NinjaNewsJapan

(upbeat music)

Update, ginger guy, so we
are deep in food terrorism.

And it doesn’t seem to be stopping.

The fact that people are getting arrested,

the fact that people are
being sued by companies,

the fact that there has
not been a popular outcome,

’cause what I mean by popular is, of
course, people are filming these things,

they’re getting on the
internet, and the only reason you

put stuff on the internet is
’cause you want to be popular.

That’s, you know, social
points is what you’re going for.

You maybe get it for a little bit,

but then it disappears
when you end up going to

prison, which is what
happened to the ginger guy.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was
a guy in a beef bowl, restaurant,

and they have communal ginger,

and he was eating the ginger
right out of the ginger bowl,

and he was like putting his
dirty chopsticks back in it.

They filmed it, they put
it on the internet, internet

goes crazy, he gets in
trouble, he gets arrested.

Okay.

The question was, for me, always, what
is the actual punishment for these crimes?

Kids in Japan basically don’t go to jail.

So now that it’s an
adult, he could actually get

punished, he’s actually
responsible for his actions.

The problem was, this guy was arrested

on multiple counts, and
they were all stuck together.

So he got two years and four months
and had to pay a 200,000 yen fine,

but those charges
included growing marijuana

for personal use or
distribution, drug offenses.

He got arrested for growing
marijuana to drug offense.

That is way, way more serious than
eating ginger out of a communal thing.

So that’s a problem, because
how much of the punishment

is growing marijuana, which
is an incredibly serious crime

in Japan, and how much of it
is for weird public harassment,

chasing internet clout, just being gross.

I mean, that’s what we’re talking about.

My guess is that the two years as
for growing marijuana, the four months

is tacked on for the ginger crime.

Maybe even the 200,000
yen, the interesting part.

This was the more interesting part to me,

which is why this became a
worthwhile follow up to the story.

The guy who filmed his friend eating
the ginger was fined 300,000 yen.

So I think that is a fair
view of the punishment.

So I think jail time for doing
something gross in public is a lot.

A fine seems appropriate.

The fine can be very big.

I think big fines are good
things, but it’s very hard.

I’m not a judge and Japanese law is
a bit hard to work your way through.

It’s got a lot of rules and stuff.

It has a lot of considerations
that I will not understand.

But filming someone
committing the food terrorism,

which is what this has been
dubbed, is a 300,000 yen fine.

So I think that’s actually
showing you how seriously

they are taking it because the
companies now are going to follow up.

Now that they have a guilty charge,
they know that this guy is guilty.

If they take him to court and they
sue him, they have a much better case.

And I think interestingly,

the punishing the cameraman
to me is an interesting tactic

because you are punishing not
the person committing the crime.

You’re punishing the person who videoed
the crime, who essentially made it popular.

So what you’re kind of doing is like,
okay, these guys want to do gross things.

Something I’ve said on Indonesia
pan, probably a thousand times now,

to the point where it’s
almost not worth repeating,

but I have to because
it flows into the thoughts

that we have is,

don’t film it and put on the internet.

Now, the crimes still may occur, and
there still may be these things happening.

But if the popularity that momentary fame

is taken away from this sushi terrorism

from the food terrorism that’s happening,

there’s going to be
less incentive to do it.

So if you punish the people
who are filming it and they’re like,

well dude, I’m not going to film that,
I’m not going to put it on the internet,

then there’s less incentives
for you to do it in the first place.

And I think that’s an interesting way

to maybe do attack this
issue is attack the goal,

because the goal is
to cloud the popularity.

If you can take that away, so the people
like it do it, I don’t want to film this,

I don’t want to spend 300,000
yen to film a 30 second TikTok

of you eating stuff that
you shouldn’t be eating.

That in itself is pretty interesting,
take on how to get a handle on this,

’cause this is a thing that’s
not going away, that said.

It happened like immediately right
after, it’s almost like the crime happens,

the punishment comes out and then like a
week later, it’s teenagers, mostly, right?

This guy, this guy who was just arrested,

it was in his 20s, he was an adult.

But mostly it’s teenagers
and there’s a whole thing

I learned here, so let’s
get to the second story.

I don’t want to do a transition sound.

(upbeat music)

Completely unnecessary, it’s
just to help me stay organized.

This is the second story, but it is the
exact same thing, it is the food terrorism.

And I didn’t know this had been
going on for as long as it had.

I learned about it, the main
instance was sushi terrorism,

but it was probably because
it became such a big story,

because sushi row, the Kaiten sushi
restaurant, sued like a 15 year old kid’s mom,

I forget it was like a billion
yen, it was some ridiculous

number, but they were
just out to prove a point.

But kids are kids, I
have trouble remembering

when I was a teenager, I know I was stupid.

I was stupid into my mid 20s.

Easy, maybe even late,
what am I talking about?

I might be dumb now
and just not realize it.

That’s the problem with being dumb.

These kids, I guess
they’re not reading the

news, they don’t know
these things are happening.

I don’t know, or they do and they
think they’re gonna get away with it.

That’s a very youthful
bravado kind of thing,

but there’s a dominoes, and Amagasaki,

and a worker at two o’clock
in the morning with his friend,

they’re goofing around, he’s needing dough.

And they’re talking back and
forth, and he picks his nose,

and he wipes it on
the dough, and he carps

needing it, and they
laugh and laugh and laugh.

They filmed it.

Now, these are not intended
to go on the internet, apparently.

These are intended to
be shared among friends,

but share among friends, and
then one of the friends is like,

“Hey, this will get
me internet clout.

” The only logical
thing for me to do

would be to post it on the
internet, it gets super famous.

Dominoes reacted so quickly.

So this dough that it had snot wiped on it,

was still in the fermentation
process, it wasn’t actually finished.

They found the restaurant,
they found the dough,

they disposed of it, they
closed the restaurant,

they sanitized the entire place
before 24 hours was even done.

So this thing hit the
internet, it started to

gain, just the smallest
Iodo of popularity,

and Dominoes was like in crackdown mode.

They probably have the Dominoes SWAT team.

You know how they get their
pizza to you in 30 minutes?

They’re gonna get to the store
where the food terrorism happens in 10.

I mean, that seems like
what’s really gonna happen.

I am now imagining there’s
the Dominoes headquarters.

It’s got all these monitors everywhere,

and then an alarm goes
off, and they just dispatch

the Dominoes sanitization SWAT team to go.

And those kids are fired.

I mean, again, I don’t know
about criminal charges.

They are talking.

Dominoes didn’t mention that
criminal charges are possible,

but criminal charges,
as I said in the last bit,

criminal charges towards teenagers
in Japan doesn’t really do that much.

So we know that no one ate that pizza.

Now, if you’ve eaten fast food,
there’s the logic part of my brain,

and then there’s the
emotional part of my brain.

The logic part of my brain is saying
that if the snot was in the dough,

and the dough was
cooked at a billion degrees,

or whatever it is, to make pizza
dough, nothing’s gonna survive in that.

It wouldn’t actually be that bad.

So logically speaking, no
harm would come to you

because it was pre before it was cooked.

Doing it after it was
cooked is somehow grosser

because you’re eating
the actual bodily fluid

that came out of the person.

But once you cook it, it’s all dead.

The emotional part of me
responds like everyone else does.

It’s like, I do not want to eat snot pizza.

So what I learned
from looking at several

articles, and soda news
24, big Japanese website,

they actually did a
little bit of a breakdown.

So this actually goes back to 2013.

It’s like a decade ago,
and they have bakatur.

So it’s bakah, which means stupid, and ter,

which is Twitter, so bakah,
Twitter, so stupid, Twitter.

And it’s filming yourself doing
dumb things and putting it on Twitter.

Twitter was 2013, the
biggest website in Japan.

And they’re also
calling it Baito-terrorism.

Baito is Japanese for part-time job.

So Baito-terrorism, so
we have food terrorism,

Baito-terrorism, but
this all seems to evolved

from bakatur, and it’s kids
filming dumb shit at work.

And I just remember
seeing this pre-pandemic,

and it was a part-time kid
in a community store at night,

and it was super hot, and he got in the
cooler where they keep the ice cream.

You just lay on top of the ice cream.

Very technically, all the
ice cream in there was in

packages, and he was
wearing his clothes and whatnot.

So nothing actually touched
anything, but it is gross conceptually.

Again, the logic part of
my brain kicks in and goes,

well, you know there’s probably
a ton of rat poop on that anyways,

because it was all in transit at
some point, and rats are everywhere.

You should wipe the top of a drink can
or bottle before you put it to your mouth,

if you’re ever gonna drink straight
out of the bottle, that kind of stuff.

‘Cause there probably is rat feces on it.

That’s your ninja new
Japan, thought for today.

There’s probably rat feces on it.

And I think I just came
up with a new t-shirt.

I mean, the chocolate
beef chest, Academy

of Martial Arts t-shirt,
it’s a best seller.

Everyone loves it, who gets it.

But you know, I need
to expand my repertoire.

Maybe I need to take more
of my classic phrases and turn

them into t-shirts like,
there’s probably rat feces on it.

And just say that.

Just something you just
keep in mind at all the time.

It’s probably rat feces on it.

So the trend seems to
have really hit in 2013.

So kids saw other kids doing stupid shit

in their part-time jobs, and
they would do something similar,

but there was a trend that had
happened in January and February,

and there are theories, it’s why.

So there were some nice
theories on Soto News 24.

I don’t wanna like
just steal their content.

So this isn’t my idea, but
it was pretty interesting

because January,
February is when you’ve hit

sort of the stressful
exam time in Japan.

So maybe this is a weird way of
kids trying to alleviate their stress,

where they’ve just hit this
point of stress where they’re

just the brain shuts down,
they start doing stupid stuff.

I don’t know, it’s interesting though,

there is a trend of an
increase of kids doing dumb shit

at their part-time jobs
in January, February.

So if you have a theory,
I mean, I’d love to hear it,

send an email to
chunkandbeefchest@gmail.

com or speakpipe.com/chunkandbeefchest
and tell me your

thoughts on why you think
teens in January and February

do dumb shit at their part-time jobs.

There’s a street vendor in Asakusa.

He’s been out in the street for 15 years,

selling soda, they
call rumnay, it’s like a

very, very sugary
ginger ale, I guess, soda.

I don’t like it, it’s
actually too sweet for me.

I like sweet things and
it’s too sweet for me.

The thing is, this is also
a member of the Yanayah

Yakuza family and apparently a
fairly high-ranking member of that.

So there’s a lot of
questions they’re already.

My image of Yakuza comes from the Yakuza
video game series more than anything else.

It used to be Yakuza movies
and then the Yakuza video

game series took over in my
mind as to how Yakuza’s live their

life, basically you don’t open a
door, you only kick open doors.

There was someone else
came out on the same street

where he was selling his
sodas and it was a guy dressed

as a ninja and he was giving
out flyers for a ninja experience.

Now, let me tell you, I went
to Iga Castle and I took my

mom when she visited
Japan and they had Iga is

famously were ninjas or
supposed to come from.

I learned that ninjas always
sleep on their left side to be

able to protect their heart,
which weirdly makes sense, but

also doesn’t make any sense
at all because if your head’s

exposed and you’re lying
down, I’m not going to

attack your heart, I’m
going to attack your head.

But still, they slept on the
left sides and they didn’t wear

black, they wore navy blue because
that blends in better in the evening night.

There was also a thing where
you got throwing stars and you

threw it at a target and
hit the target three times.

You want a t-shirt?
Now, let me tell you, you’re good friend,

showing a beef chest.
He threw those three throwing stars and he

hit that target three times and he
won that t-shirt and it was too small.

That is the second
t-shirt I’ve wanted to

pay. They don’t have big boy sizes
in Japan. That’s pretty much a given.

I was at a bar with a
friend and they had a

thing and it was this Apple Jack Daniels.
Maybe it was Apple

whiskey of some sort,
which is already pretty bad.

But if you bought one, you got a
lottery ticket. You pulled it out of

this like box and if you got
the thing, you want to add

Jack Daniels, Apple, whiskey
t-shirt and something in my

brain clicked because I bought
one. I actually was being stressed.

What does this taste
like? It wasn’t bad.

