Tag: fraud

Like a Frying Pan to the Face

(upbeat music)

This is episode 333 half the devil’s
number episode of Ninja News Japan.

‘Cause we do about 50
episodes a year once a week.

I don’t do every single week
’cause there’s holidays and stuff.

I will take a week off here and there.

But anyone who’s been
around for the last couple weeks

or the last couple months or
the last couple of years, of course,

thank you for hanging out and
listening to Ninja News Japan

and news from Japan
and my musings on being

a resident of Japan
and living in the world.

And I hope it’s brought you some
entertainment more than anything else.

Let’s get to our news.

First story’s kind of depressing.

Japan has dropped to 90 seconds place
of 116 countries in English proficiency.

So the overall level of English ability
of the Japanese people has gone down.

It’s the lowest on record.

Last year, they were 87, so
they’ve gone from 87 to 92nd place.

The drop has been
between 18 to 25-year-olds.

Lower than the overall average
compared to people who are 26 and above.

So people who are 26 and above,

the average ability in their
English proficiency is higher.

People 18 to 25, they are below average.

The government’s trying
to make excuses, I guess.

I don’t know.

You’ve got to come up
with a reason for this.

Why are these students, particularly low?

They’re saying these
students kind of lived through

coronavirus and has
affected their motivation.

So they are less motivated to study.

So they don’t study as
hard as they didn’t really

achieve the proficiency
that they would want.

It’s interesting, because someone

a representative said that
Japan hasn’t actually dropped.

They’ve just stayed the same
while all the other countries went up.

So really they’ve
maintained their standards,

but other countries have
improved their English proficiency

forcing Japan down, which is
an interesting way of looking at it.

Because I actually wouldn’t
have thought of that.

We look at lists, we look at numbers,
we look at things that go up and down.

You think of them as just being
relative, who’s done more, who’s done less.

If you maintain the
same in everyone else

advances, you actually
drop in your rankings.

So that’s pretty interesting.

If you’re interested in who is number
one, the Netherlands, six years in a row,

the Netherlands has been
number one in English proficiency.

Beating out.

I was about to say beating out America,

but unfortunately that
I might actually be true.

I don’t know what kind of test.

The test they administer there
is not going to be the same test

they would administer in America,
but it would be interesting view.

Gave English-speaking
countries like Canada,

Australia, New Zealand,
England, and America.

The same test to see where
they ranked in English proficiency.

I would actually be very
interested in those results.

I would like to take this test.

I have taken multiple
English proficiency tests

that students of mine have
taken, just to see how I do.

And it’s not always perfect.

I mean, I do well.

Let’s give me some credit.

I do do well.

But I am like Japan.

I don’t think I’m
improving my English skills.

I think I’m maintaining.

So if someone else is
improving, they would surpass me.

So that’s very possible.

And I hope that for you.

The highest ranked Asian country,

which is what Japan
wouldn’t be more likely to be

measured against Singapore,
they got number three.

So Netherlands number
one, the highest ranked

Asian country is
Singapore at number three.

So since we’re talking about rankings,

I thought, oh, wouldn’t
it be nice to have

a counter-ranking where
Japan has improved?

Well, Japan rises to 31st place
in global digital competitiveness.

What does that mean?

I’m not 100% sure.

There are 67 countries that get ranked.

And you might be like, wow, that’s great.

31 out of 67.

It’s an improvement of one from last year.

So the ranking assesses
the adoption and utilization

of digital technologies
that drive transformations

and government
business models in society.

So Japan recently gave up floppy disks.

They recently have tried
to push things onto digital,

which should have
been digital 10 years ago.

So I see Japan’s technology push is
catching up more than anything else.

This is published by the
Swiss business school.

The ranking is based on statistical
data and surveys of executives.

So this is based a lot on, I would
say, an older generation of people.

Executives do tend to be older people.

Singapore claimed the top spot this year

with South Korea Hong Kong,
Taiwan, and Nordic countries

such as Denmark, Sweden,
Norway, all ranking within top 10.

Japan remained 31st.

Although Japan was recognized
for its robust technological

frameworks and high
standards of higher education,

it ranked poorly in areas
such as business agility

and international experience among senior
executives where it placed at the bottom.

So an interesting thing of
what they’re saying is like Japan,

they’re teaching people well, their
infrastructure is good, their education is good,

but the people who are
actually using it implementing it,

the executives, the current
executives in Japan now

are horrendous, raking
at the bottom is bad.

Business agility, Japan is not
an agile business environment.

That is something I have
not worked in a bunch of

Japanese companies, but
I’ve seen a lot of these stories.

I’ve looked at Japanese
companies and things like that.

Japan’s traditional way
of thinking is not agile.

In its ability to pivot,
in ability to change,

they do things the way
things have been done before

because that’s the way
it’s been done before.

So that’s the right way to do it.

That is kind of the base philosophy of
most Japanese companies and people.

It is this utmost respect
for tradition and history,

which is respectable in
some aspects of life, but

then you turn it on and
go, maybe not everything.

And the second point,
the international experience

among executives, yeah,
Japan is very insular.

They don’t travel outside their country.

They don’t interact with other cultures.

They don’t do a very good job
of existing on the world stage.

And that is actually something I think

the next generation of people going up in
Japan, that’s where they need to look at.

Don’t look at just Japan as your market.

Look at the world as your market.

And what can you do to achieve that?

And that would actually change
the nature of Japanese business.

It would get you up in this ranking.

I don’t give a shit about
rankings if I’m being really honest.

But rankings do give you insight
into sort of comparative data

and that comparative data
can tell you where you’re weak.

And then you can start to improve
yourself if anyone took this seriously.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

This is where I was going to do the quiz,

but I didn’t manage to
arrange some of this week.

And episode 333 is, I think, might be
the baseline for how we move forward.

This is since I’m just did
a story where I’m talking

about, like, look at where
you need to improve.

This is what I need
to do with this episode.

Is, where do the failures in this episode?

How do I need to improve?

I need to figure out a way to
get the guest on more efficiently.

It means I have to do
the guest segment earlier

than the actual
recording of the episode.

I can’t have people sitting in the wings.

I got to work on other people’s schedules.

But this is where I
was going to do the quiz.

So I thought, ah, here’s the quiz that
I wrote that I didn’t actually get to do.

So I’ll just put it out there.

And then I’ll answer the question.

Maybe I need to come up
with a little thinking song.

The 65-year-old man came
to Japan with his family.

The problem is, this very
small story got massive push

on the news sites or that
talk about Japan news.

This came up like eight, nine times.

It’s one of those classic stories.

It’s fairly inconsequential.

But it’s got that kind of like
flavor that everyone enjoys.

It’s got that little bit of like, mmm,
oh, the little, all-genu, the little,

je ne se qua that everyone
loves in their news stories.

‘Cause it doesn’t hurt anyone too bad,

but a guy gets kind of
taken down for who he is.

My first assumption was anyone in
Japan would have heard this story.

If you pay attention to the news at all.

What crime does he commit?

So a 65-year-old man
came to Japan with his family.

What crime does he commit basically
on his first day walking around the city?

I gave four options.

Number one, he sexually
assaults a woman at a bar.

Number two, he got
drunk and gone into a fight.

Number three, he commits
a form of vandalism.

Number four, riding a bike
drunk and on his phone.

As you learned in last week’s episode,

riding your bicycle drunk
is now illegal in Japan.

Riding your bike while using
your phone is illegal in Japan.

Doing the boasts, accumulates those, takes
those two crimes and put them together

and gives you an extra big
fine and possible prison time.

So then we would have the discussion now.

Ask me some questions, turns out.

I mean, all these four
choices are pretty standard.

Stories of foreign people coming
to Japan and getting in trouble.

The last one’s the most interesting one.

That was kind of my, what
I put in there to make it the

most interesting one
because it applies to a new rule

that was just implemented
in the last couple of weeks.

The actual answer is
number three, vandalism.

He used his fingernails to
carve his family members’ names

into a tory gate, which is, okay,
if you’re gonna vandalize stuff.

I’m gonna give us, stop for a second.

I need a second camera
so I can turn to the camera

and actually talk to the
criminals in the audience.

If you’re gonna commit vandalism, so
this would be, we’d turn to camera three.

I don’t have three cameras,
I have one, but we turn

to the second camera
and we say, “Hey, criminals.

” If you’re going to commit
vandalism, don’t write your

actual names in it because
then your names will be connected

to the actual crime, which
would be connected to you

giving the police a very easy job of
figuring out who committed the crime.

Here’s a little story, I,
once committed vandalism.

It was in university.

I didn’t get housing my
first year of university,

which was a very
weird problem to have.

The fraternities offered housing.

So you could stay in their fraternity
house and pay rent, it was very low,

but you didn’t actually
have to join the fraternity.

So for almost 10 months,
I lived in a fraternity

house without being a
member of the fraternity.

That was a very weird experience.

Anyone else who was in a similar situation
in mind ended up joining the fraternity.

I was the only one
who didn’t actually join.

They had a balcony and it was all wooden.

It was very old and I was
just playing with my thumb,

just like this man
carved in with his finger.

He carved his name in.

I didn’t carve in my name.

I carved in fuzzy Zellweger, which
was a very old golfing, famous person.

I don’t know anything
about golf, so I don’t know

why that name came into
mind, but I knew immediately.

If I carved in my name, then
the crime I have just committed

is immediately linked to
me, and it’s kind of ever

self-evident who committed
this crime and I’m caught.

So you don’t carve in your own names.

So this man, you’ve
committed the first crime here,

was actually how stupid you
were in committing the crime.

That should be an addition
to the crime you’ve committed.

So he used this fingernail.

He carved in family members’ names.

I don’t know if it was just initials,
but he was caught pretty quickly.

Touring gates are sacred.

So we had a story a few weeks
ago, maybe a couple months ago,

of fitness influencer
came and did chin-ups

on the toy gate and
got just blasted online.

This is worse than
that, because you’ve

actually done physical
damage to the toy gate.

They’re not taking that shit lightly.

The vandalism was founded
11.20 AM at 4.30 AM that night.

So over the course of a single
day, the police went, found this guy,

went to his wherever he was staying in his
hotel on a resume at 4.30 in the morning.

They did not hesitate to arrest this guy.

He had to do the perplock
from the hotel to the car at 4.

30 in the morning.

All the pictures of him of
him with like a fuzzy hair,

and he’s just got like Ben
head and the stuff, ’cause he just

woke him out and said, throw on
some clothes you’re under arrest.

We haven’t got any information
since then of what’s actually happened.

My guess is that he was
just asked to leave and left.

First offenses in Japan,
especially small ones, don’t tend

to come with jail time or any
sort of actual real punishment.

They defer a lot of stuff and say like,

look, if you do this again,
you’re gonna get in trouble,

but if you’re a tourist, they’re like,
look, just go and don’t come back.

But if they wanna make
sure he doesn’t come back,

they charge him with the crime,
they find him guilty, and then

they send him away, then he
can’t come back into the country.

(upbeat music)

A record scam occurred.

Someone took eight
hundred and nine million yen.

That’s five million dollars in one scam.

What do you call it?

In one scam, it’s not one scam event,
one scam session, one scam, something.

I want another word in there,

but I don’t think there is, I
think it’s just in one scam.

My brain was going for another
word to make it like the event.

‘Cause it wasn’t a single instance.

This scam happened multiple times.

You got money multiple
times from the person.

So what would you call that?

It’s like it’s a sequence.

Ah, I need to, I have to look and see.

There’s gotta be some correct
verbiage for that, but anyways.

A Chinese national was arrested for fraud
because of investment scheme via line.

He impersonated a famous economic analyst.

So he basically put up ads saying,
I’m this famous economics guy in Japan.

It’s an ad saying like
if you want information

from me, you can pay
money, we can do some stuff.

I’ll make you super rich if you
give me your money, excellent.

So the appeal of this scam, I think, is
that they don’t go out hunting for you.

So they’re not looking for marks.

They let the marks come to them.

And then that gives the
person a lot more confidence

when they start actually
talking about the money and stuff.

This is one of the more
effective versions of

scams is when you get
the people to come to you

to give you money because
they’re already partially

convinced of your things legitimacy
if they show up at your door.

This is not showing up at anyone’s door.

This is all via the internet.

A 71 year old woman responded to
an online ad and added the line account.

So line is a chat kind of thing in Japan.

It’s one of the biggest ones in Japan.

So she sees an ad and it says,
add this line account and we can talk

about your investment
future, something like that.

She adds the line
account and starts chatting

with this person who she thinks
is a famous economic analyst.

Initially she gave 10
million yen in November

and the scammer’s
faked profits via an app.

So they made an app and
then they put her number in

and they made it look like that number
was going up so she would invest further.

She looked like she was making money.

Over the course of the time
she made 47 more transactions.

Many were cash career.

So she’s basically like,
meet me at this train station.

I will give you cash.

They dropped the cash off.

One cash drop was 83 million yen.

I don’t have any money.

I’m not a rich person.

I don’t have any money.

I have enough money to survive.

I’m not in any trouble or anything.

This woman had eight
hundred and nine million

yen to play with, to
use for investments.

She was capable of dropping
83 million yen at one time

and not really seeming to have
a significant impact on her life.

Whereas if you just
handed me 83 million yen

today, my life would
be completely altered.

It’s almost like these
rich people who I’m

gonna, I don’t know
anything about the lady.

They don’t release a lot of details

about the victim in this
case, which is probably correct.

But you can assume with the sheer volume
of money she was funneling into this thing.

She either is president of
a company or was president

of a company or this is
like generational wealth.

But she had a lot of money that she
could just play with in her personal life.

It’s almost like these super rich
people who clearly are comfortable

with super rich amounts of money,
super large amounts of money.

Don’t know how to use that money.

Because if she just took 83 million
yen or eight hundred and nine million yen

and redistributed amongst
poor people like me,

I don’t want to make it sound
like I’m poor, but I’m not rich.

It would have this huge positive impact
on my life and she’s just thrown it away.

This scammer just took her.

So after a certain amount of money,
eight hundred and nine million yen,

five million dollars later,
she started realizing maybe

something was up ’cause she
wasn’t getting her money back.

I don’t know, I feel weirdly
frustrated for myself

’cause I don’t have any
money to invest in anything.

But then I could get scam too.

I would do that because I would go
out hunting for something to look at

that would promise me a certain
amount of return on my investment.

And then I would invest it
and then you find out you’re

getting scam but they
always get you to roll in more.

But there’s an app that they say to look at

and the app’s telling
you’re making more money

and you believe it because you want
to believe you’re making more money.

I got a lot of sympathy.

Even though this is a rich person
who clearly had more money than since,

I do have sympathy ’cause they
don’t deserve to be scammed.

I just would like them to use
their money in a more sensible way.

As in bank rolling, the industry
depends next 333 episodes.

An 88 year old father, Chef,
and a 60 year old manager

who is the son of the same
restaurant got into a fight.

The father threatened the son with a knife

so the son hit the
father with a frying pan.

I don’t know why, but that was
enough for me to be into this story.

Like that was a cliche fight.

Like he whips out a
knife, he starts threatening.

The other guy picks up a pan.

Whoop, whoop, whoop,
have to make the sound.

Bong, they were both arrested.

The father said there is no mistake

that I threatened him by
holding a knife up to him.

The son said it’s true I
hit him with a frying pan.

So they’ve both admitted to their crimes.

Both were taken to the custody
and then both were related to release.

So I’m trying to figure out what
happened because I guess the

police were like, do you want
to press charges on each other?

‘Cause both have admitted
to the crime they committed.

Like you’re not supposed to
threaten people with knives.

You’re not supposed to
hit people with frying pans.

But maybe they didn’t
want to press charges

against each other
’cause it’s father and son.

And maybe they have
this kind of contentious

relationship and this is
how they just live their lives.

There’s a weird thing about chefs and the
chefs are all tough and violent and stuff.

And I’ve never seen chefs as
being that kind of personality.

I think it’s like a
persona they’ve put on

themselves, which is how
you get the Gordon Ramses

who like shouts and is
really mean to everybody.

I don’t think that’s a
good way to run anything.

But I’ve never run a successful kitchen.

So what do I know?

But then there’s an interesting thing
where police can send it to prosecutors

and the prosecutors can
choose to press charges

even though like the victim
doesn’t want to do that.

Like they can actually do it
on your behalf ’cause the crime

has been committed whether
or not you’re angry about it.

But Japan being Japan, since
they’re not going to get help

from the other person like
the son’s not going to like

turn on the father, the
father’s not going to turn

on the son, you’re in
this like weird situation

where they’re not
going to actually go after

each other when you
actually get to court.

And that’s actually what
the prosecution needs I think.

Japan has very famously a high probably,

like basically if you go to
prosecution, you’re guilty.

It’s 98%, 99% is massive number.

But it’s because if they’re not 100% sure

or they’re going to get
that, they cut you loose.

So I’m betting that’s
what’s actually happened

because they weren’t going to
get the two to turn on each other

like we’re not 100% sure this
is actually going to work out.

We’re going to kind of loose so
that our record doesn’t go down.

A small city that’s
proposed a tourist event.

It’s a very good thing to do.

You have to have lots
of events for tourists,

you have to have tourism,
tourism’s a big money maker in Japan.

So they have a meeting,
they’re like, hey guys,

we want to make an event
when I have a creative idea.

Then we have a lady over here
and she’s like, I have an idea.

Let’s make a competition where
people pretend to kill themselves.

And then acted out, the idea
came from someone who sold

and demonstrated toy
retractable plastic swords.

So it was a little sword
and you push it into your

body and it retracts
into the hilt of the sword.

Okay, so no one’s actually getting hurt.

You’ve seen those like stage
knives and kind of stuff in the past.

So what they’re like, we’re going
to, every city has a samurai tradition.

