HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: "joe kuroda" <joe.kuroda@canrem.com>
Subject: death of kobo abe
Reply-To: "joe kuroda" <joe.kuroda@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: soc
Date: 23 Jan 93 16:11:23 EST



A great Japanese writer has passed away.  

Here's a UPI article on Kobo Abe:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  TOKYO (UPI) - Japan's literary community Saturday mourned the death
of Kobo Abe, a novelist whose visions of the struggles of modern-day
life brought him international acclaim.
   Abe died Friday of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital, his family
said.
   He was best known for his 1962 novel, ``Woman in the Dunes,'' which
focused on human alienation and the loss of identity.
   The movie version of the book won a special prize at the Cannes Film
Festival in 1964 and became a cult classic.
   Although his works were set in Japan, they were not bound by a
national border. Other Abe novels were ``The face of another,'' ``The
Ruined Map'' and the ``Box Man.''
   His characters struggle in a lonely and inhospitable world.
   Born in Tokyo in 1924, Abe spent most of his childhood in Manchuria
in China. In 1948 he graduated as a medical doctor from Tokyo University
but shunned medicine to become a writer.
   For a long time Abe was a Marxist and a member of the Japan Communist
Party. But the JCP criticized him for a book about a trip to Eastern
Europe in 1956 and in 1962 the party expelled him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

               ==> Joe <==

 * 1st 1.02b #930 * It takes courage to innovate, not imitate.
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044
From: cmort@NCoast.ORG (Christopher Morton)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Speaking of Y. MIshima
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:32:58 GMT
Reply-To: cmort@ncoast.org (Christopher Morton)
Followup-To: soc.culture.japan
Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH

As quoted from <kfNMmES00UhWI3xlA=@andrew.cmu.edu> by Rikiya Asano <ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu>:

> Mr. Morton,
> 
> 
> Let it be remembered that it was you who proclaimed the beginning
> threats as deporting me. Coming to CMU and shuting me up and all that
> bullshit. I told you exclusively that if you came to CMU to harm me "I

Well, as we can all see, in addition to being a semi-literate, racist, academic
failure, you are also a pathetic sniveling little liar into the bargain.

If there were ANY proof of such you would provide it.  You WON't.  Instead, you
will continue to jerk off on the keyboard, demonstrating your utter lack of 
character.

If YOU are typical of CMU, I most CERTAINLY want nothing to do with the place,
much less a pitiable little failure such as yourself.

Continue to make the impotent threats.  Nobody's impressed but the imbecile 
that makes them.  I'm hardly suprised that you threaten somebody about going
someplace they've never expressed a desire to visit.  Let's face it.  You are 
COWARD.  You cannot back up your own assinine statements.  You're so macho that
you have to make death threats via computer.

You combine all of the most nauseating features of the Klan and NAMBLA.  Now
that's a thought: Rikiko wearing lace panties under his hood and sheet.  It's
enough to gag a maggot.  You disgust me.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------  
"Read my lips, no new Haitians.  Ack!" - Bill the Prez
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Christopher Morton
Organization: Masters student, Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
From: kuryakin@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Rick Pavek)
Subject: Re: Weapons are too easily available
Organization: Boeing
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 18:19:46 GMT

In article <1k45laINNrqs@shelley.u.washington.edu> kaygee@hardy.u.washington.edu (Kevin Giansante) writes:
>I agree.  I've heard that EVERYBODY in Japan has either a sword or a
>knife.  Some housewives even carry them inside their homes, right in
>the kitchen!  It's no wonder that Japan has such a violent culture.  I
>wouldn't let MY son or daughter go there to study; it's just too
>dangerous.

You're joking, right?  

Everyone in the US has a knife.  In the kitchens, neh?
Japan has a more highly defined social etiquette than we "civilized"
westerners.  A purse left on a bench (or a camera, or whatever) will
not be picked up by a stranger.  It might be picked up, but to be
placed where it could be seen more easily by the owner.  Or turned
into the police.

At least there, they understand the meaning of the word 'propriety'.

