Tag: Japan

A 2% podcast

(upbeat music)

It’s the first episode of
Ninja News Japan for 2024

and the beginning of 2024
has been rough, to say the

least, the first day, Japan
experience an earthquake.

There was a stabbing on the subway.

The next day, I’ll start again.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

This is the first episode of
Ninja News Japan for 2024.

Thank you for joining us.

I, all the other podcasts are saying like,

oh thank you for staying with us for
another, it might be your first episode.

So, if you haven’t stuck with
us the whole time, screw you.

No.

2024 has been a very rough
start for Japan as a country.

The very first day, January
1st, there was an earthquake,

there was a stabbing on the subway.

The next day, there was a huge fire,

there was a plane crash, a
plane crashed into another plane

as it was landing.

And then worst of all, I got sick.

So, there might be a very strange
energy today because, yes, I’m sick,

but I’m also like really
high on about 20 drugs.

That’s not particularly
serious, not life-threatening.

I mean, don’t care, you just
came here for entertainment.

And my health is, maybe my health
is your entertainment, I’m not sure.

It’s always a question of,

I have two podcasts, seeming
to be in Ninja News Japan,

seeming to be is where I do whatever
I want and I talk about anything.

Ninja News Japan is supposed to be
about the Japanese news, but I’m like,

these people gotta be interested
in me, are they? Maybe not.

So, maybe I just stick to the format
and we get to the actual news of the day.

I’ve already messed up my folders.

That’s the kind of
smooth transitionary

experience you can hope
for at Ninja News Japan,

while I’m sick, that I
won’t be able to find

the folder or the button
I’m supposed to push.

I have to say, no, no, I
don’t have to say anything.

I think if I didn’t do tangents,
this would be a 10 minute podcast.

I want to start all over again.

Let’s do that.

Let’s start all over again.

(upbeat music)

2024, it’s been a very dramatic
start for Japan as a country.

The very first day there was an earthquake.

There was a stabbing on a subway.

There was a big fire
in the shopping district.

These were all like one day
apart and then there was a plane

crash, airplane crashed into
another plane as it was landing.

I mean, worst of all, I’m sick.

I know, I know, that’s
the bit that probably

accepts you the most,
but what you might find

on this episode is a
very strange energy level,

because yes, I’m sick, but
I’m also on a lot of drugs.

I even make stand a couple extra ones

that I probably wasn’t
supposed to take in

combinations with the
ones I took in the first place.

But at this point, when you
get to a cocktail of like seven,

eight, nine, 10 pills, I
can’t see how throwing in

one or two more is really
gonna cause a big problem.

If I die at the end of this
podcast, you’ll know why though.

So like, this is not a murder.

This was me just going
like, I’m going to blast

my body with every drug
I have available to me.

So that I could put on the
show, the very first episode

in Engineers Japan for 2024,
you should feel good about that.

Right?

Like, I care that much to
get this episode out to you.

I’m willing to sacrifice my own health.

Is it like the third attempted start

at making a podcast today?

That’s again, the mindset,
the mental capacity, all gone.

It’s just, it’s just, I
got nothing upstairs.

So I’m going to read my notes.

I’m going to try to make commentary,

but I’m betting the commentary is
not the best part of the show today.

And that’s the kind
of smooth transitional

experience you can hope for and more
going into 2024 with Ninja Ninja Japan,

because couldn’t
find the right folder or

button to click to get
me here, but here we are.

And it’s a new year.

So you know, it’s talking
about New Year’s resolutions.

I don’t make any.

I try to improve a little bit every day.

And that sounds
facetious, but I actually do.

I subscribe to a couple of basic theories.

I do like the 2% theories,
what they call it, like,

if you have a choice of
doing nothing or something,

like 2% of something, you should do the
2%, because that’s better than nothing.

So if I’m like, oh, one of
the problems with New Year’s

resolutions is people
make these big ones like,

I’m going to go to the
gym every single day

and they go once or
twice and then they quit.

Whereas if your resolution
was, I’m going to do a push-up

until I’m comfortable enough to do two
push-ups, you probably could stick to it.

And that’s the 2% theory.

Like if you have a choice of doing
all nothing or one, you should do one.

It’s not as good as doing 100%, but
it is better than doing nothing at all.

And then you can improve
one to 2% every day.

Then overall, you will make progress.

So I actually believe more in that.

I don’t like the idea of, like, let’s
make a massive change all at once.

I like to wean myself
onto or off of things.

There is a company that makes apps on Davy.

They do a lot of lifestyle apps
and it’s like track your stuff.

Track your health, track your fitness,

track what you do in the
hopes of making small changes,

changes to your lifestyle
to improve your life.

But they have a unique insight
into what resolutions get quit,

what resolutions people
quit the most quickly.

And they were looking specifically
at people who quit after three days.

So we’re going to
go in reverse order.

We have five.

So this is the percentage
of people who quit after three

day, quit their resolution
after three days.

This is the percentage of people who
quit their resolution within three days.

There you go.

Again, the drugs are going to be
making this an entertaining podcast.

But for different reasons than
normal, people want to quit drinking.

It’s not healthy.

They’re going to do it 59.5%
quit within the first three days.

As in, they took a drink
within the first three days.

I think quitting drinking
over the holiday is a mistake.

I think you drink until
the end of the holiday.

And then you have your resolution
start at that point because you’re

going to have to do all
these social events and stuff.

So you might as well get
through those, finish that off.

And then, OK, now I’m
going to start drinking.

I made a resolution of sorts to only
drink alcohol during major holidays.

And it’s been very easy
to stick to because we

have some or vacation,
winter vacation in May.

There’s Golden Week in Japan.

So basically, I buy a bottle of something,
drink that over the course of the holiday.

And then when it’s gone, it’s gone.

And I don’t, I think that’s
actually a really nice way to do it.

Because I get to drink on
occasion when it’s convenient.

And then the rest of
the year when it’s actually

not that convenient to
drink anyways, I just don’t.

It’s nice.

A lot of people want to get healthier.

The next three in my mind
can all be lumped together.

People who say, I’m going to go running.

They probably go running
every day for the first two days.

And then their legs hurt and they
don’t go the third day and then they quit.

61.3% quit running
after three days.

