HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japanese exchange student killed in Louisiana...
Date: 6 Nov 92 02:16:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Nov6.021605.29157
Organization: clearer than blir

In article <SMITTIE.92Nov5134228@tui.csulb.edu> smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie) writes:
>>Hattori did try to get in repeatedly. Front door and side door.
>
> I suspect that the law doesn't define walking up and knocking on a
> door as attempted forced entry. Moveover, I haven't seen any reliable
> source indicate that Hattori-san ever made it to the side door.

I think you're right on that. I've never read or heard anything more
than that he and his American friend had gone under the carport
apparently *headed* for the side door. I don't think he or anyone else
ever did knock on it. Peairs opened the side door before they got
there and ordered them to freeze.

> Given this feeble definition of attempted forced entry, many deliver
> people (UPS, FedEx, etc) could be accused of attempted forced entry.

First it started with the idea that he was "repeatedly" trying to get
in, which I thought was pushing it. Now it's gone to saying he was
repeatedly attempting forced entry. That's ridiculous.

On the one hand I don't believe Peairs is a racist, rabid dog who
joked about the killing afterwards, and on the other hand I seriously
doubt that Yoshi was doing anything threatening until the point he
stepped forward after being told to freeze. And even that wasn't
*intended* to be threatening, I'm sure. There's an awful lot of grey
in the world and people in this discussion seem to be looking for
black and white (movie-type, stereotypical good guys and bad guys)
when there aren't any--a completely innocent boy incapable of even
the slightest misjudgement (total good) vs. the unfeeling, uncaring
monster Peairs (total evil).

Certainly Peairs bears responsibility for Yoshi's death, and I'm
fairly certain Peairs will be found guilty of manslaughter due to
gross negligence. But I'll venture a guess that he gets more in parole
time than he does in actual prison time, and he might not even get
much prison time.

-- Tad Perry   Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
               CompuServe:  70402,3020
               NIFTY-Serve: GBG01266
From: miklg@acuson.com (Michael Goldman )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japanese Major Suggests Military Coup: Your Opinion? (mod. long)
Keywords: 'democracy' in Japan
Date: 10 Nov 92 14:57:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: acuson.1992Nov10.145730.21383
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California

miket@hermes.tcs.com (Michael Turner nmscore Assoc.) writes:

>The U.S. has historically had its rural regions over-represented on a
>per-capita basis, but I don't think the skew has not been as dramatic
>as in Japan, overall.

	Are you thinking of the very powerful US Senate where the
	2 senators from North Dakota (population 638K) have the
	same votes as the 2 senators from California (pop. 34M) ?
	(Ratio of 53 to 1 ).

	- Michael Goldman

-- 
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have
exhausted all other alternatives." - Abba Eban
	Disclaimer:  All views are solely my own & not the views of Acuson.
	<sun!sono!miklg>  or  [miklg@acuson.com]
From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: call for a new newsgroup
Date: 10 Nov 1992 07:54:38 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: tsunami.berkeley.edu

From: Mark Crispin <mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM>
Subject: call for a new newsgroup
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Organization: University of Washington
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 06:37:46 GMT

The signal/noise on this newsgroup has deteriorated to the point where it has
become useless.  Between the ranting about guns and the ranting of Rikiya
Asano, this newsgroup has become impossible to read even with advanced
newsreading tools that help you find the 2 messages out of 156 that are worth
reading.

----

It's called hyperinflation, buddy.  How's that going to stop the fundamental
problem of caustic netters who can post anywhere they please?  The demand
for a japan group will not make dissolving this newsgroup possible.
From: hash@ikarac5.ctrl.saitama-u.ac.jp (Toshihiko Hashimoto)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Happy Birthday in English
Date: 10 Nov 92 13:00:55 GMT
Organization: Araki Lab., Electronic Engineering, Saitama Univ., Japan

In article <BxHBwo.6CD@cmcl2.nyu.edu> memco@cns.nyu.edu writes:
>	I've noticed that a number of families will sing
>Happy Birthday in  English, phonetically if they don't speak
>the language. Isn't there either a translation of the song
>or some traditional song to take it's place?