I mean, it’s one of those things where they
do like, ooh, samurai’s came from here.

Samurai’s came from everywhere.

This is not a big deal.

So like, but samurai’s
had to commit sepucca.

They had to kill themselves.

It’s a very dramatic thing.

They have to like, run
it across their stomach.

They have to die dramatically.

We’ve seen it and movies and that stuff.

Let’s have that competition.

And this went forward and
everyone thought it was a good idea.

So the posters go up.

And it said, seeking
participants, sepucca contest.

We are seeking participants for a
sepucca contest to be held at the

Don Don Terrace at Matsui City
Hall in December 14th, a Saturday.

After committing sepucca
with a plastic sword,

please demonstrate
your acting skills by

writhing around for 30
seconds to one minute.

So there’s like a timeframe of when you
have to die, which is pretty interesting.

The person with the most vivid
performance will be named champion.

The use of fake blood is prohibited.

Now that quite sensibly turned
out to be not the best idea.

So the city’s like, hey, no,
you’re not going to do that.

So then they had to do a retraction.

It was canceled.

I would like to apologize to the
involved party at City Hall for causing

such a disturbance from something
we intended to serve as entertainment.

On the other hand, we have also
received emails from people saying they

are proof of the idea and want to
participate, but we feel that holding it can

contribute to a loss of trust from City
Hall, so we are canceling the contest.

So basically, yeah, some people were
like, hey, I want to show my acting chops.

I want to fake kill myself on stage. I
want to get everyone to look at me.

While I die for 30 seconds to a
minute, it’s going to be a great show.

Other people are like, hey, take a second
and think what you’re actually doing.

You’re pretending to kill yourself on
stage in front of a whole bunch of people.

Maybe that’s not the best idea.

Maybe that doesn’t really
represent our city well.

Maybe that doesn’t
represent City Hall well.

Maybe that’s not something
we should be doing.

A drunk passenger sleeps on the
subway car for five hours overnight.

So what happened is this
is a pretty normal thing.

People get the last train.
They’ve been drinking.

They’re really drunk
when they get on the train.

If you’ve ever taken the last train
home from wherever you are in Japan to

enter your home station, you have
encountered the extremely drunk person.

They fall asleep on the benches.

They take up too much space.
Maybe they fall on the floor.

The interesting thing is when the
cell phone or wallet falls out of them,

like people will pick
them up and put them on

the bench next to them
so they don’t lose it.

It’s one of those nice
things about Japan

where it’s like a relatively
honest place where

they don’t tend to steal
from you when you’re drunk

out of your gourd, which
is what a lot of people are.

The interesting thing is what happens
when you get to the last station.

So the staff have to wake
you up and get you off the train.

You’re not allowed to stay there. Since
it’s the last train, you can’t get home.

There’s a whole other set of issues
that you have to deal with as the person

who just kicked off the train.
You missed your stop.

Can you walk home sometimes possible?
Sometimes not.

You probably get a hotel around
the station or something like that.

Karaoke box, something like that.
Who knows? That’s your problem.

What happened here is
the guys on the end car.

The staff come in. They wake them up.
They’re like, you got to get off here.

It’s the last station. So he’s drunk.
He gets up. He walks off.

The station staff person
goes to the next car

to see if there’s anyone
else on those cars

or starts moving up the train.
Then they turn off the lights.

What happened is the drunk I walked off
the train. The station staff walked away.

He’s like, I’m too tired to walk to
the ticket gate and go out the station.

I’m going to go back in and lie down where
I was very comfortable 10 seconds ago.

He gets back on the
train and falls asleep

five hours later because
the first train’s like

six o’clock in the morning, five 30
in the morning, something like that.

Five hours later, staff come
and find him asleep on the train.

The driver of the first
train of the day found

the men asleep inside
the train at 5.20 a.m.

He was said to be intoxicated.

So this is a guy who had 12,
12, 31 o’clock. Whenever that

last train was, was drunk out of his
mind four hours, five hours later of sleep.

And he was still drunk
out of his mind when

they tried to wake him
up in the next morning.

So should you come visit
Japan? Don’t commit vandalism.

Don’t if you, okay, if
you’re going to commit,

this is again when I have
to switch to the camera

where I speak to the
criminals in the audience.

If you’re going to commit
vandalism, don’t write your name.

That’s just going to be straight up advice
from an institution who’s Japan to you.

Don’t use your own
name in your crimes.

That’s what aliases are for. But if you
come to Japan, don’t commit vandalism.

And if you do get super,
super drunk, know that if you fall

asleep in the last train,
they will kick you off.

And if you fall asleep, I
don’t know if it’s a crime.

I guess it’s trespassing.
So he doesn’t

seem like he’s actually been
arrested or gone in trouble.

But it is a good
thing to know that

if you’re on the last
train, they will kick you off.

Sleepily Dangerous Podcast

(upbeat music)

  • What was allergies last week, I believe,

has turned into a cold
and I’m just getting over it.

So, if this is your podcast
you listen to before,

you go to sleep, the voice
is gonna be a little lower,

a little less energy, a
little softer because I can’t

get too excited because
then my voice gives out on me.

But we’re almost close
to being healthy again,

which shouldn’t be
as hard as it is, I think.

But first story is an update.

The lady who is throwing
eggs at her neighbor’s house.

She was throwing eggs from
her window to her neighbor’s

window, smashing the eggs
on her neighbor’s house.

They were falling down
on all the gross stuff,

egg yolk and whatever
covering the house.

The eggs would sit out there and rot.

The thing that got me is
she was punishing herself

as much as her neighbor
because she has to smell it too.

She lives right next to the place
she’s creating all this mess and stink.

So, the original story, the neighbor,
who was the victim in this case said like,

I don’t know why this lady’s hook and
eggs in my house, she set up a camera.

She got video of her
sniping out her window, 360

Nova scope, out her
window and hitting the house.

She was doing like a carton
of eggs a day sometimes.

They said up to 80 over a couple of
months, but they know it was way more.

These are just the ones
they like have a record of.

The secondary thing, she’s paying for eggs,

eggs in Japan or not
the cheapest commodity.

If I was going to try to ruin
someone else’s property,

I wouldn’t do it with
something I have to pay for

consistently that I could
eat a high protein source.

I would find something
else that was way cheaper,

way messier and didn’t
negatively impact my life as well.

So, not someone who thinks through
the consequences of their actions.

I think that’s normal of a
lot of criminal enterprises,

but in this particular
case, it shows itself so well.

I really found it in an interesting case.

She has been sentenced to jail.

So, I thought it was going to be a fine,
maybe clean up fees, that kind of stuff.

They haven’t given us the exact
amount of prison time she’s been given.

It’s basically come to a conclusion.

They’re probably still trying
to figure out the details.

Does she have to pay money, clean up fees,

that kind of stuff, still
coming down the line.

But, conclusively, she is going to prison
for an indeterminate amount of time.

A very interesting
thing I would actually like

to know is what people,
so other than myself,

think would be an
appropriate amount of prison

time for how can eggs
eat your neighbor’s house.

Now, it’s not just like once
and then never do it again.

It’s like consistently over
months and months and months,

creating like an ecological
biohazard near her house.

One of the things that never came out was,

why she was doing this,
the victim again said,

I don’t know why she was
throwing eggs in my house.

We never really had
a picture of a close

relationship, but we never
had any sort of conflict.

The lady said that she threw the eggs
because of insults being hurled at her daily.

I’m pretty sure the victim
here, the lady who had

received the egg throwing,
wasn’t insulting her daily.

It actually seems like she was primarily
trying to not interact with her much at all.

Maybe that was the
insult that you didn’t come

and bend the knee to
me when you moved in,

or they’d lived together for
years and years and years.

And this was a very
sudden thing that started.

It seems like she just
had a bit of a mental break.

Probably saw something
that she thought was

insulting and just
interpreted it that way.

And then now considers it a daily
insult that it has not been rectified.

I don’t know, that’s all supposition,
but it pushed her over the edge

and she thought the only solution I have
is to throw eggs at my neighbor’s house

despite the fact that
it’s right next to my

house and I have to
suffer right along with her.

A French artist.

The self-proclaimed artist.

So this is an interesting thing.

The newspaper articles
have been very clear,

so I’ve read three or four
articles with the same story.

They all say self-proclaimed.

So he’s calling himself an artist.

When do you actually
adopt the title of artist?

It’s a very interesting question.

When do I call myself an artist?

And it’s just self-proclaimed when
does someone else call me an artist?

And then it’s sort of a title that sticks.

It’s like Esquire.

You’re not supposed to
give yourself the Esquire

title someone else is
supposed to give it to you.

I guess it would be very easy
for me to call myself a podcaster

because it doesn’t come with
any sort of sense of grandiosity.

It is just something people
do in their rooms alone

when they’re very lonely
and want to talk to people

and they don’t get a chance to
talk to people and they’re very sad.

Anyways, that’s not
actually the relevant part.

This guy, self-proclaimed French artist

was arrested for drawing
facial hair on campaign posters.

So this is an election season.

They have campaign posters up.

They do it in Japan.

It’s very organized.

They have like a big panel.

It’ll have numbers like 16
boxes and then you buy one of

those boxes and you put
your campaign poster up there.

We did have a controversy
in Tokyo a little while

ago where people were
putting up dirty posters.

People were buying it and saying like just
promoting their SNS and things like that.

That’s not really what this story is about

but it shows that like
these have become an

interesting target for
people to pay attention to.

This guy walked up.

It says facial hair.

So I’m assuming mustache,
goatee, maybe a beard, who knows.

I can honestly say I have
walked by and then had the

same urge where I’d be
like, oh, it would be funny.

I could draw some
funny things on that face.

But then I didn’t do it because I had
somewhere to go and I’d be better things to do.

This was destruction of property because
they pay for that poster to be up there.

They own that poster.

They own that space.

You vandalizing it, putting graffiti on it.

That’s destruction of property.

Police check security cameras
after they saw the goatee

or the mustache or whatever was drawn
on the poster and found them very easily.

That’s just what it comes down to.

He’s believed to have
defaced several other posters.

So this isn’t the first charge.

This is probably the
first of several charges

he’s going to get because
now they’re going to

check the other posters,
was he in the area?

Maybe does it match his artistic style?

There would be an interesting
thing to try to nail someone on.

You conclude that their art style is unique

and therefore we can then pin all these
other ones on you even if it’s not true.

And then is he happy that his art is being
recognized or does he end up suffering?

Because I didn’t actually draw those.

He can’t ascribe those to me.

Those are the same level of
art that I am creating when I

do graffiti, facial hair, like
a 12 year old on a poster.

So cycling in Japan.

We’ve had a lot of stories about
like updated road rules in Japan.

There was rules about
those riding suitcases.

And if you want to take them out, I
would say that essentially the airport,

you’re probably not even
supposed to ride them in the airport.

But if you want to ride
them, they have to be licensed.

You have to have a driver’s license.

They have this for anything electric, so
an electric bicycle, an electric scooter.

You’re actually supposed
to be licensed for that.

You have to wear a helmet, it has
to be like, all this has to be legal.

Japan’s just getting tired
of people getting drunk

and smashing stuff and they’ve
decided to get really strict on the rules.

Cyclists on their
smartphones are now looking

at six months in prison
in 100,000 yen fight.

So that six months in
prison for riding your bicycle

while looking at your
smartphone is pretty serious.

But I can honestly say
I’ve seen it happen a lot.

It’s mostly young people that I’ve seen.

That’s not to say that that’s correct.

Again, I live out in the countryside.

It’s generally very, very old people and
very, very young people live around me.

So the very, very young people are giving
me the ones riding on their smartphone.

The older, older people
probably not so much.

But that’s only where I live.

If you’re in Tokyo where
a lot of people commute,

and this actually like
really increased in 2020,

to 2023 when people were
worried about coronavirus

and didn’t want to
take the train so much

anymore, bicycle usage
increased significantly.

People spend time riding their
bicycle, weaving in and out of traffic,

and/or people while looking at
their smartphone, that’s problematic.

They’ve decided to make it a
criminal offense, six months in prison.

If you get drunk and ride your bicycle,

Japan is getting stricter and
stricter about people being drunk

because there’s a lot of
drunk people, a lot of the time.

You can get five years in prison and up to
500,000 yen fine if you cause an accident.

Oh, if you cause an accident, well drunk.

So that’s just if I ride my bicycle drunk,

I can get five years in
prison and a 500 yen fine.

If I am drunk and I cause an accident,
I can get another year on top of that

and 300,000 yen more fine on top
of the five years and 500,000 yen.

This is all because in 2023,
there were 72,000 bicycle accidents

and it’s already risen
higher than that in 2024.

2024 is not finished, but they’ve
already got more than that.

They’re like, this is
something we have to deal with.

We have something we have to take care of.

Hours after this law was passed,
two men both drunk ran into each other.

So both had an accident.

So both of them could be facing five
years in prison and a 500,000 yen fine.

And both of them could actually be facing

the extra one year and the extra 300,000
yen fine because you could technically say,

maybe they both caused the
accident because they were both drunk.

A 38 year old man is at a store.

That’s not that unusual.

And then he gets really, really upset.

And the reason he’s
upset, he starts shouting,

why didn’t you ask if I
needed a plastic bag?

Now, I actually think it’s quite normal
not to ask if people need a plastic bag now

because a lot of stores are actually banning
plastic bags for environmental reasons.

They’re not actually
handing out plastic bags.

If you want a plastic bag,
you have to ask for one.

That’s become the norm in a lot of places.

I don’t expect places to
offer me a bag anymore.

Like when I go to the convenience
store, when I go shopping

for groceries, I don’t
expect them to offer me bags.

If I want one, I have to ask.

This guy clearly has
not changed that mindset.

And he got really upset at the cashier.

Another man, just tries to step
and he’s like, hey, let me intervene.

Let me try to calm the situation down.

First guy gets really upset, pushes the man

and then gets behind him
and puts on a choke hold.

The man will take 10
days to heal from the injury.

So the choke hold.

We don’t know if it was the push or the
choke hold that actually caused the injuries

because let’s say he pushed him down
and he hit his arm or his leg or something.

That could have been an
injury that needs to heal.

10 days, it’s probably
just a really bad bruise.

But a choke hold, you could
actually bruise your esophagus.

It could be quite serious.

The amazing part, and this
shows sort of like the mindset

you have to get into when
talking about these stories.

The guy who did the choking,
who created the kerfuffle

in the beginning, he’s
the one who called

the police, claiming
that the victim hit him.

So he gets upset.

So this is again, the
mindset you have to be in.

He gets upset because
he wasn’t offered a bag.

A guy comes in and says like,
hey, maybe you need to chill out.

He pushes that guy,
hits that guy, knocks that

guy down, gets around,
chokes him from behind,

then calls the police and
says that guy attacked me.

And that’s something
that I think getting into

the mindset of the person
actually reveals a lot.

He feels perfectly justified
in attacking other people

and then blaming them thinking
he’s gonna get away with it.

This is an interesting
thing because I’m interested

to see how much
trouble he actually gets in.

It’s probably gonna
depend whether or not the

victim in this case
presses charges or whatnot.

But it’s kind of that Karen
mindset that’s taken over

the internet where people
like they just go and go and go

and then they call the police, expecting
the police to come back them up.

That seems to have now started in Japan

and I don’t wanna see
hundreds of these videos.

After we’ve gotten past
sort of all the videos of people

like YouTubers and streamers and
stuff, causing trouble to get video clout,

I’m really hoping that the
next step isn’t just people

taking on that whole internet Karen
mode and going crazy in Japan as well.

(phone ringing)

Another 38-year-old man, two 38-year-old
men in two stories, that’s crazy.

He was a salesperson but not a salesperson
for the incident that we’re talking about.

He was pretending to be a
salesperson going house to house.

He visited an older couple and they’re
in their 80s and he gets into their house

because he’s a door-to-door salesman of
some sort or at least he’s pretending to be.

He gets in their house and he
finds a way to give them sleeping pills.

So I’m assuming they had tea together
and he got sleeping pills into their tea.

When they were drowsy, he stole 26
million yen in cash and a Boston bag.

I’ve had this conversation before.

Why do you have 26 million
yen in cash in your house?

Older people in Japan,
they still seem to hoard cash.

Why is it not in a safe?

Like if you’re gonna have
that much money around,

have a safe, put it
in the safe, lock it up.

They haven’t obviously in a box or something,
26 million yen, like I know the yen

isn’t the same value as the American
dollar, but it’s still like $20,000.

That’s $200,000.

26, what is it?

5 million yen is about 50,000 bucks.

So 20 million yen, yeah, that’s $200,000.

Why do you have 2,000?

See, this is it, like the math
is sort of boggling to me.

Why would you just keep
that much cash around?

Like you don’t need that
much cash to buy anything.

You’re not gonna go buy a car with cash.

Regularly enough to keep it in your house,

put it in the bank, it’s
safe, it won’t go anywhere.

You’re not getting any interest on it.

Japanese bank’s interest rate is
really low, but you’re not gonna lose it.

You’re not gonna have a guy
coming to your house and just take it.

It’s not insured or anything, so that’s it.

The Boston Bank, I don’t
know enough about bags,

I’m assuming Boston
bags are very expensive.

The part where this
really goes over the top

is when he left, so the
older couple is drowsy,

they’re sleeping, he’s
taking the money, he’s taking

the Boston Bank, and then
he sets the house on fire.

A neighbor noticed the fire
and called the fire department

other neighbors went into the house and
woke up the older couple and got them out.

So then no one actually
died, no one actually got hurt.

There was some lung, some
smoke inhalation, the son of

the parents got, and he had
to go to a hospital check out,

but he’s okay as far as I can
tell from the articles I’ve read.