I wouldn’t make it through the first run.

I’ve always hated running.

So my resolution would be to never run.

And that’s why I practice
due to my whole life.

So I never have to run.

I can stand my ground.

A dieting fasting.

I did intermittent fasting for a while.

And it was quite good.

It’s more of a mental thing.

But again, I didn’t just
jump into that either.

What I did was push my breakfast
back until it became lunchtime.

So let’s say breakfast at eight.

I would switch at eight 30
and then after a while at nine.

And then after a while at nine 30.

So my body got used to just eating later.

So I was able to do it that way.

And then I had lunch and then I did dinner.

So I had my two meals a day.

But because I had gotten used to
pushing it back, it wasn’t a big deal.

And that’s what I’m saying.

These people start dieting
or fasting immediately.

Again, during the holiday
when everyone’s like,

let’s have a snack, let’s
have some chocolate,

let’s have some this,
let’s have some that.

It didn’t work out 63%
quit within three days.

And then there’s the people who
say they’re going to go to the gym.

Just like running 65.9% give up on
going to the gym by the third day.

But the number one thing
that people have the most

trouble giving up, I guess,
smoking, which makes sense.

It’s addictive.

It’s a chemical.

It’s a lot harder to kick a chemical
than it is to start these other new habits.

71.3%.

Fail to give up smoking within
the first three days in the new year.

And again, I think quitting is the mistake.

You need to wean yourself, reduce how
many, so if you smoke a pack of cigarettes,

try to reduce that to 75% of a pack
for the first while, then 50, then 25.

And then maybe you get
down to a cigarette a day and

then try to do it a cigarette
every couple of days.

Weaning, I think, is
what people should be

doing, not quitting, quitting cold
turkey is something that doesn’t work.

The interesting flip
side to this is what is

the thing that people
sort of stick to the most.

So again, reverse
order, stretching 42.6%.

So people, 60% of people, if they start
stretching regularly, keep stretching.

I actually think that’s great.

Stretching is one of those
things where you can just do it.

You don’t need equipment.

You can do it at home.

You can do it at the morning.

You can do it at night.

Stretching is great.

You should stretch.

I should stretch more often.

Doing weights at home.

So not going to the gym,
doing weights at home 41.8%.

So again, about 60%
of people, if they start

doing weights at home,
they continue to do weights.

This is beyond
the three day mark.

So that doesn’t mean like
two weeks later, they don’t quit.

But forming a habit,
if you can get through

that first initial phase, you’re
more likely to keep going.

If you can, I think
it was 28 days.

If you can do something
consistently for 28

days, so if it’s once a
week for 28 weeks or

something like that,
then it becomes a habit

and you’re more likely to
just keep doing it forever.

Painting, it’s very nice, 39.5%,
and number one, yoga, 38.5%.

So most people who
start doing yoga continue

doing yoga, I assume
for longer than three days.

I would have bent
for a couple weeks.

Yoga and stretching,
though, they could basically.

I understand that yoga is a system,
but in my head, it’s just stretching.

So those should be clump together, I think.

High school marathons.

So now we’re talking about running again.

I did try to find that
sort of a tiny link

between the stories, but
after this, it gets pretty bad.

High school marathons.

Marathons in New Year’s
in Japan is a big deal.

This I think I’ve
said in previous years

when doing the new
Japan and heading towards

the end of the year,
or just starting out the

New Year, how much I
hate marathons on TV.

They have like a New
Year’s marathon and they turn

it on and they just leave
that on in the background.

I hate it so much.

I hate running first of all, but watching
running doesn’t make any sense.

I’m not really a big
fan of watching sports.

The only good thing
about the New Year really

is the compilations of the
best sports moments of the year.

I don’t watch American football
or soccer or basically any sports.

Even sports I like.

I like judo.

I don’t really want to watch judo.

I want to watch judo highlights.

I would love to watch
basketball highlights.

I would like to watch
cricket highlights a

sport I would never
watch, because the highlight

is the best thing that
happened that year.

So compilation videos
at the end of the year

of all the coolest stuff
that happened that

year, some of the best videos out
there running essentially marathon.

You don’t need to
watch two hours, you can

watch the last five
minutes and you’ve got the

most dramatic parts
where the people are getting

towards the finish
line and pushing unlike

other, yeah, whatever, running stupid.

So what happens though
is I go to my relatives house.

They put on the running,
then they ignore it

completely and start
talking to each other.

So it’s just noise in the background.

But because my
Japanese level isn’t sort of

super conversational,
once they get into topics

that are difficult for
me to talk about, I stop

talking, which means
I’m just sitting there

watching the TV, a TV
that’s been changed to

a channel where it’s just
the marathon, it’s a nightmare.

Now I basically just sit and listen to
podcasts on my phone, or read, which is good.

And they’ve, they’ve accepted
that I’m just in the room.

I’m essentially just a statue.

But high school marathons,
very, very serious in Japan.

They’re going to restrict
foreign students to

participation to just the
shortest legs of the race.

They do relay races
essentially, but relay

marathons and they’re
broken into different bits.

So there’s the three kilometer bit, the
five kilometer bit, this 10 kilometer bit.

Men had seven sections,
10 kilometers being

the longest and women had five sections
with six kilometers being the longest.

The foreign students
are only going to be

restricted to only the
three kilometer bits.

So no matter how, so
the reason is last year,

2023, they found that rankings change
significantly depending on the foreign runner.

So they’re saying that
the foreign runners are

just basically faster than
all the Japanese runners.

And if you put them
in the longest bit of

the race, you’re more
likely to win the race.

Because last year, a Kenyan student
reversed a one minute, 20 second gap.

So they went into that last,
let’s say, 10 kilometer section.

The winning team was a minute ahead.

And this Kenyan student
managed to run so

fast, they actually closed
that one minute gap.

Now that, so at first
I was like, oh, you’re

punishing foreign students for being, let’s
say, more physically capable and stuff.

But being able to close a one minute gap to
me sounds like you’re not a normal student.

It sounds like you’re a
runner first in a student

second, which would
be stacking your team.

So if they’re doing
that, I agree with this.

That is unfair.

So you might recruit
your incredibly fast

foreign runner, but they can
only run the three kilometer bit.

