Category: Podcast

[Music].

Alright, so a lot of people, they
want to come to, okay, nerds.

I should just start with nerds and
just any kind of new story, just nerds.

But, nerd stuff and
Japan stuff go together.

I think that’s pretty fair.

Anime voice acting is a
dream for a lot of super nerds.

It’s the kind of thing they want to do.

It would be like a dream
job for a lot of people.

The anime industry is tough.

It is incredibly tough and
is incredibly tough because

the margins are razor thin,
they have to produce so much.

It’s not the dream job
most people think it is.

It’s a lot like drug
dealing where there’s a

very small minority at
the top of the pyramid

that is making a ton of money and then
you have everyone else who’s making below.

McDonald’s sort of
staff wages in the hopes

that one day they’ll be part of that
incredibly small upper percentage.

The government has
introduced a new invoice system.

It goes into effect in October.

969 voice actors were surveyed.

77% of those said this
new invoice system is

going to become an
income decrease for them

and 27% said they may actually
have to quit voice acting altogether.

So this system is clearly incredibly
detrimental to the voice actor.

It’s being introduced to simplify taxes
for the companies and to prevent fraud.

Now those are good things.

You want to simplify taxes
for companies because

companies pay a lot of
taxes if they do a good job.

You want to reduce fraud,
reducing fraud is a good thing, but

it seems like it pushes all the
burden onto these voice actors

independent artists
essentially because a lot

of them are not employed,
salaried employees.

In some cases it pushes the
corporate rate to the actor

or artist because they are
not technically employees

or the tax will increase for the
companies reducing work for some artists.

So basically let’s say
you employ me as a voice

artist and I don’t do
this tax invoice thing.

The tax will increase
for the company so they

can employ me or they
can go with someone else.

But if they go with me and then I have to
provide that invoice, my tax rate goes up.

Most voice actors actually supplant
their income already and so all of these

taxes that they were going to have to
pay were going to come out of pocket.

Which means voice acting as
a career is a less viable option.

So if I issue the invoice and
pay the tax I have less income, if I

don’t do the invoice I’m going to
get less work from the companies.

Also the other side part that
they didn’t actually mention

very much is this is also
going to be more paperwork.

So that paperwork is going to have
to be done for done by the artist.

If it’s done by the artist
they actually spend that time.

Then you might think
oh it’s just taxes, it’s a

little invoice you have
to fill it out for every job.

And a voice actor might be
doing X amount of shows for one

company, X amount of shows
for a different company, different.

So they would spend a
significant amount of time if

they’re actually a busy
voice actor that is unpaid time.

I work for a company.

My company essentially does all my taxes.

I have to fill out basically
one or two forms a year.

It’s really just making
sure I sign a piece of

paper that says I still
work for this company.

My salary hasn’t changed
or it has changed whatever.

And the company takes care of it.

I basically do almost nothing
for taxies which is amazing.

That’s not going to be the case
for these independent voice actors.

And it seems like it’s going to be very
detrimental to the voice acting industry.

NURDS!

Maybe I should just
start every story like that.

I could do that.

It could be the thematic beginning.

It could be nerds and then perverts.

I wonder which one I’m going
to end up yelling more often.

Let’s try to get that.

So it’s nice on Dave is the star show.

Okay.

So there was a sex scandal.

Perverts and nerds.

Oh my God.

Johnny and Associates.

Johnny and Associates is a talent agency.

They have made some of the biggest band.

Biggest band boys.

The biggest boy bands.

You can see how deep I am into this world
when I can’t even get like the words right.

Johnny and Associates
has a sex scandal going on.

Where the executive
class of the company was

sexually abusing
members of the boy bands.

And of course you had to succumb
to this in order to get into the

band and be famous and get your
job and honestly fulfill your dreams.

So that’s awful because this is abusive.

Now the abuse in the idol
industry is sort of an open secret.

I think it’s one of those things
that everyone knew it was going on.

But now it has come to the light.

Some whistleblower has come forward.

Dave said this is what’s happening.

This has been happening
for years and years and years.

Johnny’s is in trouble.

McDonald’s will not renew its contracts.

It used to use a guy named Kim Taku.

Kim Taku is probably one of
the most famous people in Japan.

He was part of SMAP, which was
one of the biggest boy bands in Japan.

It’s weird to call it a boy band because
they’re all in their 40s and 50s now.

At least 50s and 60s at this point.

Kim Taku is one of the
richest dudes in the country.

Probably.

I don’t know how much money he makes.

The way I actually know him and would have
any sort of affection for him as a person,

although everything I’ve read
makes him seem like pretty awful.

He is the star of the judgment
or judge eyes video game series.

So if you play that
game, you’re probably like,

oh, they just made
this guy look like this.

That’s not the case.

They took one of the most
famous dudes in Japan and

they put him in his own,
Yaku is a style video game.

Kim Taku, from what I’ve read, he’s
basically the reason his boy band broke up.

So he went to the executives at
Johnny and Associates and like,

Ratted out the other guys
were going to go independent or

something or were looking at
other contracts or something.

I broke up the band so
that he could stay famous.

I never watched, they
all had like TV shows.

So they’re like four of those five members.

I think they all had TV shows.

There was a period where
you would flip channels

and there was a TV show
with one of the members from

SMAP on almost every
channel, which was disturbing

if you think about how
much they were making.

When they broke up, the thing
is, every show has a production

crew, that production crew, you
know, massive amount of people.

We’re not talking about one show, we’re
talking about like 5678 shows overall.

All those production
crews ended up losing

their jobs, millions,
not millions of people,

but thousands of people,
millions and millions

of yen were lost when
this group broke up.

Kim Taku seems kind
of like a piece of shit.

He seems like he sucks the corporate teet as much as humanly
possible, although I’m complicit in my guilt in that I will still play

those video games because I really love Yakuza video games and
that style of video game and I love how weird and stupid they are.

Nerd, I get a self nerd on that one.

So other companies now, now that the sex scandal
is public, I’ve decided to start dropping

Johnny and Associates, which is an interesting
thing because I think they knew it was going on.

But now that it’s public, they
have to act like they are outraged.

And that’s the bit
finding it a bit hypocritical.

Like you can’t be outraged by
something you inadvertently supported.

Which again, should I play judgement?

I’ve already paid for
the game, so I guess I

mean my complicit
nature in this is already set.

I can’t undo that.

I guess I can’t return the game.

I bought it digitally.

So I’m going to play
that game and then am

I going to play other
ones if they come out?

Probably.

I’m a hypocrite.

You’re probably hypocrite too.

hypocrite.

So we got nerd, pervert, and hypocrite.

I can call them out in succession.

And I can do self callouts.

I can see where I’m being a
piece of shit just like everyone else.

But at least I’m not abusing
young boys who want to be famous.

I mean, I can take a step
back from that at least.

This is the Howard who runs 100 feet.

Shouts at the the coward.

All’s the the coward who runs 101.

Eat a coward.

I don’t there’s a saying there.

I don’t remember what it is right now.

I’m a bit lost to my own
words at the moment.

Other companies that are
dropping Johnny Associates.

These are masters.

McDonald’s was one of the first ones.

Asihi group, which makes Asihi super dry.

They are a drink company and
alcohol company and beer company.

They’re dropping the other companies.

They are a drink company and
alcohol company and beer company.

They’re dropping them.

Suntory is demanding improved governance.

So this was the other side of the issue.

Well, let’s get through the drops first.

Japan Airlines is dropping them.

Nippon life insurance is dropping them.

Suntory is demanding
improved governance, which

actually implies that
what they’re saying is.

If you get rid of all your executives who
are doing all this abuse, we’ll keep them.

Because I am thinking about
the young up-and-coming stars.

Currently, who may be remiss
treated, but do they deserve

to be punished because the
executives were pieces of shit?

I actually think it’s fair for
the big stars to get in trouble.

They lose their contracts
because they were complicit

in that they didn’t speak
up in defense of anyone else.

This whole thing broke when a couple of
them were like, “I can’t let this continue.

I can’t let this happen to other people.”.

I have a great deal of respect for that.

They went through it, they
came up, they got famous, and

I’m like, “I can’t let someone
else suffer the same way.”

The media also remained silent on
these issues when these stories came up.

They remained silent on it because
they had to maintain access to the

stars because this is where all
their entertainment news comes from.

This group is so big and so powerful.

If they block off your access
to the stars of their group,

you’re going to lose out on
news stories, which is problematic.

I don’t want to see
these young guys who are

just trying to break
in get punished for it.

I do think it’s fair that the guys
who sort of profited off it get punished.

The guys who called it out are
actually the most noble people in this.

They suffered, they
went through it, and yet

they tried to make it
better for other people.

They’re better than me and my
desire to play the “Eckusa” video game.

“Eckusa” video game.

More nerd, more idle news.

This is a more entertaining one.

It doesn’t involve the… it involves
abuse but in a more entertaining way.

“NURTS!”.

An agoya-based, idle underground idle group,
which I don’t really know what that is.

I guess underground idle group
just means not popular yet.

“Pulsar, LUMACS.”.

“Bired one of the members.”

The member is called “Riri and
Osono” or her complete lack of humanity.

This is on the other side.

It’s not the management of
using the teams, the members.

The members abusing fans.

It’s hard to tell.

“Riri took some time off for stress.”

She’s feeling tough, tough life.

I Grant that it is a very tough thing
to have to keep doing all the time.

She needed a couple weeks off.

She took a couple weeks off.

Management’s very kindly, very
sensibly came in to check on her.

When they came to
check on her, she appeared

with two men carrying
her on their backs.

So I really want an
explanation of what that means.

Like is it she on both shoulders?

It says on their backs, are they bent over?

And she’s riding them like
some kind of weird horse?

Are they piggybacking her?

But in the middle, I can’t
tell what it actually means.

Anyways, they asked quite sensibly,
“What the fuck are you doing?”

And she replied, “It’s bothersome to walk.

It’s too bothersome to walk.”

So basically, I’m assuming these are fans.

She got these fans
because they are such big

fans, they’re willing to
do anything she wants.

She said, “I don’t want to walk.
I want you to carry me.”.

Management was so deeply offended by this,
they’re like, “I’m sorry, you’re fired.”

Turns out she was also lying to fans
about the other members of the group.

So she’s not even like smart enough
to not abuse the other members.

This is a thing.

She’s underground.

So she’s not that popular.

