HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Maiko Covington)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Moving discussion of life in Japan to fj
Date: 13 Aug 92 16:44:00 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

Hmmm. I agree that it would be nice to have a group dealing with
life in Japan. However, I sort of wish it didn't have to be in the
fj hierarchy. I do NOT live in Japan now - I moved here from there 3
years ago. However, I like to read about what is going on there, and
to read about foreign people's experience there. As an American grew
up in Japan, I think I may have some things I could contribute or
some suggestion I could offer to people who live in Japan. I would
also sometimes like to ask people living there questions. Aside from
that, it is natukasii for me to read these sorts of posts, if that
makes sense.
	Well, my sysadmin is not subscribing to the fj hierarchy
because there are not enough people at this university who read
Japanese to make it "worthwhile". Add to this the fact that I do not
have a nifty workstation - just a "dumb terminal" in a large room -
and getting the fj stuff is pretty much impossible.
	I suppose I really have no right to request reading stuff
that is supposed to be for people living in Japan, but it would be
nice if not all these sorts of discussion moves to the new group, or
if there was another group (soc.life-in-japan or something li'dat?)
that I could read, that some stuff could be crossposted to.
	Just my thoughts. I will miss you all, if you leave. ^_^

	Maiko Covington     ecovingt@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:6896 soc.culture.asian.american:8185
From: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Japanese Things
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:58:30 GMT
Reply-To: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Followup-To: soc.culture.japan
Organization: Horizon Research

In article <1992Aug18.193749.4844@island.COM>, 
fester@etorofu.island.COM writes:

=> Articles to date: 	Adoption.
=> 			
=> From the article entitled "Logic":
=> ---------------------------------------------------
=> ...
=> 
=>It is especially in business transactions at the open ports
=>that the European mind and Japanese logic are brought into contact,
=>whence frequently friction and mutual misunderstanding. Certain
=>aspects of the mental attitude in question recur, however, so
=>constantly that the resident European merchants have learnt how
=>to deal with them. The peculiarity most often cited is the refusal of
=>Japanese tradesmen to make a reduction on a quantity.

Thanks Mike.... very interesting. I always wondered about the lack
of discounts for quantity purchases and how it affects Japanese
merchants. I always thought that perhaps they might sell more if
they did offer quantity discounts.

Even retail sales for such everyday items such as liquor, toiletries,
foodstuffs, etc. lack any discount price break. These days though,
retail merchants often give extra "prizes" for volume puchases, such
as packets of tissue, hankies, cigarette lighters or discount coupons,
so the concept may finally be catching on.

Worse thing in the world is when a six pack is six times the price
of one :-(

- Bill Lambert
From: TOGE@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Nobukazu Toge)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 18 Aug 92 05:03:11 GMT
 <Aug16.162535.34168@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>
 <1992Aug17.171821.560@merlin.hgc.edu>
 <Aug18.013007.35996@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Regarding this Japanese-atrocities-during-WWII stuff.

Whatever the item may be, the oh-so-typical-persistent pattern is -

(1) At least the government-to-government relashionship-wise it's
    said that the victim country decides not to demand compensations
    [this is the case for ROK and PRC, not sure about others.]
(2) Japanese government decides, hence, that the case closed,
(3) Victim country citizens never happy, erupting their anger
    periodically,
(4) Japanese government continues issuing a token "regret" word,
(5) Victim country citizen even more infuriated, since the words
    don't sound sincere.
(6) Go do (3).

This has got to stop. The Japanese (in particular the gov'ment) have to
reveal WHAT REALLY IT WAS.  Whether one wants to apologize when and how
or not would naturally follow after that.  To me it's rediculous to
consider letting Mr Akihito murmur some apologetic words without going
through that first step first.  After all, what one country would
apologize for, if it's not all that clear what is being talked about
and its extent?  [Once, I thought I had standard knowledges on Korean
comfort women: Since I heard that many of them had been practically
abducted from their towns, I'm no longer sure what else is hidden.]