Happy Birthday is sung in English here in Japan, however, 
I have never thought about it.  We don't have any translation
of the song at all, because, I think, it is a very simple
song which any children even could understand.

I think the custom to celebrate the birthday or Christmas
Eve at home in Japan came from the U.S. around 1950's - 
1960's when many American cultures rushed into Japan.

We don't have any traditional birthday songs.  Did we had
the custom to celebrate the birthday in old Japan, except
GENPUKU, KANREKI or something else?

Thanks,

Toshi

-- 
Hashimoto Toshihiko <<Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Saitama University>>
----------------------------------
JUNET  : hash@ctrl.saitama-u.ac.jp
PC-VAN : TGH70044
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,talk.politics.guns
From: masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda)
Subject: Re: A Japanese student killed in Lousiana
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 01:41:02 GMT

In article <viking.720944214@vincent1.iastate.edu> viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson) writes:

>	Naw, let's go for the number of deaths that is eight times the
>gun death rate.  Let's decrease the number of automobile deaths.
>
>	As a show of good faith, you can quit exporting first, Michiaki.

   Are you sure that Japanese cars are more accident-prone than American
cars? If the reverse is the case, exporting more cars might be the better
way to show good faith. 8-)

>We'll follow suit once the auto deaths equal the gun deaths over here.
>Don't forget to import as many Harley-Davidson motorcycles as possible.
>They are quite under-represented in accident fatalities, you know.
>
>	Silly once you take it to its logical conclusion, isn't it?

   Are decreasing motor accidents and decreasing firearm accidents mutually
exculsive? I can do both eating sandwiches and posting message at the same
time.
   
Michiaki Masuda
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: new newsgroup discussion
Date: 11 Nov 92 23:52:46 GMT
Organization: Horizon Research, Inc.

In article <MS-C.721414192.1103527590.mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM>, 
mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM (Mark Crispin) writes:
=> The responses I've received to my call for a new newsgroup have been very
=> positive.  

=> Well, what do you think?

I think everybody should put Asano in their kill-file and do nothing. 

Well... maybe nothing.

The gun stuff will die down soon enough. Someone cross-posted some
of the initial articles to t.p.g, and it opened the same kind of can
of worms that occurs when the Chinese/Taiwanese/Koreans jump in from
time to time. Me? I admit I am one those trying to put the worms
back in their can, but I'm going to give up as there are just 
too many damn worms.

The different newsgroups are not such a bad idea, but as many are
sub-elements of 'culture' there will be considerable overlap and
sub-threads that might cross-talk in any case. Perhaps Mark's
proposed groups are not all inclusive of cultural issues, and
the racists are going to post to anything with a Japan label
on it in any case. To filter them out, you would need some kind
of moderation. That's a lot of trouble, and I can think of some
newsgroups that became a lot less interesting and perhaps
pandered to the views of the moderators (s.w.f ?). 

I wouldn't strongly object to more selective groups, but I don't
think it solves problems so much as makes things neater. I
suppose ranting morons could still post anywhere they like.

- Bill
From: masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Banana Republic (Re: US vs. Japan (was: Try it again - ...)
Date: 13 Nov 92 18:02:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: ncifcrf.Bxo24C.2K4
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <1992Nov13.163406.25007@u.washington.edu> yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii) writes:
>masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda) writes:
>>   A few weeks ago, I went to Banana Republic (the clothing store, you know),
>>and a shopkeeper told me that two Japanese tourists (women supposedly in 
>>their twenties) had visited their store several days before and that one
>>of them had purchased $400 worth, the other $800!

>This place must be quite popular in Japan.
.....

   Yes, it seems to be very popular among young Japanese and pretty
expensive. A T-shirt of B.R. would be appreciated as a nice gift or souvenior.
(Other than T-shirts, there are not so many US-made clothings at B.R. at
least in my area.)

   I once heard that the expression "banana republic" could be offensive
to some people because it could mean "a developing country in a tropical
area" in a derogatory manner. If that is true, Japanese tourists to those
countries wearing a B.R. T-shirt (it has a logo of B.R.) might become
another reason for anti-Japan feeling. Would anyone be able to verify
or deny my hearsay?