But I think in her head,
she’s so popular she can do

whatever she wants because
he has these core fans,

probably like a bunch,
will do anything she asks.

Now, if she’s no longer
part of the band is that going

to continue, does she have
enough clout to go solo?

I doubt it. Is she talented enough?

These idle groups don’t tend to hire people
based on talent by being really honest.

So she was fired.

She was fired for her
complete lack of humanity,

which is a great
reason to fire someone.

And now they are looking
for a new fourth member.

And I think I know someone who
has no musical talent, who’s a big

white dude, who would really bring
a new demographic to your market.

Who’s really old and doesn’t fit the mold.

But this is it.
It’s time to break the mold.

I’m not going to make two
people carry me on my back.

I would actually
probably try to carry two

people on my back because
that would be funnier.

And then break my knees.

And I would be a member, the first
50-year-old, foreign member in a wheelchair.

of an idle group ever.

And think about the records
you would be breaking.

I immediately think like, the fans.

Fans are so gross.

So she’s an awful person.
She was doing awful things to people.

And she was punished for it, which seems
like the way that story is supposed to go.

Bears.

So nerd.

Over hypocrite.

Bears.

A few weeks ago we did a story on OSO18.

Also 18.

This giant bear who is killing
and partially eating cows.

And they were very worried
about it attacking people.

And they actually had
to put them down, which I

was really sad about
because giant bears are cool.

Even if…

Yeah, it doesn’t matter, man.

Giant bears are cool.

That’s just what they are.

But the bear community
is decided to get revenge.

They’re actually on the brink of a war
between humanity and bears in Japan.

There have been 54 bear-inflicted
injuries since the end of July.

And this is the most, the
highest since 2007, which

makes me go, “What the
fuck happened in 2007?”

That there was some
sort of peak in bear attacks.

So I was thinking, “Yeah, the bears,
their leader, also 18, was taken down.”

And they’re like, “No,
we gotta get revenge on

these humans for hurting
our master and lord.

The biggest bear who ever went.”

Because you know bears are
going to do it based on size.

That is just going to be how it is.

It’s not talent or charm.

It’s just going to be
like, “Biggest bear wins.”.

Well, it turns out it’s not
because of revenge for OSO18.

It turns out there was a really
bad beach nut crop, which is one of

the main sources of nutrients,
main sources of food, for these bears.

So back in 2007, there was also a really
bad crop of beach nuts, which means the

bears are now coming down into sort of
human settled areas, trying to find food.

Trying to find food means
they encounter more people.

They freak out and they attack the
people, which is perfectly understandable.

This is all again, a secondary
result of climate change,

which means the human
bear war will occur very soon.

Maybe I should just switch to animal news.

I don’t know.

A two meter long iguana
is loose and cute shoe.

It escaped from a woman’s house.

This woman, in her 60s, kept a
two meter long iguana, and she

just let it loosen her home,
which honestly is cool as hell.

I don’t think I would do that.

I don’t think I have two.

I am 1.84 centimeters.

I’m almost too, not, no, I’m
20 centimeters off two meters.

We’re going to round off.

I’m also old, so I’m probably shrinking.

I think I went from
184 to 183, but we don’t

need to report that
small piece of news.

But there’s women in her 60s.

She’s like, “Oh man, I
gotta have a companion.

I’m gonna have a giant
iguana to be my companion.”

That’s amazing.

It escaped.

So now there’s a manhunt
for the two meter long iguana.

The iguana is said to be very timid
and gentle, which sounds very nice.

But I think maybe it’s a
co-conspirator with the bears that

is decided to rise up, and
if it can become big enough,

because again, size is what
matters in the bear world.

If it can become big enough,
it can lead the bears, and we

can get some kind of
iguana bear hybrid animal

that will decimate
the human population.

Thus, we won’t be producing as much.

Climate change will correct itself.

This iguana bear hybrid is going
to be what fixes climate change.

The Mayor of Shibuya Ward says,
“Don’t come to Shibuya for Halloween.”

We did a report on Shibuya last week,
and they started eating a little bit of a

issue in more complaints,
more tickets and whatnot.

There increased police presence.

Because people are getting out of hand.

They were getting 200 complaints a day.

He said something similar last year.

Now last year was deep in the pandemic.

Now, technically the pandemic’s not finished,
but we are acting as though it were.

The pandemic is not a
thing anymore as far as

people and governments
and whatnot is concerned.

You do have to be careful though.

My son’s school was shut down
for three days because of COVID.

I think my son got it
and got over it in a day.

But him being young and very
healthy, it didn’t impact him very much.

He also was vaccinated.

So I think all that helped.

I didn’t catch it or I caught
it and spread it around

and just never noticed,
which is very possible.

They are very worried about the
accident that happened in Seoul last year.

So in Seoul Korea last year during
Halloween, there’s an area called E-Tae-Won.

Thousands of people went to E-Tae-Won.

They thought there was a famous person.

There was this huge rush and a
whole bunch of people got killed.

They were just crushed to
death or trampled and stuff.

They are really, really worried about
something similar happening in Shibuya.

Traditionally, that’s not what happens.

They, people get drunk, they
get out there, they’re all walking

around, then they start flipping
over cars or smashing stuff.

It just becomes sort of a little riot.

They need more police.

What they’ve decided to do
was hire 100 security guards.

They will be deployed and they
will probably be absolutely useless.

Security guards don’t have
the authority to do that much

other than turn around
and go like, “Hey, stop it.”.

And then a drone person
when you say, “Hey, stop it.”

It really just encourages them to do more.

You have police currently in Shibuya issuing
citations and it hasn’t really curved

the amount of negative behavior they’re
talking about that they’re trying to stop.

I think what’s going to
happen is people are going

to go to Shibuya for
Halloween just like the year.

They’re going to be drunk
just like every year and

they’re probably going to
set cars on fire and stuff.

Smash them up just like
they do every other year so far.

[Music].

Maybe in-in-nep to governance.

In-in-effective police.

Maybe I could just do that.

I’m going to have to sit down
and actually work out my call-outs.

Just like the last story, I found
that the parallel between is very funny.

So the mayor of Shibuya is saying,
“Don’t come to Shibuya on Halloween.

My prediction is a whole bunch of
people go to Shibuya for Halloween.”.

The police last week, when
the Huncheon Tigers, which

is based on Osaka, when
or if the baseball team wins,

what they’re saying is, “Please don’t jump
in the river that goes downtown, Osaka.”

So this is something that
happens whenever they win.

It’s sort of good
locker, it’s your addition.

You jump off the bridge into the river.

In 2003, there had been an 18-year
sort of losing streak for the team.

They broke that in one in 2003.

5,300 people jumped into the river.

They’ve put signs up on Bridges.

They have a larger police presence.

And then yesterday, it went into effect.

The Huncheon Tiger… oh wait, 2005.

That doesn’t matter.

And then yesterday
there was a baseball game.

September 15th, this Tigers fans jumped
into the river to celebrate their victory.

They did try to arrest
as many as they could.

So they had police presence on the bridge.

You couldn’t jump off the
bridge, but there’s still the canal.

People were jumping
off the side into the canal.

They arrested some escape,
but again, the police saying,

“Please don’t do this thing
you’ve been doing for years.”

That’s not going to work.

I don’t know.

I honestly, as an interested side party,
don’t know how you would fix this problem,

it is an interesting problem for police
to fix because you have this tradition.

It’s a bit dangerous.

People have died in the past.

What, how do we stop it?

Do we corn it off?

Do we have enough police?

You can’t put… We don’t have enough
police to like line the entire canal.

You can arrest people.

How many do you arrest?

When do you go too far?

When do you cross that line?

I have no answers for this.

I would have to honestly sit down
and see how many police they have.

How many people show up?

Is there… What kind of like
resources or finance do they have?

So they could actually put it to
implement some sort of defense.

I bet they just sheer
volume of people who

are idiots overwhelmed
the police every time.

Weirdo!

A 50-year-old man, Neat.

What is Neat stand for?

Yeah, let me actually just look that
up really quick before we continue.

Not in employment, education, or training.

So this is basically just another.

Neat is a phrase for unemployed people.

They’re not even training or
going to school or anything.

They are just not doing anything,
so they’re staying at home.

These aren’t shutters.

He-Komori is a different thing.

He-Komori is…

You have some sort of trauma.

You have an issue with society.

You stay shut in your room all the time.

These are these people who don’t work.

This dude is 50 years old.

He’s clearly being fully supported by
his father, who lives in the same house.

He was arrested for setting fire.

He was father’s clothing
and the building they

live in, which seems
like a really bad idea.

If you live in a building, it’s not a
good idea to burn down the building.

You live in if you can’t afford to
pay for living in a different building.

He started with the laundry.

And then the laundry fire that
he set expanded to the house.

He started spreading a
lot faster than he expected.

He panicked and then he put it out himself.

But then of course by that time, the police
had arrived, the fire trucks had arrived.

They arrested him and they
said, “Why did you set the fire?

You weirdo moron.”

He said he wasn’t happy with
the dinner his father had made.

So basically his father had made bad food.

He had been supporting
him in this completely

individual lifestyle where
he doesn’t have to work.

The food wasn’t good.

So he decided that the appropriate response
would be to set fire to the laundry.

Jesus Christ, dude.

You clearly don’t
understand your situation.

Weirdo perverts.

Weirdo perverts is the final
story of every new student.

I actually noticed I’m doing a
lot less weirdo pervert news.

And I realized it’s
because it’s repetitive.

Weirdo perverts don’t
tend to be that creative.

I have realized I’m doing
less and less news because

now it has to either
the interesting or

surprising so that I have
something to comment on.

Now we’ve done the same
like stole panties from a balcony,

stole a thousand pairs of
underwear, stole something.

I guess volume would still
get me interested, but at

the end of the day most
of the weirdo pervert news.

We’ve hit a saturation point
where most of it’s not interesting.

This one was kind of interesting though.

So it made the list.

I’m now very discerning in my
choice of weirdo pervert news.

A phone was found in a gutter.

It was face-stuffed and recording.

And this was a woman
who steps across the gutter.

There would be a few frames of film.

I guess we don’t call it film anymore.

I guess it’s still the phrase.

It’s the verb, two film.

A few frames of film would
catch an up-skirt photo.

Seems like not the best way to do that.

But I’m not going to give advice on people
on how to take better up-skirt photos.