I’m okay if that’s
what you’re doing.

If these are foreign students who just come
to Japan in like running, then it’s unfair.

So it’s very difficult to
prove one way or the other.

So at first I was like, oh, this is racism.

Then I was like, oh,
I think they might be

stacking their team to win because
it’s such a serious thing in Japan.

So I’m not a 100% sure what’s
right and what’s wrong in this one.

I would actually need to
do a little bit of investigation.

So I come from Canada,
Canada wins the Olympic

hockey most years, or I’ve not,
they’re one of the most powerful teams.

And then I heard about
the, but you’re supposed

to be amateurs, which
we all know is not

true anymore, but the Canadian
amateur hockey team is quite good.

And then I heard about
the Russian amateur hockey

team, surprisingly all
came from the military

and then they didn’t actually
do any military training.

They only did hockey training.

So I was like, again, that’s unfair.

Those are essentially
professional hockey players.

Stacking your team is wrong,
but also being racist is wrong.

So it’s hard to see which might
be the actual truth in this situation.

Since we’re talking
about schools, the

students, we could talk
about some bad teachers.

There was a student in an English
conversation class at junior high school.

And, you know, this
is speaking a second

language, I would blame
Japanese education for

not being particularly
good in English language.

That’s why I came to Japan
and became an English teacher.

A lot of people do that.

I would say a lot of those
teachers are not very good.

And this is an example
of what I’m talking about.

I think if you take the job seriously, you
can do a very good job and actually help a

lot of people.

Or you could just be,
oh, this is an easy job.

I’ve actually found that
English teachers who look down

on English teaching are never
very good English teachers.

And it’s like this weird self.

This is not an industry.

This industry isn’t good
enough for me, which

almost explains why I’m
not good at this industry.

It might be the what
I’m trying to say.

It’s a very interesting
little phenomenon,

but if you’re going to
come to Japan just to

goof around, don’t be
an English teacher, please.

Because you make people like me who
I see, I try to be a good English teacher.

You make me look bad.

Because there’s a group of foreigners that
make all the other foreigners look bad.

But the last story
today, there’s Japanese

people who make other people
look bad anyways, whatever.

Let’s get into it.

The student was speaking
and struggling as students

do because they’re
trying to learn a new thing.

I understand this feeling because I had to
learn French and I was terrible at French.

I think my inability in
French study makes me

a better English teacher
because I understand

the frustration and difficulty students
who don’t get it are going through.

The teacher decided the most appropriate
thing to say would be that’s not English.

That’s garbage.

Also saying you speak
like an elementary

student and with your quiet
voice, you sound like a girl.

They’re saying that to
a junior high school boy.

Obviously that’s intended to be insulting.

The school tried to cover this up
by saying it was an American joke.

Now I as a Western person can
tell you that is not an American joke.

That is just them insulting a child and
honestly I feel like they should be fired.

They clearly should not be
teaching English if they think it’s

appropriate to just like slam kids
for not being good at something.

The term American joke is used as this is a
joke that you as a Japanese person may not

understand because of the
cultural context of what a joke is.

And I have been watching
a lot of foreign movies

for Seamick Bee IMDB,
just YouTube channel

that I made where I
watch so far primarily

Kung Fu movies and
every now and then I would

hit humor that I don’t
understand or I don’t find it funny.

I think primarily because
now these movies are

like 40, 50 years old and so humor has come
a long way but also there is a cultural

element where maybe I
don’t get why it’s funny.

So when they use the term American
joke that’s what they’re trying to say.

They’re like oh yeah
you don’t think this

joke is funny, it seems
like an insult but he

was making a joke you just don’t understand
that in their culture this is acceptable.

And I can tell you as an
unbiased outsider no it isn’t.

Three tax office employees all in their 20s
all ladies were suspended for work because

they were working at clubs
and doing compensated dating.

Now I read a second
story, this is another reason

to read multiple stories
on the same topic.

The second one said
they were working at soap

clubs which is very
different from just working

at a night club, soap
clubs are where the

women will wash you,
go on your favorite hub

and watch, type that in is your thing,
you’ll find some videos pretty quick.

I don’t know if
they’re that, I’ve never

been to one but it’s something
like that, how about that.

Two of them said the reason they were doing
so they were working at the tax office and

working at the tax
office means you’re not

allowed to, if you
work for a government

agency you’re not allowed
to have a second job.

So working at a soap club
is going to break that rule.

Compensated dating is
difficult because is that a job?

So I’m going on dates with men in the men
are giving me money, is that a job, does

that count, we’re going
to go ahead and say

yes in this case, the
tax office does not want

that to have an
association, they don’t want

to be associated with
compensated dating.

But two of them said they
did this to pay for host clubs.

I find it hard to believe
that soap clubs are real.

I find it hard, my feeling about soap clubs
is that soap clubs are going to be dirty.

This is crissor that can
soap be dirty argument

but that room I’m sure
is not properly sanitized

after the activities
that go on in that room.

So I would refuse to touch
any of the surfaces in that room.

I’m not going to be a good client for this
because I’d be like have you sprayed this

down with bleach
because that’s what I want

before we move on and
even then yeah, whatever.

I just couldn’t do it.

It’s another reason I
could never participate

in any sort of sex work
because I would be too

worried about diseases
and cleanliness and stuff.

Like I just couldn’t do it.

Last week I did talk
about how male prostitution

is not illegal in Japan
and I made a couple

jokes to many, many
people about I should

start my stable of jigelos and create
my new business of male prostitution.

I assume that would mean I would
have to participate at some point.

I wouldn’t be able to do it.

I just wouldn’t.

I’d be like no this is dirty.

I’m going to catch a disease and die.

Anyways, these three
ladies were relieved for

one to three months
suspension so a different

one for depending on the
seriousness of their crimes.

But all three voluntary,
but all three voluntarily

quit, which leads me to
my last question though.

Look at this to pay for host clubs, which
we’ve talked about a bunch because there’s

been crackdown on host clubs and
sugar, baby, eating child from last year.

She was the big story of the
blue at open that she made

millions of dollars and
spent it all on host clubs.

Our host clubs that good.

I need a listener who
has been to a host club

to share with me what
is so good about host

clubs because I know I’m from a
different culture a different time.