--Michiaki
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu ()
Subject: Re: Please give your opinions...
Organization: clearer than blir
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 00:48:08 GMT

I've been watching this discussion concerning the term "gaijin", and
have been mulling it over.  In the last eight years, four of them in
Japan, I never (=not once) encountered a Japanese who intended the
word "gaijin" as a slur against me or any other non-Japanese. Still, I
did encounter racial discrimination many times, but not through the
use of this word.

I think that what's happening is that the non-Japanese who interpret
this word negatively are reaching a critical mass. It doesn't really
matter much how the word is originally intended because it's meaning
is undergoing an evolution by way of the *listeners*.

Here are some possible reasons for the growing number of non-Japanese
who are offended by the word "gaijin":

1. They don't understand the language or intent of the speaker well
   enough to recognize it's really a neutral term for most Japanese.

2. They reject the word out of principle based on Politically Correct
   usage of language that they bring from the West and then try to
   apply that philosophy to Japanese.

3. They have actually experienced the word being used in a negative
   manner on occasion and think it's always used that way.

In any case, Japanese people are going to lose this argument in the
long run, because the minority always decides what it finds offensive
and, out of sensitivity, the majority usually gives way and tries to
accomodate the minority opinion so as to decrease tensions.

-- Tad Perry   Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
               CompuServe:  70402,3020
               NIFTY-Serve: GBG01266
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii)
Subject: Re: Japan's textbook-screening system
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 17:28:24 GMT

ee152fdm@sdcc15.ucsd.edu (Maiko Covington) writes:
>	On another note... for a really interesting view of the
>brainwashing people in Japan got during the war, try looking at
>kids' magazines. I have an issue of "yoi ko no tomo" from 1942 ... [deleted]

Another example is the comic books.  About 10 years ago, there was a
reprint of then popular (ie during/pre WWII) comic book call "Norakuro".
It's about the good guys (dogs) fighting war against the bad guys (monkeys,
gorillas, pigs, bears, etc).  The hero of the story is the title character
who is a stray black dog with white paws and snout (nora=stray, kuro=black).
Norakuro rises up through the rank, despite his many comic failures (after
all this was comics), to become a high-ranking officer. Although not explicitly
mentioned, various animal species obviously represented the Japanese enemies
of the time (I think pigs=Chinese, bears=Russian, ... don't remember the rest).

The story is otherwise funny, but when one thinks about it in the context
of the history and national mentality of the time, it is very disturbing.

>	It is very scary what mass patriotism can do to people...
>and very scary that people cannot seem to admit it. 

Indeed.  Sometimes I wonder about the "animal within", when normal,
rational people becomes so irrational because of the almost irresistable
power of patriotism.  Last night's Nightline showed people who had barely
escaped from former Yugoslavia where they were torchered by former neighbors.

# Postscript about Norakuro.  It seems that the old mut has been reborn
  as a popluar character for kids.  I've seen it in newspaper ads, etc.







Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,talk.politics.guns
From: donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin)
Subject: Re: A Japanese student killed in Lousiana
Organization: TOSHIBA America MRI, South San Francisco, CA
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 18:24:26 GMT

Yoichi Ii writes:
>
>masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov(Michiaki Masuda) writes:
>>>   "Karate" can kill people. There was a graduate student in my friend's
>>>lab. The guy was a good karate practician -- I mean, VERY good. He
>>>has never drunk alcohol even at a party or other socializing occasions.
>>>My friend once asked him why he didn't drink. He answered, "I could kill
>>>someone with this (showing his fist) if I'm drunk and I cannot control
>>>its power." Yes, I agree that a spontaneous inner motivation towards respect
>>>and caution is important.
>
>donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin) writes:
>>Did he have to pass a government test before he was allowed to learn those
>>skills???
>>(I hope his government never bans HIS weapons!)
>
>Well, it's interesting to note that Karate came about *because* the
>Japanese government banned weapons (I guess, swords) in Okinawa.

