rcch comments

Seven Samurai is truly a masterpiece. Some people say this is the greatest Japanese movie of all time (for me, that title goes to Ozu’s Tokyo Story but Seven Samurai certainly deserves to be in that discussion).

Man passes away on Tokyo train; no one notices until nearly 12 hours and 650 kilometers later

… traveling back and forth on the line while deceased.

A subsequent investigation determined that the man had boarded the Shonan Shinjuku line train at Shibuya Station in downtown Tokyo at 8:02 that morning. From Shibuya, the train headed north, passing through Saitama Prefecture before reaching its last stop at Utsunomiya Station, in Tochigi Prefecture, about two hours later.

After arriving in Utsunomiya, though, the train switched over to the Ueno Tokyo Line tracks and travelled back south through Tochigi, Saitama, and Tokyo, going all the way to Hiratsuka Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo’s prefectural neighbor to the south.

This trip took about three hours, and once it was done, the train went back north along the same route, returning to Utsunomiya around 4:15 in the afternoon. The train still had one more trip to make, this time going all the way back down to Hiratsuka and then further southwest to Odawara, where it completed its run for the day.

In total the man spent 11 hours and 32 minutes on the train, covering 652.7 kilometers and making four trips across downtown Tokyo.

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Shocking, but not surprising—this isn’t the US or Europe (where strangers start talking to you out of nowhere (I mean, mind your own business!!!)).

Japan will start issuing new banknotes on Wednesday, showcasing what it touts is the world's first use of cutting-edge holography that makes the portraits of historic figures look like they are rotating in 3D on the bills, one of their anti-counterfeit measures.

…

Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931), known as "the father of Japanese capitalism" who helped establish around 500 companies, will be featured on the 10,000 yen note, with the red-brick building of Tokyo Station depicted on the back.

The 5,000 yen note will feature educator Umeko Tsuda (1864-1929), who during her lifetime strove to raise the status of women in society. Wisteria flowers, cherished in Japan since ancient times, will appear on the reverse side.

The 1,000 yen note will use the portrait of microbiologist Shibasaburo Kitasato (1853-1931), dubbed "the father of modern Japanese medicine" for his contributions to the treatment of tetanus. On the flipside is "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," a work by ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai depicting big waves and Mount Fuji.

They did a good job with these—a) attractive, high quality design and b) three historical figures who did a lot for Japan.

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garypenToday  09:42 am JST “ As they've been talking about this for quite some time now, I hope the vending machine operators have updated their machines this time, unlike when the Y500 coins were updated last year. I had many months of coins being rejected at drink machines and parking lots after the new coins came out. So annoying. “

Tell me about it!

Good news for France.

Good news for Europe.

The toothless lions advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Championship. Just another embarrassing night for England. Slovakia… hahahahah.

Fighto!Today  07:27 am JST “ Hats off to the Three Lions, they have well and truly launched their campaign now. The Lions should take care of the Swiss in the QF - and fully deserve outright favouritism. “

What the…! Lmao.

Seesaw7Today  04:47 pm JST “ All about Trump...... “

Well, he will be the next President of the United States (that became (even more) clear 24 hours ago) so…; … 4/5 years isn’t that long, you’ll be fine. Heheh.

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Donald Trump's allies are assuring officials in Japan and South Korea that the Republican presidential candidate will support a Biden-era effort to deepen three-way ties aimed at countering China and North Korea, five people familiar with the conversations said.

In conversations over the past weeks, policy advisers with Trump's ear have delivered this message to officials in Seoul and Tokyo: if Trump takes office again, the ex-U.S. president will support the two capitals' work to warm once-frigid ties and advance military, economic and diplomatic cooperation to ease global tensions, the people said.

Good news for Japan. See, folks (a lot of worried people out there), we can all sleep peacefully at night…; … it ain’t that bad, this Trump thing. Heheh.

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Agent_NeoToday  07:04 pm JST “ President Trump has previously said that Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Israel should fully cover the costs of their military bases, so if he becomes president again, the security treaties of each country may be reviewed.

If the US military goes to Guam, Japan should seek a way to defend itself, and in the first place, it has to defend its own country. “

Great—this country (Japan) is being kept on a leash by the US and(!) the Japanese need to get rid of Article 9.

“Oh, Joe."

That gasp, from patrons at a Chicago bar when President Joe Biden first stumbled verbally in his debate with Donald Trump, …

Lmao.

