sorry to rake over old ground (and your latest podcast is just DLing now so i may be repeating stuff you’ve already heard) but you got an email from someone saying that the ‘V sign’ goes back to the 100years war. this is another V-sign, with the hand the other way round - like the more widely known ‘middle finger sign’ with an added index finger. it’s a fairly rude gesture in the uk but probably not anywhere else.

anyway, keep up the good work!!

I went to listen to it on my ipod, after downloading with itunes, and instead started hearing episode 1 !!!

Looking at the .xml file, I see the following, which is the cause of the problem :

http://www.joshinjapan.com/2005/10/01/episode-14-crime-and-punishment/feed/

-

false

Thanks !

I enjoyed your recent episode on good food especially (although labeled crime and punish). I miss especially the Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki and Mos Burger! But curry and all the rest is great too (except nato.. which i still don’t understand how folks can eat that stuff)

While I lived in Japan, i started a site called http://www.japaninyourpalm.com which I still keep live to help folks enjoy japan and to be brave about the food :).. Check it out. I hope it’s helpful.

Al

You are right, it’s mean the same.
I didn’t mean it’s not understandable, but is not common for Japanese as far as I know.

I’m not a native of Tokyo, so I asked my friends; That phrase is sutable for Mr. Connoisseur.If you want to speak in an affected way, it’s good.

Best wishes,

Just wanted to mention that in this episode you mention that Japanese police often drive around with there red lights on becuase the are reacting to something but not in a hurry.

While this may be true in some instances, I beleive that more often they are simply alerting the public to their presence because they beleive that this is proactively serving the community.

As you mentioned, Japanese police and the policing mentality in general is much different from that in the west.

Thanks and keep it up,
Jonathan

after conferring with the wife on this, we are confused as to why you have never said this before….

they both mean the same……

are you somewhere other than kanto? i only ask because everywhere i go (like sushi or gyudon shops), i say it, and they understand me perfectly…….

to each his own.

Chotto hitokoto iidesuka?
Just wanted to say おあいそおねがいします = oaiso onegaishimasu is a bit difficult to say.

I mean, I’m a typical Japanese but have never used this phrase in my life.
I would say おかんじょうおねがいします=okanjou onegaishimasu,or something.
Plus, I have never heard someone using this phrase!

If non-Japanese used this phrase, it would sound affected or unnatural…

soredeha,

thanks for listening, and taking the time to post!

i visited ginza since it’s the largest of the two that are close to me. that and the more i get to ride the train, the more fun i have.

the next time i go to akihabara, i won’t be staying the night. i stayed at a capsule hotel since i got many reqests for a capsule hotel show…. i’d rather go home than pay for a hotel…..

1) i was unaware of this. it makes sense here though since the japanese are all about showing no mercy to those who commit crimes. very efficient system if you ask me….

2) i didn’t know about the confessions, but again, it makes sense. and now that i think about it, you always hear quotes like “i did it and i don’t care” or, “i did it because i was in love” when news services tell the news….

3) you’re right. they do spin alot if there is a story about a gaijin doing something wrong. again, it goes back to the closed society which they cherish. not racism like some try to claim it is, just traditionalism with their culture.

4) i forgot all about that. i had read that somewhere a while ago, but it totally skipped my mind. i wonder what dramatic changes will result because of this…..

thanks again for all of the great points! maybe you should think about posting on the forums sometimes so your comments can be more easily searchable!

take care,

josh

I’d thought I would just add a few comments and suggestions

I think there’s a new apple store in Shibuya that’s opened recently, so next time you don’t necessarily have to go all the way to ginza store.

For you next trip to Akihabara, you might want to think about looking at one of the Tokyu Stay’s in Shibuya…while designed for longish term visitors, they do have rates for one night only stays…and they have some that are only around 10,000 yen per night. I haven’t stayed at either one myself, but I’ve been generally happy with my stays at Tokyu hotels…their price/quality ratio is pretty good.
http://www.tokyustay.co.jp/e/index_flash.html

And you can also take the Ginza subway line from Shibuya to Akihabara (Suehirocho-G14) which will put you about 6 blocks north of the Akihabara JR station.

As for the crime and punshiment podcast, I thought there were a few topics you might have overlooked in your research that others might find interesting/informative.

1)The concept of habeas corpus and probable cause is significantly different in Japan than in the US. I’m not a lawyer nor do I have personal experience in this, but it’s my understanding the J cops have pretty low hurdlers to jump over to arrest anyone one of anything. That you can be detailed for 3 days for questioning (which can be extended up to max of 23 days) without being charged. If US cops could do this, I’d bet a lot more crimes would be “solved” (ie, somebody is going to jail for it, regardless if they did it or not).

2) the J court system has around 98-99% conviction rate, which is due in large part to the confessions that are obtained during the detention period. If I understand it correctly, only occasionally will the DA go to trial without a confession. And to get those confessions, J cops can be a lot rougher than US cops could be.

And I’m not saying this good or bad…I’m just saying this is the way it is there.

I’m not vouching for the accuracy of this site..…and it designed for non-j folks living in Japan), but I found it interesting reading nevertheless.
http://www.debito.org/whattodoif.html#checkpoint

3)I don’t think you mentioned how foreigners are mixed into the crime states…how immigration violations are mixed into the general crime stats …as if the FBI reported crime up 30% because they included the arrest of illegal immigrates in the stats…And that foreigners are viewed as the primary source of serious crime in Japan (because the harmonious J people would never do anything wrong is how the media seems to spin it).

4)And that sometime in the near future, they are going to move away from judge trials and towards jury trials…I can’t remember the particulars about this but it is sometime in the next ten years.

i’ll send that email out now….

keisaku,

thanks for listening! if i’m incorrect with anything, please let me know since my wife doesn’t listen to correct anything….. thanks for the compliments, and take care!

josh

I live in Fujisawa and work in Yokohama, and I needed to improve my English listening skills, so I got Ipod to listen to CNN or ABC, etc, which helps my listening and helps me to know what’s going on in the world. As you might imagine, it takes about an hour to travel to work for me, so your podcasting is great since it’s a bit less than an hour. I listen to one of your topics a day, so you gotta update it a lot quicker than now! So good luck and thank you. Also, I admire you to do things like this even though you haven’t gained full knowledge of Japan (I’m not criticizing!), but it needs a courage I guess. I can’t do that opposite.

Anyway, thanks again.

If you have a promo, just shoot it to me at my gmail acount, ebancrawford at gmail.com

If you get a chance, check out show 50, I decided to celevrate by doing the show midly drunk, lol.