A woman saw the device.

She called the police.

The police dug it out.

They weren’t able to unlock the phone.

So they started searching the area.

And they found a man in a ditch.

And they’re like, “Hmm, using
my incredible detective skills.”

I think we have found
a link because we have

a phone in a gutter
and a man in a ditch.

There, while correlation is
not causation, it does seem

like there is a unnatural
link between these two cases.

And we should investigate that further.

This is good police work.

I think maybe I should start
narrating the way police think.

So they found a man in a ditch.

And they started to use some really,
really powerful investigative skills.

They walked up to the man and
they said, “What are you doing?”

The man in the ditch looked up at them and
said, “I was trying to look up her skirt.”.

Here, my incredible detective skills.

Find a secondary link.

One, in the interest in
ditches and low-dug places.

Second, in the desire to look up skirts.

So then they arrested the man
and they said, “Is this your phone?”

And I went, “It is.”

So my investigative instinct.

Now, why was not making assumptions?

Let’s be very clear.

Man, he really gave that up quick.

Yes, he gave that up so fast.

This was actually one of the bits that I
found most interesting about this story.

The police are like, “What are you doing?”

And he goes, “I’m committing a crime.”.

And it’s a crime immediately
linked to a previous crime.

So that’s actually two crimes he’s
been committing sort of at the same time.

You’ve got to give the man
some credit for efficiency.

He has doubled his crime
capacity and creepiness all in one go.

So I’m assuming he was
going to go back retrieve the

phone and then go home
and try to extract still images.

I don’t know how to campy good video.

I weirdly have realized that the
quality of the film is important to me.

So this wouldn’t do it for me as a pervert.

I need a higher quality perversions
to satisfy my perverted inclinations.

Anyways, he was arrested.

They were able to unlock the phone.

I was assuming they just took his, they
said, “Hey, can you unlock this phone?”

And he just stuck out his finger or
they were like, “Is this your phone?”

And he just went, “Yup.”

Because he is.

As Jade said, “Giving it up real quick.”.

Turns out he has a record he was arrested
for the exact same thing 10 years ago.

Not being in a ditch,
literally getting into the gutter

laying down so his face was
sticking up out of the gutter

so that when a woman walked
over he could look at her upper skirt.

I left 90s Aerosmott
quality behind the 90s.

Right?

I’m wearing 4K now.

If it’s known 4K, I don’t want to see it.

[Music].

[BLANK_AUDIO].

(upbeat music)

So after the summer break,
or holiday, we’re back at it.

Very excited to be here.

It’s weird ’cause I read two
weeks worth of news instead of one.

Okay, there’s also so many
else you have to do with.

The last couple of episodes I have

because I bought a second
desk and I rearranged my room.

And somehow by rearranging
my room, I created a small echo.

So the last couple of episodes
haven’t sounded as good to me.

I’m assuming people noticed
or didn’t care or anything,

but I have not been
satisfied with the quality.

So I do plan to move
stuff around my room again.

And I’ve also bought a new microphone.

It’s not the microphones problem.

I don’t wanna disparage this
microphone that I actually love very much.

The first solution though,
the easiest solution

is to lean in closer to the microphone
and speak a little more quietly.

Therefore, reducing the ability
of the sound to echo off the room.

So if it sounds like
trying to be sexy, I am.

Because I’m always trying to be sexy
’cause we’re all always trying to be sexy.

That’s just something to
keep in mind is sexy to sell.

So the video will suffer because I will
be less animated, but the audio podcast,

this is going to be a new, sensual
experience for an engineer’s Japan.

And then when I get my new
mic, I’m gonna test that out.

It’s gonna be very exciting because
obviously I’m doing podcasting.

I like all this stuff.

I like the tech stuff.

I like to play with the things.

But what I’m really looking forward to

is just sitting really far back from the
microphone and screaming my head off

instead of whispering like
I’m trying to seduce your ears.

Which I am.

I’m trying to seduce your ears.

I just want you to know that.

I have gone a little quieter
than I intended, but once

you get started on this
path, it’s a slippery slope.

Like I can’t go deeper.

I don’t have a really deep voice,
but I do speak softly quite well.

So one of my voice gets soft like this.

I just wanted to know, it’s
like a fondue for your ears.

A sensual soaking the
inner ear in melted chocolate.

Fucking discord.

Of course, I didn’t turn it off.

All right, let me do that.

Okay, there we go.

Discord has been muted.

No one can make fun of me for that again.

So let’s get started.

I can’t whisper.

I want to speak low, but then as soon as
I start going low, I go into like too much.

And I start whispering.

I should just start the show.

I really should just start the show.

But I kind of don’t want to start the show.

When I take breaks,
I actually takes me a

weirdly long amount of
time to get back into it.

And now that I’ve discovered that I
have sort of a problem with my audio setup,

that I need to fix, I’m
now kind of nervous

about recording because
I wanted to sound good.

This is essentially, I
know I put it on YouTube,

but it’s essentially an audio
podcast and the audio podcast.

More than anything else,
I wanted to sound good.

So you can see every time I like slow down,

I start speaking more
softly, more wispy and it just,

it gets, again, that
fondue for your, your holes.

Okay, we’re gonna get
started with the news.

So let me do a transition sound and then
we’ll get started with our first story.

Welcome to NPR and NJ and NJ NPR.

I’ve completely, I should
put some candles on, turn all

the lights out, close the
blinds, put on some candles.

Let me whisper the news.

Forget the news.

It’s just you and me talk.

It’s just you and me.

I’ll just whisper in your ear
things that maybe you need

to hear like, I’m probably
the same age as your dad.

And I’m proud of you.

I, I like who you’ve become as a person.

I support you and your efforts
and I think the things you

do to try to make yourself in
the world around you better.

I think those are valuable.

Now let’s get to some weird Japanese news.

(phone ringing)

All right, I’m gonna try
to not whisper that much.

It is going to be hard
because I actually never sit

at the microphone.
The pop filter is right in

my face and the
microphone, I’ve angled it up.

I’ve tried to do everything
I can to avoid buying a new

microphone and I just like, fuck it, I’ll
go buy the stupidly expensive microphone

that’s supposed to take
care of that goes for you.

Now that I’ve bought
it, I have massive buyers

regret, even though I
haven’t even received it yet

because I feel like I could just
do some bad, I have whatever.

We’re not gonna talk about it anymore.

A 31 year old man calls the police.

And he says, “I figure it’s gone.”

Not my physical figure,
like honestly my figure

left like 20 years ago,
but my figure is gone.

What he means is his,
his, a toy, a figurine.

You’ll notice if you’re watching the video.

I suppose I shouldn’t like address
stuff that you can see in the video.

Oh, look, anyways.

On the shelf next to
me, I do have a tatikoma.

Tatikoma has a robot from
the Ghost and the Shell series.

It’s one of my favorite characters.

And so I have a figurine.

I don’t have a lot of figurines.

I don’t collect a lot, but I understand
it has great value to other people.

It’s not the sort of thing
that is valuable to me.

If someone took the
time to steal my tatikoma,

I probably would not call
the police, if I’m being honest.

Turns out, a former coworker and living
girlfriend was the one who took his figure.

She said she stole and
sold the figure from money,

which shows that she didn’t
really understand what she’s seeing.

One of the things I think is
important if you’re gonna be

a thief is that you understand the
value of the thing that you’re stealing.

I had this conversation, many episodes ago,

where I was talking
about like people stealing

Pokémon cards where you would
need to know which cards are valuable.

So it’s like the unarmed thief thing.

And this was I was doing an equivalency
of people who steal Pokémon cards.

This is the next version of art theft

because you need to have
a deep understanding of it

to know its value, to know
that it’s worth stealing.

And if you do that, well, then
you’re in really good shape.

But if you don’t, you’re
gonna end up like this girl

who stole a sorta from
Kingdom Hearts, the video game.

I’ve never played it, so
it’s a little obscure for me.

stole a sorta figure and was
managed to get 4,000 yen for it.

So I don’t consider 4,000
yen worth going to prison over.

I should probably won’t go to prison.

And being his girlfriend, do you
think he’s gonna forgive or let it go?

This is something that’s
come up multiple times

where a nerd has married
or engaged in a relationship

with a non-nerd who doesn’t respect how
much they value the stuff that they have.

Like they’re collectibles and things.

So they don’t understand
what they’re doing.

There is a couple of
instances I’ve read online

of, you know, a woman
is angry at her husband.

She goes in and smashes the
case where all his figures are.

And I don’t think in those
cases they actually understand

what they’re doing because
to them it’s a stupid toy.

They’re angry at their husband
still plays with stupid toys.

So they smash the stupid toys.

And you’ve read stories on
the Internet where it’s like,

if you want to date me
you have to stop playing

video games and stuff,
which is pretty unreasonable

if you really think about
it because you’re saying

you have something you love if you love
me then you will stop loving that thing.

So I just found this interesting
that this woman stole something.

I don’t think she understands
because she stole it.

And again, you have to kind of say
your motive, or the reason for stealing.

It’s part of the police report.

And she said for
basically living expenses or

entertainers basically
just spending money.

But 4,000 yen, again, the really
bad math is like 40 to 50 bucks.

You’re not going to have that
much fun on 50 bucks anymore.

You’re not going to be
going out and doing it.

You’re gonna get a really nice dinner
for 50 bucks somewhere in Japan.

But even then you’re not
talking about like high class stuff.

You’re just getting like a
really good mid-range meal.

So I think a couple of
mistakes have been made.

She wants you to have
to study what she’s stealing

before she steals it to, don’t
steal your boyfriend and stuff.

That’s not cool.

The Deputy Mayor of Tokyo.

This leads to an
interesting set of problems

when communicating to your
team at work on messaging apps.

So my work co-workers and I use Slack.

I think a lot of companies do.

Microsoft Teams is the one
that’s actually using this story.

There is a feeling that what you’re
saying in there is sort of private.

And that’s not true.

Now I’ve made the mistake
more than once of clicking

on the name of the
person I was thinking about

to talk about that
person to someone else.

So because I was thinking of person A,

and I wanted to talk to
person B about person A.

What I did was I clicked person A’s name

and started typing and they saw
it and it’s embarrassing and stuff.

But it’s also whatever.

You know what I think.

I’m not particularly shy about
sharing my opinion in real life anyways.

So you probably knew if we’re being really
honest, but that’s a different issue.