Biden concedes debate fumbles but declares he will defend democracy

Democracy is not at risk, Joe. Do people actually believe in this nonsense? SMH.

N. KnightToday  08:50 am JST “ Biden is way to old. He's having multiple "senior moments", needs step down now and to be in a nursing home receiving care.

Trump is getting way too old, he's having his own "senior moments" is a liar, rapist, grifter, treasonist & convicted felon who needs to be in jail.

Basically need two decent candidates to run for president because these two are a compete embarrassment.

America is falling apart because of lunatics on both the left and the right. “

Hmm, interesting…; … a few days ago, Biden was our savior and the orange man was a threat to our existence. I mean, be honest, you knew it was gonna be bad… you just didn’t know it was gonna be a train wreck.

Biden's shaky Trump debate alarms Democrats, raises questions for his campaign

Biden hurried through some of his talking points on the debate stage, stumbled over some answers and trailed off during others.

You don’t say!

I (still) didn’t watch the debate (I’m at work in Tokyo and busy) but from what I’m hearing and from what I’m reading, oh boy, what a disaster (it couldn’t get any worse than this(this was his chance) ). You know it was bad when they’re already talking about replacing him (Biden, of course). I guess the drugs/energy drinks/whatever didn’t work(?), lmao, nah, just kidding, heheh.

A very poor decision by the Biden campaign which will probably cost him the presidency. BUT let’s be honest, this man cannot and should not be the President of the United States (4+4 is a long time—enough damage has been made—America and the West are in need of a Trump administration). Trump, even with all his flaws, will be a better President.

Note: To all the “anti–Trump” folks out there: let’s all get along.

Biden's seeming low bar for success has been created, at least in part, by the 78-year-old Trump and his Republican allies, who have relentlessly mocked the Democratic president for apparent stumbles connected to his age for years. Trump's allies have questioned whether Biden can even stay awake and stand up for the entire 90 minutes.

Democrats are hopeful that Biden can bring the same energy he did in his State of the Union address earlier in the year.

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Do you seriously think that was the normal Joe Biden when he delivered that SOTU speech(?)—he was jacked up then and he’s gonna be jacked up again today. Smdh.

But

“ A face-off on live television against an opponent who delights in verbal combat is very different from a scripted speech before Congress. “

Disappointing, indeed (they’re not the only ones playing miserably though, look at France, another disappointment, but France is always France), but(!), the good news is that France finished 2nd in their group, so England avoids France, Germany, Spain and Portugal until the final. Lucky, I’d say, but(!) if they keep playing like this, they won’t even reach the final (remember, this is Europe). BUT if that happens (England–Portugal would be beautiful/England–Germany, another beauty/England–France/England–Spain), that final will go down in history as one of the greatest games in the history of European football.

Renho, who is running for Tokyo governor in the July 7 gubernatorial election:

“ I want to make Tokyo a city where young people, regardless of their circumstances, can study, work, get married and have children. “

Pretty words, Renho.

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( Boring(!)(!)(!) )

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virusrexToday  06:48 am JST “ That is easy to say, the difficult part is to do the hard work and take the politically expensive decisions necessary to completely reform the culture that makes all those things very hard right now. “

GarthgoyleToday  08:34 am JST “ A politician pulling out a trump card; saying what people wanna hear with absolutely nothing to back it up. “

This.

The court’s handling of the immunity issue already has provoked criticism, both that the justices took up the issue at all — particularly given a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that rejected Trump's claim — and more recently that they haven’t yet decided it.

Even if the court limits Trump’s immunity, or rejects his claims altogether, allowing his trial on election interference to go forward in Washington means “it is unlikely a verdict will be delivered before the election,” University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman wrote in The New York Times.

While the court has moved more quickly than usual in taking up the immunity case, it has acted far more speedily in other epic cases involving presidential power,

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The whole thing is politically motivated anyway—they (SCOTUS) know what they’re doing.

Is Trump shielded from criminal charges as an ex-president?