Again, too sweet, weirdly.
Then I said to the waitress the

next time she came to the
table, I said, can you promise me

there really is a winning card in that box.
She said, yes, we

have three t-shirts in the
back right now that I know of,

there are probably more.
So I said, fine. Please continue to

bring me drinks until I win. I don’t
remember how many drinks I had.

It was a lot. Like we’re
in excess of six to seven

easily because I was drunk,
like real drunk, like proper drunk.

And I won the t-shirt and it
was a very nice t-shirt and it was

also way too small.
That’s two t-shirts I’ve

taken the time to win in Japan
and two t-shirts that I’ve won

that are too small.
Not what we’re talking about.

What I am saying though is you
have the opportunity to go to the ninja

experience in Ega
Castle. You should do it.

My mom really enjoyed the ninja castle
experience. You go through this little house,

has ninja doors and stuff.
I’m doing like tourist services for Ega

man.
Ega may be want to drop a coin this way.

Just putting that out there as well.
I don’t really do free advertising.

And then they put on a little show.
So you go through the house and they show

you like the trick floors and
the trick this and the trick that.

And then they do a little show with some
guys who do some martial arts and stuff,

which was quite fun. My mother
really enjoyed it. I actually really got

talking to the guy next to me who
actually worked for like a news company.

We had a really great chat about
like would this be good TV or not.

The irony being that he clearly
thought this was not going to be good TV,

but he was going to film it anyways,
which does directly express my

feeling of most Japanese television.
So we’re back on the street.

We got this guy. He’s dressed
like a ninja and he’s giving out

flyers for a ninja experience.
We got this Yakuza. It’s been selling

ginger ale for 15 years on the street. No
one can figure out why I’m supposed to be

a high level Yakuza. The quality of
Yakuza and the drama there and has

dropped significantly is this if this is
how these guys are spending their days.

15 years on the street selling soda
is not the life I would imagine for a

high level Yakuza. It’s not sitting in
like gold cars with like three women

draped off you who loathe you,
but you know they’re too afraid to

get away from you that kind of thing.
You know movie stuff.

I actually would prefer a honest and loving
relationship. Just want to put that out there.

Chocolate beef chest
of an engineer’s Japan.

He’s not into a press of relationships.
He’s into a open, honest,

mutual relationships. Don’t know
where I am right now. I’ll be honest.

The Yakuza walks up to him and he does
a very very Yakuza thing. He says if you’re

gonna give out flyers on my street,
you’re gonna have to give me 10,000

yen a month or get the fuck out.
No one really knows what happened.

If the guy actually paid any money
and stuff, eventually the intimidation

tactics, the extortion
got back to the police.

The police come out
and arrest this guy.

The reason that this blew up on
the internet in Japan was that he was

calling the Ninja Ninja Kun. Kun is
what you would call like, so if I was a

teacher and I go into a classroom
and I talk to the kids, there’s you

probably no Chan, so like Lucy
Chan would be Lucy as a young girl.

Kun is for boys. She calls him
Ninja Kun. So he’s talking like this

lower status person in society, which was
pretty funny, but the guy is in his 60s,

so probably the guy who was the
ninja dress up as the ninja was actually

probably younger, fair enough. On February
8th, he was arrested for extortion,

which is a very Yakuza thing to be arrested
for. So I’m very, I’m happy that that’s

at least consistent
with my image of Yakuza.

His defense was I
was just giving him a

warning because he was being impolite.
Now that to me is Yakuza code for,

I told him to give me money or I’d break
his bones, but also it’s also a pretty

weak defense. Like you shouldn’t really
be telling other people how to live their

lives, and I bet the 10,000 yen, if
you want to stay on this street, was

something that came out of your mouth.
But that’s again, that’s a bias on my part,

and I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t
want to like sully his reputation.

Problem is, if you remember last week,
we talked about Yakuza apartments,

so was the guy who was on the poster.
Next to the guy who had died,

who had had people have been looking for
him since the 70s. That guy in the poster

was found at a Yakuza apartment.
Yakuza on apartments. Now the police have,

since they’ve arrested this guy, they
have a reason to go into where he lives,

which may be one of these apartments
or maybe a house, and then get information

about other places, Yakuza. So if he’s a
high-level guy, he has information about

other Yakuza stuff
that leads to the cops

on this sort of network
they can go through,

which could cause a huge amount of
problems for that Yakuza family over 10,000

yen from a ninja they just
could have just left alone.

I suppose I do this all the time. I finish
the story, I hit the transition sound,

and then I have a thought while
the transition sound goes on.

That isn’t how crime things.

Crime isn’t thinking, this
isn’t worth 10,000 yen.

Crime is thinking,
this is 10,000

yen I could get for doing
nothing, which is what extortion is.

It’s getting money for nothing.

Yeah, I don’t think
like a criminal.

That’s maybe the problem.
Maybe why I haven’t, you know,

really, my criminal
empire hasn’t really taken

off is I just don’t
think like a criminal.

I don’t think like, hey, let’s
abuse the people around

me and get money for
nothing and cheat and lie.

God, maybe I have
not done this right.

Is that how I ended up
podcasting? A 64-year-old woman

had been making fake
designer brand bags for the

last few years by hand. So
she had started her own shop.

She was making bags
of her own design.

And they weren’t selling very
well. She saw some news and

she saw some really popular
bags. And some were similar enough.

She’s like, I think
I could make that.

So she made it. She made
Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci.

And she would sell
them for about 3,500 yen.

And what she was doing
in some cases, she was

trying to copy the bag.
And in other cases, she was

making her own original bag
and putting like a logo on it.

I found this interesting
because I was

like, I bet her handmade
bags were of the same

if not better quality
than the actual brand bags

that people were buying. She
was only charging 3,500 yen.

Unfortunately, that is illegal.

So you can’t do that. The
police searched her shop and

they found 330
bags ready for sale.

So she just basically made a
couple bags every day, all day,

every day, I guess.
And then she was selling

him in her store. I don’t
know. The thing that struck

out to me, there’s not
really much else to say,

this lady was basically
hand making bags.

But I was like, if you can hand
make a bag, man, that’s pretty cool.

I kind of had this
weird respect for the

lady’s ability to make a
bag that was of the same

quality as a Chanel
bag, if not better.

Because she just bought,
bought the material.

She’s like, what are those made of?
She bought similar materials online.

And then made those
bags. And I’m like,

man, I wonder if
her bags were good.

That was pretty shit story. I
didn’t have anything to say about it.

I just did it again. Hit the transition
sound and then finished my fault.

It’s an interesting story, but I
didn’t have anything to say about it.

Because I should
actually, if I could

have got it early, I’m
not going to find out about

it until she gets
arrested, but I kind of want

to buy one of her bags
now and just see what the

quality of the bag. Prison
inmate was not allowed

to wear his glasses because
they were one millimeter

over the Sives limit.
And he was without his

glasses for two months.
That doesn’t sound too

bad. Not having your
glasses though. He had trouble

going up and down stairs
because he couldn’t see the stairs.

So his eye set was terrible.

And he was wearing glasses.
It sounds like they were blacked

out like basically dark
lenses. He might have had

a light sensitivity thing.
Who knows? But he was like,

he had trouble walking
around without his glasses.

And they said the the frames
were one millimeter too thick.

So I don’t know what
they meant like the arm

of the eyeglasses were too
thick or they were too big.

I’m guess the reason I try to figure out
the reasons for this. I guess the reason is

because the arm of
the glasses could be like

shaved down into a shiv
depending on what they

are minor made of plastic.
So I would do that and

just still would just
bounce off people.

I don’t think I can make it sharp
enough to actually shiv someone.

But they took away his glasses
and didn’t give him anything else.

So he’s just basically blind for
two months. The bar association

in Japan is claiming
that taking away his

glasses as a human
rights violation, which I

think is probably pretty
accurate because you’re

basically saying like,
hey, you could see, but

we’re going to take away
the thing you see with

because we’re
annoyed. And this is it.

This shows more the actual
reason why they took away his

glasses because the
prison complained, these

glasses were arousing
the curiosity of others.

So again, because he
was allowed to wear these

what sounds like
sunglasses all the time,

other people in the
prison are like, hey, why

can’t I wear sunglasses and
look cool while I’m in prison.

Hey, why does
that get those weird

glasses on? Hey, how come
my glasses are just regular

glasses and that guy
has special glasses.

And the guards had difficulty
confirming eye contact.

So because he’s wearing
darkened glasses, they

can’t tell if he’s actually
looking at them when

they’re talking to him. So he
might be being disrespectful.

We don’t know. So
I think this is where

we see the actual reason they wanted to
take away his glasses because they’re like,

I don’t think that guy’s
paying attention when I

was speaking to him. I
think he thinks he’s too cool.

I think we take away
his glasses and we

make him blind and we treat
him like ship for a couple months.

And then he’ll
learn some respect

because this is all about
respect. He was unable to

read and he could not go
up and downstairs very well.

He isn’t prison. I
don’t know what he did,

but yeah, I think if you’re
in prison and you wear

glasses, you should be
allowed to wear your glasses.

Okay, so we get to a new
porn law introduced in Japan.

And this was very
interesting because it

was stringent enough
that porn stars were out on

the streets protesting.
And they say if it goes

through the Japanese
adult videos will disappear

forever, like the
industry will just die.

I found this interesting
on a conceptual level.

Let’s say you agree with
the stars that this law

is unfair, but like I’m
not in the porn industry

and I live a very normal
life. So it would be

very difficult for me to
go out and lend my voice

to the porn industry
because then people would

then say like, well, tongue
of beef chest is big horn dog.

The rule itself was
interesting because

there’s one of the directors
started speaking up on it.

He was of course in
the public protesting,

saying like, this is my
livelihood. You’re actually

attacking my livelihood.
And he said, I think

it’s good for girls filming
for the first time, but

not for those who make
adult videos for a living.

And I actually agree. He seems like a very
reasonable guy, this director he’s talking.

He is saying it violates
the freedom of business

that is in the constitution.
The director says

it has some good points,
but too many hindrances.

So what this is designed
to do is I am going to do my

first adult video. I
sign the contract.

There has to be a one month waiting
period before we actually film the video.

So I’m sitting down with you.

We’re doing the
contract negotiation.

I say, yes, I will take this
much money and I will put

my very attractive sexual
body on screen for you,

which I know is what everyone
wants at the end of the day.

Let’s go and go, no, no, we
have to wait for one month.

So I have essentially one month to change
my mind and back out of the contract,

then after we film the video, of course,
has to go through editing and whatnot,

I doesn’t need too much
CG for me because I actually

know you’d have to like
really tone down the whites.

My bare skin would probably
blow out the cameras.

So we’re going
to have to film it in

complete darkness
and my body will light up.

It’d be like watching
luminescent jellyfish have sex

would be very similar to
the experience of having

sex with me and motion wise,
like the very I assume very floppy.

What am I doing? I’m insulting
my own sexual prowess.

It feels bad about
making fun of myself now.

So we filmed it.
We’ve edited it.

It’s ready to go. There has to be
another four-month waiting period.

And that means from the date you sign
the contract to the actual release of the

video is going to be going to
be between five to six months.

And that is also that this person
who’s doing their first video for the first

time can back out, which I
actually agree with that director.

I think if this is
your first time,

you seem very excited about it. Your
circumstances are such circumstances changing.

Like I don’t want to do this
anymore. I think having the

ability to back out
is a really good idea.

Japan also has the law
that after X amount of years,

you have to re-sign with
the star to keep the video out.

So the star like let’s say I did a porn
five years ago. And I don’t want that in

my life anymore. I don’t
renew that contract.

You have to take all that
stuff down from the internet.

Now there are going to be clips and stuff,
but basically it becomes harder to get.

And that part of my life may be
not erased, but is greatly diminished.

You’re far, far less likely to find out
that I made this porn video in the past.

So I actually think these
protections for people

starting out and for
people who’ve retired from

that industry are
a really good thing.

But I also think he is right
in that putting this much

hindrance like a six month period between
contract and final production and release

is problematic for
people who actually make

this as their livelihood.
And so they need to

continue to produce content
to be able to make the money.

The other danger
is that this goes into

place and then people
instead of doing it through

their proper channels
start to go to underground,

start to do things
illegally, start to do things,

which therefore
immediately become less safe.

I actually agree
with this director.