So this sense of privacy
comes with a problem in that

you feel that you can say
whatever you want on this platform

because it’s not public, but
you’re saying it to a group of people.

Now, do you have the full loyalty and
understanding of the people you’re speaking to?

I have now realized that there are
things you should not just write down.

This is very much related to the Ninja
News Japan Advice for Criminal Section,

which is now something
I should actually title.

Come up with a secondary theme song,
Ninja News Japan Advice for Criminals.

It’s not criminals, but you
don’t want to pay portrayal.

You don’t want to say negative
things about people and write it down.

You want that to be ethereal.

You want that to be in the atmosphere.

So you’ve said it, but then no
one can prove that you said it.

That’s the important part.

‘Cause what could happen in what
happened to the Deputy Mayor of Tokyo?

Is he decided it would
be perfectly acceptable

to call someone who works
for a different group, a pig.

He did a play on words on their last name.

So he called an assembly
member, a pig multiple times.

A copy of the team’s chest, with
someone screenshotted that chat,

printed it out and sent
it to the home of the

assembly workers, assembly
members, co-worker.

So what happened is someone who
didn’t like the Deputy Mayor of Tokyo.

And this is again, the first issue
is, if you’re gonna say shitty things,

you have to make sure
everyone agrees with you before

you say it, finding out
afterwards is a problem.

So this is like any sort of racist person.

You really need to test the
waters and find out if the person

you’re speaking to is also
racist before you say racist stuff.

If you wanna do it with
sexism, anything like that,

any sort of negative aspect
that you wanna present

into the world, you have to make sure
that the people you’re speaking to agree.

And then even then,
they might be putting up

a face that they agree
so they can catch you.

So you gotta be really careful,
going back to my original point.

Don’t write anything down.

So someone screenshotted,
printed out, and mailed it to snail mail.

The copy of this chat to the
Assembly Member’s coworker,

a press conference was held by the victim
and said, you know, be really good idea.

If we looked at all the
Deputy Mayor’s postings.

So basically saying, like, if let’s
see what kind of shit this guy has said

about how many people there
are in the world and how awful he is,

and let’s just get that
out in the open right now.

So I think honestly, it’s kinda awesome.

The Deputy Mayor offered to apologize

and then offered to make a face-to-face
apology in person to the offended party.

The offended party declined, saying
it’s because of a scheduling issue,

but I am betting it
had a lot more to do

with, I don’t want to
stand in front of a man

who has called me a pig
and accept his apology

because the problem
with apologies primarily

is there is an expectation that you
accept them, even if you don’t want to.

And I bet she doesn’t
want to because the guy

called her a pig but I bet
it’s because he is a pig.

So this did not end there.

He called the Assembly
Group, a group of idiots.

He also posted her home
address in the team’s chat.

That to me, he’s now
doxing her to a group so they

could maybe take initiative
and go ahead and do stuff.

That is problematic,
’cause that is a step above.

Calling someone a pig is bad.

I’ve called people names.

I’m sure people have called me names.

If I found out someone called me a name,

I don’t think I would actually
end up taking it that personally.

We all get angry, we all get annoyed,
we all want to throw some stuff out there.

I think that’s healthy to a degree.

You gotta be careful, of course.

I don’t ever actually want to offend
someone, but bad moods, whatever.

Taking someone’s home address and posting
it to a group of people is a step above.

That’s not you’re in a bad mood.

That is you are trying
to actually put someone

in a situation where they
could get hurt, the deputy mayor

of Tokyo had to resign,
which is completely appropriate.

I actually think they could
have taken a little further.

This border’s on the criminal,
as far as I’m concerned.

(upbeat music)

So I’ve been involved in teaching
for most of my adult career.

I have always wanted to
find ways to engage students.

Teams, young teens, pre-teens.

They’re sort of the
most difficult to engage.

Little kids are great,
you just sing a song.

They’re happy.

You have adults.

They’re voluntarily, so
the feeling is different.

So I find adults are the easiest
and little little kids are the easiest.

That in between group there,
that toughest ones to deal with.

So finding ways to engage
with them is important.

And I tried and failed,
and I tried and succeeded.

But one of the real
ways to get young people

to engage with stuff is to bring them
sort of real life into the classroom.

They like that because it
helps them feel like adults.

So they were going to
talk in this lady’s class

about drugs and where drugs
come from, like illegal drugs.

So she thought, “Ah, you know, hi, from
my break, “I’m going to go to Columbia.

“What I’ll do is bring
back some Coca leaves.”

Coca is quite famously the plant
where the drug cocaine is refined from.

There’s already a first problem.

She’s bringing back leaves from a plant

into a country which I’m
pretty sure everyone knows

you’re not supposed to
bring plants across borders.

Like, I know it’s primarily because
of invasive species and stuff.

But like, even like lettuce,
it carry bugs and stuff.

You’re not supposed to bring stuff

like vegetables and stuff
personally across borders.

So I was like, as soon as they said,
she brought Coca leaves to Japan.

I wasn’t thinking,
“Oh, she’s going to go

back “and break bad
and start making cocaine.”

Which she wasn’t.

But I was like, she must
know that this is not okay.

Just on a like, don’t bring
plants into countries, kind of issue.

She brought the Coca leaves from
a trip to Columbia, back to Japan.

She brought them into the classroom and she
was doing a lesson about drug precursors.

So essentially where drugs come from.

And then she did a how-to
on how to refine the leaf

into the actual cocaine
and got like a 99% purity

and then had everyone
take a bolt off the ground

and just that class rocked
for the rest of the day

for about 20 minutes and
then they all came down.

No, that isn’t what happened.

She actually did though.

She was trying to engage the students.

So I weirdly appreciate
what she was trying to do.

The problem is she did it.

So she was like,
“Hey, I’m going to bring

these leaves “from
another country to Japan.”

Of course, turns out the Coca leaf

is illegal to possess an
illegal to import into Japan.

So she’s in trouble.

She claims she didn’t know.

Now most of the time
on the engineer’s Japan,

a criminal will do
something and then claim

they don’t remember or
they don’t know and I will go.

You know, that’s a good tactic to try to
delay the police but you’re guilty clearly.

I think this lady may have actually
been ignorant of what she was doing.

She’s like, “Oh, I managed
to get some of these leaves

“that are freely available
in Colombia apparently.”

I thought this would also be a controlled
substance technically in Colombia.

I got them in my bag.

No one found them brought them to Japan.

Nothing happened so
clearly it must be okay.

I bet if they asked her to
surrender them specifically

at the border, she
probably just would have.

She wanted to engage the students.

So advice to teachers.

They introduced Japan as all about
making everyone better and everything.

Advice to teachers don’t
bring products that can

be refined into illegal
drugs into your classroom.

Criminals always want to break into houses.

That’s where stuff is and criminals
want stuff more than anything.

They would rather
actually have liquid funds.

They would actually have
money but money is also

in Japan and still quite
often stored in the house.

Breaking into houses is hard though.

So one of the ways
you could do it is to trick

the person into letting
you into the house.

And this was interesting
because I had not thought

of this as a feasible
way to get into a house.

So if someone came up to
my door, knocked on the door

and said, “Hey, I’m trying to be a
chest “of an indigenous Japan fame.”

A snake has escaped.

Can I stay in your house for a bit?

I would be like, I don’t see a snake.

Why don’t you just run away?

I mean, if there’s no snake visible here

and it’s a big snake big enough to
scare you, I don’t think it’s a problem.

I think if you just keep moving, you
will be safe and fine from the snake.

I would not let them in my house.

Other people are kinder than I am.

I’m not even gonna say gullible.

I’m just gonna say
straight up kinder than me.

So what happens there is
they let you into the house.

Now somehow this guy found 3.7 million yen

in his ladies house stole
it and then left the house.

The police picked about based on the fact

that his car is being seen on security
footage, sitting outside the house.

So they figured out who he is.

This was four months ago.

They arrested me and said, “I can’t remember
anything that happened four months ago.”

Just great.

So they were like, “Where
were you four months ago?”

He’s like, “I don’t know.”

This is a real experience I had.

So I was as a part of my company
sued by a former employee.

And the court process, I believe it was
two years before I actually was in court.

And the man, the defending attorney,
no, no, no, we were the defendant.

So the prosecuting attorney
asked me very specific questions

about things I said on that day that I was
actually working with this other person.

I have to keep the details a little vague,

but that’s actually not
relevant to the story.

So he asked, “Did you
say this specific thing?”

And I legitimately remembered, because this
was a pretty big event in my work life,

I did actually remember, but it
seemed very justified for me to say,

I don’t remember exactly what I said two
years ago, because I think it’s unreasonable

to expect people to remember
what they were doing two years ago.

So I was half lying,
half telling the truth.

“Did I just purgery?”

I just think I just purgured myself.

I had a recollection of the
sentiment of what I said.

I did not remember that.

So I guess we’re talking about laws.

Legally, I did not lie.

Spirit of the law, I
fudged the truth a bit,

because I did remember
the spirit of what I said.

I remembered a vague sense of what I said.

I remembered the
approximation of what I said.

Did I remember the exact
sense the specific words?

No, I didn’t.

Since he asked me if I
said something specific,

a negative answer
to that was not a lie.

So I did not purgure myself.

Excellent.

This means Japan, you
don’t swear on a Bible.

‘Cause I watched a lot of court stuff.

Used to watch a law and order and stuff.

And they go to court
and you swear on a Bible.

And I’m not religious, so that
always seemed weird to me.

But then I know I’m in a different country.

And you don’t swear on a Bible,

they just go like, hey, tell
the truth and you go, yep.

Swearing doesn’t mean anything.

Anyways, this guy, I actually think it
was the result isn’t that interesting.

It was the fact that he used
this very, to me, not very

convincing story to actually
get into someone’s house.

But he did it successfully.

And it seems like he did it multiple times.

And then also there’s this,
keeping 3.7 million yen in your house.

I currently have 10,000 yen, it’s
like a hundred bucks in my wallet.

That is all the money I keep in the house
because I generally use digital payments,

which means the best you
could do is steal my phone

and you need my fingerprint
to access anything on my phone.

So your snake story won’t work and I
don’t have any money for you to steal.

So don’t target me.

Don’t target anyone, stop stealing stuff.

So there’s a lot of games
I’ve played in my youth.

Here’s my moment to
try to appeal to the youth

and talk about games
that they’re clearly playing

’cause they’re in the news,
games I’ve never played.