I’m an old man.

I look at the boys in the host
clubs and they got all the dyed hair.

But they all look like cheese
balls like none of those guys.

I don’t see what the appeal is
and I understand there is a segment.

I think a lot of young
people now they go

for a more feminine type man,
but these guys don’t even have that.

I understand the attraction.

It’s not maybe my type,
but I do the understand

the attraction of a
feminine yet strong

man because they’re
holding sort of a yin yang

of traits in a nice
balance is very attractive.

I get it.

It’s sort of the elf
thing like these tall

slender yet still very
fit men very attractive.

Not my type.

I want a burly burly man to out burl me.

So it has to be their
social skills, but I

can’t imagine that these
guys are really putting

on such a good show
that it’s that appealing.

I need someone who
has gone to a host club to

come back and give
me just sort of the dirt.

What is it they do?

Do they actually convince
you that they love you?

Do they actually give you
that feeling in such a real way

that you would end up going
to sex work to pay to get more?

Because that to me is sort of a drug look.

Drugs make more sense
to me than host clubs

because the drug has a
chemical addiction element.

I need more of the drugs.

I’m saying that right now
is someone who’s literally

while I’m trying to talk
about a topic thinking.

If I go downstairs right
now, I could take some

more drugs and that
would actually be really nice.

So I get, I get drugs.

I’m not saying you should do drugs.

I don’t think drugs are okay, but I
understand people who get addicted to drugs.

I can’t.

I still struggle to be
to understand how you

can get so addicted to host
clubs because what is it?

I understand it’s manipulative.

They’re trying to make you think
that you love them and they love you.

It’s reciprocal and it’s
not but consciously,

I don’t see this, I just go on a circle
now because I don’t understand this.

I need to someone
who’s going to a host club

to tell me about their experience,
to tell me if it was how positive it was.

What did they do that could be addictive to
the point where you actually want to go and

get a second job to support
your addiction to host clubs?

53 year old company executive.

I think we should get,
forget, the number of

obstruction of businesses has dropped
since I started actually keeping track.

And I think now I should
keep track of 50 year

old men doing shitty
things because as soon

as I saw 53 year old
company executive, I was

like, this guy did
something beyond the pale.

He just did something wrong.

He just went too far.

He’s grown up.

He’s a company executive.

He thinks everything he does is okay.

This is without reading this story.

He’s crossed a bunch of lines, the story.

He punched a woman
who worked for him in the

face because she didn’t get
the hairstyle that he wanted.

So I’m assuming I don’t
know about this part

that she was talking
about cutting her hair

or he told her to cut her hair, but at some
point your hairstyle currently came up.

She was like, I’m
going to get a haircut

and he says, I want you
to get this style of haircut.

She went out, got a haircut
that was not the style he said

when she came back into the
office, he decks her in the face.

Then he says, get scissors and cut it now.

And he makes her cut her
hair in the office with scissors.

So of course it looks terrible
because she’s not professional.

She can’t do it back.

I cut my own hair.

There’s a reason I wear a hat.

When the woman gets home, of course, her
family’s like, what happened to your head?

She explains, my boss
made me cut my hair, then cut

probably comes out and
he punched me in the face.

Family calls the police.

Turns out this guy regularly commits
acts of violence towards women.

So I’m hoping, they didn’t say the company.

I really wanted them to
say the company name,

so I could put the
company name out there.

But hopefully this
ends his career, his

company in total, so
that we never have to

hear about that guy
yet because that’s yep.

Okay, last story, 2024,
the introduction of

the new gross people
for 2024 are YouTubers.

We’ve actually talked about
this guy before and they call

him Rengoku, he is what I
would now call a YouTube troll.

So we had Johnny Somali
who, oh, January 10th

is when he actually
gets his trial is done.

That’s tomorrow.

We’re actually on the lookout
for what happens tomorrow.

The next week, hopefully
we can talk about what

punishment Johnny
Somali got for trespassing

and all the stuff he did.

Then there was a bunch of
other streamers, live streamers.

They were breaking
rules, breaking laws and

stuff, getting in trouble,
leaving the country.

This guy’s Japanese, so
it’s not, it’s a different set

of rules for him because
they can’t just deport him.

It’s actually harder to arrest him
and stuff for the stuff he’s doing.

We had the earthquake on January 1st
and he’s like, here’s an opportunity for me

to be a bit of a dick, so
he doesn’t buy it himself.

Now, this is a very big
YouTubers, he has lots of money.

He doesn’t do it himself.

He goes and he crowd
funds the purchase of 300,

300 Tenga eggs, a Tenga egg since
you probably don’t know what it is.

I’m going to assume.

It’s a silicone, essentially ball, it’s a
little egg thing and you put it over the

male member and you pleasure
yourself with that and it feels good.

It’s the short version.

I’m not going to get to into it.

He takes these 300 eggs
and he goes to Ishikawa,

Ishikawa, he goes to Ishikawa and he says,
I want to distribute these Tenga eggs to

people so they can
relieve their stress because

they’ve lost their houses because
they’re living in like shelters and stuff.

And he’s just an asshole.

Of course, people are like, there’s
sort of lines that you don’t cross.

You don’t go to an earthquake
hit area and don’t help.

That’s actually kind of the thing
I think is actually the problem.

If you’d done a real
thing, people might have

been more forgiving but people on the
internet are like freaking out over this guy.

The government has
actually said, don’t come

and help for clout
because there was a couple

of like ministers who
went to the affected

area and started handing
out food and started

doing stuff and they’re like,
don’t do that because you’re

doing that to increase your
reputation not to actually help out.

So it’s not against the law but
it’s clearly very frowned upon.

There are a couple of
famous comedians though

and they’re famous for
having gone to earthquake

struck areas or disaster
areas and distribute

food and buy food and just try to help out
people because they didn’t bring a camera

crew and they tried to tell people
like, oh, are you that famous comedian?

They’re like, no, no, it’s not me.

I do look like him but it’s not me.

And they were just
trying to help out because

they are successful and
have money and can do that.

This guy on the other
hand, he’s like, oh, I’m

not going to buy anything
that could actually help anyone.