However,

A comment on recent fears on the Japanese military expansionism
shared by (some/many) peoples in Asia.  The economical or industrial
structure that shaped the pre-WWII Japan simply don't exist any more.
Militarily expanding itself just won't pay for Japan.  So if one is
afraid of something like Dai-Nippon-Kyo-Ei-Ken of '30s-'40s coming
back, that's simply an illusion.  If one still keeps the inclination
to call Japanese "Japs" now, it may not be too clear to such persons,
though <--- If you find this statement abrasive, let me tell you sorry,
but it's your problem, sir.

If, on the other hand, one is talking about the Japanese mentality,
it's a good question to ask if it changed after WWII.  The present
"Shimaguni konjou" etc were shaped up during 260 years of Tokugawa era.
After the Tokugawa era, it took about 75 years to get to the end of
WWII.  Since the end of WWII, it's been 47 years.  One can only guess
how long it would take Japanese to overcome some of our problematic(?)
characteristics.

* Nobu Toge: ex-employee at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center(SLAC).
* My former (SLAC) and present (Nat'l Lab. for High Energy Physics)
* employers are not responsible for this posting.  My opinion is only
* mine unless someone else shares it.
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: E-mail in Japan
Date: 21 Aug 92 12:15:19 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

oishi@epas.utoronto.ca (Nana Oishi) writes:

>Hi!  I am looking for someone who knows about the e-mail system in Japan.
>Is it possible to get an e-mail account without joining any
>institutions such as university or company??  How much does it cost to
>open an account and send messages?  If there is anyone who can answer
>my questions, please respond to me at oishi@epas.utoronto.ca
>I'll greatly appreciate it!

Sorry, but I see a lot of requests like these and since I have to
pay extra for email to addresses like yours I post. 

There are four options that I know of: 

1) Join CompuServe in the U.S. and access it via some packet network
like TYMPAS (TYMNET) for ~ 70 yen/minute. Some people also call
direct at 110+ yen/minute (depending on time of day) with high
speed modems and claim they it's better for large file transfers
than TYMPAS which is only 2400 BPS.

2) Join Aegis in Kyoto for a UNIX host + BBS-like front end. 20,000
yen/year, no charge for network mail within Japan, 20 yen/K to other
addresses. Access via direct dial-up or TYMPAS (TYMNET Personal
Account System). Send mail to me, I'm sysadmin. 

3) Join TWICS in Tokyo if you want a VAX/VMS-host with PARTI/CAUCUS
and a USENET reader (sorry, don't know what kind). 15,000 yen
deposti/signup + 3,000 yen/month, charges for mail within/outside of
Japan vary from free to 45 yen/K depending on volume.  Access via
direct dial-up, TYMPAS, DDX. Send mail to burress@twics.co.jp for details. 

4) Set up your own UUCP host and join Juice. 5,000 yen to join plus
1,000 yen/month, mail within Japan OK, not sure about international
but most probably via KDDlabs' Inet Club which is 30 yen/K.  Access
via direct dial-up. Send mail to juice-admin@juice.co.jp for details. 

Hope that helps,

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
BITNET/JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:7094 soc.culture.china:23536 soc.culture.hongkong:10025 soc.culture.taiwan:12201
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 21 Aug 92 11:21:25 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.japan
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie) writes:

>Unless some of the netters here are much older than I think, no one here has
>any first hand knowledge of what happened in Nanking. ....

One would think so. While I'm old enough (57) I wasn't there so I
don't have anything to say about Nanking. However, I'm fortunate
enough to know some Japanese nationals who remember the war and it's
been interesting and enligthening talking with them. One was in the
army in (what was then) Burma; another remembers being trained to
resist rape with wooden sticks when she was a high school girl; two
more lived in Manchu (one was born there and came to Japan for the
first time after the war); another remembers begging for chewing gum
in the bombed out streets of Osaka; another remembers running down
the street behind her mother who had her baby sister on her back
watching to make sure her sister's hair didn't catch on fire during
the fire bombing of Tokyo; and so on. 