I guess when you take the money,
the older couple, when they wake up,

we’re gonna know who you are, and
that is it, you have to have no witnesses.

And then the money would have
technically burnt up in the fire,

but yeah, this is just, now
this is a double attempted

murder theft and some sort of
fraud and calling going on with it.

This guy is in a heap of trouble.

When you get in a taxi, and the driver,

so let’s say you just
had dinner, you call a taxi,

and you get in the taxi,
and then as the taxi goes,

the driver looks back and he
says, you know, you look sick.

Here are some pills, do you take them?

My answer is no, I am
not going to take any sort

of medicine from someone
who is driving in a taxi,

not because I have anything
against like sort of the

capacity of a taxi driver to
diagnose my illness, but I just

don’t know who you are, because
you’re a random taxi driver.

What has happened is a young
girl came out of a restaurant,

got in a taxi, and then the
taxi driver, while he was driving,

looked back and said, you
look sick, here’s some medicine,

take the medicine, she
took the medicine, she

took the pills, and
they were sleeping pills.

So this is the second case of sleeping pills
being used in one week that we know of.

Four and a half hours later,
she’s found a sleep in a parking lot.

The urine tests, she
was staying in the hospital,

they did a urine test, they
found the drugs in her system.

So they know that she was drugged,
they try to trace back her steps,

they know she was in a taxi,
they find the security cameras

from the area, find the
taxi, they find the taxi,

it has an SD card in it with
the cameras, that’s gone.

So they think the taxi driver,
of course, is trying to, you know,

hide any evidence of him doing
any sort of any wrong doing,

but it was quite easy to find
him once they had sort of the

basic evidence of where she
began, where she ended up,

but they know where she was,
they know where she got in the taxi,

and they know what
was going on in that area,

they could check security
footage, they found the taxi driver.

They have had several reports of
people who have lost their memories

after taking a taxi,
which is very concerning.

So there’s our good piece
of advice, final piece of advice.

I want to make a little short
one today just because again,

I’m not feeling great, I
don’t have the energy

to keep going for hours
and hours and hours.

I wanted to do some more
stories today to be honest,

but hopefully we’ll get a longer one
next week when I’m feeling better.

The Ninja Ninja is Japan,
final piece of advice,

from Chunkman Beef Chest,
your host, to you, the listener,

or the viewer, or
however you’re seeing this.

Hey, I love you.

Just put that out there,
make sure you remember that.

There is someone in the
world who does care about you.

And be, don’t take
drugs from a taxi driver.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

See, as soon as I start
streaming, if you, yep, okay.

He’s moving around.

Let’s see what Dave
does before we get started.

(upbeat music) Yep.

Whoa, what was that?

Just trying to, trying to
storm down some space there.

My concern is once I start,
he’s going to start complaining.

Singing up, and then
I’ll take you out again.

Dave, it’s okay.

Yeah, relax.

It’s weirdly hot in my room.

Okay, there you go.

Let me get some nice Dave,
ooh, stretch his leg out, sexy.

All right, let’s get started.

[SOUND]

Not Worth Fighting Over

(upbeat music)

All right, so golden week is over, but,

that means now I have
to reorganize my schedule

and just gonna get
everything back on track.

So we had a really busy time at work
and then family came over golden week

and now things maybe have finally settled
down to the way they’re supposed to be.

But here we are, in Japan,
with the news, for you.

Excellent, really chance.

She just does not go away.

She is in the news
constantly because she

thought, oh, she’d been
sentenced to prison.

She’s gonna go to prison.

Of course, she did the
smartest thing she could do.

She appealed.

She’s like, I don’t wanna go to prison.

Let’s appeal the sends.

I didn’t like the way they
talked about the fraud.

So the way the fraud
was mentioned in the

article was she induced
affection from three men.

So she committed fraud by
getting three men to fall in love

or I actually had a conversation
with this about my student.

I had a conversation
about this with my students.

And I found it very interesting that
they were all very dismissive of the men.

They were all like, all these guys,
they should have known better.

They should not have
fallen in love with her.

They should have known
what they were getting into.

And I was like, I know you
understand, like she’s picking.

She probably did mass
messages to hook the lonely men.

And those lonely men are suddenly convinced
that this is their dream girl in that.

They’re in love with her and she’s in
love with them and it’s all gonna work out.

And I have a lot of sympathy for the
men because she was choosing older men

who basically now probably have less
opportunities for relationships than this.

This really young, fairly
attractive girl comes in.

She falls in love with them.

She’s saying all the
things they wanna hear.

I mean, this was her guide.

Her guide was on the things you need to
say to keep them hooked, to give you money.

I read some excerpts
from it in an old episode.

It was very interesting
because she was right.

She was like, you don’t just
immediately ask for money.

That’s suspicious.

You have to like defer and
say like, “Oh, I got big problems.

” And then they go,
“Oh, what’s the problem?

” You go, “Oh, no, I don’t
wanna burden you with it.

” And then you try to defer and defer and
defer until they force you to tell them.

And then you go, “I owe
money or my friend owes money

“or money needs to be
owed and I need money.

” And then they
go, “I’ll offer to you.

” You go, “No, no, no, I
don’t wanna take it from.

” But then they’re more generous because
they’re like, “Here’s my opportunity

“to show this person how much I love
them “and support them and help them.

” And the thing is,
she’s playing on that idea

of if she refuses again
and again and again.

It doesn’t feel like a scam anymore

because they’re trying to
force her to take the money.

Anyways, that was in her
book that she sold online,

which is actually what got
her in trouble in the end.

I didn’t know this part.

She was also as part of her case.

She had failed to declare
40 million yen in income.

And again, the average salary in
Japan is four to five million yen.

So she’s talking like 10
years of an average salary.

She had not declared an income.

I assume that was in one year.

God, man, see, and this is it.

It’s the fiscal, I get
on this bit every time

because I’m like, she had so
much money available to her.

They’re not actually going
to make her give it back.

Or are they, I’m not
sure, that’s the thing.

She could have hidden a lot of that money

and once she got out of
prison actually been okay

or set up a new life or
something, she didn’t do it.

She filed her appeal on May 1st.

Today is May 7th.

This is when the story came out.

She’s finding ways to keep
herself in the news, which at

least is interesting because
I don’t know why it eats on.

I think the level of her scam, her ability,

and in the fact that
she worked really hard.

And then came to this
point where she got caught

and the whole collapse,
like that rise and

fall is the bit I’m
finding most interesting.

So I really want to see
where does she end up?

Does she end up going to prison?

How much time does she do?

What’s the punishment?

How far does it go?

And then I actually want to know
what happens when she gets out.

Like, does she rebuild her life or does
prison make her like more of a scammer?

Because, you know, there is the idea that
prison is supposed to rehabilitate people,

but I think we all know the reality that
it doesn’t really do that in most cases.

So where is she going
to end up after this case?

That is the bit I’m most interested in.

I’m unfortunately going to
have to wait a decade to find out.

Biden gave a speech.

And in that speech,
she said Japan, China,

Russia, and India are
xenophobic countries.

And Japan was like, what?

Well, why are you picking on me?

Why are you putting, you’re lumping me in
with these other guys, China and Russia?

There’s bad guys.

India, it’s been neutral.

It could flip the floor
back and forth on India.

Like, we work with them,
we sometimes we don’t.

But China and Russia,
you know, don’t do that.

And so they were very upset.

And his reasoning was Biden’s
reasoning was, Japan, China,

Russia, and India don’t want
immigrants, which is true.

Like I actually don’t know as much
about China and Russia and India.

India, I don’t think wants immigrants
because they’ve got a billion people already.

Maybe that’s enough people.

China, similar situation.

Also, I would say xenophobic
for political reasons.

Russia has its own issues.

I don’t claim to know anything
about those countries in any real way.

But Japan, I have lived
here for a long time.

I claim to know something
about the country.

And I would say xenophobia
is still a fairly accurate thing.

They don’t want a lot of foreigners
coming in and changing Japan as a country.

The Japanese embassy protested,
but also they didn’t change their policy.

They still don’t want immigrants.

So this is maybe the bit
that I find most interesting is,

is Biden has essentially
said something that’s true.

And then Japan’s been like, well,
that doesn’t make us look good.

You shouldn’t say that.

And then you should
apologize, but then it’s still true.

What Biden was actually
talking about was how immigrants

to America actually helped fuel
the economic growth of the country.

And immigration is a good thing.

And we should promote immigration.

And people should immigrate to countries.

And build those countries up Japan.

Billion times now, we’ve said
suffering and population decline.

I think some immigration actually
do the country a bit of good.

They are still resistant.

And apparently that’s not xenophobia.

That’s something else completely, which

has maybe a completely
different name that I don’t know.

I don’t know what else you would call it.

24-year-old attacked his
57-year-old father with a wooden sword.

And this is– we go through these trends.

I said in the last episode, we
do go through trends in news.

And so we had a trend of crossbows.

And then those crossbows
were actually made illegal in Japan.

Weirdly, near my train
station, I actually found a poster

that looked quite old, giving
information about crossbows.

I guess how you’re not
supposed to have them.

That’s interesting.

I’ll throw that up on the
Instagram after this episode.

If this happens a few more times,

they’re actually going to be like,
have wooden sword rules going to place.

They’re going to have wooden
sword ownership laws put in.

Because that’s what Japan does.

Like guns are illegal.

And then they’re like
bows and arrows are illegal.

Swords are illegal.

Crossbows, people started using those.

Crossbows are now illegal.

So wooden swords, man, if you go ape on
those, I bet they make wooden swords illegal.

It’s not legal to carry a knife
with you unless you have–

can explain why you’re carrying
that knife from 0.8 to 0.B.

So this is a classic.

I’ve actually talked about
this a bunch of times.

But it’s something people know.

You wouldn’t actually be allowed
to carry a Swiss army knife.

When I was back in Canada, I
used to carry a Swiss army knife

with me all the time, just
to my bag or something,

has a screwdriver, other stuff fairly
useful, randomly throughout the day.

If I could not– if I
would stop by the police

and they said, why do you
have the Swiss army knife?

And I couldn’t give
them a reason, a specific

reason, then that is
illegal for me to carry.

So if I was carrying a fish-gutting knife

and I was going fishing,
that would be illegal.

If I had a fish-gutting knife and I
was going to work, that would be illegal.

That’s– there’s a certain
level of interpretation

that comes with the
rules in Japan, which is a

very interesting thing,
but also very important.

And no, who’s interpreting those rules,

the guy who might be very angry at
you at the moment, who is a police officer.

His father was sitting in a chair
and just started beating them.

He was arrested.

They are still looking into the reason why.

But the only reason this
story caught my attention

is when he was being arrested, he
said, perhaps, I went a little too far.

And I think, yeah, once
you pick up a wooden sword

and start hitting another
human being with it,

I think, maybe, yeah,
you went a little too far.

There was a guy who owns an izakaya.

And is a guy who owns– it’s a bar.

That’s food.

And often, they’re
very small and very local.

It’s a very authentic Japanese experience.

Foreigners really enjoy
enjoying the izakaya’s.

They, of course, do
have trouble with English,

because not every
Japanese person to be English.

The reason a lot of
people like me have jobs

is because we come to
Japan and teach English.

And the reason we teach
English is because the education

system in Japan is so
poor at teaching English.

So really, the whole reason
I am able to live in Japan

is because the Japanese education system
has failed so miserably at teaching English.

This bar owner went and had some trouble.

He had a white couple of what he said.

Come in and asked for an English menu.

And he said, no, we
don’t have one of those.

And then, basically,
he said it was really

troublesome to have this
foreign couple in his bar.

He went online.

He decided to complain online,
which is always the best idea.

I mean, if you’re going to complain,

you really want to go on
the internet and complain,

because that’s going to
make everything better.

He said, I’d learn
English if I came to an

English-speaking country,
which I bet is not true.

I bet if you went to either of that,

or he’s actually just
saying, I would not travel.

This is Japan.

If I went to an English-speaking
country, I’d speak

English, make the effort
to speak Japanese in Japan.

If that’s a hassle, bring an interpreter.

It’s one of those things
where he’s not wrong,

but he’s also not
right, because if you’re

running a bar, your bar
runs on customer service,

you should be trying to accommodate
as many customers as possible.

This is a case where if you had someone

with a fairly good smartphone
or a laptop or something,

you could actually just have them speak
into it, and it could do the auto-translate.

So I think we’ve now
hit a level of technology

where you’re not having deep
political conversations with customers.

It’s like, hey, what do you want to drink?

Hey, have you enjoyed your stay in Japan?

How is things?

How are things?

Do you want anything else?

Stuff like that.

These are not really hard
phrases for someone to learn.

So you went on, which of course, because he
goes on, you know, again, very good idea.

Indigenous Japanese might not know
this, but if you go to another country,

speaking that country’s
language is taken for granted.

Like back in the day in
Barcelona, you couldn’t not only

get away with English, you
couldn’t speak Spanish either.

Everyone’s both Catalan.

Can stupid Japanese
people finally stop with this?

We lost the war mentality?

Now, that is giving me a lot
of insight into this gentleman’s

politics when he uses the
we lost the war mentality?

Because it’s something
that right wingers say

that, you know, we
should stop sort of cow

towing to other countries
and bending our back.

Because yes, we lost the
war, but we lost the war

with so long ago, we could
still be proud of ourselves

and live up and, you know, be proud
of being Japanese, that kind of stuff.

This had some trouble.

He ended up closing his
restaurant for a short period of time.

The threads taught posts generated
over 65,000 likes and 10,000 retweets.

So that is showing you that
there is a large segment of Japan

that is on board with
this kind of attitude.

Or the retweets could just be sharing,

but the 65,000 likes, I
think it’s actually clear.

They’re saying they
actually like this as a concept.

This doesn’t seem like something
worth fighting over a question mark.

I’ve been rescued myself,
I’ve been rescued myself

going overseas and finding
an English menu available.

You don’t have to know English,
but currently it’s the spreading.

It’s spreading at the, let me start again.

This doesn’t seem like
something to worth fighting over.

This doesn’t seem like
something worth fighting over.

It’s a question mark is actually
putting it hard for me to say.

This doesn’t seem like
something worth fighting over.

That’s a statement, not a question.

I’ve been rescued myself going
overseas to find an English menu available.

You don’t have to know English,

but currently it’s spreading
as the words lingua franca.

And knowing it brings big benefits
for both companies and individuals.

So they’re saying that, yes, while
you don’t have to learn English,

it’s kind of like what
I’m saying, making small

accommodations in English
will actually help your business.

Another poster concurred
saying it’s been spirited

to reply the way the
shopkeeper did 10 years ago

when I asked foreigners what
they thought of Japanese people.

They uniformly say they’re pretty gentle.

I probably mean they kind.

But now I’m hearing
some say they’re so cold.

I guess the over capacity of tourists.

The over capacity of tourists is
a very recent phenomenon though.

So that’s really just a
post-COVID phenomenon.

So that is one why question
the veracity of that statement

only because this clearly
has to be a trend over time

for people to be changing their
opinions not just a very recent thing.

Although they could just be
talking to very recent tourists.

On the 21st, so the last month,
they were temporarily closing the store

due to mental and physical
stress from the controversy.

But of course, they did not
back down from their stance.

In their closure message
they said, I don’t know when

we’re opening again, but it’ll
be a bar that doesn’t depend

on the also precious white
personages who can’t read Japanese.

So this guy is decided to take a stand

and that stand is, I don’t
want foreigners in my bar.

They goes on, this is very good article.

This is from Unseen Japan,
which is a very good website.

So if you are interested in Japanese stuff,

Unseen Japan by J.
Allen, he actually goes on,

he does the article, which I
read most of it to you just now.

Then he goes on to go
further with our tourists

driving out the regulars, walk-ins or
challenge, strategies for handling the influx,

and then it gives you
some other stuff to read.

It’s a very good website.

I would highly recommend
it if you have the time

you could subscribe there
and enjoy some Unseen Japan

because they do have
very similar feeling

news to what we do
here at Ninja Ninja Japan.

Lawyers, everyone knows.

Lawyers is very lovable, fun-loving people.

But the bar association
thinks that you know what?

People don’t think people
love lawyers as much

as they could, so let’s
do something about that.

So they decided to make
some cute mascots and logos

to offset the image that lawyers
are strict and unapproachable.

I actually, if I wanted a lawyer, I
would want my lawyer to be fairly strict

and fairly unapproachable because I would
want him to be that way in the courtroom.

They’ve created a
character called Ben Tota.

Tora is tiger and Ben is the
kanji in Bengoshi, which is lawyer.

So on the top of his forehead is a
kanji, sort of built into the stripes.

It’s actually very subtle, it’s quite good.

So it’s a cute tiger character who is
supposed to soften the image of lawyers.

Tigers famously cute
and approachable animals

that everyone would think of as
first of you, say cute and approachable.

Everyone goes, oh yeah, you know, tigers.

It is a very cute-looking tiger.

500 designs were submitted from
the public and other organizations.

So basically, this is actually,
this kind of put me off the lawyer.

‘Cause companies
do this, they do like an

open call for designs,
but and they pick one.

But what they’re actually
getting is free samples and

they can pick the sample of
like best and reward that one.

But those other people
have still done the work.

And those other people don’t get paid.

There was another character in the article,

which is a big purple dog
with weird leaves on its head

and a symbol for lawyers on it,
which I did not understand at all.

So there were some pretty
like out there design choices.

I think the tiger was the
best one, probably of the

ones I saw, but I only saw
a few and of the ones I saw.

I don’t see how this is actually gonna,

like if you have a very
strict serious looking lawyer

having this mascot in
the same vicinity as him

is not going to make him
seem more cuddly and friendly.

I think, I don’t know.

Or maybe they’ll just make
it like we can talk to lawyers

and they can hold the
plushie of the tiger next

to them and be like, you
know, don’t talk to me.