I’m just going to
buy a joke thing that

people know is dirty
and sexual and I’m going

to use that to try to
get some internet fame

and actually, you
know, it’d be interesting.

They could put in like, because you know,
they have like emergency, essentially laws.

If you come into an emergency struck area
and do this kind of stuff, they could make

that illegal in that situation and I
could actually see Japan going that way.

So we have a couple of
things to look forward to.

Does this guy get in trouble?

Probably not because
he hasn’t actually crossed

the line so far they
actually hurt anybody.

It showed him renting
a truck and going to

the area and with a
big box of eggs, but then

my actual question, what are you going to
do with 300 eggs and I’m like, oh, I bet I

know what that guy’s
going to do with 300 eggs

because, yep, but
probably more interesting

than that is Johnny Somali
who actually is on trial.

His, his verdict will come down tomorrow.

So hopefully I’ll have something
more about that next week.

And I hope you have a very, very good 2024.

I hope 2024 starts out
and continues in as much

better for you than it has been for me
because I’m going to go get some more trucks.

[MUSIC]

A Podcast to Damage your Dignity

[Music]

Got a lot of politics today.

It’s actually the,

essentially the fallout from the guy who threw the pipe bomb at the prime

minister last week.

Of course, the very first thing I said was what was his actual motivation.

So the fact that he threw a pipe bomb, it didn’t go off properly, which is a

good thing,

because there was a lot of people there, and a lot of people would have got

hurt and killed.

What was his motivation for doing it?

Now, he has not admitted to a motivation, but they’ve looked into his

background and come up with some interesting facts.

He had filed a lawsuit last year for mental distress after he was unable to

file for candidacy for the House of Counselor’s election.

So he wanted to be a politician.

He was unable to file to be a politician,

and was so upset about that, said it was

mental distress, and then he tried to sue them.

This is where we get to learn some of the requirements to be a politician.

You actually have to be 30 years old. That’s, I guess, fair.

I actually don’t think age should be part of it.

I mean, I think if your teenager goes up there and no one wants to,

a teenager to be their counselor or governor or anything,

then you won’t vote for them.

I don’t, I actually don’t necessarily, this is a good personal opinion.

I don’t necessarily agree with an age requirement.

I think it would make sense if you were over 30,

have a little life experience, maybe done some work,

but I don’t think that should be a requirement.

I actually think there should be a end point,

a retirement age for becoming governor,

because right now in America, I was noticing the prime minute.

It was just how Canadian I am.

The president, he’s in his 70s and Trump is in his 70s,

and all the guys are trying to be president in our own their 70s.

I think that might be too old.

I mean, they talk about, you know, Trump being feeble and stuff,

but I think when you have a mandatory retirement age for work,

being 60 or 65 or something like that,

that should also be the retirement age for service in public office.

I think a certain amount of youthful vitality is important.

So this is why Obama was good.

He was a young president, Justin Trudeau,

even if you don’t agree with the politics, he’s a vibrant leader,

which is, I think, important.

So the must be at least 30 years old, I disagree with that,

but I think they should have an upper limit

of how old you can be to be president,

or public office.

And this is actually the more important part.

You have to pay 3 million yen.

So if you want to run for office in Japan,

you have to put a deposit of 3 million yen.

The man’s claim was that this violates

the constitutional guarantee of equality.

And I sort of agree with that as a philosophy.

If you have to pay 3 million yen to run for office,

then only people with 3 million extra yen can run for office.

In which case, if you are of, you know, strict means,

if you’re poor, you’re not allowed to run for office, which is unfair.

I don’t know what the 3 million, it says deposit.

So maybe you get it back if you fail, I’m not sure.

But it seems interesting that I actually agree with kind of his claim.

He also submitted a letter opposing Abe State funeral.

Now I was actually against the State

funeral when I found out how much it cost.

I wasn’t against the State funeral because Abe was a prime minister.

He, whether you agree or not with his politics, he did work for the country.

And what he believed was the best way.

Whether or not you agreed with Abe’s politics,

he was doing what he thought was best for the country.

He was a state official for a very long time.

So I didn’t have a problem with the State funeral.

And then I found out how much they cost.

And I was like, the taxpayer shouldn’t be paying that much.

Abe in the government want to want a State funeral.

So he submitted a letter opposing Abe State funeral because it was forced

through and not Democratic.

So my problem with the State funeral was how much they cost because the

taxpayer shouldn’t be

footing that bill. The government wants to do that. They should find some

other source.

The family should pay for it. Donation, something like that.

Off you go.

He’s saying that the people didn’t get to vote on the State funeral.

And therefore it wasn’t Democratic. And that made him upset.

He is a failed politician.

And I think the thing is, so he wanted democracy and he says he wants to be

a politician and he

wanted things to be done right. But he’s also failed in his ideals because a

great politician or

whatnot, they would not use a pipe bomb to push their ideas through. So that

‘s the unfortunate

reality is this man has failed in two ways. He’s failed as a politician and

he’s also failed

to live up to his own ideals as what he claims a politician should be.

So since there was a pipe bomb thrown and last year Prime Minister Abe was

assassinated,

campaign speeches will only happen indoors now. So they’re not, they used to

do, this is actually

what I thought was quite sad about this whole thing. They had politicians

with the Prime Minister

very high level people out walking amongst the people, talking to people in

crowds and they were

all safe. It was all good. The secret service in Japan were primarily

trained to stop knife attacks,

which is why the home made shotgun actually worked and why the pipe bomb,

like it got really close

to the Prime Minister. The guy, the security guy I saw in the video, he

actually did his job properly.

But you know, also it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. So now

they’ve decided like we’ve

had one politician murdered another one attacked. We can’t keep going like

this. They want to create

a controlled environment for these sort of speeches. So they’re all going to

be happening indoors.

now. There will be metal detectors and every all the bags we get checked

before he can come in.

Street speeches will still happen. So what happens in Japan is these vans go

around and then they

stop and then they stand on top of the Van and they get a microphone with

these loud speakers

and they give a speech from the top of the Van. Those will still happen but.

they’re going to have a

sheet of bulletproof glass up in front of them. So I guess that’s not too

much of a difference because

the guy standing up there, he was quite far away anyways. You weren’t going

to get that close to him.

