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Of course, "Oh, look, the conservative talking points" is itself a liberal talking point. Maybe multiple people believe the same thing, which draws them together into a political faction? Or does that sound weird?

It's weird when they expect their "the end is nigh!" and "it would be a disaster!" fears to be taken seriously when they've been proven to be false, and are explicitly talking points meant to stall any progress.

GeminiDS85 wrote:

Small, inexpensive one-bedroom apartments are plentiful all across Japan, so it makes it fairly easy for a person making under $10 an hour to live a decent life. I have never personally paid over $400 (40,000 yen) for any apartment I have lived in, and every apartment I have ever lived in has been at least a 1DK. Also, your monthly rent is usually negotiable. I have haggled a couple thousand yen off my monthly rent before.

That's not Tokyo, is it? My rent is hella more expensive than that, over what would be $2,000 USD. But I live in a single family house 4LDK - quite huge by typical Japanese standards. However, I'm also fairly certain that my landlord put a "gaijin premium" (that they didn't let me negotiate) on my place. My Japanese friends who live in the area had their jaws drop when I told them how expensive the place was. They thought it was very high even considering the size and area it's in. If my company didn't foot the bill for my rent, I absolutely would not be living where I do. I couldn't afford it.

I also agree with your part about the curtain return example and anything else that's "not normal". If you want to do ANYTHING at a store that deviates from the store clerks' "script" that they know, they get extremely confused. Even for what should be mundane things. I've never tried to return anything in Japan, but here's an example.

I special ordered something at a store. The store was going to call me when the item came in, but it had been over a month and I got no call. I was there anyway, so I decided to ask on the status.

Me: *shows order receipt* Has my item come in yet?
Person: Uh.... Did you get the phone call?
Me: No, but it's been over a month. I was here anyway, so I wanted to know if it has come yet.
Person: Uh.... *confused* Um.... Let me ask my manager.
Manager: Hello. Can I help you?
Me: *explains*
Manager: Uh... Um.... Let me check.
After Manager and Store Person check around for about 15 minutes:
Manager: OH! I found it. It has not come in yet. I'm very, very, very sorry to inconvenience you. I promise we will call you as soon as your item comes in. *bows extremely deeply*
Me: Oh, OK. It's no trouble. Don't worry about it.
Manager: No, we're very sorry. Thank you for coming. *bows deeply again and Store Person also bows deeply*
Me: *feels like it's getting embarrassing at their deep apologies* Um, OK. Thanks. *leaves*

leafy sea dragon wrote:

What if the customer has health concerns over the food and would prefer his or her items not have something he or she is allergic to/sensitive to/morally against/religiously against?

I know Japan's not as culturally or idoelogically diverse as the United States, but surely there'd be, say, someone allergic to tomatoes stepped into a hamburger restaurant? Scraping the ketchup off the burger is not going to help.

It’s important to remember that Japanese culture puts a particular emphasis on not causing inconvenience for others. That being said, if you have an allergy towards a particular food it is fine to tell the people serving or cooking your food that you can’t eat a particular ingredient due to health reasons. However, from what I personally witnessed it much more common for people to search for a restaurant that meets their particular dietary requirements rather than asking a restaurant to cater to their needs. There are ways to get around this, particularly if you are on good terms with the owner or the staff. For example, my ex-girlfriend recently came to Japan to see me and she has a really bad seafood allergy. In preparation for this, I asked the owners of the izakaya I always go to if they could make her some food that would not contain any seafood products. They were happy to fulfill my request, and they actually made some really delicious food for the two of us.

DJStarstryker wrote:

That's not Tokyo, is it? My rent is hella more expensive than that, over what would be $2,000 USD. But I live in a single family house 4LDK - quite huge by typical Japanese standards. However, I'm also fairly certain that my landlord put a "gaijin premium" (that they didn't let me negotiate) on my place. My Japanese friends who live in the area had their jaws drop when I told them how expensive the place was. They thought it was very high even considering the size and area it's in. If my company didn't foot the bill for my rent, I absolutely would not be living where I do. I couldn't afford it.

I have never lived in Tokyo, but from what I gather from friends who live/have lived there and apartment search engines is that the average price for rent is usually 10,000~20,000 yen ($100~$200) more than what you would pay in most other cities in Japan. I’ve also been told that price for your rent usually depends on how close you are to the Yamanote-sen, though.