Talk to, what was this name?

Ben Tota, talk to Ben
Tota and tell him your issues

and then I will go to court
and fight on your behalf.

Kyoto district legal affairs bureau staff,

another very strict
sounding group of people.

So we got a group of
lawyers and then these guys

who are the district legal affairs
bureau for the city of Kyoto.

So they’re gonna be pretty serious stuff.

There was a manager in his 50s

and he grabbed one of his
subordinates in his 20s by the chest.

I don’t know what that means.

By the chest, I would
assume the lapels of his jacket

if he was wearing a suit
jacket, but maybe he grabbed

his shirt, but grabbing by
the chest actually means,

like it sounds like he grabbed
two giant handfuls of peck.

I hope, I don’t know if that’s a sound
that peck’s make when you grab them.

So you grab those.

Actually, there’s no way it
would have been that powerful.

We knew, we know this
from the rest of the sentence

and then he started
kicking him around the

waist, which is a very
awkward way to do it.

It’s like, so tie boxing, they
grab the back your head

and they kind of like
knee you in the stomach.

This guy grabs your chest, your pecs.

Again, I think it must have
been the lapels of a jacket

and then he starts like
kicking you in the waist.

So he’s not getting a lot of leverage to
kick him very hard, which is a good thing

’cause I don’t actually
want people to get hurt,

but I’m also on the like, if you’re
gonna bother to hurt someone,

you might as well follow
through and do it right.

The reason he was grabbing this man
and doing very awkward kicks to his stomach

was that the man was discussing spoilers
from a recent manga called Oshino Ko.

I don’t read a lot of manga, so I
don’t actually know if this was good,

but apparently it’s a very plot-heavy story,
so the spoilers would be very important

to the kind of people who
actually read this comic.

The manager has been
transferred and the subordinate

reported no injuries, but
he did report it to the police.

There have been no charges yet.

When the supervisor was being
spoken to, he said, I don’t like spoilers.

Now, I personally don’t care about
spoilers, but I know other people do.

So I try not to give too many spoilers,
but the reason I don’t care about spoilers

is because I found out
there was a scientific study

that found that spoilers
don’t actually ruin

the value of entertainment of different
things, which is very interesting.

‘Cause they found what
happens when there is

information that you know,
your brain can then process

the information of the
story as it unfolds faster,

and you actually can at
times get more enjoyment

out of it, so let’s say a
very complicated story.

Having spoilers in the back of your
head actually simplifies the story,

and means you can follow
along more efficiently.

Now that isn’t a reason to
actually start spoiling things

for people, again, like I don’t
think spoilers are a big deal,

but other people do, and I
don’t wanna ruin their pleasure.

I think maybe the
internet has grown spoilers

into something that
it didn’t used to be.

So that is fair, don’t
spoil for things for people

who don’t want it spoiled for them,
but if you are the spoily in this case,

don’t grab people by the pecs
and start awkwardly needing

them in the stomach,
because that’s not any better.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Exposing Yourself

(upbeat music)

Remember back in episode 287,
the foul and the furious 287 episodes.

And we’ve passed that.

It’s a lot of episodes.

Anyways, back then in the old days,
we were talking about a gentleman.

He was a taxi driver and
he saw some pigeons on

the road and he decided
the optimal thing to do

would be to speed up and
hit some of the pigeons.

He hit one, he was arrested.

The charges were dropped and prosecution
gave no reason for dropping the charges.

Probably because it was a pigeon.

I mean, if we’re gonna be really
honest, that’s probably the reason.

They’re probably like, how
much money are we gonna spend

on lawyers and stuff to
prosecute this guy for a fine?

There’s just, there’s no
pigeon justice anymore.

I played how to full boyfriend

and really found a deep
connection to pigeons after that.

And now I see things like this

and it disgusts me the way
pigeons are treated in the world.

The way the world just doesn’t
care about pigeons like they used.

I don’t know what
I’m supposed to say.

I don’t even know why I did this update.

The charges were dropped.

I guess that the charges were dropped.

That’s kind of enough.

But then I feel like I have
to say something about it.

I honestly think in this case, if
you’re gonna go through the trouble

of arresting the guy for killing
the pigeon, you should prosecute.

But then the prosecutor’s
probably, they’re not the police.

They’re like, we didn’t arrest them.

This is, he killed a pigeon.

All I know is everyone and how to
full boyfriend is really upset right now.

So in all Neepal Airway’s airplane
headed for the United States

had to make a U-turn and
head back to Heneta Airport

after a 50 year old man,
bit of flight attendant.

I don’t think I can even
do commentary anymore.

What am I supposed to say?

Don’t bite people, don’t
hit pigeons with your car.

So you can see the weird spot I’m in.

I mean, that story, if I
don’t do commentaries

incredibly short,
incredibly short, it’s fine.

Just don’t bite anybody.

Don’t bite flight attendants, yes.

This kind of goes into the next story in
that you know you’re gonna get in trouble.

I think, so in this case, I mean,
it’s a pretty well documented thing

if you assault or
attack or are particularly

difficult with flight
crew on an airplane.

They’ll either turn around
and land the airplane

and you get arrested
or they’ll fly all the

way to the destination
and you’ll get arrested.

Like, there’s an arrest waiting
at either end of that journey.

And it doesn’t take much.

Biting is, you’re done.

Like, it’s a lot less than biting that
gets you arrest and kicked off flights.

And now you’re on a no fly list.

I don’t know.

It’s the level like what
he had to be drunk, right?

Like, almost at this point,
I’m like, please be drunk.

So at least you have some sort of
chemically induced excuse for your behavior.

Although I don’t believe being drunk
is actually an excuse for bad behavior.

‘Cause I’ve been drunk very,
very drunk many, many times.

And I have not crossed those lines.

I’ve still been an inherently okay person.

I’m not gonna say like super moral
or anything, but I didn’t commit crimes.

So yeah, even then, the being I was drunk,

I don’t think that should
be accepted as an excuse.

At least it makes more sense at that point.

How about that?

Two guys were arrested for food terrorism.

So this is my point.

We had the sushi terrorism.

We had a couple other
instances in different restaurants,

but it’s like you saw the guy do
the thing for clout on the internet.

So I’m gonna do something disgusting.

I’m gonna lick the soy sauce thing.

I’m gonna eat the
ginger and spit it back in.

I’m gonna use chopsticks and stuff.

Like I’m gonna take anything
communal and dirty it up myself.

And then, but did you not see the fallout

where there was like the
lawsuit for the kid who did it?

And the company went after
him for like billions of yen.

Did you not see the
people getting arrested?

Like the cops just arrest you for this now.

So it’s like they see
the clout part and they

forget about the fallout
part, the consequence part.

Or do they think, “Ah,
I’m not gonna get caught.

” But that doesn’t work because you did
film it and then post it on the internet.

So filming your crimes,
again, I’m trying to not

give advice to criminals,
but I keep doing it.

I think it’s because
what I wanna do is like

criminal minds, I wanna delve
into the mind of the criminal.

What were they thinking?

And then what would I do
different to get away with the crime?

I wouldn’t film it.

I mean, you can talk
about any crime you want.

And my first instinct
is do not film the crime.

And that’s gonna help you go real far
in denying that you committed the crime.

‘Cause you can’t deny you the crime.

If, let’s say, your face is
on a screen doing the thing.

Maybe you could, in the future
you could say, it was deep faked,

but why would I deep fake
you eating garlic out of it?

This is a ramen restaurant.

They have minced garlic
that you can put in your ramen.

This guy scoops some
out, puts in his mouth,

goes, oh, this is disgusting
and spits it back in to the jar.

Now luckily the staff, maybe saw them
do it or saw something gross happening.

So they grabbed it through that stuff away

and disinfected the
container that it was in.

But both of them were arrested.

So you gotta know, if you’re
gonna start doing this gross

stuff for internet points,
you’re gonna get arrested.

Walking your dog.

I have a dog told many
stories about him in the past.

I have another one coming up on Seamig B.

So if you listen to that podcast,
you’ll get a great Dave story.

Dave is my dog.

Walking your dog along a river.

Dog takes a little poopy, okay?

That’s what happens, dog poopy.

You wanna be a responsible
owner, so you pick it up.

Now, it is annoying.
I do pick up my dog’s poop.

I am a responsible dog owner.

I also don’t film myself not picking it up.

See, there you go.
There’s the don’t film it.

If you’re gonna commit the crime
of not picking up your dog poop,

which is a violation, don’t
film your dog pooping and

then walk away from the
poop filming, the poop going,

ha ha, I didn’t pick it up
and post that on the internet.

Let’s say I did that this
morning, which I did not do.

See, I can deny it
because there’s no video

evidence of me doing
the thing I’m denying.

So if you’re the police, there’s
no proof one way or the other.

Although they do, in England, they
started doing DNA tests on poop they found,

which I was like, how
much does a DNA test cost?

Anyways, it is annoying to carry it around.

So I don’t like carrying
around the little baggy.

It’s winter time, so I
have to carry it in my hand

gets cold and some
switching hands back and forth,

so I can put one on my
pocket and the other one’s cold.

I don’t wanna put the
dog poop in my pocket.

I think that’s a pretty fair statement

that don’t wanna put the
dog poop in my pocket.

So it is annoying to carry it with you.

So this guy, he’s like, you know what?

I don’t wanna carry it with me.

So he takes the bag.

I don’t know if he does
a little Bolo gesture.

My first thought is
just swinging around his

head, but he starts
hucking, bagging all,

a little plastic bagging all
into other people’s yards.

And then since last September,
there have been 20 complaints.

So this is like all over
in the neighborhood,

he’s just like flicking dog
poop everywhere he goes.

An officer was on patrol,
and he witnessed the

man throwing the dog poop
into someone’s property.

He was arrested for a
waste management violation.

Not picking up your dog
poop is a very minor violation.

You probably just get a talking to you.

You might not even get a fine for that,

maybe like please be your responsible
citizen, pick up your dog poop.

You’ve been talked to by the police, be
like, whew, yeah, okay, I should do that.

But throwing it into
someone else’s yard is waste

management violation, which
is a much more serious penalty.

So he’s actually getting in more
trouble because instead of the thing is,

if he was already carrying
it, it is just as much effort to

carry it at home and is just
talking to someone else’s yard.

It’s like that guy didn’t look up the,
didn’t think I was gonna talk about this.

The guy who was peeing into bottles,
because it was too much trouble

to get up and go to the
toilet, and then he had to

carry the big bottles of pee
and dump them somewhere.

Like the, in his mind, the
secondary effort was less than

the first one, but I was
just like, I don’t think it is.

I think getting up and going to the toilet,

and just flushing the
toilet and going back to bed.

Yeah, annoying.

But way less effort than carrying
around 5, 6, 7 bottles of pee

that you didn’t have to dump
somewhere and get arrested for it.

So they’re getting arrested for it.

The consequence is not worth it.

It’s a criminals.

I’m gonna give some
advice to criminals, but not in

the normal way of how to
be successful as a criminal.

What I would like to say to criminals
today is, guys, ’cause you’re mostly guys.

Take a minute.

So if you see someone do something
that you think’s cool on the internet,

aha, that guy did a really
gross thing on the internet.

Aha, let’s do that, ’cause
it’ll be cool on the internet.

Let’s take a moment, pause.

Think, hey, will there
any fallout from that?

Maybe I should go see if he
was sued for like a billion yen.

Oh, he was, maybe I shouldn’t do it then.

Oh, maybe if we film ourselves
doing some food terrorism,

was there any fallout from
that from those other guys doing?

Oh, they all got arrested.

All of them, maybe we
shouldn’t do that then.

The poop guy probably, this doesn’t have
an example that he could have referred to.

But I’m looking at effort,
reward kind of things.

So throwing it into other people’s yard

is maybe less effort, but the
consequence there in is much more.

So it’s worth it to bring in home
and throw it and dispose of it properly.

Then it is to throw it
in someone else’s yard

and end up having to
just deal with the police.

And also, please don’t
hit pigeons with your car.

A man was robbed of 25 million yen
at a private carry-out gay box by 14s.

That sentence alone makes me
want to ask a ton of questions.

I don’t want a victim blame,

but it seems real suspicious that this
guy had 25 million yen in cash with him.

Four teens came into the carry-out gay box

where the man was waiting
for a supposed acquaintance

who was going to lend to the 25 million
yen too and sprayed him with tear gas.

Did not explain where
the tear gas came from.

I think this might have just
been something that bought online.

One of the teens was arrested.

He was 18 years old.

Now, Japan still is very
much a cash society,

but it’s also a society where
bank transfers are very, very cheap.

So if you’re going to have 25 million yen,
you’re going to transfer to someone else.

So to me, it makes it seem
like he doesn’t want anyone

to know who he’s transferring
the 25 million yen to.

And I actually wonder
if the teens set this

up so that he would
be at a place with 25.

Because how did they know he
was going to be there with money?

If you sprayed me with
tear gas and took my wallet,

I mean, maximum you’re getting
20,000 yen, probably 180 bucks.

Because that means I just went to the
bank because I’m going out for that day.

And I’m going to do stuff where I
don’t think I can use my phone to pay.

Because I use my phone to
pay for pretty much anything.

So how did they know
there’s only one time in my

life where I’ve had an
excessive amount of cash.

And that was when I
was going to put a down

payment on my house and
the down payment in cash,

we got a slight discount and
a slight discount on a house.

It’s actually still a lot of money.

So I had a stack of money.

It was the only time of my
life I ever had that much money.

I was like, I should film a very quick
rap video in our house, again, safe.

And then we took it to the place right away

and basically spent all
the money right away.

I knew I would never have that much
money in my hands again, probably.

I think it was less than 25 million yet.

I forget the department,
this is a long time ago.

So I forget how much I put
the down payment on my house.

I remember the stack
was bigger than my head.

I also remember I put it in a paper bag

so it wouldn’t look like
it was a ton of money.

Now part of me was also
thinking like 30 some years

of judo have led me to
this moment where hopefully,

I mean, I don’t actually
hope I have to fight

over because the
problem is you get attacked

and the bag rips open and
the money just everywhere,

like in the movies and now
I’ve just lost all that money.

There’s no way I’m gonna be
able to pick all that money up again.

So even with my supposed fighting prowess,

I actually didn’t want to conflict because
I didn’t want, because I can’t fight wind.

Years and years of martial arts
training, you still can’t beat the wind.

You know, that might be the episode title.

So I have so many questions

and I don’t want to blame the
victim, but it seems really suspicious.

Why do you have 25
million yen with you in cash?

Why are you in this karaoke bar?

How did those teens know you had the money

and that you were in
this specific karaoke bar?

I don’t think we’re gonna
get any of those questions,

but I see a lot of suspicious
things going on there.

And I do, I’m gonna keep looking out.

Like all these stories I talk
about, I do keep track of them.

That’s how I know the
charges for the pigeon murderer

were dropped because I do
keep track of these stories.

And it is very hard to find results.

The problem is when
they drop charges and stuff,

as we’re gonna find out
in one of the later stories,

it’s not satisfactory
because the prosecution

never tells you why
they drop the charges.

I can make start making suppositions,
usually because it’s not near tight case,

or I think the ones coming up that the
actual thing is they just paid them off.

(upbeat music)

Oh, exactly the next story.

Charges against Rengoku Koroaki.

It’s not that I can’t
pronounce the Japanese.

The problem is my handwriting is so poor,
and I write so fast when I make my notes.

The English I can read fine.

Like you’ll notice I don’t stumble over
the English book, and I hit Japanese words,

I have to like slow down, take my time
and write my Japanese words better.

Rengoku Koroaki is a
guy we talked about before.

He is a Citizens Arrest YouTuber.

I, this new year, has been a flood
of Citizens Arrest YouTuber stories,

and they’re all turning
out to be pieces of shit.

So this guy basically would arrest people,

and it turned out the
last two or three people

he Citizens Arrested hadn’t committed
the crime he was accusing them of.

He had a girl, he had accused of
scalping, and she wasn’t scalping.

Him and like three of his friends
surrounded some like 50 year old man

and kind of beat him up a little
bit, and they had the wrong guy.

He had charges against him
for detaining another man.

So initially it was illegal
confinement, which is one

step away from kidnapping,
so that’s pretty serious.

They dropped it to assault, and
then they dropped the case altogether.

So I’m wondering, ’cause
this is the whole point

of the Citizens YouTuber is
they film the Citizens Arrest,

and most of the Citizens Arrests that
we see on these, they like tackle the guy.

It’s usually a guy, they tackle the
guy, they wrestle him to the ground.

The one we saw I think last week was a guy,

and I was like, that guy clearly
does some kind of judo or B.

J.J. or something, ’cause he wrestled
the guy the ground and held onto him.

And that if the guy is innocent,
it’s just straight up assault,

but the prosecutors
initially were going for

illegal confinement, which
is basically kidnapped.

He’s also had charges of defamation
that are also being dropped,

and prosecution refused
to discuss the reasons

and my feeling is that
he just settled the case.

So he just paid off the
victims, a certain amount of

money settled the case,
and then prosecution drops it.

So they’re not gonna say that.

My concern is that the
Citizens Yes Arrest YouTubers,

so you have the food
terrorism guys on YouTube.

They’re committing the food
terrorism, they’re getting in trouble.

This is still other people are
copy-catting it, copy-catting.

There are copy-cat
YouTubers doing the same thing,

not either thinking they’re
not gonna get in trouble

or they’re not gonna
get in that much trouble.

So the sushi restaurant suing the first guy

for like a billion yen was sending a
message, like we will come after you.

We will make this your life miserable.

You do not do this in our restaurants.

My feeling is the Citizens
Arrest YouTubers as a trend,

’cause again, I didn’t
know there was this many.