Honestly, do not want to experience.

So there were three friends.

They’re out for an evening of cocktails
over, I assume the summer break.

I actually didn’t write
down the exact dates.

And they’d been imbibing,
so they were loose, let’s say.

What happened was they started a
game and in front of a crowd of people,

the two friends started taking turns
punching the one friend in the stomach.

This led to a point where the one friend

collapsed unconscious and
was then taken to hospital.

The two friends were arrested.

When the friend regained
consciousness, he

said, oh no, no, no, they
weren’t assaulting me.

We were playing a game of gut punches.

This is a game.

I practice judo.

If you’ve listened to an engineer’s
Japan for any amount of time,

you know that I spend
significant portion of my

life doing very awful
things to my body for fun.

This is not something
I’m a professional at.

It’s a hobby.

It’s a very important part of my life.

But, and it causes me
immense amount of pain.

So I did it last night, walk up this
morning, took a 10 minute ice bath.

I know ice bath has become kind of a trend
for, you know, douchebag, sports bros.

But, honestly, if you are
feeling pain all over your body,

and ice bath is a
pretty, pretty nice thing.

So if you do any sort of significant sports

that cause you pain, I’m not
gonna get into the ice bath.

You should look it up and
probably take it seriously.

You don’t need to do what they do,

like all the extreme stuff,
like 30% ice, 60% water,

and you sit in there for
two minutes and almost die.

I put cold water in a
bathtub and then throw in

some ice that melts
probably before I even get in.

And it’s cold, it’s not freezing.

Again, cause I’m not working at
a level where I would need that.

But the relief it has brought
to me has been significant.

I have some friends who’ve tried it.

They all have a very positive things.

I’m not gonna go ice bath bro on you.

Let’s start talking about that.

But, what I’m saying is I’ve done a lot
of damage to my body on purpose for fun.

I would never consider
playing a game of gut punches.

Back in 2015, there was
a jewelry heist in Japan.

Three men, I actually talked
about this not too long ago

because one of the men at the
time of the crime was underage,

but now that they’ve actually found them
and are prosecuting them, he is an adult.

I was very interested if
he’s being tried as an adult.

This may never come to pass.

They were talking about
extraditing them from

the UK where they live
to Japan to face trial.

Normally in this situation,
they just have the country

they’re in, prosecute on
the other countries that have.

But they want to extradite them to Japan.

They’re only dealing with,
there’s three people involved.

They’re only doing one at a time.

They are currently the UK
saying they will not extradite

the suspect to Japan because
of Japan’s human rights issues.

So people who are held in Japan
by the police, they get abused.

They’ve had multiple deaths in
Japanese holding cells for immigrants.

So people who are like their
visas of run out or their illegal

immigrants and stuff, they
get thrown in these holding cells.

They don’t get fed properly
or taken care of properly.

They’re talking about
human rights violations now.

The concern is that the
suspect may be in the hospital

the suspect may be made
to confess under duress.

And then Japan argues
back that the police interviews

are all recorded except for the
ones where the recording doesn’t work

and the person accidentally punches
himself to death, which has happened.

So I think people have a fairly positive
image of Japan as a society, as I do.

The police though is really mixed bag.

Now I know some cops.

The cops I know I like to believe.

They’re good and kind people and
would never actually do any of this stuff.

But the reality is there are regular
stories of people being held for no reason.

There’s a guy who was held for 40 days.

So he lost his job.

He lost most of his friends
on a false accusation.

And the police basically are like,
“Whoops, sorry, you can go now.”

Problem is his whole life is in shambles.

And in Japan, you can sue,
but what you get for suing them.

It’s not like enough to fix your life.

So in America, being
a very litigious country,

you get massive payouts
if the police wrong you.

That doesn’t happen in Japan.

So you get a couple thousand dollars,

but a couple thousand dollars
isn’t gonna get me my job back.

It’s not gonna fix my life.

So that’s problematic.

The other two are still waiting
in decision about extradition.

Japan, I didn’t know this.

Japan only has extradition treaties
with the US and South Korea.

So basically, if you
commit a crime in Japan

and you can get to any country
other than the US and South Korea,

it’s very likely they will not send
you back to Japan to face charges.

So my immediate thought is like,
okay, what country would I go to

that would be least likely
to send me back to Japan?

Actually better would be China.

If I committed a crime in Japan,

I can’t be giving advice like this
to Japanese criminals all the time.

But it is just the
way my brain works is

like, present a problem,
give me information,

and I start to go like, well,
what is the best solution to that?

I’ve committed a crime in Japan,

which country is least likely
to send me back to Japan?

I would at first think
it’s trying to because

they have such a
contentious relationship,

but then they might
send you back just ’cause

they don’t want you
who has a problem there.

And China is not really
big on human rights either.

So they’ll be like, ha
ha, go back and suffer.

It’s actually China might
not be the best choice.

I might have to do a survey
somewhere and see what everyone thinks.

If you commit a crime
in Japan and you’re not

going to the US, you’re
not going to South Korea,

where would you go in the hopes that you’re
least likely to be sent back to Japan?

The human’s right
issue actually brings it up.

So you need actually
a very liberal country.

So now I’m thinking my
home country of Canada,

they would not send
you back if there was

any possibility of a
human rights violation.

So I think doing years and years and years

in an introduced Japan has
led me to the conclusion that

I should start planning my big crime and
go back to Canada and not get extradited.

Some plans on the horizon I see.

So there’s a South
Korean DJ called DJ Soda.

She played a music festival in Japan.

Now DJ Soda at the end of her
sets goes down into the audience

and says hello to people
and talks to people.

And the problem is in Japan, she
was groped by both men and women.

Jaxi said the woman grabbed
her breasts the hardest

and was like most sort
of invasive with the groping

where the men like grabbed
her elbows and grabbed

her shoulders and stuff,
but they were touching her.

Now I don’t want to victim blame,
but I do want to give all the information.

So this was, I personally,
if I was that big personality,

probably would not go down
into the audience without security.

I absolutely wouldn’t do it
if I was an attractive woman.

And I’m not talking about the Japanese
audience, I’m talking about any audience.

The Internet went really weird on this one.

So you have the Japanese
Internet that’s trying to defend itself,

the Japanese Internet that’s trying to
apologize or be sympathetic to the situation.

You have the South Korean
Internet that is accusatory of Japan.

You have the South Korean Internet that
is judgmental of the way DJ Sota dresses

’cause she basically wears
short shorts on a bikini top.

And she’s a very sexual person,
but again, being a sexual person

doesn’t make it okay to
sexually assault someone.

They also had a porn star dancing on stage.

So the problem I see is
that this was a sexually

charged atmosphere and then
she went down into a crowd.

Now, I would actually
say that’s a bad idea.

Not, again, I don’t think it’s okay.

I think those people should get in trouble,

but I also think your
self-preservation needs to kick in.

This is, we got porn stars up
in bikinis dancing on the stage.

We, the audience is mostly
men and they’re mostly drunk.

I wouldn’t go down there.

As now, as a male, I still
would not go down there

because I’d be like, I don’t
believe it would be safe

to go down into a crowd of drunk people
if I have just like hyped up the crowd.

But again, I still don’t
think this is okay.

It leads me in a tough position because it
will sound like any sort of excuse I make.

We is victim blaming,
which I don’t think that’s fair.

She should not have been touched.

The audience should have
kept their hands to themselves.

Japan, having done as many stories
as I have on creepy people in Japan,

I do have an image of Japanese
men being kind of creepy.

So that’s problematic as well.

So is that true or is
that a bias I’ve created?

Like a confirmation bias
because I seek out those stories

for an engineer’s Japan
because they’re usually

interesting and weird
and funny and gross.

And that suits the
platform I’ve created here

where we’re talking about
interesting, weird, gross stories.

The interesting thing is this
morning, a news report on Japan today.

So I’m gonna read this
because I just got it this morning.

220 year old men surrendered to police
Monday and connection with the incident

where popular South Korean artist DJ
Sorda was allegedly groped by attendees

at a recent music event in Japan,
according to investigative sources.

So basically the police are like,
oh, the creators of the music festival,

we want to press
charges, civil and criminal

because we want to promote
the safety of our artists

who are the people who come to
this festival, we want them to feel safe.

So we’re actually pressing charges.

These two guys turned themselves in.

And they said, again, not
an excuse, but they said

they were drunk and this
really was gross to me.

They said we touched
her in a lighthearted way.

So I think what they’re trying to
say is we didn’t intend to grow per,

but you were touching
someone without permission.

So I mean, it’s the same whether
your intent was to be gross or not.

And this is the problem is something
like this depends on how it’s received.

You touch someone and
they like it, not a problem.

You touch someone and they don’t like it.

That’s sexual assault.

They’re really, it’s really
the person who’s on the

receiving end gets to
decide if this is okay or not.

And she’s decided it’s not okay.

I did read a lot about, again, the different
internets trying to lay blame elsewhere.

I don’t have an answer.

I, yeah, I think security should
have been down there, maybe.

I don’t think.

Do you remember Taylor Swift?

Went on to, she was receiving an award
and then Kanye West charges the stage

and grabs the microphone and
says like, I’m going to let you finish.

And then my only thought in
that was where was security.

Like security didn’t, you
have a guy, I know he’s famous.

He just walks on the stage
and just grabs the microphone

out of her hands just to
like take over that show.

Security should have like
pulled him off the stage.

Like just picked him up and walked him off.

And they’re probably thinking
like, oh, he’s rich and famous.

So we shouldn’t do that.

He’s an artist here tonight.

So we shouldn’t do that.

But man, I don’t think anyone
should be rushing up on anybody.

So I think security failed here.

Just like I feel like
they failed back then.

I think that might be where in my
mind, most of the blame should be.

So I think DJ Sona is absolutely
justified in being offended.

I think the fans turning themselves in was
actually probably the right thing to do.

The female fan who
she was literally the most

blame was laid on
did not turn herself in.

I bet she didn’t think
she did anything wrong

because it was a woman
touching the other woman.

We got a lot of cultural
issues all wrapped up

in that that we don’t
have time to go into today.

Because I got a couple more stories to do.

But it is interesting.

I’m interested to see where this ends up.

Because does DJ Sona go forward
with these guys getting arrested?

What happens to them and what comes
up after this would be very interesting.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

This is something I
didn’t know about at all.