Rick


-- 
Rick Pavek                       | Never ask a droid to outdo its program.
kuryakin@bcstec.ca.boeing.com    |           
Seattle, WA                      |   It wastes your time
                                 |          and annoys the droid.
From: keis@psy.uwa.oz.au (Keis Ohtsuka)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: honda: america's choice!
Date: 22 Jan 1993 03:19:20 GMT
Organization: The University of Western Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: wapsy.psy.uwa.oz.au

luke@newt.ee.byu.edu (David Luke) writes:

>Actually, Australian beef seems to be selling very well.  I've never seen
>commercials for "Wyoming beef", but there are "Aussie beef" commercials on
>TV all the time.  It seems as if, even after beef imports are allowed,
>Americans just figure that the Japanese will buy it without any effort on
>the part of the US.  Maybe we should take marketing lessons from the 
>Australians...

No worries. You're doing fine. While Australians market Australian
beef as a national product (they launched another ad campaign in
Japan for Australian beef), American state trade offices push their
beef products as Kansas Beef, Nebraska Beef, etc. As a result, major
Japanese supermarket chains such as Seiyu, Itoyokado, and Daiei,
specializes in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming? (not sure about the
state) independently (but not necessarily in this order. Sorry 
I don't keep track of trivia like this.)

Canadians are also trying hard to capture a share in the Japanese
market. Most notably Alberta Beef is gaining recognition. (My mother
wanted to know where Alberta is.)  By all means, buy Australian 
beef (for obvious selfish reason) but go for the best price really
for any of the import beef. There is absolutely no reason to pay
obscene amount of money for paper-thin, flimsy, tasteless Japanese
beef!
From: kuroda@sun04.o-asted.tis.co.jp (Noriko Kuroda)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Rie Miyazawa and Takahanada
Date: 28 Jan 93 04:42:50 GMT
Organization: Toyo Information Systems Co.,Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
In-reply-to: seb@stein.u.washington.edu's message of 25 Jan 93 19:11:52 GMT


  
  Rie's mama is Japanese, but Rie's papa is Hollander.
--
                                                kuroda
						kuroda@sun04.o-asted.tis.co.jp
						06-821-1068(72-1068)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: rhb@world.std.com (Robert H Brueckner)
Subject: Re: Japanese names & Finnish names
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 13:42:18 GMT

In article <JUHANA.RASANEN.93Jan24131151@vipunen.hut.fi> Juhana.Rasanen@hut.fi (Juhana R{s{nen) writes:

   There was a discussion about Japanese names for some time ago, so I
   thought this might amuse you. Japanese names and Finnish names have
   some similarities, mostly because almost all the syllables of Japanese
   can also be found in Finnish (my Japanese teacher does belive that there's
   a deeper connection between the two languages, but that is a different
   subject...)

I too have heard this. Some language books I have read postulate that
Finnish, Japanese, and Hungarian are somehow related. They are all
non-Indo-European languages, of course, but I would be interested to
learn if other similarities exist. Do any people out there who speak
Finnish and Japanese notice any other points of convergence?

RB


-- 
|"The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who  |
| have loved it." -- George Santayana  // Opinions expressed here, when |
| clear and persuasive, are my own. --Rob Brueckner (rhb@world.std.com) |

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: miklg@acuson.com (Michael Goldman )
Subject: Re: Honda vs Ford
Organization: Acuson; Mountain View, California
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 15:23:33 GMT

jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu) writes:

>In article <1993Jan22.145237.17682@acuson.com> 
>miklg@acuson.com (Michael Goldman ) writes:

>>	Interesting but apples and oranges here.  Trucks are held to
>>	a different fuel economy standard than cars.  Also, Ford needs
>>	all the sophistication it can get to make a 5.0L car pollute
>>	as little as a smaller engine truck.

>Is that to pass EPA's standards or CA's?  Our smog test doesn't set
>maximums in absolutes, but as percentage.  So a mondo engine can be
>"clean" if it produces a low percentage of NOX, CO, and HC.  Does
>EPA have absolute max. magnitudes on its numbers?

	THe US _and_ CA pollution laws are written in absolutes.  The
	CA tests that residents go through every few years are bogus
	and will be changed (tightened up in a few years.)  The standards
	are expressed in grams of pollutant per mile.  The CA stds are
	set as a %-age of the US stds but are still expressed in gms/mile.
	Cars sold in Ca. still have to meet the US stds, but since the
	CA stds are tougher, it doesn't matter.

