General Japanese Culture Thread

Nah, that is more about Cherry Blossom imagery, it's a symbol of death or a new beginning. Being under the shadow of Mt Fuji is a bonus.

It's also the reason why school starts around April 1st, it's to coincide with the trees blooming.

edited 4th Oct '15 2:32:42 PM by Memers

You'd figure communal responsibility laws of that nature would violate some UN human rights standard or other, a right to not be held liable for sins of the father, etc (although that doesn't show up in the bill of rights, it could be a subset of another). How do they administer these penalties? Would it be up to JR to sue them, or are these criminal penalties?

If I understand the situation correctly, the family is only "punished" indirectly, via public shame.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

If the NEET thing keeps up pretty soon there's not going to be anyone left who gives a shit about that.

Wonder if they're connected. I know my response to society deciding it could shame me for what my relatives did would be to just stop listening to it...

edited 4th Oct '15 3:08:31 PM by Elfive

Some tidbits on special polices unit operating in Japan:

• The Special Assault Team is the premier LE anti-terrorist/anti-crime unit when NPA resources are being committed. Depending on their deployement, they'll operate like the FBI's HRT or some state-wide SWAT unit. Most of their duties include protecting government buildings/foreign embassies/consulates and Imperial family residences and facilities. Some of them include the protection of USFJ facilities, such as what the Kanagawa SAT branch is doing.

---

Each city/prefecture has its own SWAT-style unit for city/prefecture-wide criminal/terrorist responses that don't warrant the NPA's involvement.

• Tokyo
  • Special Investigation Team (SIT)
  • Anti-Firearms Squad -> These acts like the AF Os in Britain. Each are embedded in at least one anti-riot company

• Osaka
  • Martial Arts Attack Team (MAAT)

• Chiba
  • Assault Response Team

• Saitama
  • Special Tactical Section

• Kanagawa
  • Special Investigation Section

• Aomori
  • Technical Special Team

• Hiroshima
  • Hostage Rescue Team

TRIVA NOTE: The SAT was formerly known as the Special Armed Police unit. Their major note was to be deployed out of Japan to evacuate Japanese nationals from the Middle East since the JSDF wasn't allowed to do it due to Article 9. Otherwise, they got into gunfights with some armed robbers and served arrest warrants againt Aum Shinrikyo cultists.

edited 4th Oct '15 7:30:35 PM by Ominae

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

Could someone explain the NEET thing to me? is it basically the same as millenials in America being shamed or called 'lazy' for being unable to cope or get a car or house because of the recession?

Means "Not in Education, Employment, or Training". Basically, a jobless person who's stuck in one's house.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

NEET is just the scapegoat. A hell of a lot people just arn't getting married or trying to have kids or anything.

It puts a cramp on the work ethic, no room to have a kid, no one has time to 'date', no incentive to do it etc. Their whole system is pretty much built around not having anything but work 80 hours a week after college.

Its part of the reason why people seek Compensated Dating, Host Club and other stuff. As well as a vast majority of media is nothing but escapism and self-insert stuff.

A NEET is just an unemployed person not seeking employment.

edited 4th Oct '15 10:59:16 PM by Memers

Warning: extremely reductive.

The punishment is not indirect when it comes to trains. JR actually fines the surviving family for every minute down to the second. How much this was, I can't remember, but when the worker of the family has gone down (in the most common case), it screws the family financially. Which then leads to tragic cases of single mothers killing themselves and their children, although this is not very common. A few of those cases pop up almost every year though.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

Simplification yes but still quite true. The structure of Japanese society now is strangling socialization, relationships, families and birthrates. A lot are too busy setting themselves up for Karoshi to do it. Spending 10s of thousands of yen every so often on a few hours at a Host Club is one of the few ways a basic salaryman gets any attention really, it wouldn't be such an increasingly large business if it wasn't for that. The US is starting to catch up to that trend though too.

Anyway it's not like they can date in say high school as most schools ban any kind of relationships due to it getting in the way of studying and Cram School.

Study your ass off to get into High School, study your ass off to get into college, slack off for four years in college then it's 40 years of salaryman 12 hour days. That is despite unions trying to reduce hours to just 8 hours a day, most companies in Japan have unpaid 'service overtime' which are the first 20-40 hours of overtime that are required and are just written off because of the decreasing size of the workforce.

Edited my previous post to lighten the language a bit though..

edited 5th Oct '15 4:55:33 AM by Memers

... No wonder so many manga and doujinshi that involve romances between middle/high school students make such a huge deal about how they absolutely need to keep the relationship a secret from everyone. I thought the evil teachers'/students' threats of exposing the relationships so that at least one of the involved students gets expelled were either exaggerations of the real-life consequences or just the villains bluffing in a way that capitalizes on the threatened students' naivete/ignorance/fears rather than reality.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

High School relationships are an absolute powder keg, many high end schools will just expel the pair on the spot if not then the parents will go berserk as it gets in the way of studying.

That's messed up on so many levels

Do Japanese kids ever have time to you know, have fun?

Who is "JR"?

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Up till the third year of middle school yeah. Then it's crunch time for applying to a high school, complete with Cram School if they are a little behind the curve or parents are insisting. Highschool is kinda the same thing although more studying and maybe a club, then third year rolls around and it's crunch time again.

That crunch time is why you always see second year students be the character in the stories as well as a second year student will be the Transfer Student and Student Council President, third years are expected have no life other than studying.

Forgot to mention that most schools are 6 days a week not 5, the 6th day is a full day or half day depending on the school or time of year. Summer break is just 1 month, August, not 3 like the west.

edited 5th Oct '15 5:40:24 AM by Memers

Japan Railways.

Being in a Japanese private high school ruined my health, largely due to stress. Got better, after I learned to say "fuck that". Changed my life.

edited 5th Oct '15 6:09:37 AM by TerminusEst

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

How does a railway legally fine someone in Japan? In the US, they could only bill you, and then only if you had some sort of contractual relationship with them (like a railway ticket). What happens if the family simply refuses to pay?

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

It's done through the local police, so ignoring a fine is tantamount to giving them the raspberry.

This. It's related to public transportation law, same logic as fines for riding without a ticket. The specifics can vary from region to region.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele

Which i still think would be against some right or other. A person's criminal liability ends at their deaths.

Even if they purposefully caused their own deaths in such a way that they logically should know would cause a lot of problems to others (assuming that they took the time to think it through, that is)? Granted, the way that Japan goes about it right now is quite excessive and callous towards the suiciders' families, but the principle behind punishing successful suiciders by having their surviving relatives/legal caretakers take up a sufficient measure of the responsibility for the problems caused by the suicide to serve as a deterrent to other potential suiciders is actually a sound one. It's pretty much the same principle behind punishing other types of crime.

edited 5th Oct '15 6:30:23 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

You're not thinking Confucian. In the Confucian mindset, the family unit holds partial responsibility for the failures and debts of those it brought both into the world and up.

Hence, it's perfectly moral to expect the whole family to bear the financial and social costs of any messy suicide.

Just as the onus is on the family to deal with weakness, disability or delinquency. Failure to do so is seen as the ultimate shame.

Of course, this avoids the whole can of worms of how society could, maybe, have a duty to actually give a family unit more help to do all this... but, hey.

edited 5th Oct '15 6:36:20 AM by Euodiachloris

I mean, it definitely acknowledges suicide as a problem and unacceptable, which is good in its own way, but is the ass-backwards way of doing so.

It doesn't even do that, the problem isn't the suicide, it's that it's been done in a way that inconveniences others.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran