Tokyo: The oldest woman is lost! (or rotting in a bedroom somewhere)

[IparryU]

Whereabouts of Tokyo's oldest person reported unknown

I would assume that a close eye is kept on the oldest living person in a major city, I could be wrong... but WTF?

Japan should just go on a man hunt for all the "oldest people" recorded as "alive" and find out WHO REALLY IS THE OLDEST ALIVE!

Could make a good TV show.

[IkemenTommy]

And another: 102 year old man in Hachioji (Japanese).

I think we are going to be seeing more of these nenkin frauds now that the cat is out the bag.

[GomiGirl]

I think we are going to be seeing more of these nenkin frauds now that the cat is out the bag.

Well cleaning house domestically at least takes the pressure off needing to import foreign workers to prop up nenkin - at least in the short term perhaps.

/ stop gap solution mindset
/ finger in the dyke

[UnchiSuki]

Hmmmm.....

So are the Japanese really the oldest living race in the world???

[IparryU]

Hmmmm.....

So are the Japanese really the oldest living race in the world???

Soon to find out, on the next episode of WHO REALLY IS THE OLDEST ALIVE!

[UnchiSuki]

And another: 102 year old man in Hachioji (Japanese).

t

I'd like to know what this article says but can't read Japanese.

Translation anyone?

[IkemenTommy]

Hmmmm.....

So are the Japanese really the oldest living race in the world???

Japanese is not a race.. it's an ethnic group.

[IparryU]

Japanese is not a race.. it's an ethnic group.

Care to elaborate? I would like to hear that myself, be good to use in a debate.

[IkemenTommy]

Care to elaborate? I would like to hear that myself, be good to use in a debate.

This topic has been debated over and over in another thread. Search for "Nihonjinron" as a start.

From anthropologist view, race refers to the classification into population or groups based on culture, social practice, and heritage. Asians fall under race, but not Japanese because it is classified more as an ethnic group. To simply put it, have a Japanese and Korean (or Chinese) people side by side and they are almost indistinguishable.

Of course, you ask a typical Japanese if they are a race and 98% of the time, they will give you the nationalistic bull shit reply about being the superior race over other Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Mongolians).

[Iraira]

Ok, in 2008, there were 36,276 100 years old+ folks in Japan. Assuming that 97.5%* of these are nenkin scams, that's some money that should get put back in the system.
Assuming that there are a fuckload of 85-99 year olds who are really dead or should be put to death for walking around all slow, with their pants pulled up around mid-chest level and farting in front of me at the conbini the other day, that really starts to have an effect on saving the nenkin system. Yeah, I heard that g-pa, like now I really want to eat this tuna mayo onigiri that you farted the J-version of Ensure on, go change your J-version of Depends.


*this number pulled from the deepest recesses of my ass.

[IparryU]

Assuming that there are a fuckload of 85-99 year olds who are really dead or should be put to death for walking around all slow,

So I talked to my J mother-in-law last night about all of this. She said that there are lots of old people that get used by their kids for nenkin and that they are probably dead, but no one cares.

She said it like it was common knowledge. I started laughing and my J father-in-law got pissed off. He thinks it is no laughing matter because this is about a nippon jin... really old, traditional jiji, but he really korean but dont admit it...

We will be seeing a lot more of this if they decide to make it public. This was also on CNN too.

[Samurai_Jerk]

From anthropologist view, race refers to the classification into population or groups based on culture, social practice, and heritage.

That's not necessarily true. Many anthropoligist would say race is something created by society with not basis in science and is therefore a flexible classification depending on what culture (or era) you live in.

Asians fall under race, but not Japanese because it is classified more as an ethnic group. To simply put it, have a Japanese and Korean (or Chinese) people side by side and they are almost indistinguishable.

Zulus and Ethiopians are both considered to be the same race by most people in the Western world but look very different. The same with Laplanders and Sicilians. Not mention Japanese and Thais.

[Kush]

According to:

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20100804k0000m040085000c.html

there are at least 18 people over 100 who can't be accounted for.

Incredible!

-Kush

[UnchiSuki]

It's ridiculous to say that the Japanese aren't a 'race'. I will continue to call them so..

As for this quote

To simply put it, have a Japanese and Korean (or Chinese) people side by side and they are almost indistinguishable.

, well, it's plain ignorant.

I'm caucasion and I can generally tell Japanese, Koreans and Chinese apart. Their facial features are infact quite different..

[Ganma]

It's ridiculous to say that the Japanese aren't a 'race'. I will continue to call them so..

According to this wiki definition Japanese could be considered a race.

Race refers to the classification of humans into populations or groups based on various factors such as culture, language, social practice or heritable characteristics.[1] Conceptions of race, as well as specific ways of grouping races, vary by culture and over time, effectively functioning as folk taxonomies.[2][3][4] Race serves to indicate essential types of individuals or fuzzy sets of people's traits.

[Greji]

Any people that come from the only country in the world that has Shiki; are the only beings capable of umami; have a large intestine so long that their intestine has to be beat to death with a stick when they die; do not stink, or smell in anyway; are closer to nature, understanding more about it than any living creature on earth and are the only people in the world who have an advanced culture centered around whaling and dolphin burgers, must be a race......

