Ah, Japan.

[Hermit]

If you want to talk about weird, how about homicide rates? Japan's is 0.44 per 100,000 inhabitants, while that of the USA, where the right to bear arms is supposed to ensure safety, is 12 times higher.

The USA also seems to have no problem with its population - 5% of the planet's - consuming 25% of the world's (mostly nonrenewable and therefore finite) energy.

Weirdest of all is that Australians respect 'The American Way', and look askance at the Japanese.

Wake up to yourself, cobber.

[Trolldor]

If you want to talk about weird, how about homicide rates? Japan's is 0.44 per 100,000 inhabitants, while that of the USA, where the right to bear arms is supposed to ensure safety, is 12 times higher.

The USA also seems to have no problem with its population - 5% of the planet's - consuming 25% of the world's (mostly nonrenewable and therefore finite) energy.

Weirdest of all is that Australians respect 'The American Way', and look askance at the Japanese.

Wake up to yourself, cobber.

Nice to see your legs are still working. The gap to that assumption looks rather wide.

[FBM]

I tend to stop at celebrating it when the culture commercially produces sex toys aimed at replicating under age girls.

If it keeps the pervs away from real girls, I have no objection. If it increases child molestation, it should be banned. In any event, it's just one small aspect of the weirdness. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I mean, where would we be w/out Japanese Elvis impersonators on pink, 50cc Suzuki scooters?

[Hermit]

If you want to talk about weird, how about homicide rates? Japan's is 0.44 per 100,000 inhabitants, while that of the USA, where the right to bear arms is supposed to ensure safety, is 12 times higher.

The USA also seems to have no problem with its population - 5% of the planet's - consuming 25% of the world's (mostly nonrenewable and therefore finite) energy.

Weirdest of all is that Australians respect 'The American Way', and look askance at the Japanese.

Wake up to yourself, cobber.

Nice to see your legs are still working. The gap to that assumption looks rather wide.

We're talking about weirdness, no? You see nothing weird about the USA - or Australia's stance?

[Trolldor]

You made an assumption that, culturally, Australia accepts America.

[Hermit]

You made an assumption that, culturally, Australia accepts America.

That's because it has. Australia has been gradually cutting itself loose from Britain for decades, only to attach itself to ever more firmly to the apron strings of the USA. In 1966 the then Prime Minister of Australia famously declared in a speech that we'll be going "all the way with LBJ", and if you listen to what Julia Gillard has said in regard to Obama a couple of days ago, nothing has changed in the intervening 44 years.

Be it as it may, you seem to be totally oblivious of the point I was trying to make: As far as welfare and sustainability of lifestyle is concerned, the US is magnitudes more fucked up than Japan. Despite that Australians are more critical of the latter than the former. How much weirder can things get?

[Trolldor]

What's obvious is that the Government of Australia accepts the Government of America. What's not true is that Australia accepts American culture as being 'stable' or 'secure', any asshole capable of shitting their own pants knows this. In fact, most Australians don't know shit about Japan but happily jump on the anti-us band wagon, unless they're racist in which case they still don't know shit about Japan.
So no, you haven't made any point at all.

Oh, and no, Japan is more fucked up than the US. American's are violent, but the Japanese are the ones who invented a whole genre of pornography based on the rape of mutilated women and children.

[Pappa]

Oh, and no, Japan is more fucked up than the US. American's are violent, but the Japanese are the ones who invented a whole genre of pornography based on the rape of mutilated women and children.

You're just tarring all Japanese people with the brush meant for a few weirdos. It's like saying "niggers rape good Christian while women".

[Coito ergo sum]

Oh, and no, Japan is more fucked up than the US. American's are violent, but the Japanese are the ones who invented a whole genre of pornography based on the rape of mutilated women and children.

You're just tarring all Japanese people with the brush meant for a few weirdos. It's like saying "niggers rape good Christian while women".

Well, how can we describe any culture at all without using a broad brush. If using a broad brush is not acceptable, then we can never say that any culture is like anything, since it is suggesting something about "all" of a people when not all of any people behave in any particular way.

I think what DJD is saying is what people say about any culture. People make generalizations about what sufficient numbers of a given population do, such that it can be described as cultural. It's not an easy line to draw - and it's certainly not subject to mathematical precision, but if we can't make such statements then we can't really describe groups of people at all.

I've heard it said that female circumcision is a "cultural" thing for Somali Muslims. Is it? Or, are we "tarring all Somalis with the brush meant for a few weirdos?" I don't know. It's certainly not "all" Somalis. But, there are enough of them to suggest that something is "cultural." Similarly, DJD is suggesting that enough Japanese engage in the weird practices he described to as to attribute it to the Japanese culture.

[Trolldor]

Oh, and no, Japan is more fucked up than the US. American's are violent, but the Japanese are the ones who invented a whole genre of pornography based on the rape of mutilated women and children.

You're just tarring all Japanese people with the brush meant for a few weirdos. It's like saying "niggers rape good Christian while women".

No, I'm referring to a culture, the culture of Japan. It is a cultre belonging to a nation of which the people are called 'Japanese'.

[fordo]

just adding my ten yens worth, i used to work for a japanese company and had a long relationship with a japanese lady(who im happy to say is still a good friend to this day), its fucked up despite my enjoyment/intrestin of parts of its culture, just not all parts i have never studied anthropology but im sure all cultures have their idiosyncracies... as for being fucked up , can anyone seriously drink sake?, i mean wtf is that shit?

[Pappa]

Oh, and no, Japan is more fucked up than the US. American's are violent, but the Japanese are the ones who invented a whole genre of pornography based on the rape of mutilated women and children.

You're just tarring all Japanese people with the brush meant for a few weirdos. It's like saying "niggers rape good Christian while women".

Well, how can we describe any culture at all without using a broad brush. If using a broad brush is not acceptable, then we can never say that any culture is like anything, since it is suggesting something about "all" of a people when not all of any people behave in any particular way.

I think what DJD is saying is what people say about any culture. People make generalizations about what sufficient numbers of a given population do, such that it can be described as cultural. It's not an easy line to draw - and it's certainly not subject to mathematical precision, but if we can't make such statements then we can't really describe groups of people at all.

I've heard it said that female circumcision is a "cultural" thing for Somali Muslims. Is it? Or, are we "tarring all Somalis with the brush meant for a few weirdos?" I don't know. It's certainly not "all" Somalis. But, there are enough of them to suggest that something is "cultural." Similarly, DJD is suggesting that enough Japanese engage in the weird practices he described to as to attribute it to the Japanese culture.

I think that's my point. I would imagine that the number of Japanese into rape porn is fairly low as a proportion of their population (I may be wrong). Though, I can understand holding all Japanese people accountable for allowing a minority of their own culture to be into rape porn.

[Trolldor]

Actually, rape porn is fairly mainstream in Japan, but it takes the form of 'raped, but she likes it'.

[FBM]

... as for being fucked up , can anyone seriously drink sake?, i mean wtf is that shit?

(I'm posting from Tokyo Narita International atm) I think twoflower actually likes sake. I gave her some last week.

Did you ever try sake with fish eye goo in it? No shit. A couple of my friends and I sometimes meet up in a sushi/sashimi restaurant that specializes in raw tuna. They poke the fish's eye and squeeze the vitreous and aqueous humour into a shot of sake, then give it to the "most honored" guest. Which is often me.

Sake sucks. Eye goo sucks. Putting them together doesn't help in the least.

[Robert_S]