This is why we must kill all Super Saiyans

A court has ordered the parents of a boy who accidentally kicked a ball into the street to pay nearly $200,000 in compensation after he, in the court’s view, caused the death of an 87-year-old motorcyclist who fell off his bike in an effort to avoid the ball, breaking his leg and later going senile only to die over a year later as a result of an infection stemming from a feeding accident.

According to the Osaka district court, the incident began in 2004 (Japanese link) at a public elementary school in Ehime prefecture, where pupils were practising their football skills by making practice free kicks at a goal.

One fifth year elementary student made a kick which went high, going over the goal posts and into the street beyond. There, it so happened that an 86-year-old man was driving down the street on a bike, and swerved to avoid the ball, crashing and breaking his leg.

He survived, but became senile soon after, and then died some 15 months after the accident as a result of pneumonia contracted after some food accidentally became lodged in his windpipe.

5 members of the man’s bereaved family decided to sue the boy for causing his death, demanding ¥50,000,000. As the boy was a minor at the time of the accident (he is now 19), he could not be held legally responsible, but his parents could, and so the family sued them instead.

In their defence, the boy’s side argued “nothing illegal occurred as he was just normally kicking the ball at the goal.”

The court was having none of it – the judge’s verdict was that “he could have predicted the ball would land in the street and cause an accident,” though he did at least stop short of ordering him to pay compensation, saying “the boy was a youth and bears no legal responsibility for the accident, but his parents do have a duty to pay compensation.”

Accepting that the dead man’s life was drastically altered by his encounter with the stray football, the court ordered the parents to pay up to the family, but reasoned that as the man already had neurological problems prior to the incident they would only have to pay ¥15,000,000 of the ¥50,000,000 demanded of them.

Such a fine example of jurisprudence has not escaped criticism:

“Don’t they normally put up nets around these places?”

“The issue is not the kid, it’s the lack of safety nets.”

“Shouldn’t this responsibility lie with the school which didn’t bother to put nets up and could have predicted the ball would land in the street themselves?”

“If they can sue anyone it’s the school, not the parents!”

“Couldn’t they sue the school and city?”

“Asking 50,000,000 for an 87-year-old man who died as an indirect result of an accident seems a bit much.”

“This old guy was driving a bike at 87? And they sue the boy’s parents? What kind of Japanese are they?”

“Poor parents, suddenly plunged in debt like that.”

“It seems a bit odd that they are attributing his death by misfeeding to this…”

“All ball games in Japan are going to get banned as a result of this, no doubt.”

“Common sense would tell you to expect balls flying out of schools occasionally.”

“Anyone with a car or bike must predict that they could encounter a ball like that. Doesn’t anyone in the court have a driving license?”

“So this 86-year-old man with a known neurological condition was riding a motorcycle around a school?”

“This poor kid and his family have been left worrying about this stuff throughout his childhood for the last 7 years, with no end in sight if they continue to fight the ruling.”

“This verdict is nuts.”

“If he had died right there it might be justifiable.”

“Don’t steal a child’s future for the sake of a dead 87-year-old.”

“I wonder if the bereaved family will be satisfied now the school has banned all ball games?”

“Remember: when you kick a ball you might cause an old man to fall off his bike, go senile and have to be nursed only to be misfed and die.”

After receiving it I immediately ran home and blacked out. After lying on the floor in a near coma for a week, subsisting on nothing but doggie love, I woke up and started to translate what I was given so that I might spread the message in a way similar to cancer or AIDS. What I have below is the front side of what the gods want to tell you.

I’ll translate some of the back later, but I need to go into a coma again before I can do that.

Click for the piously large version!

Even God has a plan.

[Top Right] Why are we brought into this world? Why are we here? Why did the gods create us? What is the purpose of it all? The god that made us has a plan.

1. In the 7th dimension, the god that rules over all came into being – It created time and space. Continuing, It created the fire and water sprits before creating the universe.

2. The god of all then arrived in the 6th dimension and spoke the human race into creation.
“It is not necessary for you to have the power of the gods, but the power to move things, create and innovate I have created something that is, in a way, greater than the gods.” It then required the creation of a world similar to heaven for the people to use.

3. In this way did the human race start its existence in 3D space (the physical world) on earth. Humans absolutely didn’t come from apes or monkeys, we are now as we have always been.