Not exactly.  The Japanese government banned the possession of weapons by
Okinawans, which left the Okinawans at the mercy of visiting samurai.  Of
course, some people there disliked the idea of living or dying at the whim
of a visitor with a sword, so they developed techniques of using tools
(e.g., a rice grinder's handle, a forked metal device for turning the soil)
into weapons that allowed adepts to defeat an armed samurai.

Which just goes to show that people need to have the means to defend
themselves...

   don
From: ritz@ritz.mordor.com (Christopher Mauritz)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: call for a new newsgroup
Date: 11 Nov 92 03:46:51 GMT
Organization: Ritz International, Inc. - Import/Export Consultants
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Mark Crispin (mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM) wrote:
: The signal/noise on this newsgroup has deteriorated to the point where it has
: become useless.  Between the ranting about guns and the ranting of Rikiya
: Asano, this newsgroup has become impossible to read even with advanced
: newsreading tools that help you find the 2 messages out of 156 that are worth
: reading.
: 
: I think it is time for a new newsgroup, preferably a moderated one, in which
: Japanese cultural, historical, and social issues can be discussed in an
: intelligent fashion.  We can leave this newsgroup for Asano to vent his
: paranoid, racist, and historically inaccurate blather along with the gun
: flamers.

I agree completely.  Against my usual practice, I have made heavy use
of a kill file for this (and only this) newsgroup to try to weed out
all of the noise.  Killing all articles with "Asano" or "Louisiana"
in the header or body of the article worked for a while, but it is
starting to get out of hand again.  How difficult would it be to
change this to a moderated group or to create a new moderated
group?

It is such a pity that a few weenies who have nothing better to
do with their time can completely ruin such a (formerly) valuable
resource.

Sigh...

Chris

--
Christopher Mauritz                 | It's conventional in the extreme. I
ritz@ritz.mordor.com                | guess I've seen too much, because I
{backbone}!rutgers!spcvxb!ritz!ritz | don't actually find her provacative
                                    | either.   -Bowie on Madonna-
From: chawley@andy.bgsu.edu (Chris Hawley)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: kanji on Star Trek TNG
Summary: Definitely wasn't kendo
Date: 12 Nov 92 23:09:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: andy.BxMLnn.M5v
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.

In article <17301@mindlink.bc.ca>, a7657@mindlink.bc.ca (Stephen H. Kawamoto) writes:
> RE: kei and yuri -- writers for TNG are manga fans.
> The sport looks like KENDO. Were Ryker and Ryker Sr. wearing
> masks that look not unlike fencing masks?
> 
> --
> PGP 384/D7484F Stephen Kawamoto
> 
> a7657@mindlink.bc.ca.
> 
> 
> UUENCODED on MIND LINK! Fri Oct 30 10:35:08 1992
> 
> 
> begin 666 sign1a.pcx
> M"@4!`0`````K`3L`+`$\`````/___P``````````````````````````````
> M```````````````````````````!)@``````````````````````````````
> M``````````````````````````````````````````````````#E_\'PY?_!
> M\.7_P?#E_\'PY?_!\.7_P?#$_\'/X/_!\,3_P<_@_\'PQ/_!Q\W_/]+_P?#$
> M_\''S?\

As a kendo player in high school (Otsu Sho Gyo in Otsu, Shiga), I can assure you
the game Riker and his dad were playing was NOT kendo.  They were wearing
visors to blind them, not masks, and the weapons were used like quarter-staves--
closer to naginata, I suppose.  Some writer was taking artistic liberties, I
guess.

Now another sci-fi kanji question:  I saw Aliens 3 the other night, and I spotted
some character written on the wall of the pit where they put the crashed Emerg-
ency Escape Vehicle.  Did anybody see  the character/ understand it?  I thought
for sure it was the kanji for "gomi" but I'm not sure.

