vessel. After it has been contained the CCP can choose to take responsibility or lie and say it went rogue, putting the choice in the hands of the CCP.

It is disputed sea - disputed by FOUR states including Taiwan (which supports China's position).

Forgot the detail about them also disputing CCPs claim for the whole of China, disputed territory as some would put it.

Taking the upvotes and downvotes into consideration I guess this is why the CCP don't want anything to do with democracy.

Please stop writing disputed sea like it is up in the air what belongs to what country, it's only being disputed by China, there is no question what belongs to who. If the Mongols started questioning why half the world doesn't belong to them anymore will you start calling China and Russia disputed territory? Time to start showing some kind of force, it's the only thing they know. Just do the same thing they are doing, give 3 warnings then take over their ships.

Most countries don't use closing music at all or isn't really aware of it, so doesn't matter what song you use. Maybe use a couple of those anti insect noise machines that humans are not supposed to hear, seems to only work on Japanese, because for me it's crazy loud.

So the BOJ has scrapped both its negative rate policy and yield curve control policy, and now it will likely start lightening its balance sheet.

What?!? A dozen or so vociferous JT posters (not me) has been arguing over the last few years that the BOJ was “stuck between a rock and hard place,” unable to get out of the situation it got itself into without triggering a meltdown, or something like that. I guess they were wrong. LOL.

Just because they might be doing that doesn't mean that it's an ideal solution. What ever they choose to do the road will be bumpy, just have to decide which demographic will take the biggest hit.

Geeter Mckluskie not sure where you are from, but It might be that you are too focused on comparing it to the country you have experiences from, for example if you are from the US, I'm sure you are having a great experience compared to what's over there.

paternity leave etc is also a big thing that probably makes Japan go down a couple of rankings. Although they do have paternity leave, rarely is it used, especially for men, and rarely is it used without consequences. I'm sure those 30 that rank above have more than half a year worth of paid paternity leave, where I'm from we have a year for both mom and dad.

Long Working Hours: Japan ranks 31st in the world for hours worked per annum. Many mothers don't work, but rather stay home to raise their children.

Kind of sounds like you just came here, You do understand why that is right? I never logged one overtime hour while working for a Japanese company, Japan would definitely be in the top 3 if it was actually logged, but it rarely is, which just makes it way worse. Also women not working after marriage is a big problem right now, Japan is built on one person always being home taking care of the kids, while fewer and fewer are able to afford to do that,

"While Japan has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, various reports, both within Japan and internationally, note issues with women's care."

What are those issues exactly...that put Japan at 58th in the world?

various dubious reports

Various types of care that are female specific that are not covered by the japanese health insurance. Hard to get access to pills for birth control, or at least used to. many things in regards to child birth are not covered. For example I have paid around 4 million yen for IVF and egg storing.

I think based on what the West consider equality/happiness etc the ranking is probably quite correct, and if you were to try to live your life as a regular worker as woman in Japan you are in for a bad time. At the same time though if I were born in Japan I would definitely want to be born as a woman, at least up until now. Much rather take care of a kid or two than slave away at a Japanese company. I'd say the biggest minus for women in Japan is the high amount of sexual crimes and overall culture of what they should tolerate. If what happens in a nightclub in Japan happened where I'm from the Police would have been called non stop.

The only truth about all of this is that companies here have no reason to raise wages. The only reason some of the bigger older companies have done so is because they are more closely connected to the government and have been bailed out numerous times. For normal companies there is just no reason to raise wages. Japanese workers have no other place to go, 99% don't have the skills needed to enter the global market, and companies knows this. The only real fix that will do any good is raise the minimum wage and minimize the gap between fulltime employees and part time workers.

Spoiler alert, the percentage of Japanese feeling lonely in Japan is probably higher.

I have a feeling it's the same old grumpy politician making all these complains.

If all they want is more kids they should probably make a dating app more focused on playing around rather than marriage.

In terms of games, 20 of the top 50 best-selling games in the world are Nintendo. Almost all the rest are American software. It is difficult to say that foreign games are overwhelmingly superior to Japanese games.

Probably more than half of the games you think are American are not American, And most games are usually co produced between multiple studios in Asia, Europe, America.

I hope some of that money goes to the actual devs, I can make 4 times more freelancing for foreign companies compared to working for one of the big studios here. Even studios in other Asian countries pay better.

Again From Amazon Japan's own site:

J-Debitはご利用いただけません。

So you bought with a credit card that also is a debit card but you are being charged on your credit card!

I think you are confused with this J-Debit thing, I had no idea what J-Debit was, but looking it up it seems to be it's whole own thing, and is not linked to mastercard or visa. J-Debit doesn't stand for Japanese debit cards in general just J-Debit, it's a brand name.

I think it is you that is misunderstanding!

Yes there are debit cards that are also credit card but all that means is you just used a credit card!

You didn't buy today via debit, you bought using the credit card portion not a direct withdrawal from your account!

Not sure how you ended up with this information, but no it's definitely a direct withdrawal and there is no credit on my UFJ visa debit card, I'd show you my bank statement if I were allowed to. Not sure how you got this confused, this is nothing new, this is how debit cards have worked for decades.

Antiquesaving

I think you might be misunderstanding what a debit card is, it's not a cash card which is only used for taking money out of your bank. If your debit card has a visa or mastercard logo it will work exactly as any credit card. Used mine to buy from Amazon today.