This is a great article about sexless marriages in North America.
Jus
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
This makes me feel sick...
I've just read this Associated Press article about the banning of a Japanese video game in the U.S. The game is being banned because it is classified as "obscene" under American laws. In America, games and pornography are not allowed to depict "rape", "sexual violence" or "sex by coercion". It is very different in Japan.
I find it interesting that in America, games in which people are murdered are ok, whereas games which depict rape, are banned. There seems to be a double standard.
Perhaps both types of games should be banned.
Many Japanese think that Americans are particularly violent people and American movies reflect this violence. However, many Americans think that Japan has serious problems of rape and paid sex with monors (援助交際) and that Japanese games, manga, and movies reflect this.
I think that both sides need to recognize their shortcomings.
I should also tell you that this story is getting VERY VERY big in the North American and European media.
This is the article:
Boycott of violent Japanese video game urged in U.S.
Tuesday 24th February, 06:27 AM JST
NEW YORK —
Anti-violence advocates are taking a stand against a video game in which players stalk and rape a mother and her two daughters.Amazon and eBay have already banned the sale of the game, called Rapelay.But New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Monday that the game is available on other Web sites.Quinn and the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault called on all video game distributors in the U.S. to refrain from selling Rapelay.Rapelay is made by a company called Illusion, based in Yokohama.The company’s website says its products are not available for sale outside of Japan. The company did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Tuesday 24th February, 06:27 AM JST
NEW YORK —
Anti-violence advocates are taking a stand against a video game in which players stalk and rape a mother and her two daughters.Amazon and eBay have already banned the sale of the game, called Rapelay.But New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Monday that the game is available on other Web sites.Quinn and the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault called on all video game distributors in the U.S. to refrain from selling Rapelay.Rapelay is made by a company called Illusion, based in Yokohama.The company’s website says its products are not available for sale outside of Japan. The company did not respond to an email seeking comment.
And this is a review of the game from an American gaming website:
As much as I wish RapeLay were an awesome hentai shooter starring an enormous naked lava man (he would attack by lobbing volcanic volleys of sperm), it's not. RapeLay is a disturbing rape simulator developed by the same misogynistic dickheads who brought us Battle Raper 2 which, oddly enough, didn't contain any actual rape.
RapeLay contains a lot of rape.
In RapeLay, you rape women in the most abusive manner possible and the women learn to like it. Well-programmed or not, I can't get behind that.*
*"I can't get behind that." means "I cannot support that."
8 Japanese languages are dying out!
According to a UNESCO report, 8 languages in Japan are in danger of dying out. There are now only 15 speakers of the Ainu language. The others that are endangered are Yaeyama, Yonaguni, Okinawa, Kunigami, and Miyako in Okinawa Prefecture, Amami in Kagoshima and Hachijo which is spoken in and around Hachijojima island in Tokyo. UNESCO considers all these to be distinct languages, not dialects.Osamu Sakiyama, professor of linguistics at the National Museum of Ethnology agrees with UNESCO's assessment and said, 'Coupled with the myth that Japan is ethnically homgeneous, people tend to think that one language is spoken in Japan. But I want people to know that there is quite a diversity.'The report on Japanese languages is part of a worldwide report - the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. The interactive digital version was released this week and is freely available online. A printed version will be published next month.
L.A. Times article on Japanese consumers
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/business/worldbusiness/22japan.html?em
This is an interesting article on how Japanese consumerism never fully recovered after the bubble era.
Justin
This is an interesting article on how Japanese consumerism never fully recovered after the bubble era.
Justin
Friday, February 20, 2009
Government Censorship of the Internet
Today these countries censor the Internet : China, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Ethiopia, Iran, India, Korea, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.
The Japanese government is also planning to legislate regulations of ‘harmful’ Internet content. Now, the Liberal Democratic Party’s Sanae Takaichi is preparing to an Internet censorship law. We can see clearly how the government is preparing the public for such a law. When governments want to pass some laws which strip away basic freedoms, they have to find stories to make the public frightened. If the public are frightened, the government can say "We need to take away some fo your rights to protect you."
The recent stories in the news about "encounter" websites (出会い系) and Japanese people learning how to grow marijuana from the internet quote the NPA (National Police Agency http://www.npa.go.jp/ ) as blaming the internet. I fully believe this is the beginning of an assault against the freedom of speech and exchange of information on the internet. This will allow the government to filter information out of the public eye in Japan. I cannot expres to you how dangerous I believe this is. If you think I am overreacting, I ask you to please look at the list of countries I posted above. Japan will join that list in less than two years.