I think this should be in place
for first timers. I do actually

agree with that. But once
you’ve done two or three

videos, then there’s no
need to have all these

sort of roadblocks
in place. I was thinking

about like who’s going
to stand up for them,

because this is
about fair treatment.

And to stand up for porn
stars, you are then connecting

yourself with porn stars,
which no politician wants to do.

And that’s where the
problem is going to arise.

That’s a certain amount of bravery,
because we know about the proliferation of

pornographic material
on the internet.

So we know there’s more than
like three people watching it.

We know there’s a lot
of people who watch it.

We know the statistics.
So I think the fair

representation there
actually needs to happen.

But I don’t think
there’s ever going to be a

politician in place who’s
actually going to have

the balls to do it, because
it immediately puts you

on this position where,
well, if you support

porn, then you’re a dirty,
dirty person who does

dirty, dirty things,
ruins your reputation.

They’re in a really tough
spot. But I will actually

stay up because I mean
stay up. I actually follow

up on this story primarily
because I’m always

interested in new rules
and how they go into effect.

It’s funny, I love the
dirty, dirty stories,

but I never loved the
dirty, dirty aspect of them.

Like the actual
porn parts, not the

interesting part to me. It’s
the contract negotiations.

It’s the production.
It’s the rules in place.

It’s the things that
have to happen before

and after is the stuff
I actually care about.

I’m really interested in
the complicated contract

negotiations that go into
Japanese productions.

And production’s all over the world. Movie
contracts and stuff. We’re all fascinating.

You should look them up
and make yourself a more

informed person. I have
just got lost at that last part.

[Music]

[BLANK_AUDIO]

(upbeat music)

Okay, just a bit of a
pre-warning for this week.

Is normally, I have trouble reading
my notes because I write really messy.

This week, I’m gonna have
trouble reading my notes

’cause I write really messy
and my eyes all messed up.

So that’s a bad combination.

Writing messy and bad head.

(sighs)

I shouldn’t say bad head.

All right.

Couple weeks ago, we
had a kid who was licking

the lid of a shared water
pitcher in a restaurant

and posted online, just like all these
other, like again, the sushi terrace.

We’re now calling food terrists in Japan.

Couple details have come out

because he and the person
who filmed it have been arrested.

This is an interesting thing for
me, is the second part we’ll get into.

The boy is 16 years old.

So he’s not, I mean, he wasn’t
gonna do jail time anyways.

It becomes, once you get
arrested for it, it becomes sort of a

civil suit between you and the
company that owns the restaurant.

So I think it was sushi dough,
was the sushi terrace and thing.

And then that company was
suing them for a stock price drop

when that kid did some
gross stuff in the restaurant.

So that’s something to be aware of.

Like it’s not like he’s going to prison.

He could be opening
his family to a lawsuit.

I found out that this incident
happened at five, 10 in the morning.

So first of all, they’re
at a ramen restaurant.

And who’s eating ramen
at five, 10 in the morning?

Like even if you’re a night worker,

five, 10 in the morning
isn’t, it’s not ramen time.

I mean, I guess it different,
different people, different moods.

I have become a very serious, serious.

That makes it sound like I got a problem.

I’ve become a very adamant lunch drinker.

If I’m going to drink, I
want to drink at lunch time.

And then over the course of the day,

I can sober up and I’m asked
to feel a little hangover come

and I can start drinking
water and then I go to bed

and then I wake up next
morning and I feel great.

I’ve realized that night
drinking is actually the mistake.

We should all be drinking at lunch
time, day drinking, almost exclusively.

So the boy, the 16 year
old boy and his 20 year

old friend who was
videoing it, so already again,

I can see there’s a bad influence,
the older boy, videoing the younger boy,

probably encouraging
him to do the bad thing.

That’s going to be the first sort of issue

is the young guy’s going
to take the lead from

the, what I’m going to
go ahead and just assume

is a negative influence because
he ended up getting arrested.

So you’re not going to call that
a positive influence on his life.

The 16 year old is underage.

So again, probably very
little is going to happen to him

again, open to a civil lawsuit that
could affect his family or his parents.

The 20 year old though, he’s in a different
set of trouble because he’s an adult.

So he’s responsible for himself.

When arrested, the 20 year old said,
I posted the video on social media,

but I don’t remember why I
filmed it or why I uploaded it.

And let me, let me fill you in.

Not even being there, not
even knowing who you are.

You filmed it because
other people had done this

kind of stupid stuff and
gotten attention for it.

You uploaded it because
you wanted the attention.

And that’s it.

That’s the whole, it sounded
like I had a third point.

I didn’t.

Those are the only two.

You saw other people
were getting attention.

You thought, hey, maybe I can
get the same amount of attention.

So you did.

Both were arrested for our
favorite abstraction of business.

Dave’s, Dave’s gently resting his paws.

He’s been doing this lead lately.

Let’s see if I can get the video down.

He rests his paws on my arm.

And it makes me not want to move my arm,
but it means I can’t control the mouse,

which means it’s very hard
to hit the transition button.

And then, so usually, right
now, he’s only got one paw.

He’ll put on two paws, right?

And then it’s quite heavy.

He took the one paw off when I was moving.

You know, it was very nice of him.

I talked about last week
about the guy from the ’70s

who had planted a balm,
he was part of a group.

He blew up some stuff.

And he went into hiding, went
into hiding until he was 70 years old.

He stayed off the grid for the entire time,

which is really impressive,
if I’m being honest.

He didn’t use his national health insurance

until the point where
he actually got cancer

and the cancer got so far
he had to go into hospital.

And then he had to use
his national health insurance.

And then they found out who he was.

He then died like a week later.

So that was national news.

It was all over in the news.

And the picture they put
up was of his mug shot.

Now in Japan, they have
these sort of yellow posters.

And they put on like the
nine most wanted people

in Japan at the time,
or they’ll put on like,

here’s the nine most biggest
scammers or whatever.

So this guy, because
they let talk about this

guy from the ’70s, now
he’s been from the ’70s,

but they put his poster up
again and again and again,

and every time they talk about it and post
them, and there’s a picture next to it.

And it’s another guy, not another guy.

He’s also a criminal.

He’s also another guy
who’s been a criminal in hiding

the entire time, wanted for an
attempted murder back in 2020.

Turns out having his
picture on the news every day

for a couple of weeks was
enough for someone to go,

“Oh, come on, come on, I
think I know who that guy is.

“I think I’ve seen
that guy around before.

” He hangs out in that
building that’s full of yakuza.

In Japan, they actually, the yakuza
will buy a building to house the yakuza.

And the whole point is, if
you are a yakuza in hiding,

you go into one of these
apartment buildings where it’s

all other yakuza, and
they’re not gonna turn you in.

The problem with having your
face on the news every day

means if you go outside
and which you probably do,

you go outside and go for groceries and
do some other stuff, it means other people

will see your face, and
someone put it together,

put an anonymous tip
in, hey, that guy lives in

Sendai, the police arrested
him on February 1st.

So it’s an interesting thing,
just throwing the pictures

up on the news again and again and
again, was enough for people to go like,

“I actually think I
recognize that guy.

” So you think about
wanted posters not working,

but they kind of work if
you get it on national news

so that a whole bunch of people can
see it, and then, you know, nosy neighbors,

that’s not just a Japanese thing,
but it is a very big Japanese thing.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow.

I was of recording, this is February 13th.

This is tomorrow is February 14th
with his traditionally Valentine’s Day.

Japan, if you are a fan of Japan, it’s
pretty fairly common knowledge now

that it’s not done in
the Western tradition.

They made their own
tradition where a woman

will give a man chocolate
on Valentine’s Day.

And then a month later, on White Day,

man are supposed to
reciprocate by giving cookies.

There is a tradition in Japan that the women
in an office give really shit chocolates

to everyone in their office,
all the guys in their office.

They don’t like them, they don’t find them
attractive, it’s just something you do.

That’s called giddy choco.

Now, giddy, giddy, giddy
is like almost, but it’s in

English, they translate
it to obligation chocolate.

And I never thought about the word,
but giddy, it kind of means like barely.

So it’s like barely
chocolate or maybe barely

affectionate chocolate
or something like that.

I actually need to go
get the etymology of that

’cause I was thinking about
it as I was writing this down

that the direct translation
while it makes perfect sense

doesn’t actually translate the words,
it translates the spirit of the phrase,

which is an interesting
aspect of translation.

When you have something
called super dragon punch

in Japanese and you’re
gonna translate to the

English, do you call it
super dragon puncher?

Do you change it to something else that
would be more sort of in the right atmosphere

or feeling of the words,
which would be interesting?

Totally relevant.

I just, I realized that giddy choco

or giddy giddy choco doesn’t
translate into obligation chocolate

would actually translate into
on essentially shit chocolate.

The practice has reached its
lowest point since this survey began.

I didn’t write down when the survey began,

which is a big failure on
my part as a journalist,

but luckily I’m not being held to journalistic
standards because I don’t get paid.

The benefit of being
an independent anything

is that you can kind of just
make up the rules as you go.

If someone accuses me of not being a
good journalist, I’ll be like, wow, pay me.

Then I might become a good journalist.

There was a 19,000 person
survey, 37.6% plan to give gifts.

That’s up 3.2%.

Usually gifts are given
to spouses or partners.

Worst reporter ever.

The cost.

Look, I mean, again,
how much have you paid?

Like, when you start throwing money my
way, then maybe you can start holding me

to some sort of standard
you imagine in your head.

Or when the advertisers
roll in, maybe whatever.

It is true, though.

Well, actually, no, it’s not.

I’m going to now suddenly
after having agreed.

What’s your Venmo?

You send me money
on paper and link in the

description of the YouTube
channel’s has my PayPal.

I actually had my first donation.

The month ago, two months
ago, it was very exciting for me.

Some guy just like dropped me 20 bucks.

I was, that’s the most money I’ve made
off any of endeavors I’ve ever had so far.

Anyways, no, I’m not the worst reporter.

See, the thing is, I actually
double check everything I say.

So if I get a story, I don’t accept it.

If it’s only one story, I
have to have two sources,

which a lot of journalists in online
sources, they don’t do that anymore.

They’ll just take it and repeat it.

And maybe even make changes to it.

There was the story of the guy who
hit the taxi driver who hit the pigeon.

And I found two sources.

And then the third source actually said,

they changed it from pigeon
to dove to try to create

that sort of more
sympathetic sound to the story,

which was an embellishment,
which made it inaccurate,

which made me realize like, okay, this
person, this writer cannot be trusted.

So as far as a trusted news source,
while I am not the investigative reporter,

when it comes to the things
I say, they are verifiable.

Better than Fox News,
which legally is entertainment.

This is not entertainment.

This is fucking news.

All right. Anyways, the average this,
this was a story about Valentine’s Day,

which is, you know, sort of one of those
light stories that has no actual meaning.

The average intended
cost of the gift is 3,238 yen,

which is down from 3,329
yen in previous years.

66.2% of people are planning to
give it to their partners or spouses.

Co-workers are down to 14.

1%, where 72% of the people surveyed
said, it is either somewhat unnecessary

or completely unnecessary to give
chocolate to your shitty stinky co-worker

who laughs too loud and
eats with his mouth open.

I’m not thinking of anyone, and specifically
who works in the office where I work,

who eats crackers every
morning that smell like shrimp,

and I’m across the fucking office, and I
can smell it and eats with his mouth open,

and he’s eating sembe,
which is like a hard cracker.

So it’s also, it’s not
only like a really noisy

food to eat, the fucking
wrapper is weirdly noisy.

It’s like the noisiest food ever invented,

and he’s the only
one in the office who’s

making any sound, and
I don’t want to kill him.

I don’t want to pick up a
chair and throw it at him.

I don’t want to push him out the window.

No one in particular.

I mean, that was just a
hypothetical that came

to mind, has no bearing
on any person in reality.

This was the interesting
part of this article, though,

was they were blaming the
reduction in wanting to give

a giddy, giddy choco to an increase
in teleworking and not inflation.

Because to me, it would
make way more sense,

like if chocolate as its
baseline gets more expensive,

it would make way more sense
that people don’t want to pay

for something that they
already see as unnecessary.

But they’re saying,
like, “Oh, people are not

as in the office, they’re
not as connected.