It’s not every day that you’re the President of the United States of America (and other former presidents did worse and they’re “clean”—is that fair?), so yes. “Let the man go”. Heheh.

shogun36Today  08:29 am JST “ so, it could be any random person, or even a mechanical hand/arm for all anyone knows? 

then what is anyone actually paying for? Talk about a scam for suckers. “

USNinJapan2Today  11:14 am JST “ I'm all for artists maintaining their privacy and anonymity, but isn't this particular event rather pointless? As a fan, you'd really have to hit the "I Believe" button to walk away thinking that you actually shook hands with Ado. Isn't the whole point of a meet-and-greet event like this to actually personally interact with the artist? IMO this just doesn't cut it. “

JeremiahToday  12:12 pm JST “ Hmm…people are paying to shake Ado’s hand but they do not know if the she is ACTUALLY Ado!?! “

MilesTegToday  01:28 pm JST “ Her choice to not show her face and be private but how do we know it’s really her singing. Could be anyone. Daft Punk are techno; they’re voices are altered. 

if you want to remain private and not show your face, agreeing to a ¥ paid in-person Meet & Greet is not only hypocritical but sounds like your taking advantage of your fans. But there’s a fool who’ll dish out ¥ for a pseudo kind of Meet & Greet. “

Jonathan PrinToday  03:49 pm JST “ Never heard of her/him/it.

Could be easily an AI.

Greed has no limit and dumbness too, about shaking a hand that could be anyone's. “

If (that’s a big if) this wasn’t Japan, I’d agree with my fellow JT readers on this one. Typical western negativity, always expecting the worst from people, smh. a) She will be there. b) This is the country where women spend their whole salaries(!)(!)(!) to buy stupid (and when I say stupid, I mean stupid, stupid) merchandise from their favorite idols so—why the outrage over this harmless event? Smdh.

No, what makes Ado doing a handshake event surprising is that even though it’s been four years since she made her professional debut, she’s never shown her face, as Ado, in public. So how do you have a handshake event for a huge recording star while still keeping her identity a secret?

Well, she was a high school girl at the time (she started at 17, right?) so I believe that’s the reason why she (and her family) wanted to keep her identity a secret, which is perfectly understandable (worth noting that this type of situation can only be normalized, accepted and respected in a country like Japan), but, she’s 21 now, right? Still young but… she’s not a baby anymore, but yes, let’s focus on her amazing voice and incredible talent.

During the event, Ado will be positioned inside a giant box made of opaque material. Fans will step forward one by one and insert their forearm into a hole in one of the walls, after which Ado will clasp it and give it a shake.

The hole appears to be surrounded by protrusions calculated to eliminate lines of sight, so that fans can’t peek in and catch a glimpse of Ado, not even her hand. It’s unclear whether or not the singer will be able to see the people she’s shaking hands with, perhaps through a video relay and monitor inside the box, or if she remains as effectively blind as the fans whose hands she’s shaking.

Yes, weird, different, awkward(?), but again, this is Japan… (… a special moment for those fans, that’s for sure :)).

One of my favorite actors. Thank you, Mr. Sutherland. RIP.

Japan's tourism chief said Thursday its ambitious goal of luring 60 million foreign tourists a year -- more than double the current level…

( O___O )’’’

One word. NO. Just… NO.

nishikatToday  02:35 pm JST “ One is a criminal and one isn't. “

One is being politically persecuted and the other isn’t.

Yuriko Koike just “X’d” this today:

東京都議会本会議にて、新たな決意を表明しました。

2期8年間、志を同じくする仲間と共に、全身全霊で駆け抜けてきました。100年先も全ての人が輝く東京の未来へと繋ぐために、都民の皆さまの共感を得て、バージョンアップした「東京大改革3.0」を進めていく覚悟です。

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AIゆりこによる"AI YURIKO NEWS"をお届けします。今回のトピックは #所得制限撤廃 です。

これまでの都政での取り組みをわかりやすく広く伝えるために、生成AIによる動画を作成しました。現職都知事として公務に邁進している小池ゆりこ本人に代わって、AIゆりこがお伝えします。

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Well, since the “perfect” candidate doesn’t exist, I’m just gonna say that she’s competent enough to lead this great city. AND she can speak English. Go Koike!

Intuitive vs. deliberative decision-making

There are two types of decision-making: intuitive and deliberative.

In intuitive decision-making, people quickly and easily recognize a complex situation and recall an effective solution from memory. For example, physicians’ knowledge of how diseases and symptoms are causally related allows them to quickly recognize a complex set of patient symptoms as matching a familiar disease stored in memory and then recall effective treatments.

A large body of research on fields from medicine to military leadership shows that it takes years – and often decades – of effortful deliberate practice in one’s field to build up the knowledge that allows effective intuitive decisions.