[Yokohammer]

[quote="Greji"]Any people that come from the only country in the world that has Shiki]
... a race to oblivion ...

[IparryU]

[quote="Greji"]Any people that come from the only country in the world that has Shiki]

sigh... here I thought us Americans were number one... We stink, we're fat, we made everything, everyone loves us, our military helps every country in the world, we even have 4 seasons and we are the birthplace of Hippies...

Japan gots us beat

[Samurai_Jerk]

4 seasons

Holy crap! There's a place other than Japan with four seasons??? Don't tell the locals. It might cause an uprising.

[BigInJapan]

[IparryU]

[IkemenTommy]

It's ridiculous to say that the Japanese aren't a 'race'. I will continue to call them so..

As for this quote
, well, it's plain ignorant.

I'm caucasion and I can generally tell Japanese, Koreans and Chinese apart. Their facial features are infact quite different..

I didn't define race as it is so you are making a futile effort barking up the wrong tree. When you filled out your university application.. let me rephrase.. IF you have ever gone to college and filled out the enrollment application, was there a check box for "Japanese" in the question about your race and background? No, the appropriate choice for race if you were Japanese was always D) Asians or other Pacific Islanders.

Unless things have changed in the last 10 years that I am not aware of (such as repealing affirmative action if they will ever got rid of that bull crap), then my mistake.

[rooboy]

Sensible post. The only accurate way to classify 'race' is by using broad categories. There isn't and never was a 'Japanese race'.

The Japanese who use that bullshit conveninetly forget the real Japanese who inhabited here first were Ainu. But notice how the Ainu are never called the Japanese race in textbooks or by politicians, media etc?

Japanese people are a hybrid group - Polynesian, South East Asian, Korean, Han Chinese, Mongolian, etc.

Some Koreans look different from Japanese, others you can't distinguish. Go to Korea and same thing - smaller boned, shorter Koreans (Koreans overall are taller than Japanese) sometimes look no diff from Japanese. Basic fucking fact is long ago before J invasions, early and later, of Korea, Koreans migrated to Japan.

A lot of Japanese are ethnically Korean in that old sense, not from Ks going there during the Japanese occupation. A lot of Japanese are Han Chinese ethnically from way back in the fucking day.

Koreans themselves from back in the day are a mix of Chinese, nomads from near modern day Hungary, Mongolians, etc. And if unchisuki's ever seen diff Chinese groups, they look different from each other.

[Greji]

No, the appropriate choice for race if you were Japanese was always D) Asians or other Pacific Islanders.

I believe that is the same choice on the application for an Open Season YBF License.....

[Samurai_Jerk]

I didn't define race as it is so you are making a futile effort barking up the wrong tree. When you filled out your university application.. let me rephrase.. IF you have ever gone to college and filled out the enrollment application, was there a check box for "Japanese" in the question about your race and background? No, the appropriate choice for race if you were Japanese was always D) Asians or other Pacific Islanders.

Unless things have changed in the last 10 years that I am not aware of (such as repealing affirmative action if they will ever got rid of that bull crap), then my mistake.

The University of Washington's application:

[IkemenTommy]

The University of Washington's application:

Still under Asian American

[Mike Oxlong]

Still under Asian American

Yup, check "race", then "ethnic group".

[Samurai_Jerk]

Still under Asian American

Yes, but the instructions say to choose a race and don't mention ethnicity do they? Besides, Asian American wouldn't really be a race either would it since that would mean all non-American Asians are a different race. By the way, the typical less detailed applications also include Hispanic without multiple categories. Is an Argentinian with pure Italian roots the same race as a 100% native Mexican? Do you think Saudi Arabians consider themselves to be the same race as Anglo Saxons? Arabs are usually calssified as White on the race section of college applications.

You seem to think that race is some sort of objective classification. It's not. Race is determined by the culture and time that you live in. The West divided the world into three races (black, white and yellow) initially. Then they decided to add some more categories later. If Japanese and Korean people consider themselves to be a seperate race they are within the context of their cultures. The Pan Asian identity was the result of Western colonization and immigration to Western countries.

Did you ever see the US trailer for the first Harold & Kumar movie?

[yt]CmSvLOLy0gY[/yt]

"That Asian guy from American Pie and that Indian guy from Van Wilder". That wouldn't work in the UK would it? If you say Asian there most people would think of Kumar first. In the US it's the opposite. A lot of Americans don't even consider Indians, Pakistanis, etc. to be Asian.

I remember when I was on JET they had a workshop at Tokyo Orientation on being Asian in Japan. Not being Asian I didn't attend but my Chinese-American friend did. She was shocked to see so many South Asians there. The Asian Americans who made the workshop aparently were too because it was obviously aimed at people from East Asia who could be mistaken for Japanese. This aparently pissed off some of the British Asians who were expecting something very different. Even in English speaking Western countries racial identity is not consistent.

[maraboutslim]

Fwiw, usually the forms I've had to fill out for my kids' various schools and whatnot in California always have a place to check "Japanese". They don't just say "Asian".

[Christoff]

The University of Washington's application:

what is an asian indian? south asian? and doesn't cover Pakistani or Bangladesh too?