” It almost felt conspiratorial,

like this was one of those
weird return to office pushes,

like, “Oh, you’re losing the
connection that the office creates,”

which is, as we all know,
complete and utter bullshit.

Speaking of inflation, oh my God, I put my
stories together in the right order today.

That’s a piece of magic right there.

People are buying less
because of inflation.

I actually noticed that I buy
less overall because of inflation.

Previously, I would go
out for lunch regularly.

Now I have basically stopped.

I don’t go out for lunch.

I meal prep.

So I make burritos.

I make like 20, 30 burritos and I freeze
them and I bring them into the office.

That’s it’s cheaper and I’m not
spending money to go to restaurants.

So, and that’s inflation.

Like, I could see the price go out, go up.

I can see that going out is too expensive.

I’m not going to do it anymore.

Convenient stores in supermarkets
are also, they’re like feeling it.

They’re getting feeling hit.

So what they’re doing is creating
larger products to lure people in.

And the owner of, I think it
was, you know, incorporation,

said, because of the appearance, larger
food can provide excitement and fun.

The price cuts can’t.

And here’s, here’s the thing
from a consumer perspective.

I would rather have normal food at a
discounted price or let’s just put it this way.

One inflation is no longer an issue.

Like, inflation is capped out and you’re
like, we’re not selling enough of this.

Capitalism actually dictates
that’s when you lower the price.

I don’t want an extra large, only giddy.

I don’t want a cake
with more frosting on it.

I would just like the regular
version at a lower price.

And then you’re more likely to
get my patronage on a regular basis.

It is interesting that
these, it’s convenience

stores and supermarkets
are like, instead

of lowering the price
of our regular products,

we’re going to take some products and
make them extra big for the same price.

And I, they’re only
choosing select products.

So it’s not really like the
necessities of the things you need.

They would make a lot more money if
you just said, let’s make a regular price.

And let’s actually drop the price on regular
items and then people would keep coming

back because, hey, it’s slightly
cheaper here than somewhere else.

That is exactly what I would
think and that’s where I would go.

They’re increasing the size
of only giddy, bento boxes,

so the pre prepared lunchboxes
and a bunch of sweets.

Obviously, it’s one
of those things that

sounds like a good plan
to executives, but then

doesn’t translate into the real world
where people actually live and work.

The Japan Education Minister.

This was actually something
I learned, so that’s nice.

He said, I never received
support from the unification church.

And then next week
he’s like, okay, I kind of

received support from
the unification church.

Unification church is a big issue in Japan.

Way back.

Now, a year ago, the former
Prime Minister Abe was shot.

He was shot by a guy
who was angry at the

unification church because
the unification church

had ruined his family
because his mom had

joined and given all the
family money to the church.

And he said he wanted
to exact revenge.

Abe’s father was the
one that brought the

unification church into
Japan as an organization.

He was a politician.

He let them into the country.

He let them become an organized religion.

So it wasn’t a direct
link, but there was

supposed to be unification
church leader at this

thing where the guy showed
up and Abe was there.

The guy didn’t show up.

So he shot Abe instead.

It was like actually a
target of opportunity.

This set off a whole
thing where people are

like, well, is the unification
church taking money from people?

And then it turns out they’re
doing a lot of really weird stuff.

We’ve actually covered
that in a previous

episode, so I’m not
going to go over it again.

But what they did find
out is the unification

church does a lot of pandering
to politicians, not a big surprise.

You want to enact political power.

You got to get politicians so they
give a lot of money to politicians.

Politicians are all now scared
because now if you’ve received

money or anything from the
unification church, it looks bad.

It looks like you’ve been bought
and paid for, which you probably have.

You fucking education minister.

Turns out the thing I
didn’t know, the education

minister is also in
charge for religious

issues, which if you
are in charge of religious

issues and you’ve
taken money from the

unification church, there’s a
bit of a conflict of interest there.

That’s kind of the issue
that maybe has come up.

So he said, no, I’ve never
dealt with the unification church.

Turns out he participated
in an event hosted

by the unification church and accepted
a letter of recommendation from them.

But he says, and this
is on record, if there

happened to be photos, I think I must
have received a recommendation letter.

So I do like the initial part of that
sentence more than anything else.

If there happened to
be photos, he’s like,

basically, if you have
evidence, then it must be true.

If you don’t have evidence, then I’m going
to deny it because you don’t have evidence.

So if you have evidence, bring it
forward and then I’ll admit that I did it.

It’s a very interesting piece of logic he’s
working on because he’s basically saying,

if you can prove it,
I’ll admit it, but if you

can’t, I’m not gonna
ask a he shimblin, publish

these photos and
it’s him at the event

receiving the letter of
recommendation and being

very chummy, tell me
with the unification church.

This is coming after a
scandal in the government

where a whole bunch of
people were taking money.

I mean, again, not
particularly the surprising

scandal, but it’s actually meant because
she to the current prime minister, like his

whole cabinet is now
being called into question

and it is going to be a big problem
for him in the upcoming elections.

Crimes in Japan rose
for a second straight year

in 2023 went up 17% to
703,351 crimes recorded.

This is basically because coronavirus
restrictions have been reduced.

So all the criminals,
all the criminals were

in lockdown, which
meant it’s really hard

to commit crime if
you’re stuck in your house,

but also there’s been
a legislation change.

So the penal code has been
revised, the interpretation

of forcible intercourse has
been updated in the penal code.

And so those cases rose by 63.8%.

This sounds like there
are thousands of forcible

intercourse cases that
have suddenly happened.

What actually happened
was before they were

happening and not getting
prosecuted, now they

are being prosecuted,
so this incredible rise,

63% rise in forcible
intercourse crime means that

it’s actually being prosecuted
now where before it wasn’t.

It’s good that these are being prosecuted.

This huge rise in
numbers, though, has meant

the atmosphere, the
feeling of the average

citizen in Japan thinks that
Japan is a less safe country.

So a survey said 70% believe that Japan is
less safe than it was before, before being

a very vague term,
because yeah, during the

pandemic, when everything
was locked down, everything

was very safe because no one
was allowed to leave the house.

But getting to
actual statistics, a 4.

8% increase in fraud and
robbery, cyber scams are

up 8%, there were 19,033
cyber scams recorded last year.

It’s the most in 10
years, obviously the

internet is where these
scams are going to take

place from now on, 44.1 billion yen,
it’s up for the second year in a row.

The scams are not
just coming from within

Japan, the scams are actually
coming from all over Southeast Asia.

Gassy, we talked
about Gassy a lot, and I

talked about Gassy a lot because
he had a very interesting thing.

He was living in Dubai,
he was a YouTuber,

and what his YouTube
was like all scandals in

Japan, and then he said
he was living in Dubai

because if he came
back to Japan, they would

arrest him, and there
were people against

him, and it was like
all very conspiratorial.

And then he ran for
office, and he thought

like I can run for office
remotely, and he won,

he was running in the
government remotely,

and they’re like no, you
have to show up, he’s

like if I show up, you’re
going to arrest me,

and then they’re like
no, that’s not going

to happen, then he
showed up and got arrested,

and now the case
is actually coming to

sort of a conclusion,
essentially online intimidation.

So he was basically a cyber bully, he would
get scandals, he would get information,

and then he would like
blackmail people, or pick

people isn’t like, and he
would like harass them.

So he’s online
intimidation symbolizes the

problem of online
defamation and its extreme

maliciousness, whoo,
that’s what the judge

said, prosecutors are
looking for four years in prison.

So in a weird way,
though, this is actually

funny, because he was
talking all conspiracy,

and everyone’s like no, no, that’s not a
conspiracy, that’s not going to happen.

And then it was true, the whole time it was
true, they’re like as soon as you step foot

in this country,
you’re going to get

arrested, which is exactly
what he said would happen.

He’s being accused of
threats against actors.

I know go seems to be the main
one, who said I have been slandered.

I’ve lost contracts, and I
demand a strict punishment.

So this is actually a big thing.

Like when your name
gets dragged through the

mud in Japan, companies
will not work with you.

So he lost advertising
contracts and probably

millions and millions of yen
because of the things that Gassy said.

So Gassy having to pay
the price for that is good.

Again, I think this opens
him up once he’s found guilty.

There’s also a civil suit that I and I will
go could levy towards him and probably try

to recoup some of
those funds, although I

bet Gassy’s not going to have that
much money left over after all this.

So there was a man
and he’s a fan of this ex

porn star, and she
goes live on TikTok now.

And he sends her 80,000 yen
and he says, let’s meet for tea.

Now, if you’re a cool person in Japan,
young person, this actually a pickup line.

So it sounds, let’s meet
for T sounds very innocent.

Most Japanese pickup lines and stuff do.

In Korea, what does it like,
let’s go to my house and I’ll make

you ramen is like come over and
sleep with me at my apartment.

In Japan, let’s go for tea
means like let’s go on a date.

So he sent her 80,000 yen
and like dropped a pickup line

and she’s like, well, I got a
simp on the hook, let’s go.

She replied later with
if I’m driving, so like if I

have to come meet you,
that’ll be another 150,000 yen.

And so the dude paid it.

So the dude has paid out 80,000 yen for the
initial dropping line, 150,000 yen to get

her to drive to him or to
wherever they’re going to meet.

And then she said, not
having, not being satisfied.

She said, I haven’t been
able to pay my phone bill.

So give me another 40,000
yen, which he then paid.

But then she never actually met him.

So this is 270,000 yen total this man
has spent has given to this ex porn star.

And she actually still hasn’t met him.

Then during email
conversations or it’s like

online, line is like a chat
system they use in Japan.

It’s probably the
most popular one.

She said that he started
treating her cold, he’s probably

treating her coldly because
she’s taken 270,000 yen.

And average salary in Japan is
going to be 250 to 300,000 yen.

So he’s paid the average
monthly salary just

to have a meeting with
this woman who said

she will meet him and
then she’s not doing it.

She’s like, oh, I’m angry
that he’s now cold to me.

She said she would return all the money,
but he could never contact her again.

He said fine.

And then she hasn’t returned the money.

So I’m wondering, yeah,
like where’s the legality here?

Because the money was given under
a condition, but there was no contract.

Can he take this a step further?

And now let’s face facts, he
wanted to meet a porn star.

I think we all know
what he actually wanted

to have happen, but it
seems like a good story

to end on, but there’s no conclusion
because the story hasn’t ended yet.

The story hasn’t ended yet because we don’t
know if he’s going to get his money back or

if she’s actually going
to meet him, which

is not going to meet him because she
was just trying to like scammer for money.

Is there a scam here because
he gave the money willingly?

Like if you were going
to donate money to a

podcaster, and then make
demands of the podcaster,

and then they didn’t
meet those demands.

Would he then be obligated
to give that money back?

I don’t think so, but
the fact that there was a

disingenuous agreement
made is a kind of fraud.

So with my very
shallow understanding of

Japanese legal law, I
actually bet the fact that

she said, if you give me 150,000
yen, I will come and drive to meet you.

That is an oral
contract, that’s an oral

contract and therefore he
would have some kind of civil case.

It wouldn’t be punitive.

I bet he could get his money back.

I don’t think he could actually
like get extra money from her.

Just like if you gave a podcaster money, so
let’s say 80,000 yen, if you dropped 80,000

on your favorite podcast, I mean, what
kind of demand would you make of me anyway?

It’s like take off my shirt.

The problem is I would do it.

I would take off my
shirt and it would be

disgusting because it
would blow out the camera

and you wouldn’t be able
to see anything anymore.

Would it be 80,000 yen and only, all right,
so Ignat’s is just putting the chat sing,

but you please know the
Ignat’s is not dropped any money.

So when the money gets dropped, then we
will have an oral contract if I agree to it.

That’s the problem.

That’s the bit you’re missing.

So, yes, you can say,
I request that you sing

and then I can say,
well, I want 100,000 yen

and I will sing the song of
my choice and then I will sing

and then it would be like, I’m
not satisfied with that song.

Unfortunately, then
I would have actually

fulfilled my side of the
contract and you would

just lose, you would not be
able to accuse me of fraud.

Whereas if you gave
me 100,000 yen and I

said I would sing the
song of your choice and

then I sang a different song,
that could be problematic.

But if I just didn’t sing at all, well
then, absolutely, that would be fraud.

Oh, look at Dave, look at how cute Dave is.