4. The people were led by the sun god and had control over their greed. Because of this there was peace, but no progress or development as there was little need. At that time the true gods who had control over the seat of power were overthrown by the moon gods. This is what we call “Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave” (wiki link for more details). Humans now became filled with greed and pushed forward society. Civilization started to progress at a rapid pace.

5. However, the now greedy humans began to fight one another and there were many massacres and wars. The resulting death count made some dream of a heaven on earth (a better world). To act as a brake against the violent people of the world, the gods used some humans, such as Buddha and Jesus (among others), as prophets.

6. Even after that the insatiable greed of humanity led civilization to reach a splendorous peak. This progress came at a price, Mother Earth was now in dire straits after being ravaged incessantly. On New Years 1962, the real gods returned to the seat of power. This event is called the “Reversal of Divine Will”.

7. Now we are heading towards the establishment of a new, spiritual civilization. On our way there will be a baptism by (the) fire (spirit) – there will be many strange and happenings and calamities across the globe.

People on this Earth, isn’t now the time to act like the gods require of you? “Things”, “Money”, “What feels good”, these greedy and selfish ways only lead to a violent way of life and should be cast aside. A world without want for war, confrontation, and conflict – a world of peace – is in the process of being created. We will break down all walls separating us (religion, race, ideology) and make our way to a new world filled with love and peace. Won’t you be a member of “God’s Team” and join us in this quest?

There is a syndrome that goes around and affects many foreigners that live in Japan for at least a year. Symptoms include, negativity, crankiness, irrational hatred towards most/all things Japanese, and whininess. Why does this happen? Is this a sign that Japan sucks? What’s the cure? Let’s try and find out.

While I don’t want to come off as fanboy-ish it’s slightly hard to not sound that way when you talk differently or argue with someone who does something like what Tim did; while there are some good points somewhere in the muck and mire they’re almost lost because of all of the nitpicking and cherry picking. He starts off his complaint list with Anime. He only wrote one paragraph about why it sucks, but it’s hard to take it seriously since he gives one (and a half) example(s) in his favor and then mentions Dragon Ball Z as a show that was “graphically iconic, with a story more coherent than it probably needed to be”. Akira Toriyama has his own iconic style, but I would not pick DBZ as an example of good anime (the updated DBZ Kai is much better though).

He goes on to complain about people smoking and the lack of vegetarian dishes. These things are true, many people smoke and it’s not always possible to get a vegetarian meal in a restaurant. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t non-smoking train cars on the express trains (can’t smoke at all on regular trains), non-smoking areas (usually bigger than smoking), smoking rooms that stop others from having to deal with the smoke, and supermarkets. However, besides asking at restaurants for them to take out meat you’ll have to make your own dishes or go be a monk. It’s unfortunate for those that have made a decision to not eat meat, but should you really be pissy about it when other people don’t cater to your personal decision? Yes, they’re not making it easier for you but you have no right to force them to have to serve dishes you like; this also doesn’t take into consideration those restaurants that actually do have vegetarian food (few, but they’re there).

PETA, annoying everywhere

After some things that I can’t comment on he spends most of the rest of the post talking about small things. As with relationships, sometimes it’s all the little things that cause the breakup to occur. For Tim his are yelling to get customers, language quirks, hostess clubs, niches, Japanese comedy, Japanese music, Japanese movies (and how they copy manga), cost, drink tickets at bars/clubs/concerts, putting tape on purchases at convenience stores, stereotyping, pachinko, and some other things that I didn’t mention. Some of these things are definitely things that he just doesn’t like but aren’t/shouldn’t be deal-breakers by themselves. However some of them (comedy, music, movies) are, while true on the surface, not what he makes them up to be. For these few I guess that he’s exaggerating to make a point, but I really can’t be sure since I don’t know him.

One thing I found that was hugely exaggerated was the cost argument. While he makes many true points about things that are actually more expensive he then goes and brings up game prices. He says

“games tend to pretty much always cost $100 on their release dates here. It’s getting fairly ridiculous. Game rental generally doesn’t happen. So most people who buy new games race through them lovelessly so they can sell them back to the local used shop before the buyback price drops. I’m sure the publishers have crunched the numbers a thousand times, and come up with some reason to justify not lowering the initial price of a typical game.”