This was a whole corner of
YouTube I had never experienced.

That the fact that the
charges have been dropped,

even though there’s
video evidence of them

committing the crime, may
embolden other YouTubers.

Citizens arrest YouTubers to go
like further than they already are,

and other people to maybe try their
hand at Citizens Arrest YouTubers.

Citizens arresting, I
think it’s because there’s

like this weird, like oh,
we’re catching criminals.

We’re making the world a better place.

There’s a certain nobility towards it,

and that gives you a feeling
of your doing the right thing.

You’re being a good
person, you’re being hardcore.

I don’t know what, like
you get, there’s a second,

there’s a secondary feeling
there of like, not only am I getting

internet fame, I’m also like
doing it on a noble platform.

Turns out, again, most
of these guys are shit.

There was the guy last week who turned out

he was faking an illness
to extort his girlfriend.

And then we get another one.

Our detectives, it’s two guys.

And because what was it?

It was something domination last week.

I forget the name.

It’s just these are really cheesy names.

Our detectives, and I don’t know what the
R stands for, but they do the same thing.

They try to find people who are doing
like voyeur or some taking up skirt photos,

videoing when they’re
not supposed to video.

And they have been
arrested for extortion as well.

So it seems like money is
actually the prime motivator.

So they catch a voyeur, and
then they kind of rough them up,

but then they say, “Give
us money and we’ll let you go.

” So the R detectives guys were
saying, like, “Ah, I hurt my wrist.

” So in the video, you
can actually see this.

They go, “Oh, I hurt my wrist.

” So we could take you to the
police, but you wouldn’t want that.

So how much will you pay for damages?

So you hurt my wrist when you
were resisting me assaulting you.

How much are you gonna pay for that?

If the guy refuses to pay, then
they take them to the police.

So basically they have
two sources of income.

They’re gonna catch the
guy, and if the guy pays,

I’m assuming they’re gonna like ask some
exorbitant amount of money, millions of yen.

The guy pays.

Okay, now they’ve made their money.

They don’t post the video.

Because I bet they make
less money on YouTube.

There might not be that famous.

I didn’t actually check their numbers,
which I mean I probably will after this.

Because you can calculate
from the subscribers

and how many views, how much
money they probably have made.

But I bet they actually make more money
from extortion than they would from YouTube.

But then they take me to the police

and if they don’t get any
money from the extortion,

they at least get a little
bit of money from YouTube.

So they took, they
citizens arrested some guy.

They grabbed him, they tried to extort him.

He refused, they go to the police box.

Some previous victims,
’cause these guys still might

actually be criminals and not
really victims 100% of them.

I don’t know, that’s the
problem is I don’t know.

Let’s call them victims.

Some previous victims had reported
that these guys tried to extort them.

So the police had a warrant for the rest.

So these two guys show up with
someone, they’ve just citizens arrested.

They turn them into
the police and the police

are like, “Hey, we
have to make a report.

“What’s your name?”

They go, “We are our detectives.

” And the guy’s like, “Oh yeah,
I have your name right here.

“You’re both under arrest.

” So they basically walked of
themselves into turning in a guy

and then turned
themselves in inadvertently.

Because of the spate of
citizens arrest YouTubers lately,

I’ve become very interested in
this genre of citizen journalism.

This is like the sovereign
citizen stuff in America.

I get very interested in like
where did this come from?

How did this come from?

So this trend, because there’ve
been so many news stories

over the last like three,
four weeks because of it,

I’m very interested in like
where these cases ended up

and does that encourage people
or discourage people going forward.

So we’re going to see, hopefully, again,

I wanna see these charges
do these charges get dropped

because if they’ve made enough
money out of the extortion,

they might be able to pay
these guys off the victims.

And then the prosecution drops the charges

because they actually spend a lot of
time trying to not go to trial in Japan.

They try to get these
things resolved out of court,

which is, I think in this
case, maybe even problematic

because again, they
might actually inadvertently

be encouraging more
people to do more assaults

on more innocent people in the
name of citizens arrest YouTubing.

(upbeat music)

Okay, I guess the
theme today is turning it,

getting yourself arrested
by videoing yourself?

I don’t know, it’s something like that.

The manager of an aquarium
was breeding genetically

modified fish that
glow under infrared light.

These are called better,
B-E-T-T-A, better fish.

Not, I guess I’ve heard beta fish, but I
think they’re either they’re not alpha fish

’cause you know they
like, they’re kind of cooks

or they’re the ones you
feed to other fish, I’m not sure.

These are B-E-T-T-A, better fish.

These come from Thailand
and they are in violation

of the Cartagima
Act, which I, of course,

had never heard of until I
started reading this story.

Basically, you don’t
wanna bring certain animals,

like invasive species,
you don’t wanna bring

certain animals into your
country, it’s not allowed.

This is a problem for control.

So how did these guys get caught?

So right now, they’re just
breeding these fish privately,

and maybe they’re
selling them, it’s actually,

if you know you’re selling
to people who want these

fish, you’re probably
not gonna get turned in.

So you’re actually in pretty good shape,

as long as you keep it on
the download, on the download,

is the problem, and the
download is not what happens

because they’re like, we are so proud
of our genetically modified glowing fish.

Let’s enter them into a fish competition.

Now I, again, as I said, do not
know about the Cartagima Act.

So if you had fish in front of me, I would
look at the fish and go, ooh, pretty fish.

Ooh, those fish glow in the dark.

Oh, this is neat.

I don’t know anything about fish,
so I wouldn’t know to report you.

If you go to a fish competition, I’m going
to go ahead and guess that the people,

the judges, the organizers,
also know about fish,

and they would know if your fish
are or are not allowed in the country.

So one of the organizers was
like, hey, freaky looking fish.

Maybe these fish aren’t
supposed to be here.

So the fish organizers contacted the
ministry of the environment, reported them,

and it was at least
two people got arrested.

It looks like four people are
involved and could get in trouble.

So don’t film your crimes
and put them on the internet.

It would be step number one.

Don’t enter your crimes
into a competition, please.

It would be step number two.

I don’t know how much
more advice I can actually give

to criminals, because I thought
this would have been self-evident.

Oh, and also don’t turn yourself
in if you got in a restaurant.

I maybe just don’t go
around assaulting people.

Maybe report, if you see like a pervert,

report them to the police,
report them to the station staff.

Don’t tackle him and then
try to export money from them.

That’s just not a good idea.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

(gentle music)

[BLANK_AUDIO]

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[Music]

Okay, so any HK is something
I’ve talked about many times.

Any HK is a TV channel.

It’s the National Broadcasting Channel.

That’s fine.

You are obligated to pay for it
if you enter into the contract.

So it gets a lot of heat because a lot
of people don’t want to pay or don’t pay

and then they come after
them and it’s shit like that.

So it’s sort of an antiquated idea, especially
in the age of streaming and whatnot.

And they don’t do a lot to compete.

So I don’t have a lot of love for NHK.

And then I found out that the president of
NHK, I decided to switch the company from

a seniority-based system to a merit-based
system, which is something I really

appreciate because it means one of my
biggest complaints about Japan’s society,

primarily politics, but this
works as in corporations as well.

As a seniority is overvalued.

You have people who are
put in a position because

they’re old or they’ve
been there forever.

They haven’t innovated
or learned anything new.

So the company or in this case, politics
or whatnot does not innovate along with it.

And that’s how you
end up with antiquated

ideas being pushed
through and the minister of

technology not knowing
anything about technology.

That’s all based on seniority.

So he did a lot of things.

So the former NHK
president who retired the

January introduced a number
of new measures such as

eliminating the seniority system
and professional sectionalism.

However, the movement a strong
backlash from within the broadcaster,

including a claim that a
strong of employees have

left due to the abrupt
changes in the system.

The current NHK leadership
has therefore decided

to amend the personnel policy
to replace the system entirely.

Basically what they’re
saying is that you had

all these people in senior positions
and this good dude comes in.

He’s like, you don’t deserve your
senior positions or maybe you do.

Let’s find out.

Let’s create a meritocracy
and you can keep your position.

But anyone coming up,
they’re not going to come

up because they’re your
flunky or because of their age.

They’re going to come up
because they actually have skills.

And all the people who
are probably, now I assume,

not particularly skilled
or didn’t really deserve

their position, they’re
all like, no, that system

sucks because I might
not get to keep my job.

So then as soon as this
guy retires really quickly

right afterwards, they’re
like, we’re going to

bail on that system created and go back to
the old system where I get to keep my job.

And that’s one of the
problems with the senior

people being in charge
and the people in power

being in charge because
what they have to do is

consolidate power to make
sure they can keep their power.

So another quote from
the article during his

tenure made a laid out
policy to cut back on the

ratio of managerial posts
from the 30% range to 20% rate.

So he’s wants to cut 10% of the
managers and put them down or retire them.

He introduced exams for
appointed managerial staffs.

So you couldn’t just be
like, I’ve been here 10 years.

I deserve to be a manager.

You’re like, now you
have to pass a test with

the aim of scrapping
the seniority system by

promoting junior and mid
level career employees.

He also offered an early
retirement plan for those

in their 50s and supported
their reemployment.

He also introduced the
system to relieve staff

from managerial posts after
they have reached a certain age.

This is all stuff that I said
should happen in politics in Japan.

I think it should be universal.

I think there should be an upper
limit of the age of politicians.

A lot of the politicians
when they hit their

70s, they’re not in the right space
to be running countries anymore.

Just like these guys probably aren’t in the
right space to be running new amendments.

Like the guys in their
50s, myself included,

they’re not really the ones we’re
going to be innovating a system.

Maybe they can take a system
and make it work with system.

They already know, but they’re not going
to be innovating and making new things.

They’re not going to be
jumping onto the Internet.

They’re going to not
going to be creating a new

system for NHK to move
forward into the future.

And if they don’t know
the technology, if they

don’t know what’s going
on, if they can’t pass

these tests, they certainly
don’t deserve the position.

So that was very interesting to me.

These are all steps that I think
companies and governments should take.

Sure, the thing that I
actually was most interested

in was it was mid-level
career people with

skills could then surpass
senior level people.

And so you would have the best
people in position to actually do a job.

And that is incredibly
antithetical to the way

Japanese work, culture,
and political culture works.

So I really, really was
excited that this happened.

But of course, I didn’t
learn about it until

that system would have been
scrapped, which is complete bullshit.

According to multiple
individuals close to

NHK, NHK board members
of the executive body

held a meeting in early July to discuss
the personnel system introduced by Meida.

So these are all the people, most at risk.

These are the oldest
people, these are the people

who achieve their
position through seniority.

They’re not necessarily the most skilled
people, but they’re the people with power.

The attendees analyzed the system made
light of senior employees, which it should,

and reported it gave a rise
to promotions in assignments

that didn’t match
personnel evaluations on site.

So what they’re saying
is people are getting

promoted, and they’re not getting
promoted in the way I got promoted.

I got promoted because
I put my time in there,

my time in, and the
time’s what matters.

But the reality is in a business
time is not what mattered.

It’s skill.

So I’ve met many people
who have worked the same

job for many years,
and they will talk to you

about how they have so much experience
at their job at the thing they do.

They fail to take into account.

They’ve never had a good evaluation.

They’ve never done a good job.

So I’ve been working at the same company.

I’ve had the same job for 20 years.

That sounds like a good thing.

But if you haven’t done a good
day in 20 years, that’s problematic.

That’s something to be aware of.

So this guy, Maeda, the
former NHK president,

sounds like the kind
of guy I want in charge,

because he’s like, let’s make changes,
and let’s make the people who come up,

be the best people to
drive NHK into the future.

I want to do the same thing in politics.

Let’s have the people come up, be the
innovators who actually understand technology

and the problems that
society is going to face

into the future, and have
them drive Japan into the future.

But of course, as soon as he stepped
aside a little bit, everyone’s like, well,

you’re into that crap that might make me
lose my job in my bonus and make me retire,

because I don’t do much
work, but I get to sit at my desk.

I don’t know why my senior Japanese
executives have sort of Western exe.

I want a little cowboy there.

But let’s face it, it’s
that cowboy attitude

that’s going to get
you through the day.

Okay, this is weird Japanese politics.

The director of women’s
affairs division has

agreed to step down because of literally
the most Japanese photo I’ve ever seen.

So she went to Paris
on a fact-finding mission

and to do research
into women’s issues and

stuff and to look at
how other countries are

handling it and there’s sort of a conference
and important women leaders are there.

There’s a previous
one I actually didn’t talk

about where it was like G7 countries all
sent a representative for women’s issues.

Japan sent a man.

So they have this
picture and it’s like six, I

assume very powerful women in politics from
their countries and this Japanese dude.

I mean, because of
course, who’s going to speak

on behalf of Japanese women, but at
Japanese man, that only makes sense.

This is the way it’s done.

Found that funny, but I think
they’ve maybe swapped out.

So anyways, this lady
went to Paris and she’s

doing the work she’s
supposed to be doing

and she’s out in front
of the Eiffel Tower and

she’s with two other
ladies and she’s like,

oh, let’s take a picture in
front of the Eiffel Tower.

So they do a very Japanese thing.

They do a goofy picture.

So it’s her and her
two friends and they

steeple their hands above
their heads and stand

in front of the Eiffel Tower mimicking
the Eiffel Tower that is behind them.

It is a very innocent,
quite frankly, very sweet

picture of a woman who’s probably
very excited to be in France.

I mean, I’m going to go
ahead and just guess for the

first time because she
looks very happy to be there.

She posted this on her Twitter
and Japanese media went, Abe shit.

So much so that they’re like,
this is inappropriate behavior.

You shouldn’t be
having, they’re essentially

saying you have
shouldn’t be having fun.

But you go out to a
conference in another country.

That doesn’t mean you can’t also have fun
and you’re not working 100% of the time.

They did this with the
Prime Minister’s son.

The Prime Minister’s son
actually also had to step down.

Now he seemed to have
a little bit more going

on, but they were making
a big deal of him taking

pictures while he was in France
and I’m like, he’s driving around.

He’s picking people up.

He’s doing diplomat stuff, let’s say.

He’s essentially the Prime Minister’s aid.

Let him take some pictures.

This depends really weird about that.

Like you’re there to work.

You should only work,
but you’re still in human

being and you’re not
working 24 hours a day.

So taking a picture
in front of the Eiffel

Tower, it’s not like she was doing anything
dirty or offensive or anything like that.

She’s just doing a very innocent picture.

So I really feel like this one was unfair.

And so after the public backlash of
her being a really normal Japanese lady,

that’s the bit I can’t get over.

I’ve seen so many Japanese
pictures where this is, I was be like,

if you were, if she didn’t do that,
yeah, I can’t say anything more.

It was a nice picture.

And I’m really sorry.

I bet she’s a nice lady
who’s doing a good job.

And I can public out.

I think they’re just looking for shit.

It’s almost like Japan’s
so got so few problems.

It’s not that they don’t.

We like, I mean, that’s what I talk about
every week is all the problems Japan has.

Focus on those.

When people go overseas to take pictures,
I’m going to take a fucking picture.

He has.

That’s just free.

Okay, so Japan has done
something that is terrifying.

The Fukushima nuclear
reactor problem almost blew

up, didn’t blow up, but
cause problems shut down.

And now there’s a ton of
liquid that’s been radiated.

And they’re like, we got to get rid of it.

We’ve been sitting there for years.

They came over the plan.

What we’re going to do is
slowly release it into the ocean.

Sounds very, very scary.

And they did.

They started working sort of last Thursday.

Everyone who wants to freak
out, that was your chance to freak.

Now, other countries have reacted to
this in a neck, which it was expected.

Thing is, two countries in
particular had very strong reactions.

Both Russia and China
said they didn’t want

Japan to release the
wastewater into the ocean.

They both said we would
prefer if you would vaporize it.

So basically create steam and
have it go up into the atmosphere.

And they’re saying that
it would have less sort

of effect or impact on
neighboring countries.

I’m pretty sure the neighboring countries
they were talking about China and Russia.

The issue, and this is one
of the problems between

sort of international
politics is if you’ve

listened to an engineer’s
Japan over the last little while.

Russia and China have been taking a very
particular stance with Japan as a country.

In that particular stance,
I would go so far as

to say is intimidation or bullying
or trying to be the big dog.

The somewhere I come from, it
would be he’s trying to big dog them.

And it hasn’t worked.

So Japan hasn’t really backed down.

In fact, Japan is pushed back, which
is made China freak out once or twice.

North Korea certainly is
freaked out once or twice.

We did have that group
with saying like Japan’s

military, we’re following
the Constitution.

The Constitution says
we can only defend

ourselves, but let’s
redefine defend ourselves as

be able to shoot rockets
and missiles into other

countries and hit things
that are attacking us.

So you can see there is an element of Japan
that is saying like if you keep pushing us,

we’re not going to push
back, but we’re going to make

sure you can’t push
anymore, which is terrifying.

So with that cultural point
that Japan, Russia, China

have a contentious relationship
when Japan or when China

and Russia make a request,
a legitimate request, we

think doing research that this is a better
way to do this, you should listen to us.

Japan’s going to be
like, dude, you just spent,

you just like sent
warships into my ocean,

you shot missiles into my
exclusive economic zone.

We’re not going to listen to you,
we’re going to do what we want.

They actually got approval
from other countries.

And to sort of put
everyone more at ease,

the amount of radiation measured in the
ocean has not changed in any significant way.

So you hear like people hear the
word radiation and they should freak out.

I think that’s fair.

People again sort of forget
that bananas are radioactive.

So as long as there’s
like a little bit, not very

much, it actually has no
negative impact on you.

I mean, we’re all thinking
radioactive fish and stuff.

Who knows, because this is
going to be constant continual

release of the radiated
wastewater into the ocean.