	- 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: Cities and Suburbs
Date: 28 Jan 93 04:21:20 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: locusts.berkeley.edu

Mike said

Recently reported in the SF Chronicle: about 73%  of Japanese live in the
cities (not defined in the article.) I also remember reading that roughly 
80% of the Japanese population lives in the strip of land between Tokyo/Chiba
and ~Hiroshima (this includes Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Yokohama, Kawasaki,
etc). It's difficult to see how Japan could get much more urbanized.

FWIW, when I was working in Tokyo, I met a lot of people from (esp) the
Sapporo and Fukuoka areas. Most of them expressed keen desires to go back, if
they could find suitable jobs, even if it meant taking a "demotion". In a
5 month period, six of those people found the opportunity to move back.

Mike
-- 

You gotta watch what they mean by living in "cities", whether it includes
suburbs or the arbitrary distinctions between large towns and small cities.
I hear that in Nebraska, a town with a population greater than 2,000 is 
deemed a city.

Anyway, that strip of land where 80% of the population resides, refers to
the Toukaidou, the historical megalopolis on Honshu's East Coast dating
to the Heian Era (8th century or so); traveling accountsw from the 10th
century exist, about travelling from Kyoto to then-Kamakura (now-Tokyo).
Kamakura was the Eastern military frontier up until the Warring States
period; in fact, shogun has a meaning, "he who fights the barbarians", 
fighting the Ainu or whoever other primitive inhabitants living North of
Kamakura.  Hokkaido was settled by Japanese only beginning in the 19th
century, so as you go North there is more of a frontier-influence on local
cultures.  

It's true that lots of people go to work in Tokyo, realize that it's not
all that it's cracked up to be, and head back.  In fact, the government for
the last century has been encouraging people to head back.  But Tokyo
has been like a chain reaction, the more people settle, the more central
it becomes for gaining elite status.  Companies go head-over-heels to have
an office in the Ginza, so they can impress clients buy taking them out to
drink after the business deal is over.  Back in the bubble days, it was
said that no matter how much you fold up a 10,000-yen bill, it would still
cover more area on a piece of land in the Ginza than that speck of land was
worth.

So there you have a brain drain within a country.  These days on the
West Coast, Kanazawa is booming but all the smaller cities around it have
deteriorated in exchange.  Zero-sum game!  Zero-sum game!

It's such a crowded country.  Why are people worried about a declining
population????  Isn't that good?
From: tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu (Tad Perry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: HDTV in Japan
Date: 24 Jan 1993 02:04:32 GMT
Organization: unaffiliated
NNTP-Posting-Host: gibdo.engr.washington.edu

In article <93Jan23.121309est.47602@neat.cs.toronto.edu> tlai@cs.toronto.edu (Tony W H Lai) writes:
>In article <1993Jan23.075416.15031@gibdo.engr.washington.edu> tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu (Tad Perry) writes:
>>In article <93Jan22.145652est.47802@neat.cs.toronto.edu> tlai@cs.toronto.edu (Tony W H Lai) writes:
>>>In article <1993Jan22.153358.24617@gibdo.engr.washington.edu> tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu (Tad Perry) writes:
>>>[lots of stuff deleted]
>>>>...  a viewing
>>>>distance of 5+ meters is recommended for best effect. Just how many
>>>>Japanese homes are big enough for that?
>>>
>>>...  Also, the ideal viewing distance depends on the height H of the
>>>screen.  The ideal viewing distance of NTSC is more than 6.5H.  An HDTV
>>>system is supposed to have an ideal viewing distance of less than 3.5H.
>>
>>You're not wrong here, but a one *meter* minimum diagonal size is
>>recommended for HDTV screens to begin with. Anything less and
>>consumers cannot visually detect the benefits compared to a normal set
>>of the same dimensions, and, not detecting the benefits, won't buy it.
>>So it still works out to huge room sizes as I stated.
>
>But, if you have a screen measuring 1.2m diagonally, the screen height is
>less than 60cm with a 16:9 aspect ratio, so the ideal viewing distance
>should be around 2m.