In contrast to the ease and speed of intuitive decisions, the most complex decisions – often the kinds that confront a president – require conscious deliberation and mental effort at each stage of the decision-making process. These are the hallmarks of deliberative decision-making.

For example, a deliberative approach to creating an immigration bill might start with causal reasoning to understand the multiple factors influencing the current border surge and the positive and negative effects of immigration. Next, generating possible bills may involve negotiating among multiple groups of decision-makers and stakeholders who have divergent values and objectives, such as reducing the number of undocumented immigrants but also treating them humanely. Finally, making a choice requires forecasting how proposed solutions will affect each objective, dealing with value trade-offs and often further negotiation.

Psychological scientists who study these topics agree that people need three key thinking dispositions – referred to as “ actively open-minded thinking” or “wise reasoning” – for effective deliberative decision-making:

Open-mindedness: Being open-minded means considering all of the choices and objectives relevant to a decision, even if they conflict with one’s own beliefs.

Calibrated confidence: This is the ability to express confidence in a given forecast or choice in terms of probabilities rather than as certainties. One should have high confidence only if evidence has been weighted based on its credibility and supportive evidence outweighs opposing evidence by a large margin.

Teamwork: This involves seeking alternative perspectives from within one’s own advisory team and from stakeholders with conflicting interests.

Presidents need to use both intuitive and deliberative decision-making. The ability to make smaller decisions effectively using intuitive decision-making frees up time to concentrate on larger ones. However, the decisions that make or break a president are exceedingly complex and highly consequential, such as how to handle climate change or international conflicts. Here is where deliberative decision-making is most needed.

Effective intuitive and deliberative decisions both rely on extensive job-related knowledge. Especially during deliberative decision-making, people use conceptual knowledge of the world that is consciously accessible, commonly referred to as semantic memory. Knowledge of concepts such as tariffs, Middle East history and diplomatic strategies allows presidents to quickly grasp new developments and understand their nuances. It also helps them fulfill an important job requirement: explaining their decisions to political opponents and the public.

What to make of forgetfulness and word mix-ups

Biden has been criticized for not recalling details of his personal past. This is an error in episodic memory, which is responsible for our ability to consciously recollect personal experiences.

Neurologists agree, however, that Biden’s episodic memory errors are within the range of normal healthy aging and that the details of one’s personal life are not especially relevant to a president’s job. That’s because episodic memory is distinct from the semantic memories and intuitive knowledge that are critical to good decision-making.

Mixing up names, as Biden and Trump occasionally do, is also unlikely to affect job performance. Rather, it simply involves a momentary error in retrieving information from semantic memory. When people make this common error, they usually still understand the concepts underlying the mixed up names, so the semantic knowledge that helps them deal with life and work is intact.

Making complex decisions as you age

Because all of us use a myriad of concepts to navigate the world every day, our semantic knowledge typically does not decrease with age, lasting at least until age 90. This knowledge is stored in posterior brain regions that deteriorate relatively slowly with age.

Research shows that, since intuitive decision-making is learned by extensive practice, older experts are able to maintain high performance in their field as long as they keep using and practicing their skills. As with semantic memory, experts’ intuitive decision-making is controlled by posterior brain regions that are less compromised by aging.

However, older experts must put in more practice than younger ones to maintain previous skill levels.

The thinking dispositions that are key to deliberative decision-making are influenced by early social learning, including education. Thus, they become habits, stable characteristics that capture how people typically make decisions.

Evidence is emerging that dispositions such as open-mindedness do not decline much and sometimes even increase with age. To investigate this, I looked at how well open-mindedness correlated with age, while controlling for education level, using data from 5,700 people in the 2016 British Election Study. A statistical analysis showed that individuals ages 26 to 88 had very similar levels of open-mindedness, while those with more education were more open-minded.

Applying this to the candidates

As for the 2024 presidential candidates, Biden has extensive knowledge and experience in politics from more than 44 years in political office and thoroughly investigates and discusses diverse viewpoints with his advisers before reaching a decision.

In contrast, Trump has considerably less experience in politics. He claims that he can make intuitive decisions in a field where he lacks knowledge by using “common sense” and still be more accurate than knowledgeable experts. This claim contradicts the research showing that extensive job-specific experience and knowledge is necessary for intuitive decisions to be consistently effective.

My overall interpretation from everything I’ve read about this is that both candidates show aspects of good and poor decision-making. However, I believe Biden regularly displays the deliberative dispositions that characterize good decision-making, while Trump does this less often.