	Chris Hawley
        Bowling Green State University
        Bowling Green, Ohio
	chawley@andy.bgsu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,talk.politics.guns
From: pngai@adobe.com (Phil Ngai)
Subject: Re: A Japanese student killed in Lousiana
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 02:46:59 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.160300.13613@u.washington.edu> yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii) writes:
>In this morning's "SuperTime", the father of the dead student
>was asked what he thought about the grand jury's decision. It's
>from my memory so it may not be exactly accurate, but he basically
>said:
>
>("I don't know what the exact situation was but ... I feel anger
>  toward an attitude that everything can be solved by a gun ...")

How about the attitude that everything can be solved by banning guns?

-- 
My opinions are my own.
From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Looking for sources
Date: 9 Nov 1992 09:49:06 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: avalanche.berkeley.edu

were shorter than other people. In the same vein I have heard mention of other
studies which have found, among other things, that the Japanese were uniquely
equipped to speak the Japanese language because differences in physiological
makeup.

I would like to find English language documentation on these kinds of theories.
If anyone could provided references I would be grateful.

smittie
----------

Smittie dude, it's called 19th-century anthropology.  It's not worth your
time.  Just another reflection of how wishful thinking translates into
"reliable" research results, that women, blacks, or gays have different
neurocircuitry from "normal" humans, is the latest fad.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: huttar@hp750.itg.ti.com (Lars Huttar)
Subject: Re: Banana Republic (Re: US vs. Japan (was: Try it again - ...)
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 16:19:44 GMT
	<1992Nov13.163406.25007@u.washington.edu> <Bxo24C.2K4@ncifcrf.gov>
Organization: IEF Development, Texas Instruments Inc., Plano Texas
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at Texas Instruments Inc.
              The opinions expressed within are those of the user and not
              necessarily those of Texas Instruments.
                                                     

masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda) writes:
>    I once heard that the expression "banana republic" could be offensive
> to some people because it could mean "a developing country in a tropical
> area" in a derogatory manner. If that is true, Japanese tourists to those
> countries wearing a B.R. T-shirt (it has a logo of B.R.) might become
> another reason for anti-Japan feeling. Would anyone be able to verify
> or deny my hearsay?

Yes... about 5 years ago when I was in college, I was wearing a Banana
Republic T-shirt around the dorm, and this young woman from Ecuador
(I think) told me she found it offensive.  At the time, I had never
heard the phrase used except as the name of the store.

So yes, there could be some derogatory connotation.
But it's not so well-known that every native English speaker
recognizes it.

| |    Lars Huttar                          3      $B!V7n$O6yED$N207AA%!W(B
 \|/|  huttar@hp750.itg.ti.com      ||   _______           ____      ||
  |    (Opinions herein are not     ||:  |  |  |   |   |   |  |   | :||  Mars
       necessarily those of TI.)    ||  _| _| _|  _|  _|  _| _|  _|  ||
From: masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: US vs. Japan (was: Try it again - ...
Date: 13 Nov 92 02:32:16 GMT
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <1duj1lINNoq6@agate.berkeley.edu> jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu) writes:
>In article <1992Nov12.150207.28147@acuson.com>
>miklg@acuson.com (Michael Goldman ) writes:
>
>>	The US national debt as a fraction of GNP is slightly greater
>>	than Germany's, and slightly smaller than Japan's.
.....
>>	Don't mistake trade deficits for internal budget deficits.

>I'm not mistaking internal budget deficits for trade deficits.  They
>essentially are the same when we simultaenously run large deficits in
>both categories because the end result is financing of the national debt
>by foreign powers that be.

   I don't know how this fit into this economic thing, but I read that
the deficit of "ryokou shuushi" (balance of spending by tourists) is
now largest in Japan (West Germany used to be No. 1 until a few years
ago). Considering the increasing number of Japanese travellars to
foreign countries and the amount of money that they spend, I think
it is a reasonable result. A Japanese tourist in the US is said to
spend three times more money than a European tourist in average 
(although I don't have the actual statistical data).

   A few weeks ago, I went to Banana Republic (the clothing store, you know),
and a shopkeeper told me that two Japanese tourists (women supposedly in 
their twenties) had visited their store several days before and that one
of them had purchased $400 worth, the other $800!

--Michiaki
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,talk.politics.guns