And I’m super excited about it.

And I kind of want to try it.

And I know I end up spending
way more money than I should.

But there are online UFO catchers.

UFO catchers in Japan
is what I think they would

call crane games or claw
games in North America.

I haven’t been in North America long
enough to know what they’re called anymore.

But in Japan, it’s that big claw
comes down and you grab something.

And then, of course, it lets go halfway up.

And you go, oh, I almost got it.

You can do that online
with your smartphone.

This, I think, came about
primarily because of COVID,

because people couldn’t
go to our kids anymore.

They set up a warehouse
with these hundreds of

UFO catcher machines
and then cameras on them

so that you can control
it from your smartphones.

You pay money through the phone
and then you get a play and it picks it up.

And if you win, it picks
up the item and it drops it

and you actually win,
they’ll mail it to your house.

I don’t know why that got me going.

I assume he has the thing.

When I came to Japan, I
used to do UFO catchers.

I used to be really good at it.

And then the UFO catcher machines seem to
get like they paid out less or more scammy.

They clearly had
programmed the machines not

to give you stuff until it got
a certain amount of money.

More so than when I came.

So my skills didn’t go down.

The quality of the grab went down.

So I don’t play them anymore because
now I feel like they’re just rip off.

Whereas before I felt
like I had an actual chance.

So I probably actually
gave them more money

before what I would win
stuff every now and then.

Whereas now I don’t win anything.

So I don’t give them anything.

So imagine a warehouse with 500
machines and over 1,500 different prizes.

It’s mostly anime stuff.

So if you’re a nerd,
this is like up your alley.

I, with my touchy coma on
myself, 100% am down for this.

DMM.com, which is a big
website in Japan that does live

streaming and stuff,
they will move the prize

to make it easier
after multiple attempts.

They actually some places do this.

So like I try to grab
this big anime sexy girl.

And I drop it like five times.

You can call this staff and go,
can you please position it better?

And they want to move it closer to
the whole or closer to or like on its side.

So it’s a little easier to pick up.

It’ll give you a fair chance.

And after you spend so much
money, you’ve kind of paid for the thing.

So it’s a fair thing to do.

So dMM.com does that.

Taito and Sega also
have these online services.

I didn’t know about any of this.

Actually, that’d be a cool
thing to actually live stream

on Twitch is set a certain
amount of money and see

how much I can win, which
would probably be zero.

Because again, I’m assuming
now I’m even like my skills

that I would have had
before they’ve gone down.

And then doing it via the Internet.

I bet that’s actually really hard.

But I’m super interested in this.

They make 20 to 30
billion yen a year on this.

This whole industry I didn’t
even know about, which I think

that to me is the most interesting
aspect of this whole thing.

OK, creepy last story, creepy last story.

This happened to me two days ago.

And so I was shocked.

I was actually on TikTok.

But it turns out on
YouTube, there was a sudden

influx of older whole
advertising on YouTube in TikTok.

And an older whole is a
machine, a suction-based machine

with vibrating capabilities
for a male individual.

So it is a machine designed
for a man to take care of himself.

Now, the one I saw, I actually
tried to send it to my friends

because it was so disturbing
and gross when I saw it,

that I wanted everyone
I knew to see it as well.

So we could talk about it.

But what it was, it was one
that was stuck on a window.

No.

If I’m going to do sort
of my private activities,

I’m not going to do
it on an open window.

But I’m betting the suction cup
actually works really well on glass.

So maybe that wasn’t on purpose, maybe not.

Then they just turn on
some of the functions.

There’s no voiceover, no sound.

It’s just this tube stuck to a window.

And it has a touch panel at the top.

And they touch it.

And you can see it go, boom, boom, boom,
where it starts to vibrate and whatnot.

And then they take a thing.

It’s not a male PPE.

They take a long stick with ridges on it.

And they start putting it in there.

Then they did an internal
view of what it looks like

on the inside and how
it’s vibrating and stuff.

And then they did some
practical special effects.

I think it might be the best way to say it.

And then the video was over.

Because it is just like a 10, 15 second ad.

I know this is not what YouTube wants to
have advertised on its Japanese website.

I know it’s not what Japanese TikTok
wants advertised on their website.

So a lot of people freaked out on Twitter.

I guess I should start
calling it X properly.

As in why am I seeing these things?

They’re all gone now, but everyone
wants to know what happened.

I’m betting YouTube and TikTok
will not let us know what happened.

My guess, my honest to
goodness guess, is that this is

part of the influence of
AI in the algorithm creation.

So AI has been like, we have men like me,

who really enjoy looking at
gross weird stuff on the Internet.

Let’s show them some gross
weird stuff in the advertising.

And maybe they’ll be more likely to buy it.

Now that’s not true, but I was absolutely
willing to share it with my friends.

I wasn’t able to share it,
which I found interesting.

So I click the share button to
get the link to send to the Discord.

So my friends could be grossed out with me.

But that didn’t work.

So I’m actually thinking
the AI kind of tripped up

and said like, there is no actual physical
thing that is disgusting in this video.

Because there’s no body
member that you see,

like you don’t even see like a human
hand, you see an object and that object

goes into another object that gesture
would be very sexualized to a human being.

But to an AI, they’re
not seeing any body parts.

They’re not seeing any,
they haven’t been programmed

to understand what
aspect of this is sexual.

So to them, it’s probably not sexual.

I think this is one
of the first failures

I’ve seen at AI trying
to moderate a system,

letting the exact stuff it’s
supposed to filter out, go through.

And that is, I guess, our future.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

[Music]

(upbeat music).

But I got Dave and Dave
doesn’t want to get out of the way.

What do I do with Dave?

This is a tough question for me.

I want to move the microphone closed.

Last time I had it
up here, it was good

positioning, but actually
echoed from the back

of the room, which was very annoying,
because I could actually hear it.

It’s not terrible, but it was enough.

But then you don’t get any Dave time
if I move the mic where I need it to be.

Which is about there.

That’s right in Dave’s face.

Alright, buddy.

Yeah, I need to do my thing.

That’s what I need.

I need to do my thing.

What am I going to do?

That’s a tough question.

You can see I’ve worked
on my positioning back here.

Dave.

As soon as I sit down to get
this started, he wants attention.

It’s like he knows I finished writing.

Maybe I’ll ignore him completely when
I’m writing, so that’s why he doesn’t.

He doesn’t, but he knows during this part
I might actually like pay attention to him.

Oh, what do we do, Dave?

What do we do?

Let’s get that up a
little more right there.

That down.

Yeah, like that.

That’s interesting.

Oh, he’s sitting down.

That’s very nice.

Okay, so let’s get started.

[Music]

Japan, as a country, is shrinking.

Not the actual, no.

Japan is a population.

So as a country, it’s staying
basically the same size.

I mean, there might be erosion going on.

I didn’t check that statistic.

I was looking at a different statistic
because you’ve been in his huge Pam before.

You know, I love the statistics.

Statistics are super fun.

Japan’s population
2022, so they take a lot of

time to resolve the
actual surveys and whatnot

from the previous year to
make sure they’re accurate.

So we got, there was an 801,000
person decline in Japan last year.

That’s a lot of people.

It’s the first time that all 47
pre-fractors have declined in population.

So usually Okinawa,
they’re down there in the

sun, they’re banging
them out, they’re increasing

the population the way,
you know, Okinawans do.

That’s now going to be a new,
like, weird, sexual phrase for me.

You know, like Okinawans do.

But even there, Okinawa,
I guess they got worn out.

They did not increase
the population this year.

This, of course, has prompted calls
to address the declining birth rate

from the prime minister
and programs and stuff.

We’ve talked about this a million
times in the Institute of Japan.

I’ve solved this problem many times over.

And yes, it’s not an easy fix.

It’s not an easy solution.

It’s not something that
can just be done quickly.

You need to change culture to be honest.

But I actually have
other news stories coming

up, the showing that
culture can be changed.

and things will get better.

Foreign residents Rose to
just under 3 million people,

and in Tokyo, actually saw
an increase in population.

So just Tokyo itself.

Because so many foreign people
were going there for jobs and stuff.

So you can see there’s
sort of a tentative solution.

Our next story, though,
is going to kind of show

how that solution isn’t
really going to work out.

[MUSIC].

“Kumamoto.”.

They wanted to include
the phrase, including foreign

nationals to its definition
of what a citizen is.

So that would mean that the
people like myself, foreign nationals,

living in kumamoto, would be
considered citizens by the government.

Now, this wouldn’t actually
give them any more rights.

I can’t vote in Japan.

Other people, so it wouldn’t
actually change anything.

It would just be like, hey, you
are now included in the city.

You are a citizen of
the city by being here.

You pay taxes.

You do all the things
that citizens have to do.

You follow the rules.

You’re a good person.

You are welcome here.

I think that was maybe
the underlying message

that you as a foreign resident are still
welcome and are a member of the community.

How could that go wrong at all ever?

Well, they did a survey,
basically asking if this is okay.

Public opposition to this was 90%.

So they went out and did
a survey of the community.

90% of the community
said we don’t want foreign

nationals to be
referred to as citizens.

It’s not going to change
their rights or anything again.

Let’s just be clear that,
but the idea of calling

them citizens was too
big a door to open up.

So they were like, no,
shut that down right now.

So the government of Komodo
has decided we are not going to add,

including foreign nationals in
their definition of what a citizen is.

The foreign numbers in
the city, though, they’re

recognizing that those
foreign numbers are going up.

So they’re like, well, you know,
we’re getting more and more foreign

people who live here, more and
more people are part of the community.

We want to include them in part of the
community. We should call them citizens.

The people on the other
hand are like, fuck those guys.

Fuck those people because
they’re not Japanese.

The government tried to
say that this was based on a

misunderstanding and not
like massively rampant racism.

This is the problem.

As a foreign person
living in Japan, you are

never going to be accepted
as a Japanese person.

You might say that’s because I look
different, but hey, what’s going on?

You might say that’s because
I look different, but I, this

is most of the foreign nationals
in Japan are other Asians.

So they’re from Korea, they’re from
China, they’re from other places in Asia.

So they don’t look different.

So the racism there is just straight up.

We don’t want anyone who isn’t
Japanese to be called Japanese.

The government again, they’re
trying to make it seem like the

people in the city aren’t
anti-foreigner, but of course they are.