Except that you're the only person I've heard 3.5H from. Last I heard
6 to 7H was still the rule of thumb for HDTV (according to that Nomura
market analysis I already referenced). But even without quibbling over
this figure, 2m viewing distance is all you're going to get in most
Japanese homes after putting the set itself in, so I hope you're
right. My point has been that I think the shear size of HDTV sets will
hinder their popularity (diffusion) in Japan. I doubt that anyone would
argue that point.



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tad Perry      Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
               CompuServe:  70402,3020
               NIFTY-Serve: GBG01266
From: tnt@netcom.com (Terry Turner)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: ankles: summary
Date: 22 Jan 93 20:12:06 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: Watch the Skies

thanks to all that responded to the question concerning women's ankles.
all were interesting. the most interesting was sent through email because
of concern for the tender eyes of the general net population. it was the
answer that, although unexpected, explains what i heard and did not
understand. so for those that may be too embarrassed or insulted to read
on skip to the next article now.

the original question concerned what japanese men allege the ankle tells
about a woman. it is similar to the english/american saying about a man's
nose (or foot) size and the size of his penis. since no one believes this
saying about men (at least i hope they don't) i assume that no one in
japan really believes this about women: the thinner the ankle the tighter
the vagina.
-- 
terry
	tnt@netcom.com
From: tobac@ub-tky.UBSPD.CO.JP (Bach Frederic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japanese name !!
Date: 25 Jan 93 05:05:27 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Organization: UBS Phillips & Drew Int'l Ltd., Tokyo

In article <RHB.93Jan23221831@world.std.com> rhb@world.std.com (Robert H Brueckner) writes:

>And, of course, there are the "o" and "ro" (or "rou") endings for men.
>I'm sure there are others as well, but nobody's pointed these out yet
>so I thought I'd get in my two yen worth.

If you don't mind, I'll take the two yen for copyright. These suffixes were
included with at least a dozen others in a post dated last Thursday (JST).
Mention if you wish that -o can be : otto(husband), otoko, osu(male),
hito, etc. That's info. As for -ro, I've only seen the obvious "boy" as
in Taro. (should be -rou or -roh or ro+bar, but who cares).
-- 
    __  _    
** ||_ /_| **   Fred "I'll be" Bach   (kddlab!ubspd.co.jp!tobac@uunet.uu.net)
** || /__| **   [Je suis athee, Dieu merci.]          Tel. 813-3597-1595

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: harkcom@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp (Alton Harkcom)
Subject: Re: More Earthquakes
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 09:15:06 GMT
Distribution: soc
	<1993Jan20.092904.8169@Csli.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

In article <1993Jan20.092904.8169@Csli.Stanford.EDU> hiraga@Csli.Stanford.EDU
   (Yuzuru Hiraga) writes:

 =}I have the impression that in earthquakes, but more through
 =}the experience of Hurricane Andrew, that American homes are more
 =}fragile than Japanese ones.  They get totally devastated, while
 =}Japanese homes seem to retain more structure.

   I think what gives this impression is the steel frames used in
building Japanese homes.  So even though the interior (walls, floors,
ceilings) of a home may be obliterated, the general structure will
remain intact.  The walls, floors and ceilings of Japanese homes
however are weaker (they don't need to be as strong as the frame
provides most of the support)...
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: 004844m@axe.acadiau.ca (NORLAILY MAHAYUDDIN)
Subject: students
Keywords: malaysian
Organization: Acadia University
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 21:16:42 GMT

Hello !!! 
Any Malaysian students out there ????????
I'm looking for Malaysian students who were in Malaya University 
(year 1990-1992) under A.A.J.-or rather - R.P.K.J.

If you're one of them... or if you know any of them...,
PLEASE E-mail me at -    004844m@axe.acadiau.ca
                                 OR
                         004844m@dragon.acadiau.ca

THANK YOU.
TERIMA KASIH.
ARIGATO GOZAIMAS.(please excuse me if the spelling's wrong.)