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Interesting, Dr. Gugerty, you seem to be implying that the only reason why people wouldn’t vote for Biden is because of his cognitive decline. Hmm. Well, I’m here to say that even if he was the healthiest man in the world, it would be a (big) mistake to keep him in office for four more years.

Also, given the fact that he’s aging faster than Trump, I’d like to ask: will he be alive in 2028?

Today  07:15 am JST

"We should not stop the powerful path of a sustainable society that can be realized through drastic structural reforms,"

“ Like giving the green light to cutting down hundreds of trees so that Mitsui Fudosan and Itochu can put up another ugly glass and steel "multipurpose" skyscraper. “

If you like trees and midori so much, go to the inaka; … didn’t you learn that big cities (especially those with a population of more than ten million(!)(!)) have tall buildings and skyscrapers?

June 12  09:09 pm JST “ history is not on their side. “

I know, I know; … just trying to be optimistic. Lmao.

5-0 against Syria. Zzzzzzzzzzzz…

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stickman1760Today  11:14 am JST “ Here is what will happen.

Japan will coast through Asian qualifying and reach the World Cup.

in the World Cup they will pull off one or two surprises in group play.

they advance to round of 16 and then are narrowly defeated in the knockout stage.

everyone talks about how much progress they’ve made

rinse, repeat every four years “

Depressing. But(!) if we exclude the usual suspects (”the big 8” from Europe plus Brazil and Argentina), Japan is actually one of the best teams in the world and who knows—(with a little bit of luck) maybe they can win the WC. :)

KenToday  01:32 pm JST

Musk is challenging Trump for the badge of "Most Unhinged" these days.

“ True but he's been that way for awhile by overstepping his reach into politics. He should just focus on cars and Mars. “

I second that.

France also suffered the heartbreak of a shootout defeat when it lost the World Cup final in Qatar to Argentina. Mbappé remains its star attraction, but he is surrounded by top class talent throughout the French squad in the form of Antoine Griezmann, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouameni, Ousmane Dembélé and Kingsley Coman.

…

Three years ago, England was just a penalty shootout away from winning its first trophy since the 1966 World Cup but lost the final to Italy. Since then, manager Gareth Southgate has seen the emergence of Jude Bellingham as one of the top talents in world soccer, while Phil Foden is living up to the hype he generated when first emerging at Manchester City. Meanwhile, Harry Kane scored 44 goals in 47 games in his first season at Bayern Munich.

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Ronaldo will be back competing in Europe after heading to Saudi Arabia to play his club soccer. Even at the age of 39 the former Real Madrid and Manchester United striker is still a goal machine — scoring 10 during Portugal’s perfect qualifying campaign.

…

Germany is a question mark after a string of disappointments at recent major tournaments, but new coach Julian Nagelsmann has lifted the mood of the host nation just in time for Euro 2024, with morale-boosting wins in friendlies against France and the Netherlands.

…

Spain is looking to restore its former glory after having dominated international soccer from 2008-2012 when it won two Euros and was also crowned world champion. There is no shortage of talent at coach Luis de la Fuente’s disposal, with Man City midfielder Rodri establishing himself as arguably the best in his position and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal among its emerging stars.

The French are (still) the favorites to win another major tournament (yes, we all wish they weren’t), followed by England, then Portugal, Germany and Spain—the winner will be one of these five.

But

It’s a dangerous game to make predictions about Italy after the traditional powerhouse of international soccer failed to qualify for the last two World Cups but won the Euros in between.

Hahah.

Far-right parties rattled the traditional powers in the European Union and made major gains in parliamentary elections Sunday…

Good news—there’s still time to save Europe (and Western culture).

For decades, the European Union, which has its roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, confined the hard right to the political fringes.

With its strong showing in these elections, the far right could now become a major player in policies ranging from migration to security and climate.

And that’s a good thing.

In season two of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” the characters splinter off into different factions of Westeros. The crux is the Targaryen civil war for control of the Iron Throne. The new season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel debuts Sunday, June 16 on HBO and streams on Max the same night.

House of the Dragon. YES. Finally. “War is coming”; S2 explores the horrors of war, it has more character development and more action; it’s bigger and bloodier; a special gift for GOT fans and a brutal return that evokes the golden era of GOT—this is what the critics are saying about S2 of HOTD… ( the first four episodes were made available for review ). Can’t wait to watch this masterpiece. :)

Lmao. What an idiot.