Yeah, it could lead to mutations.

It could lead to lizards
who grow up bigger than

before and have, you
know, maybe extra curricular

powers.
Um, yes, it could lead to Godzilla, but

as we’ve seen historically
in the films that, that

knows how to handle that,
and they take the brunt of it.

So I’m trying to in Russia might want
to just sit back and let Godzilla happen.

That might be the thing.

Some other actual, I almost
said it, and fall out from this.

China has banned import on all
marine products is primarily seafood.

From Japan.

Japan, China is the largest export
destination for Japanese seafood though.

So this is going to have a really
big impact on Japanese business.

But a good thing for me and
anyone who’s actually living in Japan,

there might be an
excess of fish that does

not get exported, which
means fish prices in

Japan may go down, which you’re
like me, you need a lot of fish.

That’s pretty good thing.

It also set off some.

Freakouts.

Any sort of situation like this is going
to have people over react in China,

they started hoarding
salt because they were

thinking that there’s not
going to be an assault available.

All the salt that might
comes out of the ocean

might be irradiated,
something like that.

So they’re all been hoarding salt.

The governments like
don’t do that and they got

really weirdly racist in its own way
by saying like, we are not Koreans.

This is not how we behave.

So apparently China doesn’t just look
down on Japan, it also looks down on Korea.

Not a big surprise.

I’m being honest.

I hate saying China because
it’s not Chinese people.

It’s the Chinese government, which
has to follow a very strict party line.

So I think every now and then I have
to reiterate that as I take digs at China,

it’s not the Chinese
people because honestly,

pretty much every Chinese
person I’ve met has been very nice.

It’s the Chinese government,
which is borderline

dictatorial and the
Communist party is pretty

rough and let’s face it
at the end of the day,

I wouldn’t want to live
there and it’s because

the government and
the racism isn’t exclusive.

It goes back and forth
and China, China, to Korea,

Korea, to Japan and you
can make any combinations

of those and yeah,
it’s pretty accurate.

Structured of business for calling the
police 1,996 times over three months.

Initially this man called
for a legitimate case

and wanted to get
information but then wanted to

speak further the police declined
to chit chat or speak further.

This is what this is the bit
that I would like to know about.

When they say he wanted to speak
further, did he just want to talk to them?

Did he have something
specific to say? Did he

have more information
or was just rambling on?

The police thought they got other
stuff to do than just talk to you all day.

So they hung up.

So the guy started calling
back and saying things

like, “Screw you idiot”
and then hanging up.

He got two warnings to stop
and this is one of those things.

When you get a warning
from the police, you’ve

got to realize you’re
dealing directly with

the people who are going
to arrest you. You’re not

dealing with like, let’s
say I have an argument

with my neighbor and
they warned me to stop. I

can keep going, they can’t arrest me
unless they perhaps be a police officer.

But if you are dealing directly with the
police and the police give you a warning,

stop doing what you’re doing
or we’re going to arrest you.

They know they can do
it. So then they gave him

a second warning, they’re
like, “Stop calling us

or going to arrest you.”
And then they kept doing

it and then they arrested
him because it’s like

they don’t know who
he is. He keeps calling

them. He’s got the name.
They have a open case,

so they have his
name on file. They know

his address. They know
everything about him.

This is very poor criminality. When
he was arrested, he denied the charges.

He denied saying he’d done anything
wrong and he said, “I have my.”

Which is a pretty dark scary thing
to say, which I honestly just wake up.

Cool, but the guy’s clearly an idiot
because he called the police 2,000 times.

Two men were arrested for sending a bomb
threat. We actually went over this once.

when it actually happened. So the two guys
have been found and they’ve been arrested.

They’re suspected to be the
people who sent over 300,000

faxes to schools, firms, and local
governments. Now, most of them just ignored it,

but a music school took
it really seriously. The

fax said there are 334
bombs in and around the

school. You have to pay
us 300,000 yen ransom or

we’re going to blow up
the school. This was the

Tokyo College of Music.
They evacuated the

school. They called the
police. They did all the

things they started
searching, didn’t find any

bombs. 300,000 yen is
not enough money for this.

A monthly salary in Japan would be
between 250 and 400. This is the mid-range

of an average monthly
salary in Japan. For me,

again, I’ve talked to the
last few episodes about

risk versus reward when
it comes to your crimes.

One month’s salary
isn’t enough to risk the

jail term that is coming
your way or making bomb

threats. I am interested
to see what kind of

punishment this gets
sent out with because they

just made the threat,
but it’s obstruction of

business. We know that’s
the catch-all where they

do whatever they want
with it, which is actually

one of the scarier laws in
Japan. These guys turned

out to be part of
Kuchinkyo, which is a group

that is known for harassing people online.
They’re part of a group specifically that

harassed a lawyer. That’s
what their most famous

for, but they’re a group.
They think harassing people

is a form of entertainment.
One of the guys was

arrested, said, “I thought
it would be fun if this

became a big deal.” It’s going to be
a big deal for you as you are arrested.

A woman was arrested.
This was interesting because

it does give a sense of
what you can and can’t

do in Japan and take
responsibility for. A

woman was arrested for
creating a how-to guide

called “How to swindle
your sugar daddy.” It’s not

just how to get a sugar
daddy, someone who will give

you money to hang
out with you and be with

you and just take all
his money. It’s how to

find one of those, get
him, and then get him to

give you as much money
as possible, whereas it goes,

that goes a step beyond the paid relationship
to fraud. There’s a 20-year-old girl.

My mind was like 20 years
old and she’s written a

book and she’s made a
book that apparently works,

that she took 10.65 million yen from two
men in Ichi. This is why she was arrested.

The connection, this is a different. I
have to be clear. I’ve got to start again.

A woman used the book
to scam two men out of

10.65 million yen. The
scam led to her arrest,

a 20-year-old woman. That created, they
were like, “How did you do this? How did you

get to like, how did you
figure out how to scam

these guys?” You said,
“I found this book online,

I bought the book.”
That’s where the book was

revealed to the police.
The police went online.

The book was being
sold from between 10 to

30,000 yen, but if you
could make 10-point size.

That’s a pretty good return on investment.
They went and found the author of the book.

She also has been
arrested because she’s

propagating fraud. I
assume she’s already done it.

She was interviewed on
YouTube. She had her face

covered in stuff, talking
about her success.

I know what’s going
to mean Japanese and

Mike. My Japanese
reading abilities and good,

I really actually want
to get that book and read

it now because I want to
see where there are any

steps that I couldn’t
figure out on how to scam

your sugar daddy because
I think just having a

sugar daddy is part of
the initial scam. She’s

taking it to a next
level where it’s like,

“How to squeeze your
sugar daddy for everything

he’s worth.” More
because she’s multiple

sugar daddy’s and get
your 10.65 million yen.

There’s one more story
and this is the growth story.

Weak. 65 year old man
was arrested for a sexually

assaulting a woman by
tricking her into thinking

that her womb was full
of bad energy and that only

he could fix it by
filling it with positivity.

So I think you know what all that means.
I don’t need to get into the specifics.

It’s interesting because
they’re calling it sexual

assault, which I agree
it is, but in the moment

the woman was actually
eager, not eager, willing,

agreeable, trying to
find the right word.

The woman was agreeable
to this process because she

actually believed what
he was saying. So what he

was doing initially was
committing fraud that

led to sexual assault.
So if she had had all the

facts, she could have
made a real decision,

but because he was lying
to her, she made a bad

decision, which is why it’s sexual assault,
which I think that is a pretty fair charge.

The woman was introduced
to the man last November

by Anna Queens, who
told her that her life

changed for the better
after paying the man for a

change of life. We don’t
know what the change of

life was. It may be the
same thing where he lied

to her in such a way,
created some sort of mystical

situation and then
sexually assaulted her. The

guy, oh no, is believed to
have committed the crime

by telling the woman
that she had bad energy in

her womb and telling her
you need to put a positive

energy in her in there, only I could
give it to you as one connected to God.

When it was investigated,
Ono denied the charges

saying she didn’t do
anything against her will,

but the Metropolitan Police
Department is investigating

the other woman who
suffered similar damage

in full detail, meaning
that because you have

managed to have sex with
her and she agreed to have

sex with you because
you lied to her to get her

to have sex with you
means you committed fraud,

which means what you
did with sexual assault,

which means now, hopefully he’s
going to get punished in a very real way.

Confessions of Vandalism

(upbeat music)

It’s pretty common that old
people struggle with new technology.

And people like to make
fun of that, but you have

to think in the days to
come, you will get old.

And in the days when you get old, are
you going to struggle with technology?

And the answer is yes.

I try to keep up with technology, but
I’ve also already seen that in some ways,

I’ve fallen off like there’s
some things I know about.

And then there are huge swaths of
technology that I don’t understand at all.

I used to think of myself
as fairly tech savvy.

Now I’m functional.

So I’m assuming in the next decade
or two, I’m going to be struggling.

I mean, you have to imagine when
I talk to my grandkids and I’m like,

why in my eyes does my
neural link show that it’s the

time in Greenwich Meridian,
instead of local time.

And my grandkids are like, oh my God,
grandpa, you’re so dumb, you’re so useless.

You don’t even know how to reset
your neural link with the extra net,

because the Internet
is not a thing anymore.

It’s all external.

That we’re all connected to all the time.

And I had my USB in my
neck installed backwards,

making it always very awkward
to put the USB in my neck.

And that’s what’s coming.

And so I’m just trying
to stay abreast of

technology so that I can
not be a complete idiot.

Now because I enjoy technology,
I’m hoping it lasts longer.

Like I play the video games, I make
the podcast, I like to learn things.

If I can just keep that spirit
alive, all at least no stuff.

I maybe I don’t, not proficient,
but I will understand things.

And that’s kind of the most important part.

A lot of older people in Japan, and
that’s most people, for being honest,

they don’t want to apply
for the My Number Card.

My Number Card is basically
a social security card of sorts.

It’s not because you already have
one of those if you’re Japanese.

It’s a different card.

The government wants
to unify its information.

So your health card.

So if I go to the
hospital or I go to a clinic,

I have to bring my
national health card.

I use that to get my national rates.

I’m like, I don’t want to
pay full price for medicine.

I want to get my whatever
percentage I’m supposed to get.

So socialized medicine in Japan, very good.

I can get medicine at reasonable rates.

It’s cheaper to go to the
doctor and get medicine,

and then go to like the proper pharmacist
than it is to buy over the counter drugs.

So if I buy allergy medicine,
something I buy every year,

I can get 30, 40 days worth of
allergy medicine for about 1,000 yen.

If I buy over the counter,
it’s going to be like

10, 15 days for more
than that, probably 1,500.

The reason older people don’t
want to apply for the My Number

Card is they find it difficult
to remember the password.

And so this is it when you create this
card, you have to create a password.

And if you forget it, that could
cause you problems down the line.

So you know what, I
just don’t want to do it.

I just don’t want to create
the card in the first place.

I’m not obligated to.

The government really wants
everyone to have a My Number Card.

From November, you can
choose not to set a password.

Now, as I said, I’m not
a technological expert,

but I do have a base proficiency with
technology, and I do follow the news a lot.

I can see absolutely
no problems with having

a password unprotected
information connected to your knife.

I have to, how do I, how do you phrase it?

I can see no problem with having
your national health insurance

and other personal information
non-password protected.

Now, they’re saying that if there’s no
password, you won’t be able to do stuff.

You won’t be able to use the stuff online,

which these old people
wouldn’t be doing anyways.

But a lot of that in the
news, Japan is scams.

And those scams prey upon old people.

And so if we know the old people have cards

that are unprotected, there’s got
to be a way to abuse that system.

And that is going to be, I
was literally my first thought,

not that I was coming up
with a scheme to abuse them,

but my first thought was
someone’s going to find cards

without passwords and
then try to find a way

to abuse the system to either
get medicine they could resell

or get medicine at such
a discount or something.

It’s scams, that’s what they do.

I’m waiting for this to
go through in November

and then January, the
story start coming out

of old people losing
a bunch of money or

something via the my
number card with no password.

Recently, one of the
problems is the people in charge

of my number were
investigated as some of the cards

were registered with
other people’s personal

information like
they’re addressing stuff.

So that with the password
is already showing, there’s

already problems and mistakes
with the my number card system.

Then a lot of stories recently
about the Pokémon thefts.

And Pokémon cards have become
a common target for thieves.

Stories get broken into
last week, we did the

guy who got scammed,
but like reseller, website.

And the guy who resoled
the stuff had filled real boxes

with juice boxes and I
made like a very extended

joke about just using
the word box too much.

It’s very well done considering
it’s not scripted, very well done.

I think she’ll go back
and listen to that one.

A company executive
sold five fake Pokémon

cards at a second hand
store for 283,000 yen.

They were specifically from
a Tokyo Art Museum event,

which actually shows the
level of Pokémon in Japan that

you, they have Pokémon
events with national museums.

Like that’s, I guess they
would have other events,

but it’s just, it shows the
level of Pokémon in society

when they have like
art exhibits for Pokémon.

It like not just a
museum, like a local one.

Oh, that’s neat.

This is like Tokyo Art Museum.

That’s a big deal.

The owner said these seemed
off, maybe the quality of the paper,

they were little grainy,
something like that.

So he called the police
and he got the police.

The police got the Pokémon
company to send out someone to

appraise the cards, which is a
whole world I was unaware of.

There are people who work
for Pokémon, who’s, I don’t know

about singular job, but
probably primary job is to be able

to appraise the reality
and value of Pokémon cards.

Because of the rarity of
the cards, some of these

cards are selling for 100,000
yen, maybe even upwards.

So you can make a lot of money if
you can get the rare, rare, rare cards.

The suspect was then contacted because
the appraiser for the Pokémon company,

said these were not real,
these were counterfeit cards.

He claims he didn’t know
they were counterfeit

and the police are
still investigating.

I’m interested where this ends up,

because either he
committed a crime and got

caught, or he legitimately
bought these cards,

thinking they were real,
and he got screwed over.

So Japan, Korea, the United States, there,

working together, they’re
trying to work together more.

I’m very happy about South Korea
and Japan working together more,

because I really think these two countries,
I know they have a very hard history,

but I think together they would
be a force to be reckoned with.

And values-wise, they
actually both countries

have very, what I
consider positive values.

And the United States,
sort of that backing of the

United States is making them
more stable in the economy.

We will get better in this.

I just think it’s a good stuff.

A lot of this actually comes down to China,

keeps trying to exert pressure
and create tension in Asia.

So Japan, South Korea
and the United States,

we’re talking to like, hey,
China’s all very up-body.

Maybe we added together
and take care of stuff.

We share information and stuff like that.

And everyone’s like, yeah, this is great.

Except China’s like, hey, that’s not cool.

So recently there was
a summit of some sort.

I actually stopped carrying so many
summers, the G7 summit, all these summers.

I don’t really care anymore.

This Chinese ambassador
guy comes out and he goes,

no matter how blonde you die your
hair, how sharp you shape your nose.

You can never become
a European or American.

You can never be a Westerner.

You must know where your roots lie.

So he’s, oh, I mean, further.

Japan and South Korea
should work with China

to prosper together and revitalize East
Asia, revitalize Asia and benefit the world.

Weirdly, none of them
have taken this seriously.

South Korea and Japan have not
taken this call to their roots seriously.

And it might be because China
keeps more exclusionary attitude.

When it comes to every other instance,

they have flown airplanes
over Japanese airspace.

They have taken like aircraft carriers
and sailed them really close to Japan,

like just right out of
legal limits and stuff.

They’re always banging
heads with everyone in Asia

and then here they
are saying like, hey,

man, why don’t you guys
want to work with us?

And it’s like, dude, you keep
kind of kind of the blow is up.

There have been stories
in Indonesia, Japan of

Chinese diplomats and
high level politicians,

basically threatening
to wipe everyone else

in Asia off the map on
more than one occasion.

They aren’t taking it
primarily this seriously

because of the nature
of China towards Taiwan.

Taiwan is an independent
nation, it’s part of China.

Nobody knows.

Taiwanese people, they think they’re
independent and they want to keep it that way.

That’s not working out for them.

North Korea, very supported by China.

Japan and South Korea may all sort
of have their issues in North Korea.

North Korea keeps shooting missiles
over Japan if you want to be specific.

And there’s the abduction issues.

There was a bunch of
people, this is sort of history.

North Korea abducted a
bunch of Japanese nationals

and South Korean nationals and
brought them back to North Korea

and they haven’t returned
them and no one knows

if they’re alive or dead
and it’s a big problem.

China in its conflict, oh,
China Russia in its conflict

of Ukraine, China’s
kind of on Russia’s side.

And so basically the fundamental
philosophical differences

Japan and South Korea are
diametrically opposed to China.

So this call to remember your roots.

I don’t see how that’s
really going to work out.

I don’t see how you can say, hey,
look, you and I, we disagree on everything.

But we come, it’s actually
like maybe my sister and I.

So if you met me and
then you met my sister,

you would see two people
who are very different.

We are, we just, we have different values.

Now she’s not a bad person.

I hope I’m not a bad person.

I don’t want to talk about it.

And unless I got to get some
like someone to back me up.

But our fundamental philosophies about
life and how you should live life differ.

And I essentially, we just
stay away from each other.

And it works out fine.

Because she doesn’t try to impose
her lifestyle on me and vice versa.

I don’t tell her how to her live her life.

China on the other hand
is telling other Asian nations

how to live their lives and that they
should sort of succumb to China’s power.

But it would be like
going to me and saying,

you, despite the fact
you agree with everything

your sister thinks,
should align yourself

with your sister because
you come from the same family

because you come from the
same house, that kind of thing.

And that’s just not how it works out.

China then went on to declare
that the US is exaggerating

ideological differences to
so confrontation and division.