The bulletproof glass isn’t going to be much of a change, but it is sad that

we’ve had to actually

do that in a country where again a year ago, Abe, the prime minister,

whatever they were walking

around in crowds of people shaking their hands and like talking to people

and just being in and

amongst the people was really nice. They’re going to enforce like a 20 meter

space away from the Van

to make it just that much harder to get sort of leave you want to throw a

pipe bomb let’s say.

It’s going to you’re going to have to be able to throw at least 20 meters to

get your job done.

But it’s I’m a bit disappointed that’s had to happen because it’s like this.

violence is changing the

nature of politics in Japan, which is too

bad. Now on to more honestly more in the

news, Japan style news and the LDP official, so the liberal Democratic party

official. He’s up,

talking up one of his co-workers. There’s

sort of campaigns going on right now.

And he says, “Oh, I’m talking about my friend and then I start talking about

his wife and then the

rival, the rival of his friend as a woman.” He says, “I’m glad she’s not

really pretty either.”.

So he’s basically saying like, “Here’s my friend, his wife is hot, his.

competition, she’s not hot.”

So vote for my friend. He’s obviously a better person because he’s got the

hotter wife. This of course.

sexist and it’s going to piss people off. So the complaint was that his

comments damaged her dignity.

He later retracted his statement. So he made the remark and then the guy was

interviewing him and they.

said like, “Did you mean to insult her dignity? Did you mean that she was

unattractive?” He said, “No,

I totally do her.” But of course that’s not what he said. That’s actually

what I wish he said. I

wish he actually doubled down on it. He retracted his statement and he said,

“I said it inadvertently.

I retract everything. I apologize for offending the dignity of both.” So he

‘s talking about both the

rival and the man’s wife. But then he said, “Come on, she’s got a bit of a

hog face.” I just sat there going

like, “Okay, I’ve talked about this so many times. I actually think I have

to stop talking about it.”

Retracting statements. It’s not like the thing he said goes away because of

it. The apology means

nothing. I don’t get how this is acceptable. There’s almost no fallout and

no responsibility for the

dumb shit politician say. But it happens all the time and they say the dumb

shit. You just don’t

comment on people’s looks. And yet, when I think back to Trump, that’s his

whole deal. It’s commenting

on people’s appearance and their attitudes and what they’re like. So maybe

just politics have changed.

Certainly, Trump has changed the landscape of politics in America. But has.

it had an impact over

here? Because, no, because again, like five years ago, I was still doing the

Ninja News Japan.

And they were all saying racist stuff. So I guess they’ve just shifted. They

don’t say the racist stuff

out loud like they used to. They still get away with misogyny. And they’re

going to get away with that.

But now people are calling them out from misogyny. So I guess that’s going

to be on the chopping block

next. Politicians in Japan, they’re being held to a much higher standard.

Like the stuff Trump says,

he would not be able to get away with it in Japan. Like it just would not

fly. He would not be a.

successful politician. There is a group that supposed to promote gender

equality. And they had a

poster. And it was up about consent. And it had the first picture. And the

guy’s like, “Mm, she’s

into me.” And then the second picture was her going, “Ooh, I’m not into him

.” And it was about,

you know, you have to get consent before you start to do stuff to other

people. The problem is that

promotes the gender stereotype that a) men are the aggressors. Men are not

capable of reading

the signals of women. They don’t understand women. And that they are always

at fault in these sort

of sexual relations. It doesn’t suggest that the woman should get consent

from the man. It only

suggested that the man should get consent from the woman. So that is

promoting gender stereotypes.

In a group that is supposed to be promoting gender equality, they should.

know better. So the people

started complaining. So they took down the poster. And then they started

saying, “Oh, not only does it

promote gender stereotypes, it also has copied the art style of another

artist.” So they took

all the posters down. The company,

the group, the gender equality group said.

, “We apologize

publicly, so there’s your public apology.”

But then they blamed the printing company.

Not to actually take responsibility for you shit. That’s not cool. The

artist who is sort of the

one being, you know, copied in this case said that the apology and taking

down the posters is enough.

I don’t know. It’s weird that gender equality

in Japan still means gender stereotypes.

just that men should behave better.

But again, that is the gender stereotype.

that is being promoted.

Yeah, it’s almost like people don’t know what gender equality is. This is

Japan. I would say when

it comes to gender equality, LGBT rights and stuff like that, Japan is

decades behind other countries,

Western countries. Like just even the equal rights men and women still aren

‘t there. Because I mean,

that guy just got away with saying that this other politician had a hog

phase. I’ve never seen a

picture of either of them, so I can’t really comment. It’s that low-key mis

ogyny that is just a

part of Japanese culture. And people, I think they come to Japan and they

have weird expectations

of what it’s going to be like. And I don’t think they realize, there’s a

whole generation that’s

still in charge that has not changed their thinking from the 1960s. And it’s

going to take another

generation or two before it goes away. There’s a man called “Boys Over

Flowers.” I’d never heard of it.

And then I found out it has the highest circulation comic series for girls

by a single author. It’s in

the Guinness Book of World Records. But then I was like, that is a very

specific. This is one of the

things about world records. It’s how specific the world records are. So the

highest circulation of

a comic series, that’s good. Four girls, okay, you’ve now just split out at

least two so that you

split it in half. So there should be the highest circulation comic series

for boys by a single author.

That one sort of makes sense. Because if it’s

a team, it wouldn’t have the same impact.

So I was like, because it’s a world

record, I could publish a comic series for.

white 50-year-old men with beards and get 100 people to buy it. And that

would probably be the

highest circulation comic series for white 50-year-old men with beards by a

single author. Maybe that could

get in the Guinness Book of World Records. Because that is how you finesse

world records sometimes. It’s

actually get something so specific. No one else is attempted to try it yet.

But then I saw she has.

59.4 million copies of her comic in circulation. Those are physical comics.

So like if you had a

comic on like an ebook or something, that would encounter. And I was like 54

, 59.4 million copies is a

lot. It just says physical copies published. It doesn’t say bought. So could

I do a self-run of 60 million.

comics of a series that I have written for girls by me and beat that record

if I didn’t sell any?