He sat up just for the
end of the show, oh, my

little buddy, he’s still
got his eyes half close.

The dude is like barely asleep all the
time, okay, let’s just do the end song.

That was really messy today.

I do not know what happened.

I think I just kind of
mentally am not there.

Oh, he’s actually asleep.

He’s like doing the deep breathing,
sleeping as eyes are closed.

He’s sleeping while sitting up.

I bet if I just left this on Twitch, this
would be the most popular thing I’ve ever done.

Can I get the microphone
down to his nose?

Oh, no, he’s laying down again.

Ah, that’s too bad.

(upbeat music)

With the declining, man, right off,

that’s, I did a good first start and then
messed up to say, okay, let’s try again.

With the decolon, fuck!

Declining, declining, declining.

I need to do some mouth warmups.

Declining.

With the declining population in Japan,

recruiting for pretty
much anything is difficult.

So companies are
having difficulty recruiting.

Things like the military,
let’s say, there are less

people to recruit from,
so numbers are going down.

And the military, honestly,
for a lot of people, not the

most attractive option, it’s
self-defense force in Japan,

has decided to try to increase recruitment
by relaxing some of the standards.

And this is one of the slippery slopes,

because when you get so
desperate to need people

and you start accepting
people with hippie haircuts,

which is like, mm, there
are other other way.

So they’ve decided to
relax hairstyle regulations.

So I guess so you can
look good on the battlefield.

So as I run across the battlefield,
like I do in COD, guns aiming at nothing,

because I’m just shooting
randomly in the air,

you can see my golden
locks fly out behind me.

They’re trying to attract younger people.

And what they’ve decided is that
women don’t have to have short hairs.

So they had to have
very, very short haircuts,

like still just like above
the ear kind of haircuts.

Men don’t need to have buzz cuts anymore.

So women, the hair must be tied back, and
it cannot obstruct the wearing of a helmet,

and it cannot touch your shoulders.

So it’s not long hair, but it is longer.

And then men, they said, “There
is an athletic standard for men.

” And the thing is, I don’t know what the
athletic standard is when it comes to hair.

I assume by that they actually
just mean short-ish all around.

The thing is, an athletic
haircut where I come

from in Canada, would
be the hockey mullet.

So short in the front and long in the back,

that would be very much what I would
associate with a certain kind of athlete.

And I don’t think that is
what the Japanese military

is really going for.

They have tried anime in the past,
but we’re not going to see any anime

wife who’s on the battlefield, because
you are not allowed to die your hair.

So that’s actually,
again, the sensible rule,

because remember, all those
stories from the last couple of years

about high schools and whatnot,
saying you had to have black hair.

The rule wasn’t that you
shouldn’t die your hair.

The rule was that you
had to have black hair

with the base assumption
that every Japanese kid

is born with black hair, and
then these mixed kids come in.

And they have dark brown, light brown hair,

and they were being
forced to die their hair black,

because the rule
wasn’t, don’t die your hair.

The rule was, you have to have black hair.

They’re being more sensible.

They’re saying don’t die your hair.

So if you have naturally brown hair,

the military is more than
happy to welcome you,

which is a step forward,
I think that’s pretty nice.

You can only die gray hair,

which I thought was interesting.

So they’re saying as men, women get older,

they get gray hair, you’re allowed
to cover that up, if you want.

Otherwise you have
to have natural hair.

So we’re not going to
see any bright pink hair,

main character,
syndrome stuff on the

battlefield, at least with
the SDF any time soon.

They have also tried anime in the past,
which takes us deftly into our next story.

There is a, the reformed church,
which is also trying to recruit people,

and they’re doing
something very interesting,

which we’re going to take
a moment and listen to.

They’re trying to teach Calvinism.

They decided to go on the internet
and say the best way to teach Calvinism.

I honestly did not take the time

to look up Calvinism.

Calvinism, I do have a coworker

who I’m sure would be more
than happy to tell me about it,

but I’m sure they also would not have
connected Calvinism to anime ASMR.

So they are reciting psalms,
or if you read it like I do psalms

with sort of a weird
Japanese character voice,

sort of whispering in
your ear at the same time.

So luckily for you, I
have a little bit of that.

What are we looking at?

We are looking at…
(speaking in foreign language)

Okay, the Japanese is too
hard for me to understand,

but I think she’s reading
Psalm 103, colon two.

And I mean, we could just
do it together for a while.

If I could read the Japanese fast
enough, I can sort of read the Japanese,

but no, I’m gonna be able to
keep up with a native speaker.

So I don’t know, when
you would listen to this,

I guess this is you turn this on,

you go to bed and you get
that tingly failing in your ear.

And then, join the church.

All right, there are three and
a half minutes more of that.

We don’t need to listen to anymore.

Just another weird thing, combination,

Japan, anime, recruitment, to try to get
those nerds, I guess, to come to church.

The military, actually, it
was two years ago, I believe,

actually, it was using
anime posters to try to

attract a certain segment
to join the SDF as well.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea.

I mean, most of the military now,
at this point, is probably computers.

It’s drones, it’s computers,
it’s logistics and stuff.

You need people who are
more than happy to sit in a chair,

10 to 12 hours a day and get
paid to mess around on a computer.

This is the right demographic for it.

And then they get to call themselves
soldiers and pretend they’re in an anime

where they’re like fighting cyber stuff,
which they might actually be, I don’t know.

I mean, that actually may
work out for you in the future.

The host club of crackdowns
continue, which is good,

’cause I was, everything I’ve heard about
host clubs is make me like, just wonder.

I just wonder, every time the
story comes up, I just wonder.

Is it that good?

Like, is it the men sort of
fawning over you, that good?

I’ll fawn over you for a much lower price.

Let’s put it that way.

You throw 20 bucks my way.

I will fawn for a little bit.

Anyways, there’s a little bit of fallout.

So again, these are because
this is a recent development.

This means these are
going to be the first time

charges are put towards
host clubs in this way.

So one club was suspended
for charging huge fees.

That’s kind of like a
constant that everyone

knows is going on, but
was never punished before.

I guess it was one of
those things where like,

the police are like, you
know where you’re going.

You know they use manipulation tactics.

You know they’re going
to try to jack up the price.

You’re in for it.

That’s up to you.

But now they’re like, no,
it’s gotten too far because

once you’re in so much
debt, they try to force you

into the sex trade of some
sort to pay off your debt.

And that’s maybe going too
far for the police in Japan.

I guess massive debt wasn’t
enough, all that it should have been.

So one was suspended
for charging huge fees.

And a second was suspended
for admitting a minor.

These were all, all the charges are
going to be related to inflated debt.

One club apparently stopped a
woman from leaving until she drank more.

So the way they actually
create the inflated price

that you owe is to get you super drunk.

And then by like, hey, let’s buy a bottle.

That bottle, you know, a 2000
bottle yen bottle of champagne.

Let’s charge them a million yen for it.

They get you drunk and they
don’t ever put out the prices.

This is again a common scam in Japan.

If you come to Japan and
you go into a restaurant,

you go into a bar and there are no
prices listed, you should just leave.

And if they try to get you to stay, what
they’re trying to do is get you to buy stuff

without telling you the price
and then they’ll hand you

an inflated thing and then say like, if
you don’t pay it, we’ll call the police.

The thing is, the police are actually,

they know what’s going
on but there is nothing

they can actually like,
they can’t defend you.

You actually still have to
pay the bill because in a way

because you drank there,
not knowing the price.

That’s your fault and the
police actually have to enforce it.

You have to pay that bill.

So that’s only you, you
should be aware of it.

If you’re a tourist and
you’re coming to Japan,

it’s but Japan’s reopened, it’s borders.

Tourists, I think it’s up
six fold from what it was

this time last year, which makes
sense because COVID’s not gone.

Apparently, I was reading a
story, I didn’t write it down.

I wasn’t going to do it for
Ninja Ninja Japan this week.

They’re saying we’re in our
10th wave of coronavirus.

But now, immunity is very high.
The vaccine is rolled out.

So it’s more like people
are just getting long colds.

So not particularly violent,
like people were dying before.

Now people catch a cold
and it just sort of lasts,

like cold lasts like two,
three days, let’s say.

This lasts like a week plus.

So they’re actually saying
that we’re in our 10th wave.

This is people aren’t noticing
as much because they just

think like, whoo, it’s cold
season and I got a cold.

So this woman, they
stopped her from leaving.

I said, you have to drink more,
which that is, I would say kidnapping.

Once you stop someone from
leaving a place they want to leave from,

that is actually kidnapping, uh, then
they made her take out 850,000 yen

from an ATM to pay off the debt
that she just racked up from them,

keeping her in the place in the host
club so that she could drink more.

So they basically made her stay drink
more to rack up a bill and they made her

go pay the bill.
If these punishments go through,

this is going to be the first of
their kind in Japan and I really do.

I think the host club system,
scam, whatever you want to call it.

It’s one of the grossest things they
have and I would really like to see.

I don’t have a problem
with what’s happening.

Like you want to go and
pay someone to talk to you.

I personally wouldn’t do that.

But if that’s, if you’re
comfortable with it, that’s okay.

Just make it a fair business.

That’s, that’s the only thing I would say.

Just make it a fair business off we go.

But that’s apparently not good enough.

You have to rip people off.

And that’s where they always,
it’s where everything goes wrong.

It’s why we need regulations.

Don’t get me going on regulations.

I know, I know everyone out there
is listening to this is like, oh, Peter,

do some SMR about regulations,

but the regulations you would
put into place on corporations.

I know, I know that that
might be my new podcast.

Corporal SMR regulatory systems.

Uh, they’ve decided to stop
running snack carts on shinkansen.

So if you go on the shinkansen now,
the bullet train, what happens is lady

still very sexist is you shouldn’t I
don’t think I’ve ever seen a man do it.

So I think it’s pretty fair to say a lady.

A lady comes down to card and she’s like,
do you want to buy an overpriced chocolate?

Do you want to buy an overpriced tea?

Do you want to buy something that you should
have bought before you go on the train?

Everyone just buy stuff
and brings it on the train.

So those things are not
profitable, but it isn’t in train service.

I think way back, probably when
they weren’t ripping people off,

people probably bought from
it and it was maybe a good deal.

I don’t know.

I’ve never bought anything from it.

I always buy snacks and bring it on the
train if I ever have to go on the train.

So these carts, there’s a
lot of train fans in Japan.

So these carts, what are
they going to do with them?

Well, they’re going to
put them up for sale.

And if you want one, you have to
enter a lottery to be able to bid on the

carts, they’re going to
be 50 carts and they’re

going to sell them
for 100,000 yen each.

Now, I don’t know if there’s
bidding involved in that.

I think they’re just going to sell 50.

So I think the lottery,
there are going to be 50

winners and you each get,
have to pay 100,000 yen.

You have to be able to pick it
up yourself by the end of February.

So this is all happening very quickly.

We hope quote from the
representative of the shinkansen.

We hope they will be
put to good use and not

used for some weird
sex thing in a movie.

Some of that was added on by me.

There’s someone out
there, completely innocent,

who’s building his own
inside of a shinkansen

in his house and he’s weird
and he’s got too much money.

I can’t judge that.

I have my nerd stuff in my room.

I’m not as bad primarily because I’m poor.

I think if I had a lot of money, I
would buy a lot of stupid stuff.

And I’m a fan of something different.

So it’s hard for me to judge.

But there is another segment that’s going
to be like, let’s recreate a shinkansen

and then make an adult
video and then have

the girl push it down and then have
some sort of encounter with a passenger.

I could totally see that being a
video and then they could say,

this is an authentic shinkansen cart
and somehow that’s a selling point.

Why did my brain go there first?

Because I do an engineer’s Japan and
I’ve now deep into Japan’s psychology

when they have like, let’s add a
little authenticity to something.

They will absolutely go for it.

Once you win the lottery
and you pay 100,000 yen,

they will be no cleaning or
repairs done before the sale.

So the condition they
are in on that last day

of service is the
condition you will get it in.

I think not cleaning it is
a problem again because

of the fanciful, weird
people out in the world.

I think you should just clean it up.

Repairs, yeah, let them repair themselves.

I’m sure these are the kind of people
who would really enjoy repairing it.

And as part of the contract of
winning the lottery, you cannot resell it.

So I can’t win the lottery 10 times by 10
cards and then resell them on the internet.