Now Japan and America have had
a very positive relationship overall.

There’s issues, of course,
there’s always going

to be issues between
two different countries.

But overall, they have a
very positive relationship.

And this sowing ideological differences

in confrontation, again, if you
go back through the vast library

of Ninja Ninja Japan stories
and just go through everyone

where China has
mentioned, I think you’re going

to see a lot of stories of
China almost purposefully

sowing confrontation and division
when they don’t even have to.

So while Baffy did a story
about a kid who had cornrows.

So one of his parents
was black, one of his

parents is Japanese,
he has kind of puffy hair.

And he was going to go to
his high school graduation.

So he said to his daddy,
he’s going to look neat.

What’s a good hairstyle?

He goes to cornrows, sort of
traditional hairstyle for our people.

So let’s do that.

So he went to a salon, got cornrows.

I have never had cornrows.

I think it’s illegal for a man of
my complexion to get cornrows.

But he went to a salon.

I do know it takes a long time.

So he put a lot of effort
into making his hair look good.

He shows up at graduation.

The teachers are like, no,
man, I don’t like that haircut.

So you don’t get to graduate today.

So when they put them
in a different room upstairs,

so when they call your name, you
don’t come downstairs, and he just left.

And then they tried to like,
well, he decided to leave.

Well, he decided to leave
because you guys stuck him

in a room and told him he wasn’t
going to be allowed to graduate.

I really like the follow up
to this story just recently.

A group of volunteers for Juneteenth
decided to have their own ceremony.

And it was better with way cooler hair.

I could get into the details.

You don’t really need–
they basically got up.

They had a graduation.

They had a whole thing going on.

And they’re like, hey, we’d
like to celebrate this kid.

He graduated from high school.

He came to the front.

He said, thank you.

I feel special.

I feel more accepted in his story.

He’s kind of made it clear that,
again, Japan is a country is changing.

You got more and more mixed kids.

Japan is a society’s less homogenous.

And progress is going
to have these hiccups,

but it is going to happen, especially
with supportive people out in the world.

So I think that is a very
nice palette cleanser,

a very nice little story about
people saying, that kid’s important.

Since we’re talking about
schools, the city of Yuruma

doesn’t want to standardize school
uniforms as abolishing schools traditions.

And let me start the whole thing again.

City of Aruma doesn’t want
to standardize school uniforms

as abolishing schools traditional uniforms
would have a negative effect on students.

But I was like, what negative effect?

Because I know school
uniforms in Japan high

school to high school
are technically different.

But for the boys, it’s a blazer.

They might be slightly different colors.

The girls do talk about
the skirts and stuff.

But if you standardize them all, there’s

not really anything you
can play about anymore.

You just need, again, like a symbol or
something to show what high school you go to.

If that’s important, the fact
that you go to high schools

enough, again, this like
tiered system of this high

school is better than
that high school and stuff.

I don’t see any value in that.

So I was like, what are
the negative effects?

And then someone else
actually quite smartly asked

the same question said, it would be
diminishing pride and their sense of belonging.

But again, they could belong to the high
school group, the high school demographic.

The reason they started talking about this

is they were talking about the differences
in price in different school uniforms.

So in 2023, there was
a 16,000 yen difference

between the highest and
lowest priced school uniform.

For boys, the expense of
the cheap end was $50,930.

Yeah, not always.

And the high end was $66,700.

So depending on what uniform you
get or what school you go to, you’re

going to spending more or less
money, these things are expensive.

And so what this is actually about
is if we can standardize the price,

we could buy and bulk, we can
make more, we can make the cheaper.

And that would help out
mid to lower income families.

Not spend a ton of money.

They have another thing
in Japan where all the kids

have to get this backpack,
this leather backpack.

It’s called land sale.

I don’t know where that name come from.

I should actually look into
that because it is interesting.

But now my kids are too old.

They don’t use them anymore.

They’re stupid.

They’re like 50, 60,000 yen.

They’re ridiculous.

Now they do use them for a long time.

So they got to be sturdy,
but– man, give me 20,000 yen.

I’ll get you a backpack
that’s going to last five years.

Girls, the low end is 70,543 yen.

And the high end is 84,838.

So if you are a boy and you get the
cheapest uniform, you get 50,000 yen.

If you’re a girl and you get the
cheapest uniform, it’s 20,000 yen more.

If you are a girl and you get the
most expensive uniform, it’s 84,000 yen.

This was justified
because they all wear vests.

They vests come with the female uniform.

And justified because of the
fabric, the high end uniform.

In another prefecture, they
standardized the uniforms,

and it brought the price
down to 6 to 8,000 yen cheaper.

So the low end, 50,000
yen uniform, you could

drop that by 6,000, even
time for like 45,000 yen.

So, again, these uniforms,
they’re important in one way,

but it’s so stupid because the importance
is constructed, and I don’t believe it.

But I went to a high school or I
wore t-shirts and jeans every day.

So maybe that was my uniform.

I don’t know.

I just don’t put value in this.

I understand.

I actually am okay with the uniform system.

I think the uniform system
should be designed to be affordable.

I like when the school
has decided to go unisex.

So everyone just got
pants in a shirt and a jacket.

And if the girls wanted skirts, that
was extra, but that was a choice.

I liked when they made them from uni-glow,
so they were like 10,000, 20,000 yen.

Because, yes, we paid
for it, but it was expensive.

And it’s soft.

OK, so the story, big international
story, is that a guy vandalized the policy.

And he put his name– I think
him and his girlfriend’s name on it.

I did like when I read
that story that his excuse

was he didn’t know the call of
see him was of historical importance.

That’s what his lawyer said.

So he did it, and he got in trouble.

He’s looking like five years in prison,

and he’s crying, going like, no,
please don’t try and make the prison.

I don’t want to go to prison.

Well, dumb shit.

Not only did you vandalize it,
you put your stupid name on it.

Well, this thing happens
all over the place.

And in Japan, pretty much every
building is a historical site of some sort.

A 17-year-old boy violated the
cultural properties protection law.

So that’s the law of, if it’s
historically important, don’t touch it.

So this is kind of like, keep
your hands to your self law.

He carved letters using his fingernails.

So he was at a temple.

And temples are made of
wood, so if you have a strong

fingernail I was looking
at mine, I couldn’t do that.

But I cut my fingernails
all the way down for

judo, so a different
story, and you don’t care.

So he was used to,
maybe at a long fingernail

or a strong fingernail, and
he started carving his name.

He carved a big J, and then he wrote Julian,
making it incredibly clear who it is.

Now, here’s an idea.

What if you’d written someone else’s name?

So you get the thrill of vandalizing
and making your Mark in a historical site.

OK, so this is something I did.

I, my first year of university,
I fucked up housing.

I didn’t get an apartment.

I thought I was going
to get campus housing,

and then it was full, and I didn’t get
it, and ended up in a lottery system.

It didn’t look like I was going to get it.

My university has a frat
system, the Greek system.

So they had frat houses.

Now, I had no intention of joining
a frat, but they had empty rooms.

And it’s better for them to
have people in those rooms

paying a little rent
than it is to have those

rooms empty and not
making any money at all.

So I ended up for my
first year of university

living in a frat house where I was not a
member of the frat, which is a really weird.

But when I say the whole sentence out loud,

I just think that is one of the
weirdest things that’s ever happened.

They did spend the entirety of the
year trying to get me to join the frat.

I was not interested at all.

And it was a very–
I mean, as far as I yet

to live with another
guy, but it was fair.

I think they pressured my
roommate to get me to join.

So it’s like, hey, Peter likes judo.

You should join the judo
club and be really close

friends with Peter, and
then he’ll join the frat.

And then we’ll get $365 a year.

Because he got to pay a dollar a
day for these guys to be your friends.

That was back when I went to university.

So it’s probably a lot more now.

So this guy joined judo.

But he– I don’t know if he
had any real interest in judo.

And so basically, he
also has a weird attitude.

And I’m now gotten into judo stories.

I explained, don’t do this
step or you’ll get thrown.

And he was looking at me like, ha, ha.

I’m going to do this step.

And then he did this step in my through.

I said, this is just going to get worse.

The more you do this one,
move, the harder the counter gets.

And he was like, ha, I got you now.

And then he did it really big.

And he did it three, four, five times.

And I got really frustrated.

Because I was trying to help him.

And so then I just threw
him super, super hard

and just ran him into the floor
and he lost his breath for a minute.

But he didn’t get hurt.

But he was shaken and put it that way.

He didn’t last very long in judo.

Again, because I don’t think he
wanted to be in there in the first place.

Anyways, I was living this frat house.

Overall, not the worst experience.

Not as bad as I certainly
thought it was going to be.

Because I thought I would live
there and look for another place to live.

And then I ended up just
riding it out for the entire year.

The guys were fine.

They didn’t have any–
it wasn’t like the movies.

Like the Greek system in
American comedy movies.

But I was on– they had a little balcony.

It was wood.

It was really cheap.

And I was standing there.

And I started very much
like this kid just scraping.

I think I had a fork or an knife.

I just took scraping into it.

I was like, oh, I should vandalize this.

Because I don’t really like
the Greek system or whatever.

And someone in the house had pissed me off.

I was like, but if I write my
name, they can track it back to me.

Because it’s my name.

If I write Chuck Me Veest on something,
I’m like, hey, I think I know who did that.

So I wrote Fuzzy
Zellwager, which is a golfer.

I don’t know anything about golf.

I’ve played golf with my uncle once.

And I’ve gone to driving rain.

I’ve gone to driving ranges a few times.

But I don’t really follow golf.

So I don’t know why this golfer’s
name was in my head at that moment.

Maybe it just seemed to connect to
the frat system for me or something.

So I vandalized their house
with the name of a famous golfer

who never had been there, figuring
that if they were like, who wrote this?

And then you can just look at it and go,
well, apparently, Fuzzy Zellwager wrote it.

And that’s my vandalization story.

And I never got in trouble or went to jail.

Because I’m smarter than the two
fucking idiots who did it elsewhere.

Dave just moved in the background.

He was in his little bed.

And it’s hot.

So he goes in the bed.

And then he goes and he
stretches out next to that big pillow.

Sometimes he lies on top of the
pillow, but he stretches out his lines.

He’s a very long dog for how small he is.

He’s got very long sexy legs.