It isn't easy to become close enough to such people to get them to
tell you how they feel but after talking with them for more than
five years or so of knowing I have some idea of what they went
through and how they feel about the war, and how they feel
about still being treated as subject, while everyone outside
of Japan thinks they are citizens.

Has anybody talked face-to-face with somebody who was in Nanking?

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: borders@ms.uky.edu (Johnny Borders)
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
    <1992Aug16.081012.26814@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> 
    <1992Aug16.140030.10294@news.nd.edu>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 20:42:31 GMT
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences

ylu@bach.helios.nd.edu () writes:

>In article <1992Aug16.081012.26814@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> shao@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (SHAO CHUNG-SHANG) writes:

>If a large number of japs think in this way it is dangerous! For our chinese,
>the question of how the japs was "tricked" to the war is another subject.
>We can not mix these issues. The fact is millions of chinese civilian people
>were killed, Buried in LIVE and killed in LIVE for medical testing by JAPs
>on chinese land. Who can say this is not japs responsibility! no matter what
>is the reason for their invading! 
> 
>One the other hand some netters have pointed out how the japs was "tricked"
>to invade china, I do'nt want to use more valuable CPU time here.

   Well, sir, let me say one thing: The usage of the term 'jap' or 'japs' is
slanderous in any context. It would have been just as easy for you to type out
'japanese' like you did 'chinese.' I don't mean to fuss, but one has to be
careful so as not to offend anyone. If I went around saying (or typing :)
'japs' and 'chinks' (or the infamous all-inclusive all-American term
"little slant-eyed bastards") I would eventually offend SOMEBODY. Just a
point I thought needed to be made..
   It would be more dangerous to have a large number of Chinese feel a
certain way, I should say. To hell with Pearl Harbor, Remember Tiennamen
Square! Perhaps we should avoid a discussion of how the Chinese government 
treats their OWN people, though.
-- 
*******************************************************************************
* The University of Kentucky is not responsible * AIX: Marketing or lunacy?   *
* for me, by reason of "Bureaucrats Syndrome,"  * "I never used anything by   *
* a crippling form of insanity.                 *  IBM that I liked."         *
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: tony2@prefect.uucp (21131-gozdz)
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japan
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 20:54:57 GMT

In article <Aug.17.14.16.43.1992.12418@romulus.rutgers.edu> szhou@romulus.rutgers.edu (Shiyu Zhou) writes:

>As I know, many Chinese, a number of Asian People, as well as some
>westerners, donot like Japs.  I am not thinking about which side's
>fault.  But, if you don't like Japs, you can refer Japan as 'it',
>'its' instead of 'her' which sounds sometimes or somewhat
>uncomfortable though that is western tradition.
>
>ming
>-- 
>Ming  He				cs101442@sol.yorku.ca
>My account must have HIV, so this is not my account.
>CLAIMER: I am from Beijing, China

It is amazing what blind hatred can do to people's
minds... It even infects their .sig lines.
From: shin@krusty.ee.udel.edu (Jeong-Gyun Shin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: On Japanese apologies
Date: 21 Aug 92 13:26:33 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware

In article <92232.183350TOGE@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> TOGE@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Nobukazu Toge) writes:
> ...
>So, IMHO the lack of sincerity by the Japanese government as observed
>by other Asian nations are because of those domestic structures (or
>mechanism or situation, what-ever), rather than the sheer lack of
>sincerity per se [ok, it's a big contribution, too].  And I want to repeat
>that many Japanese (all right, I don't have statistics) feel this is bad,
>but are not quite sure how to nationally mature out of this.