Here a few examples of rent I have paid in major cities:
Sapporo: 1DK, 22,000 yen ($220) a month. 15 min train ride to Sapporo Station
Sapporo: Dorm room, 11,000 yen ($110) a month. 30 min train ride to Sapporo Station.
Kyoto City: 1DK, 32,000 yen ($320) a month. 20 min subway ride to Kyoto Station.

GeminiDS85 wrote:

However, from what I personally witnessed it much more common for people to search for a restaurant that meets their particular dietary requirements rather than asking a restaurant to cater to their needs.

Huh, interesting. The businesses would willingly turn down potential customers. I always thought the restaurant business was incredibly competitive, especially if what they serve is common to the area, and that restaurant owners would try to avoid excluding anybody. But I guess the issue here is that Japanese customers would not feel alienated when a restaurant does not have a menu item that's acceptable to them whereas American customers would (except with the case of hyperallergies).

Father's Office is the only case of an American restaurant I can think of that completely ignores dietary, moral, or religious concerns, but that's because it's so popular that it's filled to capacity nearly every hour it's open anyway that the owner does not need to cast a wide net, and this restaurant seems to exist primarily to amuse him and his cruel sense of humor.

Another thing that westerners have a hard time accepting about going out to eat with friends in Japan is the custom of splitting the bill evenly. For example, a study abroad student is invited to a nomikai(drinking party at a restaurant) with students from their Japanese university. A nomikai is one of the best opportunities you can have in Japan to interact and talk with Japanese people, mostly because after a few drinks most Japanese people kind of take off their masks, so to speak, and are much more approachable than normal. However, this study abroad student quickly realizes after arriving at the nomikai that going out with friends to a restaurant in Japan is a lot different than in the west. The first thing that bothers the study abroad student is that the izakaya is filled with cigarette smoke. This is made even more troublesome in that the Japanese students are deciding where everyone will sit by a lottery, so this means that the study abroad student gets seated next to three Japanese guys who are chain-smoking. The study abroad student then asks to be moved to a different seat, but the Japanese people don’t understand what the problem is and just give a confused look to the student. The study abroad student doesn’t drink alcohol, so when the person in charge of the nomikai takes a headcount of those who will be drinking, the study abroad student does not raise their hand. The next two hours are enjoyable for the study abroad student, even if some of the Japanese boys were kind of obnoxious. When it comes time to pay the bill the person in charge of the nomikai announces that everyone must pay 3500 yen ($35). The study abroad student is confused by this. They have been drinking an orange juice the entire night, yet for some reason they are required to pay the same price as those who ordered a ton of food and alcohol. The study abroad student approaches the person in charge of collecting the money and says, “I didn’t eat any food or drink any alcohol, so how much should I pay?”. The Japanese people all look at the study abroad student with an uncomfortable smile. The study abroad student then sees a Japanese girl come up behind them, who also didn’t drink anything but juice and never ordered any food, and give the person in charge of the money 3500 yen ($35). The study abroad student now realizes at this point that arguing about this isn’t going to make them any friends, so, reluctantly, they pay the 3500 yen.

I’ve seen this exact scenario play out countless times with foreigners. About 50% of the time the foreigner won’t come out to the next nomikai, which usually results in them having a very hard time making Japanese friends. The other 50% just put up with it because they know that these kinds of events are one of the best places for making Japanese friends.

That sounds like the experience my friend had, he even got tired of going out drinking and blowing money every weekend but he knew he had to or he'd hurt some feelings.

It's all down to present day cultural attitudes to work to which I lay full blame down to present day western education system that teaches kids they will not fail, and that they will step into a high paying job when they eventually graduate from university only to be slapped in the face with the cold dead fish of real life outside of school in the adult world that most teachers don't work in. Youth today call flipping burgers in a burger joint a "dead end job" when their grand parents called it "An opportunity". The opportunity not to be living in a cardboard box under a bridge, with the only work of begging for handouts in the local bus, or train station. American, and I'll add UK, youth today don't know they've been born. Rolling Eyes

Mohawk52 wrote:

It's all down to present day cultural attitudes to work to which I lay full blame down to present day western education system that teaches kids they will not fail, and that they will step into a high paying job when they eventually graduate from university only to be slapped in the face with the cold dead fish of real life outside of school in the adult world that most teachers don't work in. Youth today call flipping burgers in a burger joint a "dead end job" when their grand parents called it "An opportunity". The opportunity not to be living in a cardboard box under a bridge, with the only work of begging for handouts in the local bus, or train station. American, and I'll add UK, youth today don't know they've been born. Rolling Eyes

Part of the problem is American culture loves to teach people they're special snowflakes and they're the only one like them around. Them and the hundreds of other kids in their graduating class who will be graduating with the exact same major from their university and competing for the exact same jobs.