Then if I do that, I’m
going to get in trouble.

That blue city, they got
some youth baseball going on.

As most cities do baseballs, I
think the most popular sport in Japan.

So hey, what’s funny, probably
the most famous baseball player.

So famous, I’ve heard of him.

I don’t watch baseball.

I do not follow sports.

So he has to be super, super famous.

I think he, I don’t think I know.

He just did the like $700 billion
contract over X amount of years.

So he’s like the number one baseball
player in the world for the moment.

So that means he’s super popular.

He’s Japanese and therefore
very popular in Japan.

He has donated 60,000
baseball gloves to 20,000 schools.

What they did is the
city collects the gloves

and then they’re supposed to
distribute them to the different schools.

The mayor of Bepu city
said, you know what, more

valuable to the world
is I took these gloves

and I didn’t give them to kids.

If I put them on display
for everyone to see.

And he said this was to make
children and citizens happy.

Because as we all know, kids love
not touching or playing with things.

They love to go up to a glass
case and just look at stuff.

So that was clearly
a weird little selfish

thing that the mayor of Bepu did
immediately got pushed back on.

It’s like, Otani is
donated these gloves so

that kids will get excited
about baseball and

play baseball and maybe
grow up and be professional

baseball players or at least foster
their love of the sport that he loves.

And you probably a baseball fan
are like, I don’t want to give it to kids.

I want to keep it from itself.

So I’m going to put in a glass case.

No, I can touch it.

It’s my glove.

Some people don’t grow
up and the mayor of Bepu

seems to have been one
of those people who didn’t

realize that not giving
stuff to kids that was

intended to be given
to kids is a bad idea.

So he some other districts,
cities, did display the gloves as well.

They didn’t get in trouble
because the idea was

we’re going to hold them until
they’re ready to be shipped.

So basically, we’re not, we’re
going to put these in a box.

They’re going to get shipped.

Let’s say next month
or the beginning of the

new academic year
or something like that.

Until then, we’ll put them on display.

And yes, everyone can
look at the gloves that

have probably been
touched by Shohei Otani

himself, the magical
fingers of the man himself.

And then everyone looks
at and goes, ooh, glass case.

Look at those gloves.

And then when it was time to give them to
the kids, actually give them to the kids.

Kids.

Mayor of Bepu?

Now, in my gloves, they
want to keep my gloves.

They’re not going to give my
gloves to anybody under my gloves.

Fucking child.

This is interesting.

It’s not really something I can make any.

I can’t make fun of this.

In the 1970s, there
was a series of bombings.

And this was, this was the
East Asia anti-Japan armed front.

And what they would do is targeting
companies that operated overseas.

And so they were
protesting Japan’s exploitation

of other countries
pre-World War II,

where they were like
literally enslaving other

people and stuff and
occupying other countries.

And they were seeing
that the current expansion

after World War II in the
70s and 80s, particularly,

was another form of this expansion.

So they were like, we should stop this.

We shouldn’t exploit others.

So let’s blow them up.

Always the solution.

And a man has been wanted since 1975.

What he did was he put a bomb
outside of a building and it went off,

and a little bunch of shit up.

A man entered the hospital
suffering from terminal cancer.

He has been hidden
for the last 50 years and

paying for cancer
treatments out of pocket

because if he used his
actual idea or anything,

he would link him
back to that bombing.

So he’s basically been in
hiding for 50 years and surviving.

He’s been working at a building firm.

So that’s a bit vague.

He may have been doing construction.

He may have been doing architecture
or some variety of work therein.

So he’s had a job.

He’s been working for the last 50 years.

He’s been in hiding.

He hasn’t used his health care card.

He hasn’t used any of his
official idea for anything.

So the police wouldn’t find him.

And he’s lived for the last 50 years.

He enters into hospital because his
cancer has just gotten to this stage

where he has to be in hospital.

And this is sort of hospice almost.

He’s it’s terminal.

He’s not going to survive.

That means sooner or
later they have to get his ID.

So they get his ID and they find
out and they contact the police.

The police come and talk to him.

And then the story comes out
yesterday that he dies in hospital.

So I’m a bit torn.

Is this like in a way
he hid successfully for

the entirety of his life
and escape the police.

But the police sort of caught
up with him at the very end.

I don’t know. It’s a weird story
because how do you feel about that?

Like he committed a crime.

I kind of have respect for
someone who can hide for 50 years.

So much of an engineer’s depend is someone
doing something and getting caught that day

because they videoed it
and put it on the internet.

And then he got this guy and
I would say a proper criminal.

He was a freedom fighter in his mind.

And this is always sort of one
of the dichotomies of people doing

acts for political reasons as they see
themselves differently than just criminals.

They see themselves as the rebels.

They see themselves
as the uprising, the

revolution that’s going
to change the world.

So he saw himself as a revolutionary.

So he didn’t feel like what
he was doing was a crime.

He thought he needed
to do this to change the

course of Japan and
the world in the future.

I have respect for the ideology.

I do not think you should blow shit up.

I don’t think you should blow people up.

I’m not even a big fan of blowing
stuff up unless it’s in a video game.

Love blowing stuff up in video games.

The difference there.

Yeah, you’re knowing the
difference between real

life and video games
makes a big difference.

But he found a job, worked for 50 years.

I mean, they didn’t
actually say he retired,

which makes me think
he was doing construction

because he can do construction
just up into the last days.

And then was caught.

Police came and spoke to them.

Apparently he was quite open
with them, but then he died.

And then, case closed.

Going from that guy
to this guy for Fox eight.

A boy filmed himself licking the lid
of a water pitcher at a rabbit shop.

This is not interesting anymore.

The people who are
getting caught licking stuff

or eating stuff and making
communal stuff grows.

The reason I, a rabbit
shop, a ramen, ramen shop,

a ramen, a shop where
that sells bowls of ramen,

my mouth is a little dry.

So I might not be enunciating as
well as I could or I’m talking too fast.

People tell me I talked
to slow in the office.

So that might be the
I try to speak a little

faster when I do the
news need to use to pay.

He filmed himself
licking the lid of a water

pitcher at a ramen shop
and then putting it back.

And the internet, of course,
immediately saw this and went, “Abshit.

” Now, the reason this was
interesting to me is because

the police didn’t have a
chance to get involved.

The internet took care of this.

So they found the boy’s
Twitter and Instagram.

They combed through
his Instagram and found out

he was enrolled in a
makeup school in Hokkaido.

They then contacted the
school and started talking

about like all the
gross thing this kid did.

And that he should be punished.

The school tried to hide it.

They took down as many of the
pictures as they could with this kid in it.

They said we’re doing
it to protect the other

students, basically the people
who are in the pictures with him.

But of course, what
they’re really trying to do

is just like cover up this
and hope it goes away.

It’s not going away.

The internet has decided.

The Japanese internet
has decided if you do

something publicly gross,
we’re coming for you.

So then the criticism of
the school started coming

out on the internet and the
boy was probably expelled.

So the police were never even contacted.

This kid licked something in a restaurant,

video it put it on the
internet days later, not

even like multiple,
maybe two days later he’s

been expelled from the
school he’s enrolled in.

And that shows you where
we’ve come to the Japanese

society because now
we’re at the point where

if you do something like this, it’s just
been decided it’s so morally reprehensible.

They’re just going to come after you.

The last story, trying
to mix up the last stories.

I used to do 50 year old creepy men.

Those stories have actually fallen off
recently, which speaks good for my people.

And then also maybe a little palette cleanser
at the end instead of the same stuff.

The national long bath competition
for copy bottles was held this year.

This is the 12th year in a row.

This is the first year I’ve heard about it.

I’m very interested in this.

There are five zoos
currently with copy bars.

And what they do is they choose a day, the
creepy men are more active in the spring.

Oh, they need the warm weather because
in the colder joints are sore like me.

And then they can’t do it.

They have to like, oh, I got to wait till
the spring and then I’ll get my shit to go.

Five zoos.

What they do is they monitor the copy
bottles and they choose a day and the copy

bottom that takes the
longest bath that day wins.

What do they win?

Probably nothing.

The glory.

I mean, when I did all my judo
tournaments, what did I win?

Tiny plastic trophies that I
could buy myself for like 20 bucks.

Probably not even.

They were really cheap.

I actually was talking to a guy once.

I was like, you know what you can do.

You can just go into trophy stores and
get trophies made with your neighborhood.

You don’t need to actually bother
with the competition or anything.

And then I could just
have like a rack behind

me with just hundreds
of trophies on it.

If it’s far enough away, you’re
not going to read the plaques.

That’s fine.

And then there’s other
guys like, oh, man, how

long does it take to
get a black belt in judo?

I was like, well, you
go into the store and if

you have 700 again, it
takes about eight minutes

because they have to go find the right.

They don’t check, they
don’t check if you have

a, you don’t leave me like a certificate
to buy a black belt in a martial art store.

You could go in by any color, throw it on.

There you go.

They don’t, they don’t check trophy stores
don’t check martial art stores don’t check.

You can just construct that yourself.

I don’t know why I
went on that little rant.

I was for the glory.

Truffle was a copy bar.

Local favorite to win.

Did a one hour, 50 minute
and 49 seconds soak in the bath.

But you know what?

Donut came in and said,
fuck Truffle, I am going

to make this not just a
win, but a fucking murder.

The Nagasaki Biopark
hero, donut, did a soak

of two hours, 53
minutes and 57 seconds,

blowing Truffle out of the fucking
water figuratively and literally.

This is your post credit scene if
you hang around for after the song.

You may have heard a tone of
disappointment in my voice all day today.

And the reason is last night, my
wife, my wife, she came to me and said,

“Do you have
anything in English that I

could listen to, maybe
something about news?”

I don’t know if she even
knows I do this podcast.

This was two weeks running,
two or three times ranked

the number two Japanese
news podcast in the world.

And the number one is the
actual newspaper the Manichi.

The Manichi releases a podcast every day.

So if they get
downloads, their download

numbers are going to
be way bigger than mine

because they do want every day
and people just automatically download.

I can’t compete with that.

So Ignatius just put in the chat,
did you recommend her your podcast?

No, I didn’t because
I was so hurt by the

fact that I am not 100%
sure she even knows.

I do this podcast, the number two
Japanese news podcast in English.

Hey, do you have
anything in English that I

could listen to so I
could practice my English?

Maybe it has news or current events in it.

Maybe something even
more casual than the formal

English to help me get
more natural English in there.

Do you know anything like that?

Do you know what? No, I don’t.

No, I don’t know anything like that.

I don’t even think that’s a concept of
knowing anyone’s ever done it in the world.

(upbeat music)

So every year, Japan
chooses the kanji of the year.

Kanji is the Chinese
characters that they use

when they write in Japanese.

And they choose a word to symbolize
the mood in the state of the nation,

which sounds very nice.

So you would want, you know, happy words.

Words that positivity and
growth and going forward.

This year, to represent the
state of Japan, they chose tax.

So the actual word is they, but
it’s the kanji for tax, or I guess tax is.

There’s a ceremony.

So no one knows what the word’s gonna be.

There’s a ceremony where
there’s a giant sheet of paper

and there’s monk walks
onto it with a giant brush

and he writes the word really dramatically.

And it’s a big reveal.

We’d actually let me do the thing that
the guy, the monk, this isn’t gonna do it.

I guess that’s why they choose monks
and stuff ’cause they tend to be honest.

I guess also they would
know if you changed it.

But my thought was like
the monk could walk out

and at the last minute
just go, you know what?

And I’m not really big fan of tax.

I’m not gonna write tax
and you just write some

other kanji, make some
other word for the year.

And because it’s on TV, probably live,

there’s nothing they could do about it.

They would just have to
accept it, which would be kind

of awesome to take control
of the spirit of a nation

that way would be
actually pretty cool to me.

But he didn’t do it, of course.

There’s a survey.

There were 147,878 responses,

which is actually a lot of responses
to vote for the kanji of the year.

I don’t know if it’s just a general thing.

I actually was gonna look into it
because last week tonight with John Oliver,

they are known for hijacking
online things this year.

They did the one where they had New
Zealand had the bird of the centurion.

They just basically jacked the whole contest
so that the bird they chose would win,

which is pretty cool actually.

If they could do that
for the kanji of the year,

they could choose another more
interesting more amusing kanji.