The Japanese government is also planning to legislate regulations of ‘harmful’ Internet content. Now, the Liberal Democratic Party’s Sanae Takaichi is preparing to an Internet censorship law. We can see clearly how the government is preparing the public for such a law. When governments want to pass some laws which strip away basic freedoms, they have to find stories to make the public frightened. If the public are frightened, the government can say "We need to take away some fo your rights to protect you."
The recent stories in the news about "encounter" websites (出会い系) and Japanese people learning how to grow marijuana from the internet quote the NPA (National Police Agency http://www.npa.go.jp/ ) as blaming the internet. I fully believe this is the beginning of an assault against the freedom of speech and exchange of information on the internet. This will allow the government to filter information out of the public eye in Japan. I cannot expres to you how dangerous I believe this is. If you think I am overreacting, I ask you to please look at the list of countries I posted above. Japan will join that list in less than two years.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to stop this?
I have included 2 articles in which the NPA blame the internet for problems which they obviously cannot control. The NPA need to deflect the blame away from their own terrible policework.
Jus
Internet profile sites become hotbed of child sex crime, NPA reports
Thursday 19th February, 10:26 AM JST
TOKYO —
Internet profile sites, a type of social networking, have become a more dangerous source of sex-related crime for children than dating websites, the National Police Agency said Thursday in a survey. In 2008, 792 children under 18 became victims of sex-related crimes such as pornography and prostitution as a result of using profile sites. The figure surpassed 724 children who became sex-crime victims after accessing Net dating sites, the agency said.The latest NPA survey, for the first time, looked at profile sites and other social networking sites in terms of the possibility of their use for illegal sex services.NPA officials judged that criminals have been shifting their focus from dating sites to social networking sites in search of potential sex-crime victims as authorities have significantly restricted the business of dating-site operators.The NPA said it will ask operators of profile and other social networking websites to delete messages suggesting illegal sex services.In the reporting year, sex-related crime cases involving children under 18 using these sites on the Internet totaled 994, the NPA said. The number of obscenity cases came to 648 cases involving 545 victims, child prostitution and pornography 299 cases involving 204 victims, rapes 17 cases involving 15 victims and attempt murders two cases involving two victims.The number of people who became crime victims after using dating sites, including those aged 18 or older, came to 852 in 2008, down by 445 from the preceding year.The figure included 328 senior high school students, 211 junior high school students and two elementary school students. Of those under 18, 714 people, or 98.6%, accessed dating sites via cell phones, the NPA said.
Crimes linked to cannabis, marijuana spreading in Japan
Friday 20th February, 06:24 AM JST
TOKYO —
Sumo wrestlers, actors and college students caught for marijuana possession are apparently proving to be just the tip of the iceberg as police authorities say the number of cannabis-related crimes has risen to record levels in Japan. A National Police Agency report made available Thursday showed police departments across the country handled 3,832 cannabis-related cases involving 2,778 offenders last year, both all-time highs since the NPA began tracking records in 1956.The figure for total cases marked a 16.8% increase from the previous year, with the number of offenders rising 22.3%. There were 2,374 first-timers, accounting for 85.5% of the total offenders and posting a 20.6% year-on-year increase. As for breakdowns in age groups, the combined number of offenders in their teens and 20s went up to 1,736, or 62.5% of the total and a 10.6% rise.
The agency says a main factor in the increase appears to be numerous Internet websites that provide information officials say helps facilitate illegal acts related to marijuana, including how to grow it, indoors or outdoors, and produce it.Acquiring seeds of the plant over the Internet is relatively easy and seed trades are not illegal under current Japanese laws, making it possible for seed sellers to ward off a police search as long as they post a description noting that growing cannabis is illegal.Authorities have belatedly launched countermeasures against such deals and their efforts led to the arrest last year of a group who had engaged in Internet seed sales and delivery on charges of helping to grow cannabis.‘‘There has obviously been an increasing number of occasions in which people get cannabis seeds or learn how to grow it,’’ an NPA official said. ‘‘And there’s misunderstanding among them about the toxicity (of cannabis and marijuana). Probably that’s part of the reason they tried to get into it very easily.’’
