"No sex please --- we're Japanese."

[matsuki]

I think it's

They lose all their value after the 25th

Yep that sounds about right. I don't always agree with his sentiment, plenty of lemurs look like they have good millage left on them after the 25th. But then again I'm not a J-guy and don't really have the same "refined" tastes.

I think it refers to marriage potential more than fling potential...which I'd probably tend to agree with though I'm not opposed to making exceptions to the rule either

BTW, great article posted above that talks about the trope of Japanese weirdness. I am constantly aggravated and bemused by that one. Nice that she blames it mostly on shoddy reporting. Most non-economic/financial articles in The Economist come to mind as well. It really is a haven for bad journalism.

Bad journalism on Japan weirdness is definitely a problem but I'm constantly being shocked by the type of real shit I hear that doesn't always make it in those articles. Tokyo lemur I had lunch with over the weekend apparently made a pretty slutty friend who works at one of those "gal's bars." Nothing special there until she tells me this new friend is dragging her with her to an interview for new part-time job. I guess it's a retro-fitted apartment building with two way mirrors on each room. According to he new slutty friend, the girls get paid to lounge around in their pajamas, eating candy and talking on their cell phone while creepy, would be peeping toms, watch from the other side of the mirror. Are their any perversions that aren't catered to in this cuntry?

[J.A.F.O]

Hahaha, this reminds me of that joke a friend of mine told me. What do J-girls and Christmas Cakes have in common??? Who the hell wants one after their 25th.

The translation doesn't come through perfect but its still pretty funny.

Dood,

When we consider that the joke itself is more than 25 years old...................

I always liked that one. It is a very clever take, allowing that whomever thought of it must be shockingly sexist Shockingly.............not that I am trying to argue that a joke is ruined simply because of a nasty premise..

Couldn't tell you, I haven't been here for 25 years... but more and more its starting to look like 25 - life...

Then again, I don't think I've denied being shockingly sexist. Not that I'm a jerk about it.

[kurogane]

Yeah, I would ball park that joke at about late Showa/early Heisei, so..........1987-89????

I'm not trying to be PC here, and I don't mind the sexism because the joke is funny (which validates any joke, IHOMO), but it does evoke that line by Tokyo's own Ishihara about women over 50 being economically useless. Like you noted, sexism is fine, but there's no need to be a complete jerk about it.

The part I like about those jokes is that they are often rather clever and funny word plays, so that's a laugh, and you get to laugh at the sort of Proud Japanese Male that can tell them without even a hint of a sheepish grin. I actually enjoy that sort of blithe troglodyticism. It makes me feel much better about my own comparatively minor failings. Surely we can agree that evaluating women purely by their purported reproductive value qualifies as being as complete a jerk as one can be without resorting to crime or violence?

Health chuckles all around.

[legion]

Bad journalism on Japan weirdness is definitely a problem but I'm constantly being shocked by the type of real shit I hear that doesn't always make it in those articles. Tokyo lemur I had lunch with over the weekend apparently made a pretty slutty friend who works at one of those "gal's bars." Nothing special there until she tells me this new friend is dragging her with her to an interview for new part-time job. I guess it's a retro-fitted apartment building with two way mirrors on each room. According to he new slutty friend, the girls get paid to lounge around in their pajamas, eating candy and talking on their cell phone while creepy, would be peeping toms, watch from the other side of the mirror. Are their any perversions that aren't catered to in this cuntry?

The bit she has left out is that they all wear numbers

[matsuki]

'fraid to ask but....for?

[legion]

'fraid to ask but....for?

so the customers can choose their dates

[matsuki]

bwaaaahahahaha, the creepyness level gets higher and higher. I totally want to hidden cam one of these places and the type that goes there. Youtube gold I'm tellin' yah

[Samurai_Jerk]

bwaaaahahahaha, the creepyness level gets higher and higher. I totally want to hidden cam one of these places and the type that goes there. Youtube gold I'm tellin' yah

Dude, Having girls with number tags line up for johns to choose from is pretty standard practice around the world. What makes Japan different is all the fetish options not the paying for pussy part.