The very interesting question because technically I think I could beat the

world record. Since we’re talking

about world records, I have the number one highest rated karaoke version of

House of Pain’s Jump

Around in Japan. So we have a switch and my daughter wanted to do karaoke

and they have a thing,

a company called Joy Sound. And they do karaoke machines. And so they have

an app where you can do

karaoke through the switch. So her and her friends came over and did it and

they were on it. Me to do

an English song and I was like, this is going to be really bad. I only know

the words to like three

songs. And one of them is jump around. That came out when I was like in my

20s. So I did it. I got like

69% or something like that. And then it goes number one in Japan. I had this

like big fanfare and

everyone was super excited. And I was like, oh wait, I’m the only person in

Japan to have ever attempted

this song. That’s how I got the world record. Are the the national record.

Now back, way, way back,

I was the, I was doing video game reviews and an app came out and it was.

called poop ride. So it was

P-O-O-P-R-I-D-E. So either it was poo, P-O-O, Pride, P-R-I-D-E or poop, P-O-

O-P, ride, R-I-D-E. And it was this.

little game where you had poop and you slid it along the floor and you had

to get it enough power to

touch the line. But you didn’t want to go over the line. So whoever got to

the closest to the line one.

Now because I was doing video game reviews, I got the earliest version of it

on release day,

had to play it for a few hours, leveled up really fast, actually came up

with some strategies for it,

wrote my article. And then as I put the app down, I checked the rankings. I

was number one in the world.

So I have held both a national Japanese record and a world record. I’ve

never gone back to poop ride

to see if that record has been broken. I do believe Mr. Warm Hands purpose

fully went onto.

the Joy Sound app and with his kids and did jump around and I do believe he

beat my score. He may be

the number one in Japan now. But I held that record for years, mid-pandemic.

So at least two years now,

I’ve had the record for I should go back and do it again because I wasn’t

even trying. Imagine if I drop.

So the Osaka court had to pay $375,000 yen. That’s like $3,000, $4,000 to a

former inmate and his attorney

because they wouldn’t allow him to wear sunglasses while he was in a

detention facility and in prison.

So at first I thought this was a Yakuza guy who and they wear sunglasses.

They just wear sunglasses

all the time. I actually have a friend who married into a family that was

sort of extended family

was all the Yakuza and they said at the wedding, one side of the room was

all wearing sunglasses the whole

time. So this is a Yakuza thing. So that’s what I thought when I read the

article of the title and then

I went read the actual thing and I was like, “Oh, it’s actually quite

different.” So this guy usually wears

light purple glasses because of a light sensitivity. There’s actually a

really famous comedian

in Japan and he wore sunglasses all the time. His name is Tamori I think.

And it’s because he had

light sensitivity to his eye. So he wore sunglasses all the time because the

lights on the TV.

shows were too bright for his eye. It’s an actually constant pain. Now they

said you’re not aware

of loud to wear glasses in prison. So they wouldn’t let his wear his glasses

but that actually means

he wasn’t able to read documents and the light was so harsh like it would

cause some physical pain

and it made everything like he was told to do much harder because he wasn’t

allowed to wear it.

This wasn’t just like because he wanted to look cool. This was essentially

prescription.

medically necessary glasses. He had to carry out his sentence without

corrective lenses as the.

way he was phrased. The detention house says you can have shades that allow

up to 25 percent

blockage. In prison, colorless glasses are only allowed if there’s a medical

reason. But it seems

like this guy had a medical reason but they didn’t allow him to wear his

glasses in prison because

they thought oh this guy wants to be cool just like my assumption. We’re

going to say no but they’re

actually like violating sort of fundamental human rights. So you got to pay

up. 4000 bucks though.

So you think about like a lot of the stories where people sue each other.

The numbers are very small.

In America, something like this would be massive. It’s because Japan is just

not as litigious. And one

of the reasons are not as litigious is because the awards are so much

smaller than in America. I bet in

America if I went to prison and they said Peter is not allowed to wear his

corrective lens. So I’m

essentially blind the whole time I’m in prison making everything more

difficult. I bet I could sue them

and I get millions of dollars. In Japan, 4000 bucks shared out with my

attorney. I mean sometimes

you got wonder if it’s even worth it. But I think a lot of times in Japan

you sue them for the moral issue.

Not so much for the money. So there’s a new Pokemon show. Now I don’t follow

Pokemon. I do remember all

the conversations about you have like a 12 year old boy who never goes to

school who goes around

battling animals. And it was a lot of memes actually when I was in my

university and later day.

Because people were talking about the lifestyle of a Pokemon master. Zero

education beyond elementary

school basically. There was a lot of jokes online and I enjoyed them because

conceptually it was

quite interesting. The new hero it’s called Liko. Liko joins the school

which apparently Ash did

and then just never showed up like went to school and then was like well I’m

going to go be Pokemon

master. Bye. And then took off for the rest of his life. Liko joins the

school but then takes lessons

remotely which I found very interesting because they’ve really updated it so

they do have the child hero

who’s going to go around and do their adventures with their Pokemon. But.

actually still technically

get education. The only thing I can think is a problem is how many hours a

day are they expected to do.

these lessons remotely. How much are they going to show without online. But

they’re actually using a

tablet again updating the technology of Pokemon. They’re they’re they’re

they’re going to wonder

if they’re going to how much they’re going to actually bother with this

showing them actually doing

this. But one of the comments I really enjoyed was I hope Liko has an

unlimited data plan because

of course they’re not going to be hanging around somewhere where there’s Wi-

Fi all the time. It’s

a bit ridiculous. But I do like that they’re showing the kids like yeah even

our Pokemon heroes they.

still have to go to school. Okay so this is a new kind of harassment. So

Japan has a billion kinds of

harassment. So there was Seku Harada which is sexual harassment. There was

Paohara. Paohara harassment.

They’re actually using the English and then condensing it into a Japanese.

Then I learned about

I forget it was Akahara which is Akachana so that means baby. Maybe I might

have that one wrong. But

anyways there’s essentially maternity harassment. So you get pregnant and

then you’re pushed out of.

your company. I found a new one through an article today called Owa Harada

and Owa Di is finished. So

Owa Harada is finishing harassment and this has to do with recent graduates

looking for jobs. So they do

kind of graduate recruitment. All the companies every year when the students

graduate they do recruitment.

cycles. And they try to get new employees. In Japan again having fewer and

fewer young people they

need the competition for companies to get more young people to join their

company is part of keeping

their company alive. The competition is quite serious. Owa Harada. Owa Har.