Hurt Everyone Equally

  • Remember that 23 year old who I was very upset with who was going to sail around the world? 23 years old has a job at a company that’s going to take six months off from his job of that company to go on a boat that he’s going to sail around the world in?🎙 00:00:00.000–00:00:21.360
  • I maybe cursed him too strongly because he has given up his plan to sail around the world, which I’m not sad about. I’m not happy about it. Like I don’t want people to not achieve their dreams, but I was so annoyed🎙 00:00:21.360–00:00:34.963
  • at 23 years old. I was still in university and I couldn’t take six months off anything to just dick around So he basically His plan to sail around the world he left and then immediately got caught in a storm on November 12th🎙 00:00:35.843–00:00:55.643
  • And then returned back There were problems with the self-steering system and the power generation system system. So he needed to come back, figure this stuff out. And he wants to try again next year. So how do I feel? Because part of me thinks if you have a self-steering system🎙 00:00:55.643–00:01:18.897
  • and you’re not really sailing around the world by yourself, I don’t know because you got to sleep. So what do you do? I actually never thought about it before. Before we had like automatic systems that could steer🎙 00:01:18.897–00:01:32.377
  • the boat for you, which probably wasn’t that long ago. People sailed around the world. I guess back then you couldn’t do it by yourself. You had to do it in like at least pairs. So one person slept while the other one sailed the boat.🎙 00:01:32.356–00:01:45.116
  • Yeah, it’s a weird thing. And it’s one of those problems that’s a super rich person problem. Because you have to have enough money to buy a boat. You have to have enough money to take six months off work to sail your boat.🎙 00:01:45.116–00:02:02.396
  • with self-steering navigation systems. I couldn’t afford the self-steering navigation system. Never mind the boat that it goes on. Yeah, I’m weirdly bitter about this. People’s success and abilities and being rich and stuff,🎙 00:02:02.457–00:02:19.337
  • usually nothing. I think maybe the combination of being so young and being able to do this is what’s pissing me off because I was never afforded any similar opportunity. in any way. I started working at like 14, I mean nine if you consider delivering🎙 00:02:19.337–00:02:42.151
  • papers but we could skip by that like 1415 I started working summer jobs and I never was not in school. I wasn’t very particularly studious so maybe that counts. But I worked. I was, man, and I’m not gonna get into my work history but🎙 00:02:42.151–00:03:02.131
  • I’m trying to think of the longest amount of time I have had. off and it’s got to be capped out at two weeks. I don’t think I’ve been unemployed while I looked for jobs and stuff. I don’t think that counts.🎙 00:03:02.131–00:03:17.280
  • It’s certainly not in the same vein as I’m going to take time off and sail around the world. So I mean I don’t want him to not sail around the world but I do want to bitch about it. That’s it. That’s where we are.🎙 00:03:17.280–00:03:32.560
  • I’m not angry at him and I don’t want him to fail, but I do want to be able to whine as much as I am. And next year, when we revisit this topic, because I will be following his career with great interest and vile vinegar, malice, I’ll complain about it again next year.🎙 00:03:32.560–00:03:58.423
  • So look forward to that. Okay, I have a set of stories. And at the end of those two stories, I have a- very sort of disturbing conclusion. There’s the two parties called the Constitutional Democratic Party.🎙 00:03:58.423–00:04:13.106
  • I love the Japanese political party names. They’re all very dystopian future. The Constitutional Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party want a law that bans donations made to organizations under the influence of brainwashing.🎙 00:04:13.106–00:04:32.346
  • Even the phrasing is already like sci-fi. So I kinda like that. The ruling party wants the law that says religious organizations and corporations have to take care not to solicit donations under certain conditions.🎙 00:04:32.346–00:04:52.528
  • Now, this is Japan and Japanese laws, as I’ve probably mentioned many, many times, are often purposely vague. But this is on purpose, in this case, because what they’re saying is like, you can’t put🎙 00:04:52.528–00:05:05.168
  • a ban on people being brainwashed. making responsibility. So you have to punish the company. But then the problem comes up, how do you prove someone is brainwashed? Because if you walk into that person and go, did🎙 00:05:05.168–00:05:17.753
  • this religious organization brainwash you, they will say, no, that’s part of the brainwashing. And in that moment, they believe it maybe years later, uh, when they’ve been deprogrammed, they will change their mind and say, yes, I was brainwashed back then. This would be🎙 00:05:17.753–00:05:35.233
  • like being on drugs. When you’re on drugs, there’s actually often a very good chance that you don’t. you’re on drugs. Like, so I take let’s say medication and the medication changes the chemistry in my🎙 00:05:35.233–00:05:45.798
  • brain and I am happier or more angry or something. If you said is that the medication, there might be a good chance I say no. That’s just my mood today. But then later on I go, oh, that was really different from what I’m normally like. That was clearly the medication having an impact.🎙 00:05:45.798–00:06:00.198
  • Brainwashing falls into the same category. You can’t rely on the person to take responsibility for their actions in this case. So the state of mind is difficult. proof. This is aimed at the unification church. They have had a lot of things come out over🎙 00:06:00.918–00:06:18.036
  • the last while. We have their influence in politics. We have accusations of brainwashing and the very sort of cult-like way they run their their group is coming to light and they’re saying like we have to cut them off. So we need laws in place to do that. They’re not🎙 00:06:18.036–00:06:36.396
  • targeting them but they’re saying religious organizations are included along with corporations. But corporations don’t brainwash you like a religious organization like. That’s the first story is about the introduction of a new law.🎙 00:06:36.396–00:06:50.961
  • Japanese government is probing the unification church specifically. What they want to do is remove their religious corporation status, therefore losing their tax exemption status. This is very interesting because they’ve got to this point where they’ve caused so much🎙 00:06:50.961–00:07:09.121
  • trouble in Japan that this religious organization is going to lose their tax exemption status. Which is what keeps religious organizations afloat. most of the time. The government wants to come and look at their books, which is probably🎙 00:07:09.121–00:07:26.007
  • the scariest thing for them to do. In conjunction with the previous law, they can say how were these donations made? What was the situation? If they kept that law vague, they can apply that law to this probe. Now they can start shutting them down.🎙 00:07:26.007–00:07:41.747
  • Kishida, he’s very cautious about the probe. But his approval rate has took a huge hit recently. He’s down to like 33% now. He’s worried about basically the right to freedom of religion in Japan. You Japan’s very serious about the Constitution and its freedoms.🎙 00:07:41.747–00:08:01.079
  • This came out during the pandemic when freedom of movement is part of the Constitution, but how can you then put people in lockdown? So that was one of the problems he faced with when he took over as Prime Minister.🎙 00:08:01.079–00:08:14.219
  • But there are currently 22 civil cases going on against the unification church. So action has to be taken. So there’s a law and it’s the right to question law. So the right to question a religious organization.🎙 00:08:14.219–00:08:45.099
  • Organization law and it was introduced after the 1995 AWM attack. So if you’re very young, you might not know. AWM was an occult and what they did, if you look up on the internet, the SARREN gas attack. There’s probably only be one result and it’s these people released🎙 00:08:26.795–00:08:42.915
  • this gas on the Tokyo subway and it killed some people but it had like long-term effects on many people who were on the train, the SARREN gas. And it was one of the most deadly attacks in Japan. It was like a terrorist attack.🎙 00:08:42.915–00:08:58.475
  • founder, the the on leader, their leadership, I think in total was put in prison. Some of them were executed. It was a big change in shift in some of the freedoms available to religious organizations in Japan.🎙 00:08:58.646–00:09:12.526
  • Those laws that were put into place then are now being applied to the unification church. Some of the things that have come out is followers without kids are encouraged to adopt kids from other followers.🎙 00:09:12.526–00:09:28.786
  • But they’ve been doing this internally. So they’ve actually been breaking a law because you need prefectural So you’d state permission For adoption, but they’ve just been like oh you don’t have kids🎙 00:09:29.763–00:09:41.003
  • You have two kids give one of your kids to this couple and they do it and they don’t report it to anybody That’s against the law in Japan 750 kids have been moved or adopted since 1981 So all of that is happening and it’s all coming out now🎙 00:09:41.003–00:09:59.163
  • because of these probes and the problems with the unification church and donations and taxes and money and all this other stuff. It’s all a very complicated web of things to examine. Now the disturbing conclusion🎙 00:09:59.811–00:10:14.811
  • that I mentioned earlier when I started is that this is all started because of the assassination of Abbe. And Abbe was assassinated by a man who made a homemade shotgun and he was angry that the unification church🎙 00:10:14.811–00:10:30.811
  • had basically screwed over his life by indoctrinating his mother. The thing is… Again, the disturbing element of this is what that guy wanted was focused, brought to the unification church. He assassinated Abbe, Abbe was not actually part of the unification church.🎙 00:10:30.811–00:10:51.410
  • He did give a speech. And his grandfather was apparently the guy who brought the unification church into Japan. So there was a relationship there, but he wasn’t like a member. And so the guy was looking for a high level unification church member to assassinate saw🎙 00:10:51.410–00:11:06.870
  • Abbe’s a target of opportunity and took it and killed him. But that has been what has brought all this attention about the unification church to the media. In a very awful and dark way, he was successful. So he’s like🎙 00:11:06.870–00:11:25.345
  • I’m gonna assassinate someone and bring the unification church to the forefront and everyone’s gonna look at it and that is exactly what’s happened. And it sets a very scary precedent for anyone who wants something brought to🎙 00:11:25.345–00:11:37.005
  • media’s attention. I don’t know if it would be, I don’t know how you express it properly. The problem going forward is if it happens a again and again and again, each time it happens, it’s going to lose impact.🎙 00:11:37.005–00:11:51.089
  • So the fact that this was the first one, very impactful. The second, the third, the fourth, it will actually have less impact. So then you have to get more creative in your way of bringing attention to a problem.🎙 00:11:51.089–00:12:02.209
  • Certainly violence is not the way we would prefer it done. I think that’s pretty fair across the board. But it was a conclusion after looking like they’re putting laws into place, they’re examining🎙 00:12:02.209–00:12:13.089
  • them, they’re going to take away their tax exam status. They’re looking at things that have happened since the 80s in this organization. That’s a lot that’s happened and it’s all happened because this guy assassinated that🎙 00:12:13.089–00:12:23.972
  • bay. Since we’re talking about taxes, I mean, this is, this is why you come to a podcast to have those deep tax oriented conversations because everyone loves shooting the shit about taxes. It’s weird the stuff I get interested in because I actually, you know, in the political realm🎙 00:12:23.972–00:12:42.972
  • and very interested in how taxes work and you hear about taxes in other countries, you hear about like you’re like, anyways, I come from a socialist democracy. I do have a buddy. leave in socialism to a degree where I am very oriented towards high taxes, high services,🎙 00:12:42.972–00:13:00.143
  • but you have to get the services for the high taxes. The problem is when you pay high taxes and you get no service back. Japan, the Japan National Tax Agency has said that this year, 83.9 billion yen has been an undeclared taxable income has happened. Basically rich🎙 00:13:00.143–00:13:19.003
  • people have been trying to hide their money with the current default. deflation of the yen The money isn’t worth as much. They’re trying to keep as much as they can to themselves and keep it hidden away from the government🎙 00:13:19.003–00:13:32.673
  • This is 72% up and it’s the highest number since 2009 So 83.9 billion yen in taxable income that has been undeclared 72% higher than previous years there are now currently 2,227 cases of the Japan National Tax Agency looking in🎙 00:13:33.353–00:13:55.513
  • to people’s finances. This is primarily Japanese rich people making investments overseas and then not declaring the money they make off those investments. So if I make an investment, let’s just say,🎙 00:13:55.511–00:14:08.271
  • I just buy a stock market, which is a broad band of stocks. And it’s all American. So I invest in the American stock market, not the Asian one. It goes up. So the yen goes down and the dollar goes up.🎙 00:14:10.351–00:14:25.311
  • And then because all my money is now in the. American stock market in dollars, I’ve made a ton of money if I pull that money out. I’m supposed to declare that income. And basically these rich people who have the ability to do that are not because the money🎙 00:14:25.311–00:14:38.482
  • still sort of floating out there in the stock market. But that means this taxable income isn’t coming back into the tax system, which means, you know, services suffer because they’re not getting the money they’re supposed to get.🎙 00:14:38.482–00:14:54.042
  • And when they say tax the rich, there is a burden there and I think it should happen. Japan is trying to tax the rich fairly. I don’t think again they’re going out of their way to like hurt anybody but tax🎙 00:14:54.042–00:15:07.216
  • people try to hide the rich people try to hide their money the tax people are trying to get that money back. They’re not trying to get more. This does happen probably in every country. Something I think it was Sweden. Sweden’s punishments🎙 00:15:07.216–00:15:20.616
  • are based on your income. I think it’s Sweden is one of these sort of Nordic countries. So basically if I’m driving I’m speeding and I get pulled over by a cop and I get a ticket. And I have like let’s say I have a very mediocre income. I get the average ticket. So it’s like let’s say $100🎙 00:15:20.616–00:15:36.678
  • It’s because I was I was being a bad boy If a rich person in like a Ferrari is speeding which is far more likely because they have a Ferrari It will be measured to their income so it could be up to like thousands and thousands and thousands dollars🎙 00:15:36.678–00:15:50.718
  • There was a story of like a guy you got a hundred thousand dollar Ticket because he was so rich But I mean that’s the only way to have an impact on rich people is to have the pun is so a hundred dollars for me🎙 00:15:50.718–00:16:02.538
  • It hurts $100 for an incredibly rich person means nothing so they can just keep speeding because they’re just going to get these $100 tickets. Their system is it has to hurt for everybody equally so the relationship has to be equal.🎙 00:16:02.538–00:16:16.629
  • It took me to a, oh my God, taxes are so much fun because we’re talking about money now. I did read a thing and it was, so let’s say I’m walking and I drop one yet. Now if I’m going to hurry, it is not worth my time to stop pick up that one yet and🎙 00:16:16.629–00:16:33.909
  • So let’s say I have to catch a train. It’s not worth one yen for me to stop. So I was just like, you know what? Just let it go. I’ll drop the one yen move on What the the story I read was it was a long time ago. What is the equivalency of Jay Z?🎙 00:16:34.044–00:16:47.844
  • What does Jay Z have to drop to? Equal me dropping one yen. So like it’s not worth his time to pick it up And I think I remember correctly the number was a hundred and eighty seven dollars So basically Jay Z he could drop a hundred and eighty seven dollars and if he’s in a rush🎙 00:16:47.844–00:17:04.324
  • It actually isn’t worth his time to stop and pick up a hundred and eighty seven I’m related to Japan or news, but when we get talking about money or taxes and stuff, I mean, that’s actually there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there.🎙 00:17:04.324–00:17:17.304
  • So don’t, you know, don’t stop those tax conversations. Have fun with it. Twitter. I actually don’t want to talk about Twitter. I don’t want to talk about Elon. I’m waiting to see. I’m one of those people who’s really waiting to see.🎙 00:17:17.304–00:17:34.304
  • Will Twitter, which in the social media landscape has been an institution, will it actually? fail because it would be really interesting to see my space. Someone was said to me the other day this would be a great opportunity for my space to come🎙 00:17:34.304–00:17:48.847
  • back but Twitter my space is more equivalent to Facebook Twitter is more equivalent to something else that’s so you need something else so I think it was mastodon and hive are the two main competitors who are up and coming as I🎙 00:17:48.847–00:18:01.567
  • think it was last episode I said Twitter has a massive presence in Japan and Elon Musk has taken notice and he said Elon said that all you know everyone says that Twitter is very America-centric it’s actually very🎙 00:18:01.567–00:18:13.467
  • Japan-centric because roughly the same daily number of users in Japan is in the US, despite Japan having won the third the total population. So percentage-wise, a much larger significant number of people in Japan used Twitter than🎙 00:18:13.475–00:18:29.175
  • in America. But in total, they’re very similar numbers because you have 76.9 million users in the US and 58.95 million users in Japan. Elon’s declaration, which is completely unreasonable. Oh, sorry.🎙 00:18:29.175–00:19:04.155
  • that clear. That’s about one third the population of Japan uses Twitter. It’s not one third the population of America uses Twitter. So he’s so Elon statement based off this was he wants Japanese numbers and Japanese usage in every🎙 00:18:45.413–00:19:01.433
  • country which I think is a very unrealistic goal. I don’t think that’s gonna happen especially because every country has their own sort of social media environment that they prefer that fits what they want. Twitter for some🎙 00:19:01.433–00:19:14.933
  • reason clicks with Japanese. these people, it’s not going to click with every culture around the world. And again, the company may be dead soon. Am I willing to make a prediction? I am because if I’m🎙 00:19:14.933–00:19:26.347
  • wrong, it does not matter. The way it’s been going, like I Facebook, I actually thought would have been dead almost completely by now. I thought Facebook would have been like my space, but it’s such a large infrastructure for so many people. That’s why it’s still🎙 00:19:26.347–00:19:45.227
  • alive. That’s why it’s still going despite it’s dying. It’s just dying slower than I expected. So the death of Twitter should probably mimic that. It should be dead, but slower than you expect. Because he’s fired so much staff,🎙 00:19:45.227–00:19:57.945
  • usage is going to become worse. And that’s what’s good. So right now you have the people who are like, I’m looking for an alternative, I don’t like Elon Musk. Then you have people who are like, the functionality has worsened.🎙 00:19:59.745–00:20:11.585
  • I’m gonna go look for something that’s more functional. That’s gonna be the next group that bails. And then the young people coming up who are going to be, because if you have a social media company.🎙 00:20:11.585–00:20:39.045
  • What you want more than anything else is young people. They’re going to look at something else. They’re going to look at Twitter and go look. All these people have already bailed on Twitter. Why would I start now?🎙 00:20:22.533–00:20:32.773
  • And that’s where the company is really going to die. So it’s really, I guess we’re looking at the next generation. It’s not, I was thinking like two, three years, but it’s probably more like five, maybe six, and then Twitter will just be a wasteland.🎙 00:20:32.773–00:20:43.573
  • It won’t be anything anymore. I could probably afford to buy it. Five mayors went to a meeting. So in Tokyo apparently they have a meeting. It’s a bunch of mayors. from all over Japan. 900 mayors of cities attended this event in Tokyo. This has actually scaled back🎙 00:20:43.573–00:21:02.344
  • over the last two years because of the pandemic. This year it went back to normal. So I guess the pandemic is finished, although we all know it’s not. This kind of attitude and behavior is really weird to me. Like, we got to treat the pandemic like it’s still happening to actually get rid of🎙 00:21:02.344–00:21:21.384
  • it. I think the problem is now people are acting like it’s over. So it’s just going to keep going. going, unfortunately forever. A weird side issue of the pandemic is I wanted to grow a beard, but I have found that if I let my beard grow while wearing a mask, I get really bad🎙 00:21:21.384–00:21:38.792
  • skin. So I can’t grow a beard again until we stop wearing masks. But I now I’m getting to the point where I think we are going to be wearing masks for years and years and years. I don’t feel like I’m going to ever go into work without a mask on again. I walk to the🎙 00:21:38.792–00:21:55.992
  • train station without a mask on because I live in the countryside, but on the train I wear a mask and then once I’m in the city again, I wear a mask. So that’s most of all day when I’m outside of the house I’m wearing a mask.🎙 00:21:55.992–00:22:08.280
  • Anyways, five mayors went to get some food after this event in Tokyo. They all got COVID and they held brought it back to their cities because the pandemic isn’t over. I think anyone who’s listened to Ninja N🎙 00:22:08.280–00:22:19.420
  • Englishphyillonia under those new laws. So this is the first arrest ever in Japan of someone taking online tests for companies. So if you want to join a company in Japan, they probably have some aptitude tests or skill tests or general knowledge tests that you take online. That’s how they🎙 00:22:19.420–00:22:48.838
  • filter out some applicants. So this guy has he’s been asked, this was very specific. He’s been asked to take the tests for 300 people over the last six months. That does not mean he took the test for 300 people. He’s.🎙 00:22:48.838–00:23:31.618
  • He’s had 300 requests. How many he’s actually done was not included in the information, so I can’t make a strong statement on that. As little research as I might do for Ninja News Japan, I do want the things I say to be relatively accurate.🎙 00:23:04.323–00:23:18.963
  • This is the first arrest of illegal production of electromagnetic records. There’s that. Electromagnetic seems out of deal. I think you would just say digital, but whatever. So what he’s doing, he’s taking a test,🎙 00:23:19.963–00:23:33.883
  • and that creates a record. in the system for the company, but that has been falsified. So he’s committing a kind of fraud. Arrested. I did have the secondary question of, let’s say I want this job.🎙 00:23:33.883–00:23:50.295
  • I have my associate take the test for me, essentially the aptitude test. I go in to do the job. What happens then? Because I didn’t pass the aptitude test. I may not have the aptitude for the actual job.🎙 00:23:50.295–00:24:04.295
  • This is a fake it until you make it kind of situation. If it’s technical knowledge that I don’t have, it’s going to be very clear that I do not have that technical knowledge. And that’s where it sort of falls apart.🎙 00:24:04.295–00:24:17.649
  • And I think maybe they’ll figure out really quick that you didn’t pass the test. We have had a series of animal attacks. Most of the other animals, it was monkeys and stuff. We had dolphins. Now it’s gotten to be almost exclusively boars because we have two wild boar stories.🎙 00:24:17.649–00:24:38.649
  • One, quite light, a boar was running around Nagoya sort of the outskirts of the city and there were 10 people sort of having a picnic and the boar charged at the 10 people and the cops had been out looking for the boar.🎙 00:24:38.512–00:24:52.952
  • They’d actually heard reports of the boar doing his damage. So a cop stood in between the people and the boar that was charging drew his weapon, aimed at the boar and said, I’ll shoot you. The boar.🎙 00:24:52.952–00:25:38.952
  • Realizing that the police officer was dead serious turned tail and ran Police officer did not discharge his weapon It was really interesting. So I’m assuming it was actually the stance in the shout that made the Borg of note🎙 00:25:09.916–00:25:25.516
  • Not worth it versus him knowing what a gun was unlike us had seen a gun before But I don’t know how smart wars are they seem to be like see stuff in charge He saw something he was like odds big and it’s not backing down. I’m not charging. This isn’t worth it🎙 00:25:25.516–00:25:38.556
  • That seems like more realistic to me But but In Kanagawa Prefecture, Bohr comes down out of the mountains into a town, starts charging people all over town. It actually hurt two people on record.🎙 00:25:38.556–00:25:53.108
  • Knocked a guy down, and you get knocked down in the street by a Bohr that’s like 80 kilos, that’s big. That’s, I am currently 87 kilos. I’m six foot tall, I’m 87 kilos, that’s like maybe close to 200 pounds.🎙 00:25:53.108–00:26:07.388
  • This is a Bohr that’s one meter long, so almost half my height. And… like lengthwise, if I was lying to, that’s hard to explain. Anyways, it’s one meter long, but it has the same masses me, but I’m like all fat, it’s all muscle.🎙 00:26:07.388–00:26:22.915
  • Yeah, that’s a big animal knocking people over. So you’re getting hurt. It got into an elementary schoolyard, like the field area. Animal control showed up, and they had these electric prods, and they were hitting it with the electric prods,🎙 00:26:22.915–00:26:37.235
  • but it wasn’t actually doing enough to stop the bore. So this dude comes out, I had a Pokemon joke in that. is very ineffective, but I’ve already passed that moment. This is I should maybe script better? Because yeah, I had in brackets, it’s very ineffective. It’s so like electricity🎙 00:26:37.235–00:26:55.736
  • type. I guess the boars earth type and electricity type would be weak. I guess explaining the concept doesn’t do much what I could have just done the joke. But welcome to the life of Chung with beef chest where I have really good ideas and then explain them instead of🎙 00:26:55.736–00:27:11.536
  • doing. Anyways, guy comes out. He’s part of the animal control group. He has a spear, like a full-on traditional big-tipped two-meter-long spear and he runs the bore through and he kills it. Which is like really hardcore. Normally they would use a gun. They🎙 00:27:11.536–00:27:33.034
  • would have a rifle or a shotgun and they would shoot the bore. You know it’s not particularly nice but it’s this bore is running around hurting people so I kind of see both sides. There is a point that has been brought up multiple times is no one has explained why🎙 00:27:33.034–00:27:46.194
  • this guy has a spear. Now he is part of animal control. So, he would have the spear for animal control, but defies the explanation of why do you have a spear for animal control instead of a shotgun or rifle like every other animal control person🎙 00:27:46.194–00:28:06.254
  • would have? No answer. Because who’s going to walk up to the guy who just killed 80 kilo boar with a spear and start questioning his methods. Because it’d be like, do you want the boar out there running around?🎙 00:28:06.254–00:28:23.094
  • Do you want the boar running around? to deal with me and the spear. Those are your choices. So it is a sad animal had to be killed, but an interesting side point is the animal is then taken to a facility cleaned and the meat
    from the boar is then given to local restaurants to serve. So the guy who speared the boar could go to a restaurant and eat the boar he speared, which is I don’t know if that’s the circle of life or just what you get for being such a badass and having a spear and killing an animal with it.