[matsuki]

bwaaaahahahaha, the creepyness level gets higher and higher. I totally want to hidden cam one of these places and the type that goes there. Youtube gold I'm tellin' yah

Dude, Having girls with number tags line up for johns to choose from is pretty standard practice around the world. What makes Japan different is all the fetish options not the paying for pussy part.

I'm sooo behind proper whore etiquette

[Russell]

This could be just as well in the "Newby reporter in Japan" topic; lots of stereotypes targeting a UK viewership.

Nevertheless, the dying-out towns visited in the beginning of the documentary are interesting watching.

[Coligny]

lots of stereotypes targeting a UK viewership.

g.

Not sur the D00tch guy is well placed to judge that... (Or mee either)

Strangely intredasting... Managed to watch it until the end without blood pressure burt induced seizure...

[Wage Slave]

Agreed Coligny. I thought it was pretty good. It covered the issues and although they choose very graphic and even extreme examples, they were valid if not completely representative examples of much wider trends. The dancing grannies for example was valid. There are 80 year olds living near me who are members of swimming clubs, mountain climbing clubs, cycling clubs and so on. OK so it has to be made entertaining and visually exciting, it's TV, but it wasn't inaccurate or lazily stereotyping.

So where now Japan? Just carrying on, blocking real change and hoping the golden days of Showa will eventually return is surely not at option.

[wagyl]

Nevertheless, the dying-out towns visited in the beginning of the documentary are interesting watching.

The dying out towns are also a focus of the Spike Japan blog, now seemingly in permanent hiatus, much like Yubari.

[Russell]

Nevertheless, the dying-out towns visited in the beginning of the documentary are interesting watching.

The dying out towns are also a focus of the Spike Japan blog, now seemingly in permanent hiatus, much like Yubari.

That's actually a nice blog.

I particularly like the pics...

[Russell]

Lots of advisory panels these days...

Population panel draws line in sand

To save Japan from a looming demographic crisis linked to its shrinking population, a goal of maintaining the nation’s population at around 100 million for the next 50 years should be set by allocating more of the social security budget to help child-rearing households instead of the elderly, an advisory panel to the prime minster said in an interim report Tuesday.

If the panel’s final report is adopted, it will be the first time the government has set a numerical population target.

But the panel, which is tasked with projecting Japan’s future and proposing policy options to the prime minister, did not recommend that more foreigners be brought in to offset the expected drop in the population.

The panel’s conclusion is likely to affect the long-term economic growth strategies Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is preparing to announce in June. The revamped set of deregulatory vows and subsidies for promoting economic growth, will represent a new version of the “third arrow” of his deflation-busting program dubbed “Abenomics.”

Whether a drastic easing of immigration policy will be included in the growth strategies has been drawing public attention.

Panel head Akio Mimura, head of Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told reporters that no national consensus has been formed on immigration, which is the reason why it decided not to recommend that immigrants be allowed to come to Japan to live and work.

The members, however, agreed to promote the idea of allowing larger numbers of foreign professionals to enter, Mimura said.

“I don’t think a national consensus has been formed yet to approve (more) immigrants. Instead we should first make as much effort as we can by trying to raise the birthrate,” he said.

[...]

The chairman also stressed that if the government and the people start taking action immediately, such as by allocating more of the social security budget to child-rearing households and changing men’s attitudes toward working women, Japan will be able to narrowly maintain a population of 100 million over the next five decades.

This road, however, appears to be a rocky one. According to a simulation by the Cabinet Office, for Japan to maintain the 100 million level, the total fertility rate — a key indicator of birth trends in a given year — must recover to 2.07 by 2030, from the current 1.41.

Japan’s TFR has fallen for the past three decades, although it rebounded slightly to 1.41 in 2012. To boost it to 2.07 will not be an easy task, Mimura admitted.