Ada. What Owa Harada is. It’s

really hard to switch between English and Japanese like in one word. Is you

‘ve come and interviewed with

our company. We want you to stop. That’s the Owa Di part looking at other

companies. But we want

you to make a promise to stop looking for other companies. But that is

essentially saying to the

graduate recruit person looking for a job that we want you to limit your

options and only join our

company. We want you to stop looking because what if you find a better deal

if you find a better deal

you might take that job and not our job. So they try to get them to sign

letters of acceptance saying

like here’s a letter that says I will accept the proposed job that not the

actual job. So they’re

saying we’re not going to give you a contract right now to sign. We want you

to sign this letter that

says you’re not going to look for other jobs and then later down the line we

‘ll give you a contract

which is bullshit. If you’re not signing a contract it doesn’t mean anything

because they could say

we’re going to pay you millions dollars and then the contracts get slid

across the table. It’s got five

bucks on it. But you haven’t been looking for any other jobs where you could

have also got paid

millions dollars really unfair. They also require them to attend company

social gatherings and what

they’ve done is tried to make enough of these company social gatherings that

it’s difficult for you

to go out and find other jobs. So the government’s asking companies to stop

this. Now asking isn’t a

very strong thing but there was a survey done in 2021.10% of the students

said the experienced

“awada, awada hara.” Okay I’m getting it. “awada hara.” And then 10% oh 64%

of the 10% say they ended their

job search because of awada hara. 42.3% had received demands to provide a

letter of acceptance. So almost

half the people who went out to do recruitment said like really quickly they

were like “sign this

letter saying you’re going to accept a job from us and stop looking for

other jobs.” 11.6% were

harassed persistently. Some cases say they were physically barred from

leaving when they declined

an offer. So they’re like “here we want you to work for our company.” So you

know I’m not into this.

I’m going to go now and they like lock the door and say you can’t leave

until you accept our offer.

Which is of course no way legally going to hold up but they might actually

cause you problems

if you actually like end up signing something to just get out of there. I

would say if you’re ever in

a situation where someone just like you’re at work and then your boss locks

the door and says you

can’t leave until you do something. What you do is just call the police and

you say like I would

like to leave this office and they are not letting me. When the police show

up because that’s kidnapping.

I mean a lot of people don’t think about it but what they’re doing is saying

like you are not physically

able to go where you want under some sort of dress or threat. That’s

kidnapping. It’s illegal in

every Western country, every like sort

of Western legal system I know of. So.

just call the cops and

say like “Hi I’m in this room in this building. I would like to leave and

they’re not letting me leave.”.

You probably could just put this phone

on speakerphone and they’re going to like

have to let you go. Then you could probably sue them afterwards. The most

interesting part of this

though is that there is an article 627 of the civil code. It says even if

you sign a letter of acceptance

you can back out. So even if these companies force you to sign a letter

saying you’re going to accept

the job with their company. Legally you can back out at any time and that

letter doesn’t mean anything.

I find it interesting more though that because this is such a common problem

that it’s actually written

into the civil code. So this has happened so much in the past and they’ve

had so many sort of legal

issues I assume that they just wrote into the civil code that these letters

don’t mean anything and

that you can just back out. You don’t

have to take a job you don’t want to take.

There was a man caught on camera by a passerby who sent OG SONS photo. So OG

SON is an old man in

Japanese. And what this guy does is he takes the short shorts that girls

wear they’re called bloomers.

He takes the short shorts they wear and he wears them around the station and

this guy has a Twitter

account and he’s really proud of this. He wears like Lea Tards. He’s

actually I’m going to say a pretty

fit old dude. Someone took a picture of this guy sent it to his mom and said

oh my god look what I

can see at the station. This woman posted it on the Internet and she said my

younger son sent this.

photo to me saying there was an OG SON wearing bloomers at the station. I

didn’t believe him until he

sent this photo. It’s real. It’s just sick. And then she put pictures over

his face because you can’t

publish other people’s pictures in Japan without getting in trouble and

posted the picture with what

she tweeted on the Internet. The man himself shows up to her Twitter account

and says don’t censor

my face. So this dude he’s not only doing something that’s kind of weird. He

‘s super proud of it which

I love. And then it turns out his whole Twitter account is just full of

these kind of photo. I don’t

know why but this guy is doing the thing that makes him happy. Yes it would

creep me out but at the same

time I’m sure stuff that I like creeps out other people. I know like the jud

o I do. A lot of people

disagree with fighting and like beating the shit out of other people but I.

love it. And yeah

if people said stop I wouldn’t stop. There was a couple comments and one was

three cheers to this man’s

confidence and I got to admit he is super confident. You can really sense

the sort of strong willpower

from the bloomers ojisa. I mean he’s been doing this for nearly 10 years now

. He also says some philosophical

things or tasteful things sometimes on his Twitter. Just don’t actually

commit a crime please.

I’ve seen the man’s Twitter before. He’s actually quite intellectual and

well spoken which makes his

bloomers obsession even weirder which is so true because he’s not an idiot.

He’s not a dumb guy.

He just he knows what makes him happy and he’s living that lifestyle which

again I kind of had a certain

amount of appreciation for. And then the very last comment which I did enjoy

this is what makes Japan.

Japan and that’s a good thing.

Carbon Neutral…Here

Japan’s efforts to go carbon neutral run in to a snag if you share the air with Australia, which we do. Nintendo really doesn’t want you to look at Bowsers penis and I have some sympathy for a guy who wants to drink on the job.

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Olympig

The Olympig, a representation of everything that is wrong with Japan. Coupled with yesterday’s episode, I think you might see my point.

Also, people filming sex, pulling knives on cops and a lot of bad decisions.

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Mori and the ladies

Ninja News returns. This is just a quick update to get me back in the mode of making podcasts, then another new episode tomorrow to make sure that the news isn’t stale.

You get the whole Mori and the Olympics scandal and what may be some seasonal crimes. More research is needed.

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