I beg to differ on matter of sincerity.  A show case: regarding 'comfort
girls' matter, just look at what was announcement of Japan's government
as I once posted here: that it was unclear how those woment ended up
in such places (which is not denial of non-involvement of then Japan's
Imperial government, but washing hands of responsability of taking those
women to such places).
From: lamb@jasper.CS.ORST.EDU (Ben Lam)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: mountain bikes & gifts
Date: 17 Aug 92 03:41:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: CS.1992Aug17.034116.14545
Organization: Oregon State University, Corvallis Oregon

In article <HARKCOM.92Aug17084907@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp> harkcom@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp (Alton Harkcom) writes:
>In article <1992Aug9.132728.7170@news.iastate.edu> TY.A62@isumvs.iastate.edu
>   (jeffrey cross) writes:
>
> =}    Last year, I visited Japan for two weeks.  I noticed many people
> =}    riding bicycles but I didn't see any mountain bikers or mountain
> =}    bikes.  Are mountain bikes very popular in Japan?
>
>   They are popular.  And their popularity is groing.  The reason you
>will not see many is that they are too expensive...  about 400-500 US
>dollars for a cheap low quality one...  easily 1000 US dollars for a
>decent quality one...  One can get a good deal on importing a high
>quality mountain bike if one looks hard enough or has the right
>connections.

Is is true that Japanese bikes follow European standards instead of American?


--Ben Lam
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:7043 soc.culture.china:23482 soc.culture.hongkong:9985 soc.culture.taiwan:12157
From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:20:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: beach.SMITTIE.92Aug20162051
 @beach.csulb.edu><1992Aug20.220442.19106@news.iastate.edu>
Organization: Cal State Long Beach

>You can't expect all the chinese and koreans to be holy in the first place.
>They won't embrace the Japanese government with love, when the latter is still
>trying to cover the crime of the war. The potential jingoism will still last,
>if the government sets an environment for it. If I can find your critistic
>statements about the government, I may think we find a good judge. It is true
>that this world should be full of understandings and love. It is true that
>hatred is not good for this aim. But this great aim needs all parts to
>fullfill.

This is getting really ridiculous. I NEVER said anyone should embrace anyone
with anything. That can exist the absense of hatred and at the same time the
absence of love. But here again, I guess that your approach might really stir
up some emotion in people and then they might forget to carefully consider what
you say. A rather popular and effective style of propoganda.

smittie
-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________
From: kim@magneto.physics.auburn.edu (Han-jung Kim)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: What do most of Japanese think of Korean (Re: An open letter..)
Date: 23 Aug 92 07:27:58 GMT
Reply-To: kim@magneto.physics.auburn.edu (Han-jung Kim)
Organization: Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Message-I.D.: <Aug23.042415.34564@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>Lines: 16


 In article <Aug23.042415.34564@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> ntetsuya@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Nishimura) writes:
>In article <1992Aug22.203238.3239@ducvax.auburn.edu> kim@magneto.physics.auburn.edu (Han-jung Kim) writes:
>
>[stuff deleted]
>>
>> 
>	Again, there IS no secondary meaning except "person from Korea" in 
>	"Chosenjin (in your language JOSENJIN?)."
>
      Thank you, I accept your reference and will forget the bad concept 
about "Chosenjin". 

Now you can call me 'Chosenjin'.

 Because I am a person fro korean peninsular, O.K? So happy again.
From: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Have some cash
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:56:29 GMT
Reply-To: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Organization: Horizon Research

In article <1992Aug19.064744.4386@lsil.com>, mitch@lsil.com
(Mitch Sako) writes:

=> I'm planning on going in November and I plan on taking T/C with
=> me.  My past experience has shown me that, short of using my VISA
=> card which charges no exchange premium, that $ T/C are the best.

Contrary to what what Mitch and some others have said
or have implicated, while investigating a charge made
in Japan on my VISA card, I was told that they charge
a 1% exchange fee for foreign currency transactions,
based on the average daily exchange rate on the date
of the transaction. That's not so bad at all, but it's
not free.