Internet profile sites become hotbed of child sex crime, NPA reports
Thursday 19th February, 10:26 AM JST
TOKYO —
Internet profile sites, a type of social networking, have become a more dangerous source of sex-related crime for children than dating websites, the National Police Agency said Thursday in a survey. In 2008, 792 children under 18 became victims of sex-related crimes such as pornography and prostitution as a result of using profile sites. The figure surpassed 724 children who became sex-crime victims after accessing Net dating sites, the agency said.The latest NPA survey, for the first time, looked at profile sites and other social networking sites in terms of the possibility of their use for illegal sex services.NPA officials judged that criminals have been shifting their focus from dating sites to social networking sites in search of potential sex-crime victims as authorities have significantly restricted the business of dating-site operators.The NPA said it will ask operators of profile and other social networking websites to delete messages suggesting illegal sex services.In the reporting year, sex-related crime cases involving children under 18 using these sites on the Internet totaled 994, the NPA said. The number of obscenity cases came to 648 cases involving 545 victims, child prostitution and pornography 299 cases involving 204 victims, rapes 17 cases involving 15 victims and attempt murders two cases involving two victims.The number of people who became crime victims after using dating sites, including those aged 18 or older, came to 852 in 2008, down by 445 from the preceding year.The figure included 328 senior high school students, 211 junior high school students and two elementary school students. Of those under 18, 714 people, or 98.6%, accessed dating sites via cell phones, the NPA said.
Crimes linked to cannabis, marijuana spreading in Japan
Friday 20th February, 06:24 AM JST
TOKYO —
Sumo wrestlers, actors and college students caught for marijuana possession are apparently proving to be just the tip of the iceberg as police authorities say the number of cannabis-related crimes has risen to record levels in Japan. A National Police Agency report made available Thursday showed police departments across the country handled 3,832 cannabis-related cases involving 2,778 offenders last year, both all-time highs since the NPA began tracking records in 1956.The figure for total cases marked a 16.8% increase from the previous year, with the number of offenders rising 22.3%. There were 2,374 first-timers, accounting for 85.5% of the total offenders and posting a 20.6% year-on-year increase. As for breakdowns in age groups, the combined number of offenders in their teens and 20s went up to 1,736, or 62.5% of the total and a 10.6% rise.
The agency says a main factor in the increase appears to be numerous Internet websites that provide information officials say helps facilitate illegal acts related to marijuana, including how to grow it, indoors or outdoors, and produce it.Acquiring seeds of the plant over the Internet is relatively easy and seed trades are not illegal under current Japanese laws, making it possible for seed sellers to ward off a police search as long as they post a description noting that growing cannabis is illegal.Authorities have belatedly launched countermeasures against such deals and their efforts led to the arrest last year of a group who had engaged in Internet seed sales and delivery on charges of helping to grow cannabis.‘‘There has obviously been an increasing number of occasions in which people get cannabis seeds or learn how to grow it,’’ an NPA official said. ‘‘And there’s misunderstanding among them about the toxicity (of cannabis and marijuana). Probably that’s part of the reason they tried to get into it very easily.’’
Men See Women as Sex Objects When Looking at Sexy Calendars
Scientists revealed that calendars with sexy women and images of nude models published in newspapers make men think of women as objects. In a study men were shown pictures of models in bikinis. Scientists noticed on brain scans that when men watch such images, a certain area in the brain lights up, and that area usually lights up when men think about DIY tools as well as other objects.
Brains scans also showed that the area in the brain that men use to tune into another individual's thoughts and emotions tunes down.
"The only other time we have seen this is when people look at pictures of the homeless or of drug addicts because they really don't want to think about what is going on in their minds," mentioned the study's lead researcher Susan Fiske of Princeton University in the U.S..
It might be obvious, but still, the scientific team also discovered through brain scans that men enjoyed looking at nude women more than at fully clothed ones. The researchers presented their report on the study and its results at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference where they concluded that when shown images of topless women men are led to think of women as "less than human". Fiske stated that in case there are girlie calendars in the workplace, they could lead men to sexualize their female colleagues.
"I am not saying there should be censorship but people need to know of the associations people have in their minds," outlined the professor.
When she was asked whether women had the same effect when seeing half-dressed men, Fiske stated that women were more inclined to rate age and bank balance over a man's look.
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