Take care everyone... I'll be waiting.
From: warkent@ltisun14.epfl.ch (Ken Warkentyne)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: If Perry hadn't sailed...
Date: 27 Jan 93 12:53:14 GMT
	<1jur12$pdl@agate.berkeley.edu> <1k2h8qINN5ml@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
	<1k49ut$ps7@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne---Laboratoire de
	Teleinformatique
In-reply-to: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu's message of 26 Jan 93 21:20:29 GMT

In article <1k49ut$ps7@agate.berkeley.edu> robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson) wrote:
> [If there was no U in the US], Perry
> would never have sailed for Japan, and Japan would continue to be the 
> prefectural confederacy that it was in essence before the Meiji Restoration.

If Perry had never sailed for Japan, the HMS Roastbeef or
la Grenouille Conquerante would have done more or less the same thing.

On the other hand if Japan had somehow decided not to persue Asian
expansion in the 1930's, would China have become Communist, would Japan
have become such a great economic power, would Korea be united, etc?
--
Ken Warkentyne - warkent@ltisun.epfl.ch
                 Laboratoire de Teleinformatique, EPFL, Suisse.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Ultraman (Re: How about a new newsgroup here?)
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 08:20:21 GMT

In article <1jlglvINNg1q@shelley.u.washington.edu>
yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii) writes:
>What?!  Is there no Ultraman?  Is there no hope?

I certainly hope that they (whoever they are) will not continue with the
remake of Ultraman.  I've seen the new Ultraman showss, and they really suck.

The good stuff was made more than 20 years ago.  I'm not sure what the
deal is.  Perhaps, it's seeing that the English phrases now match the
mouth-motions.  Perhaps, it's seeing that there is no 10-second phase
shift between the sound of English and the motion of the mouth.

Yep, the new Ultraman is now produced in English and translated into
Japanese.  Yuck.

If any of you are desparate to see the "new" Ultraman, then watch
channel 44 at around 4 or 5 am in the morning or either Saturday or
Sunday.  I don't remember the exact time, but if I were you, I wouldn't
even bother to watch the crap.

------------------------------------------------------------------+------------
Jinsei no imi wa nan desu ka.                Sister, can you      |   \|  |`
Shitte itara oshiete kuremasen ka.           spare a coin?        |    | -+-
                                                                  |   /| / \
Copyright 1992, 1993    Disclaimer:  1 + 1 = 3                    |
------------------------------------------------------------------+------------
From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Author of JAPANYES
Date: 21 Jan 1993 22:14:24 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: avalanche.berkeley.edu

Ishihara Shintaro:  The problem with this man, is that his conversation does
not go beyond the kind of things managers tell you in after-work beer sessions,
that "Nihonjin wa ne, kou nandayoooo...."  Shintaro compiled the collective 
wisdom of middle manager's impressions of international economics, during
Japan's overconfident '80s.

Akio Morita: This man will probably remain in history as the Carnegie Mellon
or Cornelius Vanderbilt of Japanese economics.  He is responsible for a 
considerable part in this creation of the global consumer-electronics culture,
the Walkman Revolution, of which the Nintendo generation is an offshoot.
But there will come a time when even the middle class will move away from
this somewhat kitschy self-centered universe of the Sony Age.  Beyond this
otaku-oriented, passive intake of MTV or whatever else, will come the Cyber
Age, when internet or whatever other versions will make interactive broadcast
all the craze.  Any poor man worth his salt, should be able to have a
Net Man to plug into a phone jack, or radio telephone, to go on a network.
Right now, internet is still largely a privilege of the technical elite, but
that is rapidly changing.  Times change, baby boomers will perish, the
WW2-mindframe of global politics will become as obscure as WW1.  And 
consumer electronics as we know it will become a trademark of impoverished
nations.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: nbl@solomon.technet.sg (Ng Beng Lim)
Subject: Re: Japanese names & Finnish names
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 10:23:54 GMT


On a personal note:

Timotei is a brand of shampoo.  Ask most people and they would think that
it is of Japanese origin.  I only recently found out that it is Finnish.


--

==================================================================
Ng Beng Lim                       IDEMail:      NBL@MOEHQ
Computer Services Branch          Bitnet:       BENGLIM@ITIVAX
Ministry of Education             Internet:     nbl@solomon.technet.sg
Kay Siang Road                    Fax:          (65)-473-7513
Singapore 1024
===========================