I’d assume, I’m wondering,
again, I wonder how their rules are.

Like do they give you a list of
kanji and you have to choose from it?

Or do you just choose a kanji

and enough people write in
with the same kanji and they win?

But 147,878 responses,
only 5,976 said tax.

If you said “chung with beef chest,”
choose a word that would sum up the year.

I don’t think I would choose tax.

It’s not like I would choose a super
positive one, but I wouldn’t choose tax.

So anyways, they got 5,976 votes.

Hot, so at sea, got 5,571 votes.

War got 5,011 votes, which
was actually the winner in 2022.

Tiger got 4,674 votes.

They think this is
because the Hunshin Tigers,

the baseball team
won the championship.

And victory got 4,653 votes.

So victory fell behind
tax, hot, and war and tiger.

So apparently there’s 4,600
baseball fans who seem to vote.

I guess if you would have baseball fans,

they would vote for the same
team, their team, every single year.

So you’d actually get
the same amount of votes.

You could actually see that.

If that became a pattern,
you could actually see that.

So the monk said,

“I sense that Japan is
a very tough situation.

“I moved to brush while feeling

“that the Japanese
people are watching taxes.

” I mean, it is true.

This is just, it’s kind
of a dismal message.

And this is the last
sort of one of these

messages you send off
at the end of the year.

Sending things off at the end of the year,

you kind of want to be more
optimistic, more hopeful maybe.

I might actually manipulate
this message a little bit

so that people can
get a little more out of it

and get a little more
happiness and follow it.

I just, I think we’re all a little done.

We had Coronavirus pandemic,
we got a war in Ukraine.

There’s a lot of international tensions.

I think everyone just
needs to take a minute,

calm down, chill out,
inflation in taxes and stuff.

That shouldn’t be something we’re thinking.

We should be thinking about
progress and improvement

in life getting better.

And unfortunately,
that’s just not the case.

And it’s a really sad
way to start a podcast.

Never mind the next fucking new year.

I don’t want to start my podcast like this.

So I need happier stories.

I need people to send me happy stories

that I can start my podcast with
so I can start with a good mood.

With inflation, I mean,
this is it as much as I

want to get away from
the negativity and stuff.

One of the problems
with the news is the news.

It tends to be very attracted to you.

All the problems of the world.

So you end up talking about them a lot.

With inflation, any drop in
prices becomes attractive.

That’s actually something
that’s pretty sensible.

Retailers have globbed onto this.

There’s a big sort of
supermarket company called Eon.

Eon has dropped
the prices on 24 items

between three and 26% and
they’re just kind of selling them

in bulk and that’s where
they make their profit.

Sales have increased since the last
price drop, which was also 31 items.

So basically they’re like, hey,
inflation’s killing everybody.

Let’s drop the prices on some things
and people will come and buy those things.

Maybe then they’ll come and
buy our other inflated items as well.

Yeah, now I just have to comment
that it’s sad that we have to be like, hey,

you dropped a price by
3%, that’s like the best

thing that’s ever happened
in my life right now.

This, I found this incredibly, oh my God,
this is gonna be the worst podcast ever.

This is gonna be the
most depressing podcast

I’ve ever produced because every
one of these stories I’m not happy about.

Since we’re talking about
money and pricing and

stuff, Coca Cola has
decided to do run a test

and have vending machines
with dynamic pricing.

So the prices are going to
change according to demand.

So this is like Uber does this.

So they have like peak periods.

So you have to pay more to
get an Uber during peak periods.

They’re thinking, hey, peak periods.

Let’s charge people more for a
Coke or any other drink in the machine.

And then if it’s off periods, then
we’ll put it down to I guess normal price.

It’s not gonna get cheaper.

They’re gonna have a baseline
and they go up from there.

I bet they don’t go down
when demand is very low.

They’re gonna use several
thousand machines as a test at first.

They currently run 700,000
vending machines in Japan.

Their plan is primarily to have it
high during the day and low at night.

So if you want to get
a Coke from a machine,

you should actually wait until
the evening and go get your

Coke then, even if you’re
gonna drink it the next day.

Or you could do, I guess you go to Ion

and hopefully they put a
three to 26% price drop on Coke.

I don’t know, it just seems,

this manipulative pricing is
part of the greed structure.

It’s not like I should expect
anything more from Coca Cola.

Coca Cola is not a nice company.

that’s doing nice things for the world.

Any nice thing they’ve ever done has been
either for media attention or a tax break.

There’s one very good story about Coca Cola

and it’s how they got malaria.

They have this like
infrastructure to get Coke

everywhere in the world.

So in Africa, it’s very hard to like
get things to certain places in Africa.

So what they did is they
put malaria medicine up inside

the cap of Coke and then they
shipped it all around the country.

So then you could just
get malaria medicine out of

your Coke, which sounded
amazing and I was like,

ah, there has to be some kind
of like dark kickback for that.

Or they were just like
sensible enough to go like,

if people have malaria,

they’re not drinking sugar drinks.

So we need to keep people
healthy enough to buy our products.

This was always my problem
with the umbrella corporation,

creating a zombie virus
in the resident evil games.

If you turn the majority of
the population into zombies,

they’re not going to spend a great
deal of time buying your beauty products.

Like their whole idea
is like, oh, we’re going

to have like a certain,
it’s a class system.

So we’re going to have some people
and they get superpowers and live forever.

And then everyone else will
just be a peon underneath them.

That’s the plan and it sort and went wrong.

But then they kept going.

Like every game is
they’ve gone a little further

with the experimentation
in the virus and stuff.

Anyways, I don’t think umbrella
corporation has a good plan

and Coke with this kind of
stuff actually could be the thing

that would push me to stop drinking Coke.

Since the end of the year, lots of stats.

You’re actually going to notice
the very stat heavy episode today.

60% of work being adults don’t
want to go to a New Year’s party.

So your company often will have a
bonan guy, which is the end of your party.

And then there’s another
one in the New Year where

you forget the previous
year and all this other stuff.

It’s just excuses to go drinking, drinking
cultures a very big thing in Japan.

Coronavirus stopped
people from drinking parties.

And a lot of people in Japan
were like, Hey, I kind of like

not going to drinking parties
like my coworkers are fine.

That doesn’t mean I want to spend
every evening with them getting drunk.

Maybe I don’t even like drinking that much.

I don’t like getting ripped and then
having to go back to work the next day.

Yeah, most people are like went to
like four different Christmas parties.

It was a bit matter.

I went to four different
company Christmas parties.

It was a bit much.

So I work for one company, which is fine.

I go to that Christmas party.

They actually have a Christmas lunch.

The Christmas lunch is a really good idea
because it means you go in the afternoon.

You have a relatively nice lunch.

It was like at a hotel and then
we had drinks with our friends.

And then you could decide I’m going
to go off and party with my friends.

I actually decided to go back home and
I went to bed at like five o’clock in the

afternoon because I had drunk too much,
but I felt fine the next day, which was

a really big thing because I actually
had to go to work the next day.

There is also the judo bonen guy.

So it’s a club.

So you have bonen guys for work, bonen
guys for social activities, bonen guys for

basically any group you might be
involved in could have a bonen guy.

The judo bonen guy is a frickin nightmare
because of course, this is all manly

men getting together and they want to
outman each other and they want to err.

I can drink more than you.

You can grow.

And then unfortunately, I am just
as competitive with everyone else.

Like I like to think of myself as, you
know, I’m more slightly like I’m above

that because I’m old and
I’ve passed all this stuff.

Like I don’t need to prove myself, but
then you put me in that room with those

guys and I’m like, well, I
can’t let you out drink me.

I can’t let you out.

Do me.

I guess we’re going to get the Atsuka, the
hot sache and we’re going to see who falls

first and they always do because
I just grew up drinking too hard.

I’m not proud of it.

I actually don’t think it’s a good thing.

But at the same time, I do like winning.

So anyways, bonen guy.

57.4% of the 559 people surveyed
and you don’t need to survey

a bunch of people to actually
know whether this is true or not.

I know just from the general sentiment
of the people I know in my life that most

people actually don’t
enjoy going to work events.

They don’t like to want to, they don’t
want to go to work bonen guys, especially

if it’s just like we’re going to
go and get drunk and go home.

A lot of people don’t want to do that.

42.6% definitely would like to
participate or somewhat participate.

So it’s a 60/40 split
is what they’re saying.

So there’s 40% of the
people really want to do this.

They really enjoy the bonen
guy whereas most people don’t.

I don’t have a problem with those other
people going is just the expectation that

everyone has to go or you’re being a
bummer and you’re not having a good time.

I don’t think that’s fair.

I’m not a outgoing social light.

This what I do here on the podcast
is probably the most social thing I do.

Like I am in my environment
with my dog on my

lap, reading the news,
saying some dumb shit.

That’s my elements.

I don’t want to leave my room like the
door over there stays closed for a reason.

And I’ll play video games in the afternoon.

And that personality type, I was reading
a thing about work and extraverts and

introverts like work culture is not
designed to have an introvert succeed.

And this is problematic
because there are a lot of

introverts who are actually
very good at working.

Like you sit them down
at a computer and you

give them privacy and
they’ll do amazing work.

Whereas they’re talking about like work
should be social and you should teamwork.

And teamwork isn’t always
the best solution to a problem.

Maybe stick that computer
nerd in a room and let them do

his thing and you’ll actually
get a really good solution.

But work culture isn’t designed to
accept or promote that as an idea.

That only works when the nerds
introverts make their own companies.

And even then, once the
company gets big enough, it grows

into where you need to be an
extravert to survive or succeed.

And it was the reasons people
don’t want to go to the bone and.

Kai a bunch of people said there’s no need.

Again, Coronavirus made it very
clear that a lot of these social things,

a lot of these social
expectations are unnecessary.

We did just fine staying
at home at our computers.

I thrived sitting at home
in front of my computer.

I was in my space.

I was where I needed to be.

They’re tired of the social interactions.

So again, in less extroverted people, more
like injured, again, it’s a sliding scale.

I am certainly extroverted at
times and introverted at times.

It’ll go back and forth.

A friend of mine, I’m pretty
sure that a lot of people use it.

Your social battery.

So my social battery is very powerful
for a very short amount of time.

And then I’m done,
I would get tired of a

lengthy party or a
lengthy gathering where I

have to be social with other
people for a lengthy amount of time.

Give me a couple hours.

I’m probably really, really good.

And I’m like, hey, guys,
it’s been two hours.

I’m going to go home now, get back in front
of my computer, play some video games.

A lot of people wanted to prioritize their
private life, which I thought was great.

So like, you know what, work, life balance.

I think Ninja News Japan has had an ongoing
theme that work, life balance in Japan is

just broken and they need
to reevaluate and do it.

And these people were like, I didn’t go out
drinking every night with my co-workers.

I didn’t go to the
Bonankai and it was great.

And I actually spent time with my family or
my girlfriend or my boyfriend or whoever.

People I actually like in my social
life, who I want to spend my time with.

And that was good.

The final reason listed for not
wanting to do Bonankai is the cost.

Often you have to pay.

Not every company is
just paying for everything.

So the my company paid for the launch.

We had to pay a couple thousand
yen, but it goes into a charity fund.

So I didn’t feel too bad about it.

I actually think our company is
using that money for an actual charity.

So I’m not going to complain
about giving 2000 yen to

a charity and drinking
for free for a couple hours.

I guess I could.

Traveling for work kills my battery
spending a week where every waking

moment and every meal happens
with a co-worker is so draining.

That sentence exhausted
me a bit just because I agree.

Like traveling is tough.

I actually am not a great traveler.

It takes me a long time to like readjust
whenever I go visit family back in Canada.

It takes me like an entire week
to really get myself a climatized.

And then it’s basically
prepping to go back again.

But doing that with co-workers
would be extra exhausting.

I honestly could not imagine.

I would not be successful
at a job like that.

I don’t think or I’d be forcing
myself to do it all the time.

I probably burn out really
fast if I’m being honest.

So credit to you.

You’re able to do something
that I am not able to do.

But this is one of the few benefits
of the coronavirus pandemic is it has

proven or shown or demonstrated to
people that maybe the way the world was

before isn’t the way it
needs to be going forward.

We can make changes.

We can re-prioritize
things and it has allowed

a lot of people to
re-prioritize their lives.