More

Actually, I agree with their "solution" that the birth rate should rise.

And to make it rise, it should become easier to raise kids.

That means:

1. Full financial support for the birth of children

2. More financial support for raising children

3. More affordable daycare centers

4. Drastic decrease of fees to study at universities

5. More stable jobs for young people

6. More oyajis sent to go to war with China

[Coligny]

Lots of advisory panels these days...

Old consulting saying:

"It's not because you are not part of the solution that there is no money to be made from the problem"

[Wage Slave]

Actually, I agree with their "solution" that the birth rate should rise.

And to make it rise, it should become easier to raise kids.

That means:

1. Full financial support for the birth of children

2. More financial support for raising children

3. More affordable daycare centers

4. Drastic decrease of fees to study at universities

5. More stable jobs for young people

6. More oyajis sent to go to war with China

Except one small problem - paying for it. It will cost a fortune and it will take a long time to work. The demographic crisis is only a crisis because unless something is done it will most likely tip Japanese public finances into bankruptcy. The Japanese government will be forced to go on the international markets to borrow in order to pay its bills. Unfortunately, although the parlous state of public finances is not very well known in Japan, it is very well known outside Japan. No-one will want to lend and so, like Greece but with knobs on, Japan will have to go begging to the IMF for a bailout and accept all the conditions that will accompany it. In addition, instead of foreign investors getting a haircut on J Govt debt they hold the average Japanese person will lose a big chunk of their savings because it has all been lent to the Government whether they realise it or not.

But perhaps that sort of collapse is the only way things can fundamentally change here. Unless and until it really becomes shoganai nothing can happen.

[wagyl]

Looking at this all from a different angle, I've always thought that this country would be nicer with less damn people in it. I know that me being here is not helping that, and it doesn't answer the question of who is going to pay for, or even perform public services in our dotage, but the whole "population decline is a tragedy" concept is not the only way of thinking about this.

[yanpa]

I didn't realize until recently how much Japan's population grew after WWII - from 70 million in 1945 to around 125 million in 1995 (source)

[Wage Slave]

Looking at this all from a different angle, I've always thought that this country would be nicer with less damn people in it. I know that me being here is not helping that, and it doesn't answer the question of who is going to pay for, or even perform public services in our dotage, but the whole "population decline is a tragedy" concept is not the only way of thinking about this.

Quite right. It could be viewed as beneficial. It's just that national bankruptcy isn't a welcome part of the process and the clock is ticking, as that economist in the BBC documentary (above) said.

[matsuki]

Looking at this all from a different angle, I've always thought that this country would be nicer with less damn people in it. I know that me being here is not helping that, and it doesn't answer the question of who is going to pay for, or even perform public services in our dotage, but the whole "population decline is a tragedy" concept is not the only way of thinking about this.

...or at least more spread out....nothing says hivemind like...well..hives

[Coligny]

Well, in case of pandemic that would become a self solving issue...
Bad luck that ebola outbreak is totally fading despite being in a supposedly much better environment than previous countryside events.

[kagemusha]

1. Full financial support for the birth of children

2. More financial support for raising children

3. More affordable daycare centers

4. Drastic decrease of fees to study at universities

5. More stable jobs for young people

6. More oyajis sent to go to war with China

1 - more poor and low class families having more noisy yanki kids

2 - If you don't have the basic funds - don't make babies for somebody else to support them.

3 - The problem is not the tuition - it's much lower than in most of the western world. You will have more public daycare centers without any educational benefits - see 1

4 - More stupid students, lowering the academic standards, and they are already not so high. Instead Keep the stupids outside and give poor students with potential the full public support.

5 - The most important and needed action by the Japanese government. So many social and monetary implications.

6.

[IparryU]

Another reason for young men not to go after women... they can do it at home

Tokyo to ban sales of incest comic to minors

The Tokyo government is to ban sales to children of a manga comic that depicts incestuous relationships, an official said Tuesday, the first time expanded rules on sexual content have been invoked.