They said, we do not
believe that not specifying

foreign nationals as
citizens will exclude them.

I think that having 90% of
your population say that the idea

of calling a foreign national
a citizen will exclude them.

Because basically the
people have made it very

clear what they think of
foreign people in Japan.

I have run experiments
like live experiments on

my students when I was
teaching classes in Japan.

And so they, I said, you know, if
I had lived as a foreign person in

Canada, if I had lived in
Canada as long as I have

lived in Japan, I’ve lived
in Japan for 21 years now.

If I had lived that long in
Canada, I would have been a

naturalized citizen and
everyone would call me Canadian.

I mean that of course was
racist everywhere, but then the

number of people who would
accept me as a Canadian huge number.

In Japan, I could live here
for the rest of my lives, let’s

say 40, 50, 60 years, and I will
never be considered Japanese.

I could learn perfect Japanese.
I could adopt Japanese

lifestyles and I could take
on their behaviors and stuff.

And I still would never be Japanese.
And that’s it. It’s just never.

And then my students would say, well
that’s not racism. You’re just different.

I’m like, well that’s
literally what racism is.

And so I put an experiment to them.
We were talking about police.

And I said, you know, I, when I was
young, I considered being a police officer.

My students say, oh,
you’d be a really good police

officer. You know, you’re
strong and you’re serious.

And you know how to, you know how
to, you could handle people really well.

And you know when to be strict
and you know when to be kind.

That kind of stuff. You’d be a great cop.
And then I said, in Japan.

And they all went dead silent.

And they all went dead silent
because the idea of a foreign person.

And now these were
not racist people really.

But they were saying,
like they accepted me.

They were taking these
classes with me as the teacher.

So they were like, you know,
we’re interested in foreign culture.

We’re interested in lots of stuff.
We’re open people.

But the idea of a foreign
person, a person, a non Japanese

person, having authority
over them in their situations.

Like I pulled them over. I said, like if
I did, I was a police officer in Japan.

And I did a traffic stop. I bet half the
people I pull over would not consider.

Like my authority. They wouldn’t,
they’d be like, well, he’s foreign.

He’s not a police officer.
So and they’ll just drive away.

I 100% think they would do that.

Because the idea of
a foreign person having

actual real authority in
Japan is inconceivable.

And again, this isn’t
rampant racism. It’s

kind of a more generalized
soft racism, maybe.

And that’s one of the issues
that Japan needs to get passed.

Because the declining population is really
only be saved in the short term by an

increase in foreign residents who do
jobs produce babies with Japanese people.

And you need a more mixed
society for Japan to survive.

And I know Japanese people,
that is the last thing they want.

And this survey, 90% of
the people in Kumamoto,

and Dave will not stay still. Okay, I got
to do something to get Dave’s son down.

So what I do is I take Dave’s
bed and I put Dave’s bed on my lap.

And then I put Dave in
the bed and he will sit down.

My lap, I think, is not
comfortable with that.

Shoo.

That nice, nice butt shot there.
So now, I think maybe my,

Oh, see, look at that. You are
immediately like starts laying down.

The problem is I got to get
close enough to the microphone.

Okay, so you won’t be able to
see him as much, which is too bad,

but you do get a lot more
Steven Seagal, which is great.

Okay.

My rant about racism has been
interrupted by my love for Dave.

And that’s how we stop racism. Love.

So I don’t know where
I was going with that.

But the solution, oh, the short
term solution to the population,

the decline in Japan is
to bring in more people

who are not Japanese
and make them Japanese.

But when you get in Kumamoto,
let’s say 90% of the people are

opposed to the idea of calling
a foreign person a citizen,

even if they pay taxes and do
all the things that citizens do.

Again, again, no increase
in their actual rights.

They don’t get to vote.

They don’t get to do other stuff.

They don’t get to hold public office.

That still was aligned
too far for these people.

Just giving them acknowledgement
that they’re part of the community.

Okay.

So Twitter recently rebranded to X.

Kind of a problem in
Japan, because then it’s

going to be X Japan is
what they wanted to call it.

In Japan, there is a glam
rock band already called

X Japan, so that name
is already trademarked.

It’s not trademarked
by like a guy like me who

Twitter could just like
bowl over with money

and just like take it from them,
which is exactly what they would do.

It’s not like they would, if I
owned X Japan, the trademark, they

would offer me a massive someone
money so that they could use it.

They would try to steal it from me.

This is one of those things
that you have to be really

careful about like these
big companies and stuff.

They’ll just take from you if they can’t.

But X Japan is a massive,
massive rock band in Japan.

I never really listened to them.

I don’t know if their music is good or not.

I’m not going to make a
judgment because I haven’t.

It’s not my thing.

So they’ve already run
into a problem there.

This has been very interesting
as someone who lives

in Japan seeing the way
Elon Musk is running stuff.

I’ve talked about Elon Musk on
Seamick being stuff like that in the past.

The issue is he doesn’t seem to
consider anything as he makes a decision.

He just moves ahead.

He just bowls ahead.

So when Elon Musk took over
Twitter, he fired a ton of staff and

he fired almost all his PR groups,
including the PR group in Japan.

The thing is, labor laws in Japan
are very much in favor of the worker.

And a CEO taking over a company is not
a justification for firing those people.

So every single one of
the PR people he fired

in Japan, because that’s
the group I knew about.

He fired them all like
basically right away.

They all had a massive legal case
against Twitter that they 100% could win.

Because the ruling in
Japan is that if his new CEO

takes over, he has to,
you can’t fire those people.

You can move them around.

You have to use the resources
that you have and not fire any people.

So a new CEO taking
over a company is not a

good, justifiable
reason to fire your staff.

You have to use that staff first.

And then if they fail to
meet some kind of like, what,

or whatever measurement
that you try to put out

there, then you could
start considering firing.

But that would have
to be after a year or two

years if you’re trying to
use the staff you have.

So I don’t know.

I don’t know.

That story went away really quick.

So I’m betting all those
people just got massive payouts.

The thing is, in Japan, is not America.

This is the problem
where I would actually say

Japan needs to be a
little more Americanized.

They don’t do punitive lawsuits.

So you would have lost this
much money for this year.

We’re going to pay you
out this like five million yen.

But whereas in America it would
have been like 50, 60, 100 million

yen because of the emotional
damages that went along

with the they don’t do
any of that extra stuff.

But like a company like Twitter, a guy
like Musk, he needs to be punished before

he’s going to change his behavior before
he’s going to take any of it seriously.

So for him, paying each
of these employees a

year salary to get rid
of them, that’s nothing.

And he’s just probably just
like settled, which is too bad.

Because I would like to see him get into a
little more trouble because he was absolutely

flaunting the rules and just being an absolute
douchebag that I think we’ve all come to know.

That’s what he is.

And again talking about abusing the
system, a couple was hiking in Goodman.

These were in their 50s.

Around 2 P.M., the husband
calls emergency services.

He says, “My wife has
been injured for left foot.

Oh, my wife, my dramatic
reading kind of fell apart.

My wife has injured her left
foot, is having difficulty walking.”

So of course, because they’re on a
mountain, they can’t just go get her.

They have to call out a helicopter.

So they call out a helicopter.

It’s dispatched.

And then they have
like three or four firemen.

They have some police officers.

They’re all out there.

She’s taken.

She’s airlifted and taken to a
hospital for an ingrown toenail.

And again, this is Japan.

So she didn’t really get
punished for this, which I

was like, did they make
her pay for the helicopter?

Did they make her do other?

They should have at least embarrassed
her because this was too much.

This was like the husband could have
helped her walk down the mountain.

They could have tried to cut the toenail.

I don’t know how bad it was.

But an ingrown toenail, she managed to
hike up the mountain to a certain degree.

Far enough that they couldn’t just like
pick her up with a car and drive her back.

So she, I don’t know, man.

It’s one of the things like how do you
punish people for abusing emergency services?

Because they’re not really ever
going to understand emergency services.

It’s the kind of person.

It’s the way they think.

This is kind of, you know, on
most cases, the same problem.

He thinks a certain way and he’s
not going to change the way he thinks.

He thinks he deserves
to be able to do whatever

he wants because of
the ways he lives his life.

Because the world has been
set up for him to succeed.

These people, they thought,
ah, we can call a helicopter

to come pick up my wife
because for a sword toll.

And that’s not going to change.

An employee took sick leave
from a government position.

So they had a doctor certificate.

So this was, you know, per-fquile eagle.

They were allowed to take their sick leave.

There’s no argument there.

Once you get a doctor certificate to take
sick leave, you get your time off in Japan.

There’s no sort of pushback on that.

During the leave,
though, they decided it

would be really cool
to go to cosplay events.

Gothic Lolita ones.

Okay.

I think I might be creepy.

I have done a lot of stories about
the 50-year-old dudes who are creepy.

And I’m in my early 50s
and so am I getting creepier?

It’s a concern I have because
I’ve done so many of these stories.

I’m wondering if that
is an inevitable path.

Like, is it the inevitability that I
will end up being the creepy dude?

I’m hoping my awareness
of it will reduce the reality.

But I don’t know.

I will never know until it’s too late.

That’s the problem.

I’ll do something.

Someone will say that’s creepy.

I’ll go, “Oh, no, it was me.”

But my first thought,
the reason I said that

was my first thought
was like, no pictures.

Because he’s at cosplay
events, posting pictures.

I wanted to see the pictures just to check
out what kind of cosplay she was doing.

It said like a Lolita thing.

I was like, “Okay, well, I’m interested.

What does that look like?”

But then I was like,
“Then I need a thought.”

I was like, “Oh, was that creepy of me?”

Because it’s research.

But does the fact of what
she was wearing matter?

No.

I just wanted to see the pictures.

When I read a story about something like
this, I always wanted to see the pictures.

Is it good cosplay?

That’s actually my first thought.

Is it good cosplay?

Is it bad cosplay?

What kind of cosplay is it?

Anyways.

So this lady’s supposed to be on say, “J.

Just through an I.S. research.”

I do.

T.B.F. I want to see them too.

Right?

It’s weird.

And okay.

But I may be, a couple of
times mentally, I’ve been like,

“Have I crossed the line with
wanting to see these pictures?”

If it’s terrible cosplay, why bother?

If it’s terrible cosplay, well,
okay, there’s more to this.

So that’s actually the
bit we’re going to get to.

I’ll do that maybe next time.

I’ve had a rough day.