I think people are just programmed to think that way. Whenever I see a girl, sometimes a guy but usually a girl, dye their hair in an attempt to stand out and be unique, I also see tons of other girls do this too. Dying hair to be unique has become a cliche to the point not dying your hair to be unique would probably be more unique. So many young, artistic, free-spirit liberals dye their hair it has become an actual stereotype and expectancy, the total opposite of being unique. But a lot don't seem to notice and still say they dyed their hair pink/purple/red because it showcases" how creative they are"

Some great questions this week!

One small gripe though - as someone who has been a Salaryman in Japan for over a decade, in both public and private sectors, the term doesnt have the negative connotations you seem to associate with it. It can be used humbly, certainly, but is more often than not an identity which denotes one as being a full-time employee and therefore as being financially stable.
This is generally seen as a good thing, unless you are a life time freeter or an artistic type or a teenager wanting to rebel against the system so to speak.

Zac wrote:

Man the conservatives have been very effective in getting those talking points about increasing the minimum wage out there. Post after post of people straight-up repeating the standard GOP bullet points.

Some of you sound like you're copypasting Hannity transcripts.

Don't know about any other points, but it is common sense that any increases in costs, will result in increases in prices. This is done all the time all across the board, no matter what type of industry you are in.

If society wants a higher minimum wage, then society will pay for those increases. Why would the fast food service industry accept lower profits, people will still spend their money at McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Burger King, and all of the other franchises, even with higher prices.

Increased costs will be paid by the consumer in increased prices. Really don't know why anyone would think differently, it makes the most financial sense from the corporate standpoint. Sure there may be some variables, but in the end, it will be the consumer who pays the cost.

Question is how bad society wants this, and would it really achieve what is hoped for, or would it be only a mirage of diminishing returns for the employees.

I think one thing to keep in mind regarding minimum wage is this little phrase that appears several times in the FLSA: "The Secretary, to the extent necessary in order to prevent curtailment of opportunities for employment"; ie, the very statute disagrees with the notion it doesn't cause unemployment.

I again proffer my suggestion that the answer is to stop taking the purchasing power of the poor and giving it to the well-connected.

ATastySub wrote:

It's weird when they expect their "the end is nigh!" and "it would be a disaster!" fears to be taken seriously when they've been proven to be false, and are explicitly talking points meant to stall any progress.

Samoans didn't exactly get off with their wage spike scot-free. The overall unemployment ratio hides things surprisingly well, given that it already excludes those that've failed to find a job in over a year, but the most vulnerable groups also tend to be far from a majority of the population, so they get drowned out in the noise(the statistic for young blacks is just depressing - 24.8%! - and I shudder to think what it comes out once you factor in "discouraged workers").

So is the way things are now any better then? Prices keep rising but not wages, therefore people can only buy less with what they get paid. No one buys, shops lose sales, profits fall causing the stock market to panic sell and hey presto, yet another deep recession, but that's Capitalism kiddies. Got a better plan? Lets hear it.

Stop debasing the dollar, let workers keep their purchasing power and wages rise naturally with productivity. Far less dramatic and not very good for those who currently get the new dollars first, but we've got to stop kicking the can and pretending the long run never comes.

Mohawk52 wrote:

So is the way things are now any better then? Prices keep rising but not wages, therefore people can only buy less with what they get paid. No one buys, shops lose sales, profits fall causing the stock market to panic sell and hey presto, yet another deep recession, but that's Capitalism kiddies. Got a better plan? Lets hear it.

For one, we need a stable government. What with the Republicans and Democrats in office forgetting what it means to work together for the common good, is not good for business or the economy.

Sequestration still holds sway over the land, so until the Dems and Reps get together and deal with it, it is going to be a force of unstability for some time.

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