“Little Sisters Paradise! 2”, which was published last month, will be classified as an “unhealthy publication” that must be kept out of children’s reach.

The comic, a spinoff from an adult-orientated computer game with the same title, says on its cover: “More naughty days of a brother and five sisters.”

A panel of experts for Tokyo Metropolitan Government “has reached the decision that (this manga) meets the criteria. We are moving to publicise the decision” formally on Friday, said an official in charge of youth affairs.

Manga is a style of Japanese comic book typically aimed at adults as well as children.

The ruling only affects stores in the Japanese capital but does not bar them from stocking the title, which will remain freely accessible to those aged 18 or older in adult sections of bookshops.

Three years ago, Tokyo tightened an ordinance stopping children buying publications that “significantly stimulate sexual feeling”.

“Little Sisters Paradise! 2” is the first publication to fall foul of the 2011 amendment that expanded the rules to cover pictures or text that “glorifies” incest.

Kadokawa, the major Japanese publishing house that released “Little Sisters Paradise! 2”, declined to comment.

Japan’s attitude to sexually explicit material often comes in for criticism.

The possession of pornography involving children is not illegal, but its creation and distribution has recently been criminalised.

The country’s porn industry is huge and visitors note the ubiquity of sexual imagery, particularly the prevalence of pictures showing young-looking girls in school uniforms.

It is not uncommon to see adults on trains reading manga that would be deemed risque in other societies.

However, strict rules mandate that genitalia must be obscured.

The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has long pressed Japan to tighten its child porn rules, which it says exacerbate a global problem already made worse by the Internet.

Manga images, while they might be mere drawings, can be considered pornographic under internationally shared norms, said Hiromasa Nakai, spokesman for the Japan committee for UNICEF.

“Many people agree that there are horrible manga images are out there and they need to be dealt with,” he said.

The move to tighten rules on sales of explicit material to children came partially in response to criticism from foreign campaign groups.

But it faced resistance at home from manga artists, free-speech advocates and publishers, who said it would impinge on freedom of expression and allow authorities to make arbitrary decisions about art.

Strong societal memories of strict state censorship in the run up to Japan’s disastrous entry into World War II play into such debates, with dissenters warning of the danger of allowing the government to control the press.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tokyo-to-ban-sales-of-incest-comic-to-minors

[Samurai_Jerk]

Another reason for young men not to go after women... they can do it at home

But doesn't the low birth rate mean that few of them actually have sisters to fuck?

[IparryU]

Another reason for young men not to go after women... they can do it at home

But doesn't the low birth rate mean that few of them actually have sisters to fuck?

yes... they probably have to go for the neighbor's daughters....

probably why you see sickos around elementary schools a lot. the fucked thing is that schools don't really have the power to get them away despite all the teachers there from dusk till dawn. by teachers doing something, i mean calling the police, who then say they cant do shit cause the fucker hadn't done anything wrong O_o

[Coligny]

Didn't they suggest not too long ago to mix daycare for kids and old people together ?
Was some sort of win-win on all front.

[Russell]

Well, in case of pandemic that would become a self solving issue...
Bad luck that ebola outbreak is totally fading despite being in a supposedly much better environment than previous countryside events.

Don't despair!

WHO holds emergency meeting on deadly Saudi MERS virus

On Tuesday, U.S. officials said two health workers at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, who were exposed to a patient with MERS had begun showing flu-like symptoms, and one had been hospitalized.

[Coligny]

The mortality rate with mers was quite awesome if I remember well...

Strike that 30% only, flue like symptoms can be good for mis diagnostics, but reaching out of the flue season it's useless. Just hope the asymptomatic incubation period is long enough to compensate...

Will need better to thin mankind into a hunted down specie of scavengers enslaved by felines overlordz...

[Russell]

You do realize that you yourself could also be a victim of this disease, not?