There was a romance and marriage survey.

The end of the year has a lot of surveys.

I am a little big statistics for you.

End of year, they do a lot of surveys.

So this is a stat heavy
episode and I love it.

I know not everyone loves it.

But every that’s once a year,
let’s indulge me for a minute.

Like that’s never happened before.

Every two years, they do a
romance and marriage survey.

And this time it was 1,200 people and
they found that 29.7% have a boyfriend or

girlfriend and 34.1% have never
had a boyfriend or girlfriend.

The highest since the survey started in
2011, 2011, they started doing the survey.

Basically, are you in a relationship?

They found that number
is really up and down.

It’s actually down.

More people are not
getting into relationships.

It’s kind of for the same stuff we were
talking about before with the bonan guy.

Work, balance, work, life balance
does not happen in Japan enough.

They’re you to have enough
free time to have relationships.

But this is the highest number of
people who’ve never had a relationship.

We’re not talking about like kids.

We’re talking people in
their 20s, 30s and 40s.

The highest number of people who’ve never
had in an often cases have given up on

starting a relationship in their life
because it’s just too much work now.

I just don’t care.

I’ve gotten I’ve settled into a lifestyle
of being by myself, which I’m not

necessarily judging, but in Japan, it’s
a concern because the low birth rate.

So if people aren’t having relationships,
if we could find out why they’re not

having relationships,
maybe we can encourage

them to have
relationships, I’ve said it.

I don’t know how many times I kind
of feel like I shouldn’t say it anymore.

Like I’ve said it enough, but
people who work till 10, 11

o’clock at night aren’t going
on dates and on their time off.

They’re just going to sleep like all day.

They’re not fucking and if they’re
not fucking, they’re not making babies.

So you need people to get out there and get
fucking, you need people to get out there

and get fucking a lot so that they actually
feel like weirdly obligated to stay

with each other, make babies
back, sit in or on purpose.

I don’t know, but they got to be
fucking and people who are exhausted.

Do not fuck t-shirt.

I should get to make a t-shirt.

People who are exhausted do not fuck.

I actually kind of want to make
that t-shirt now work life balances.

Important.

And now I see now
immediately now I’m running

a paragraph instead
of just a catchphrase.

Yeah, people who are
exhausted do not fuck 46% of

men in their 20s have
never had a relationship.

29.8% of women in their 20s
have never had a relationship.

Jokes on you.

Some people are into that.

Some people are into being exhausted.

I don’t know what the
delay is on me chatting.

I tried to turn it down
to as little as possible.

So I actually am not a
represent shirt, which

part you’re actually
saying the jokes on me.

People are into exhausted
people, people are into being alone.

I’m going to give a second for
Jade to clarify because I actually

do really, really want to know
what you were what you mean.

Before I move on to the next
part, oh, fucking while exhausted, I.

Oh, man, we’re going
to get in some weird

personal stuff before
we start talking about this.

I have.

Does anyone want to
know I this is the problem

we’re doing a podcast as
soon as a threat is pulled.

I just want to like yank it.

I.

Exhausted, no, but I have had post judo
tournaments where I physically exhausted.

My testosterone was so high.

I really, really wanted to get down.

I do remember that.

That’s quite funny.

One of the things I found funny
is there’s this is really old movie.

It’s Joe and Chen and Rick Grouwer.

And it’s their post
apocalyptic future gladiators.

And I forget the name of the movie,
but I remember it was those two.

And in that movie, they try to have
sex, but it’s after a gladiatorial battle.

And they’re both too
injured to actually do it.

So every time they touch each
other, they’re like, oh, don’t touch that.

Don’t do that.

And it was really, really funny.

And but it was because I could relate
because I had done judo tournaments.

And then my girlfriends like, ooh, you’re
all like testosteroney and hot right now.

Let’s do some stuff.

And I’d be like, yeah, let’s do it, baby.

And then I would try my
best and sometimes it worked.

Sometimes it didn’t when it worked.

Again, testosterone being off the charts.

It worked really well.

But there was the odd occasion where I’d be
like, yes, I’m not going to happen today.

As a voice of like 25 year
old me who’s just been

beaten to death over
the course of a few hours.

But yeah, you don’t face it,
I’m not fighting testosterone.

If it says we’re going to
do it, we’re going to do it.

I had sex with a fever once.

I don’t think this is the kind of stuff
I should be putting out in the world.

It was around late end
of high school, maybe.

And I must have had a cold and
yet I still really wanted to do it.

And my girlfriend and I, we did it.

And she goes, she was touching
me my back or something.

And she goes, you’re hot and I’m
like, I interpreted the wrong way.

It wasn’t until way later.

I was like, oh, she didn’t
mean like you’re sexy hot.

She meant you’re like, taught to the touch.

I’ve had that problem a few times.

I went and got a massage
and they put electricity on my

shoulders and they run the
electricity and they do that.

It’s supposed to, I guess, loosen
up the shoulders or something.

And the doctor or the, the
masseuse comes in and he goes,

wow, because you do judo,
your number is really high.

Like you can take a lot of
electricity and immediately

I was like, yeah, because
I’m tough and manly.

Like a couple hours
later, I was like, he didn’t

say taking a lot of
electricity was a good thing.

He just said I took a lot of electricity.

I interpret it as a good thing.

So the problem was
like, maybe it’s really bad.

Maybe all my muscles
and nerves and stuff are

dead, which is why I can
take a lot of electricity.

I’ve had stuff like that happen a few
times where I thought it was good at first,

but then when I
thought about it later, I

was like, he didn’t
say it was a good thing.

He just said it was a thing survey of
1,000 people aged 18 to 25 who joined

companies between 2020 and 2023,
which essentially the pandemic period.

So all these young people who got jobs
during the pandemic, how do you feel?

And the main question was
really, do you want to quit? And 20.

4% said literally I have always
wanted to quit from day one.

I wanted to quit my job.

30.6% said sometimes I want to quit.

So you are now already at 50% of 18
to 25 year olds who got a job during the

pandemic do not want
to continue with their job.

59.8% of those people said
it was primarily from stress.

34.8% said the stress comes
from their boss and co-workers.

All makes perfect sense.

They were talking about
how we need to open the

lines of communication
that were not open before.

So the pandemic has changed
sort of how everything works.

Corona has made
interpersonal relationships worse.

And the company that did survey recommended
a consultation system and open communication.

Now I work in a Japanese
company and I can tell you that

open communication isn’t
how they generally do work.

So this would be a big paradigm
shift in how companies were going to

depend if they’re suddenly talking to
brand new employees as if they were.

people, which is a weird way to
say it, but that’s actually the case.

Without a certain level,
you don’t get any respect.

You just do as you’re
told, you just do as you’re

told is a very common
sentiment in a Japanese company.

You do the best of your
abilities and you shut up and

you go do your thing,
especially when you’re brand new.

But young people now
are coming into companies

and we’re like, well,
why would I live like that?

I don’t really see it that way.

I think maybe working from home also would
benefit this because it’s like you don’t

have those stressful
coworkers or bosses around.

And then when they
have to go into the offices

like this sucks, I
don’t want to do this.

I don’t like this.

I would like my life to be better
than this on December 16th.

So a few days ago when this is being released,
the police, I wouldn’t call it a raid.

They went and checked on a bunch
of host clubs on mass from 7 P.M.

They actually checked
in one day, 350 clubs.

This is how the Japanese
police do a lot of stuff.

They’ll do like a mass thing.

So you can’t like, we’ll
check a couple and then they’ll

let all their host clubs
know that they’re checking.

We’re going to look for illegal
gambling dens and then they’ll like, hey,

shut down all the illegal gambling
dens that didn’t get caught yet.

The Japanese police organized it.

They did 350 clubs in
one afternoon, about 7 P.M.

So one evening, they’re trying to make sure
that they follow the rules and laws in place.

No minors are in the club.

They’re starting a real crackdown on
host clubs and their predatory practices.

Because we talked about host clubs, I
mean, the last like six, seven episodes,

which is the last six,
seven, seven weeks in a row.

We had sugar, baby, would eat each
other and she set this off in a weird way

because she was giving
all her money to a host club.

And then it turned out there was a
whole bunch of stories came out of other

people who were going to host clubs and
they were giving a ton of money to the host.

clubs and getting ripped off and
being put into massive amounts of debt.

And then what the host do is there’s
like, oh, well, if you do this like porn or

if you work at this brothel, you can
then work off the debt you owe me.

And the girls, they’ve been
tricked into essentially thinking

they love these hosts who
are doing this to multiple women.

I mean, no joke.

They then end up in this weird
situation where they’re still trying to get

the affection of this man who doesn’t
love them just wants to exploit them for.

money.
And so this system has to be broken down.

And so that’s what the police are doing.

host clubs have promised to stop the
credit system from, I think it was April.

So basically very soon, but it’s like,
why do they have a credit system at all?

Because what they want to do is actually
have the people come by everything on credit.

So it’s way too much money.

So they can’t pay it back.

So they can push them into these like
sex work things where they get a kickback

from the business and the
woman is trying to pay off her debt.

I actually kind of hope this works.

host clubs, host is clubs. It’s a
very alien thing to me as a Westerner.

Like the idea of paying someone to talk
to you and then them manipulating you.

Like if you sit there and think about it
for a minute, you know they’re manipulating

you. Like you have to know
it, but then you still like it.

I guess again, this is comes
from being an introvert.

I would never pay for someone
to talk to me in the first place.

I would pay you to go away.

I had the last story and I
again starting out with so

much negativity and all these
stats are kind of negative.

I thought it was and off instead
of a creepy, creepy old man story,

I thought it’d be more appropriate to
start with a to finish with a sort of happy

story, pain someone to
go away is super harsh.

I have on many of occasion had
people talking to me and I would think,

if I give you a thousand yen
right now, would you just leave?

Like if I paid you to leave, would you
leave because I would rather not do this.

I get my social battery.

It’s very tuned to very specific things.

Conversations I don’t want to have.

I find exhausting like exhausting.

Like I actually will go take
a nap if people talk to me to

for too long about stuff
that I don’t want to talk about.

And I don’t blame them.

Like I don’t think it’s there fall.

I understand this is a me thing.

So often I’ll just sit there.

I can often my brain just shuts
off and goes somewhere else.

You can pay me to stop chatting.

Don’t bother me.

No, I actually again in this
context, I love the chatting.

I love the interaction because.

Oh, no, I just had a realization.

I’m in full control.

I’m dictating what we talk about.

I’ve chosen the stories.

I’m guiding the conversation.

You’re responding to me.

Therefore, I’m fine with it.

But what I just said, if you put
it in that context, if someone’s.

I hit my mouse, if you put
it in that context, what they

have done is introduce the
topic I don’t want to talk about.

And I immediately shut off, I’m
some kind of weird fucking narcissist.

You can only talk about
what I want to talk about.

Oh, shit, I’m a bad person.

I’m a host.

Oh, fuck.

The host of this show, but at no point in
this show, am I going to try to drive you

into drip debt?

I’m going to end off in a positive
story because this actually made me

really happy and I don’t know why, but
I figured we can drop the tree creepy,

creepy old man story because they all
the ones this week were exactly the same

as all the previous ones
we’ve done weeks past.

And we’ve had a lot of
negativity in this episode.

So I wanted to end that anonymous
donations to a city in Saitama of about

100,000 yen each have been dropped
into an opinion box four times so far.

So there’s a box where you like, I want
to give my opinion to the government,

the local sort of municipal
government, the mayor, whatever.

Like clean up the roads, a brighter
lights at night, something like that.

And someone’s just taking 100,000 yen,
putting an envelope and putting it in that

with little note on the
outside of the envelope.

There’s a from section.

And this person is putting from
various demon slayer characters.

So the characters in demon slayer are
giving this city in Saitama 100,000 yen,

each time from a different character
of the anime, which I find quite funny.

There is a note inside
that says, please use the

money to build a community
where children can smile.

And then the city said it
plans to collect the money

into a fund to help build a
better community for kids.

And I was like that.

They’re taking the money.

The guy said, please
use it to make kids happy.

And they’re like, you know
what we’re going to do?

We’re going to take this
money, put it in a little fun.

And we’re going to try to
find a way to make kids happy.

And that is what life should be.

[MUSIC]