I’m going to… Jade is very good
at getting me to tangent from the

story, but again, maybe
the more interesting bits.

This is not funny.

In the engineer’s Japan,
I try to keep things light.

But I’m exhausted today.

I finished work.

Yes, so many tangents.

But the thing is, the tangents are good.

Tangents are the good part.

Yesterday, I did an early shift
and I covered someone else,

and I finished it four
o’clock and I thought,

“Awesome, I’m going to
get home, like 5, 5, 30.”.

I can sit down, read all
my news stories, get all

my stuff prepped out for
an engineer’s Japan today.

This didn’t work out.

The train hit something.

Now, there’s only so many
things the train can hit.

I was in the car and
I felt the train hit it.

And it was probably a person
because we stopped the train stops.

We sat there for about 30 minutes.

The police show up.

Some firemen get on and
they check that everyone’s okay.

And then we sit there for an hour.

And then we sit there
for an hour and a half.

Because now, I’m sitting
in an active crime scene.

Then, I think it’s three hours, two hours,
and some we were sitting on the train.

And then it went back
to the previous station.

We all got off.

That train went away.

Had to wait for another train to come.

Got on that train.

It was crazy packed because no trains have
been going for the last two, three hours.

So it was one of those
cliche squishing people

pushing people onto
the train car kind of thing.

Get off like two, three stations.

A bunch of people get off.

So they’re actually getting home
so I’m happy about that’s not too bad.

By the time I get to
my transfer station,

it’s actually normal
amount of people again.

It’s old man.

There was lots of space
and you could get off the train.

It was old man was still in push mode.

He decides to push past the people
on my left and then push his past me.

I’m a large person.

So I weigh like 90 kilos.

I’m probably way 90 kilos now.

It’s like two, two, ten.

And this little Japanese old
dude tries to push past me.

I was so tempted to
just push him back or hold

him back so he
couldn’t get off the train.

And then he gets past me and he pushes this
other old man who gets really offended.

Who was getting off the train?

Again, there was no reason to push it.

Everyone was getting off the train.

So I got home last night at 8.30.

So I finished it for it.

It took four and a half hours to get home
last night because of this train accident.

So I went, got home, sat around and
watched some TV and then went to bed.

Got up, started doing my preparations.

So I’m just wasted today.

It might actually took
all my energy last night.

It’s crazy.

Anyway, back to this lady.

So she had been given sick leave.

She had a doctor’s note.

During her sick leave, she
thought it would be really cool to

go to cosplay events, showing
off her cosplay and her tattoos.

Now, if you have a government position,
you’re not really supposed to have tattoos.

It’s not like they can say they
won’t hire you because it had to.

But again, this is kind of going
back to one of the earlier stories.

These embedded philosophies or
way of thinking, they are not changing.

They still think people with tattoos
should not have government positions.

So probably she had tattoos like I
do where it was covered by a t-shirt.

So I have a tattoo of my shoulder.

I have one of my back.

But you would never see it unless
I took off my shirt to show you.

She probably rolled up her sleeves.

You could see her tats.

She thought she’s
having a really good time.

Under her pictures,
she posted things like, “I

still have a hangover
from the year-end party.”

That kind of stuff.

Because this was a few months ago.

The city got an anonymous tip.

So this was another thing.

These anonymous tips.

So that’s like a coworker
or someone who knows her.

They have to be angry at you.

This is another thing.

If you’re going to sort of break rules, you
got to keep the people around you happy.

I’ve broken rules at work.

But my coworkers, my immediate
coworkers, I’ve kept them very happy.

I’ve covered for them.

Therefore, I am pretty
sure they will cover for me.

I haven’t been flagrant
about breaking the rules.

But I know inherently
as a budding criminal.

It’s important to make
sure the people around

you are willing to
support you in small ways.

I don’t expect them to
put their jobs on the line.

But if it comes down to
like, “Hey, where’s Peter?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

Or, “He’s in the bathroom,”
or something like that.

100% they would do that.

So if you’re going to go on sick leave and
then go to cost pay of play events and show

off and talk about the hangovers
at the party you’ve been doing,

you got to make sure you keep
the people around you happy.

So someone was unhappy decided to do
the anonymous report that, “Hey, there’s

an employee who’s going to these
events when they should be on sick leave.”.

The woman was suspended
because during sick leave,

she should have been
making every effort to recover.

Which I guess is technically
true, but you could say going out

feeling good, having a good time
is part of your recovery process.

I think that would be fair.
Having fun helps you recover.

Not Ignat’s just put in the chat.

Fucking snitch. Yes, that is the feeling.

I agree. Emotional recovery,
I think is where it should be.

So here is, there’s sort of
an underlying theme of the,

you have to change the way
you think to be successful.

Because the world is changing.

In Hiroshima, there’s a garbage
collection company, in a garbage

collection, if I say garbage collector,
your immediate image is a man.

Because, traditionally, this
kind of job has been done by

men. That’s not saying it should
exclusively be done by men.

But if you are struggling to hire
people, there is a group of people that

you have not attracted to your garbage
collection company and that is women.

So this company decided we
are going to make some changes.

Around 2018, a new, a 2016,
a new young president came in.

Young, I think, was the optimal
word there, the important word.

It was one of the
complaints I have had about

politics in Japan. It’s
being run by 70 year olds.

It’s being run by people
who don’t understand the

Internet. People who don’t
know how a printer works.

People who still think we should
be, “Hunkoing things with stamps.”

That’s not cool. Those guys got to get out.
We got to get some young blood in there.

Young girl than me. I’m
actually now thinking I’m on the

precipice of two old to change
the world in a really positive way.

Because I’m going to be like,
“Tiktok is only like, “Well, I don’t

understand that. So we shouldn’t
have that. That’s just not a good thing.”.

No. Kids love Tiktok. They should have the
Tiktok. Don’t go crazy on it, of course.

But don’t go crazy on anything.
That’s just sort of a general rule.

This guy is like, “I’m going
to change the program.

I’m going to make a
worker-friendly environment.”

If I want to make a worker-friendly
environment for women, I need to have daycare.

In 2018, that’s where I
got the numbers mixed up.

2018, this new young president
introduces daycare for employees.

Most of that running the daycare
is covered by government subsidies.

He’s now providing free
daycare for his employees.

That free daycare is being
subsidized by the government.

He’s paying almost nothing
for this benefit, which is

again, this is some
brilliant thinking on his part.

Now, women start joining
the company. They’ve

set up a system where
your kid gets a fever.

We can either sequester them.
We can call you. Your superior

will call you and say, “It’s time
to take your kid and go home.”

They make flexible work hours.

If your kid’s sick, you
immediately just get the day off.

No questions don’t argument.
You’ve got to take care of your kids.

But knowing that the kid is safe, knowing
that the kid is knowing where they are,

because it’s back at the office.
I know where to go get them.

I know they’ll be taken care of
until I get there to take them home.

Or I can actually just
leave them there because

they have a whole area
for the kids who have fever.

Kids get fevers all the time.
It’s a really normal thing.

This means that now
40% of the garbage

collectors working for
this company are women.

You can’t say garbage man anymore because
it is. It’s garbage man, garbage women.

And that’s awesome.

And now they have enough people to do their
business and their business is flourishing,

where others are struggling to
hire people because it’s all men.

And the men don’t want to do this
job or they have other issues going on.

My wife worked for an accounting
firm, not anymore she used to.

And I was like, “You
get paid almost nothing.

What is the attractive
aspect of this accounting firm?

What he’s done is he’s hired
a whole bunch of married

women and give them
incredibly flexible hours.”.

So he pays them dirt.

But they can pack up and leave
anytime they have to do something.

So we’ve got to take the
kids to school, got to go

to a school meeting, going
to take care of something,

just pack up and leave, no
arguments, no complaints.

And these women were
overjoyed to have this job.

So everyone there was really happy
because they’re like, “I can make money.

I can do stuff that
it’s interesting. It’s

like counting can be
quite challenging work.”.

But I don’t have to sacrifice
taking care of my family to do it.

So if I need, again, kid gets a fever, I
just go pick up the kid, bring them home,

and I stay home with them for that
day or maybe the next two or three days,

and the company doesn’t
complain about it at all.

It doesn’t give me a hard time.

That worker, positive, friendly
environment, those women

were paid garbage, but none
of them would quit the job.

That’s cool.

And that’s again, sort of
the change in philosophy is

made these companies flourish
where others still struggle.

Okay, so the Barbie movie, an
Oppenheimer, came out in the same day.

And so that a bunch of people
were like, “Oh, we’re going

to go do a double feature of
the Barbie and Oppenheimer,

because the contrast,
the juxtaposition of the

two styles is going
to be really interesting.

Funny, ha ha, aren’t we quirky people?”

And it kind of got the Barbie
Heimer hashtag took off in the West.

The thing is Oppenheimer takes
a slightly different tone in Japan,

because this is one of the
places where they actually

dropped the bomb that was
created at the end of that movie.

So, Barbie Heimer was seen as
quite offensive by Japan, I think, fairly.

So, this led to a
problem where the official

Barbie English Twitter
account joined the

Barbie Heimer hashtag and
retweeted stuff and did all this stuff.

And they were making their
own, like, “Ha ha, isn’t it funny?

Barbie and Oppenheimer in the same day.

We love it.”.

This led to the Japanese
Barbie account apologizing sort of,

because what they didn’t
say they were sorry, they were

like, “It’s more like an
explanation what they said was,

we didn’t make the Barbie Heimer hashtag.

That was made by Americans.”

And we have no control
over what those Americans do,

much like making the bomb itself
and then dropping on us here in Japan.

But it’s regrettable if
you’re upset about it,

which is a very, very
common Japanese non-apology,

like just saying, “It’s regrettable.”.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t go see Barbie.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t
go see Oppenheimer.

I think they’re probably both great movies.

I probably will see them both myself.

But yeah, people in Japan were
a little annoyed by Barbie Heimer,

so they came up with the
no-Barbin Heimer essentially

trying to ban both
movies because of this.

And I don’t know, as Oppenheimer
been participating in any of this,

I actually didn’t see, it’s
all been on the Barbie side.

And they’re all trying to make light and
they made like a pink mushroom cloud,

and they had what’s in a Margot
Robbie with a mushroom cloud hair.

Yeah, I think in a place
where the actual bombs

gone off, that might be
considered in poor taste.

[Music].