They also don't tell you the YEN value of the charge
on their statement, or the exchange rate used for the
calculation. As luck would have it, I did catch a
mistake that time, but it's not so easy. The reason
I caught a mistake is that two charges the same day
at the same store (different departments) seemed to
have different exchange rates (hence my inquiry as to
how the exchange rate is calculated), but actually
there was an entry mistake on one charge. Be careful.

AMEX does tell you the exchange they used for their charges,
but they seem to use some system that relates to the phase
of the moon that gives them some advantage, it seems.

Does anyone know AMEX's system?

- Bill Lambert
From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 18 Aug 92 04:51:35 GMT
	<Bt4KGJ.5n9@doppler.ncsc.org> <1992Aug18.023235.15559@news.nd.edu>
Organization: Cal State Long Beach

I chose not to quote <1992Aug18.023235.15559@news.nd.edu> from
ylu@bach.helios.nd.edu because reading it once was more than enough for me.

When there are people such as this "ylu" making these kinds of statements
(which by the way come up every time this topic is run thru the mill) it
becomes plainly obvious to me that while Japanese aggression indeed affected
many people in terrible ways they, at least in comparison, have learned
civility and decency. If what I see here is any demonstration, many Chinese
have a lot to learn.

smittie

-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________
From: rehir@gauss.med.harvard.edu (Hirokatsu Watanabe 432-2275)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Regarding Japanese T.V...
Date: 15 Aug 92 01:42:45 GMT
Organization: Harvard Medical School

In article <SMITTIE.92Aug10160135@lark.csulb.edu> smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie) writes:
>In Japan they use small (about half a meter in diameter) satalite disks that
>receive a single from NHK which is very similar to cable in the US. Someone 
>who is using this system can probably explain it better but it is quite 
>obvious that cable TV will never enter Japan. The current system has already 
>become the de facto standard.

   Excuse me. Is what you mean that there is no cable TV in Japan?
But I have watched cable TV in Tukuba-shi 5 years ago. And there are
some cable system in Mitaka-shi, Bunkyo-ku in Tokyo, and several areas.
   And a private satelite TV (Wowwow ?) has started since last year.

******************************
*     Hirokatsu Watanabe     *
******************************
>
From: tygar+@cs.cmu.edu (Doug Tygar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Flowers to Tokyo
Date: 21 Aug 92 16:00:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.BtCCHH.J46.1
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <BtA046.CyK@world.std.com> cmr@world.std.com (Charles M Richmond) writes:
>Other questions would be... How do I arrange for delivery and otherwise
>handle the mechanics, besides just going to see the local FDIC (??sp??)
>florist?

It turns out that it is possible to wire flowers most places in the world
since florists are organized into international associations.  For example,
I recently found out that it is possible to wire flowers even to arid regions
in sub-Saharan Africa.  Prices vary according to local prices at the 
destination -- since prices tend to be higher in Japan, I would suggest
authorizing a figure on the high side.  On the other hand, in tropical
regions, even a small dollar figure might result in an ridiculously huge
bouquet.

Any local florist can set this up for you, or (in the US) you can call
1-800-FLOWERS.  Any reputable dealer should be able to arrange delivery
within 48 hours to almost anyplace in Japan.
From: rir@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (robert.i.rosenthal)
Subject: JAPANESE SPEECH
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 18:10:55 GMT


To All Japanese Culture Group Members:

Do you speak Japanese?  Was it the first language you learned as a child?
If so, AT&T Bell Laboratories would like a sample of your voice to help
us analyze and understand the statistical characteristics of Japanese
speech.

We are conducting a research program that may make it possible to identify
Japanese speech and automatically connect a caller to an interpreter who
can provide translation service and telephone assistance.


                Please Call:  1-800-645-0348


This toll-free call will take only a few minutes.  Your recorded voice
will help us build a statistical model of Japanese speech.  We think you
will find the call interesting.

If you have family or friends who speak Japanese as their native language
please ask them to call as well.

There is no charge for the call and you may call at any time, daytime, evenings,
or weekends.

Bell Laboratories
Speech Architecture Group