Although some games are more expensive than others when they come out (e.g. FF13) the usual price is around 7,000円. Is this more expensive than a normal game at time of launch? Yes, but this doesn’t even take into consideration other factors in the game market that exist here but are either stifled or missing in some other countries, supply and demand; I recently picked up a used copy of FF13 for 2800円 and a new copy of Halo 3: ODST for 2000円, it’s still at least $40 new in the US. Also, when a game is extremely popular, Persona 3/4 or Smash Brothers (Both old and still 5000円), the price stays high until interest wanes. I could go on about each of his points, but I’ve already gone on longer than I expected.

Doesn’t it suck to wait a month or two for games to drop in price? Why can’t I buy all my games at Gamestop?!?

Mr. Tim has spent at least five years in Japan. He obviously didn’t feel the way he does now for all five of those years, what happened?

Japanese society, being the way it is in its current form, can be grating. There are many, many people in other countries who spend some of their time listening and watching exported Japanese culture (i.e. Jpop and anime). A lot of these people say that they want to live in Japan and some of them actually get off their ass and go do it. They definitely have an incorrect assumption of what Japan is like, but they still like many Japanese things. Nonetheless, it can be a tough experience that ends up with them going back to where they came from and settling on enjoying what they like about Japan without having to deal with Japanese society. I’m not saying that Tim is an otaku, I’m just saying that many people would think that someone who seemingly loves Japan (or what little they know from anime) would acclimate themselves to the society quicker than someone with less knowledge of Japan.

For everyone, (again, like a relationship) when they get to Japan they have their rose-tinted glasses. These glasses seem to stay on longer than they would if Japan was your boy/girlfriend but they wear off nonetheless; what you (probably didn’t) read was not that. Many foreigners in Japan seem to go straight from rose-tinted glasses to shit-tinted glasses (or maybe concrete-tinted?). It could be because expectations were too high, they can’t take all the concrete, have trouble with the language and/or the way people act with complaints and problems, or even the little annoyances that have finally got to them. Whatever it’s caused from it affects not only the infected individual but also those he associates with. Given the side-effects, this syndrome can be quite annoying.

Luckily there are remedies, even if they don’t work permanently on everyone. Some of the most prominent cures are fun, going to the countryside, changing locales within Japan, and leaving. Each works in their own way, but they generally get the job done, even if some are much more expensive than others. For an unlucky few, the syndrome comes in monthly or yearly cycles; a cure is not known for these individuals. What is known is that the best way to protect yourself from (re)catching this sickness is to stay away from message boards that expats seem to spent time on. If you know an individual who is going on one of these message boards, take them away from their computer and make them go have fun, there are a bunch of places where this can be accomplished, even if the affected might be a pain in the ass for a while.

By the way

Builder James Anthony Dean-Willcocks charged held over race-hate killing

By Lisa Davies and Gemma Jones From: The Daily Telegraph Sun Oct 11 23:53:46 EST 2009

A BUILDER celebrating his 23rd birthday allegedly bashed an elderly man to death in a drunken race-hate crime.

James Anthony Dean-Willcocks, of Illawong, was yesterday charged with the murder of Magno Alvarado, 67.

Residents of Elouera Rd, Cronulla, told police of being woken about 5.30am on Saturday by a male yelling: “F … off back to Japan”.

According to a statement tendered by police to Parramatta Bail Court, a man was heard to cry: “Help, help”.

One witness said he went to his balcony and allegedly saw a man “fling the victim on to the footpath, pick up the victim, shake him and throw him to the ground”.

The accused then allegedly punched Mr Alvarado in the head and body as many as 10 times.

Another witness said he saw the victim thrown to the road, and Dean-Willcocks on top of him, punching him.

Police will allege Dean-Willcocks was heard yelling “Ya Jap”.

Another described seeing Mr Alvarado tackled, “body-slammed” and punched many times.

One witness told police he yelled at Dean-Willcocks to stop and asked what he was doing.

“Mate, he’s Japanese and he deserves it,” the accused allegedly answered.

It is understood Mr Alvarado was Filipino.

Stunned onlookers prevented Dean-Willcocks leaving the scene until police arrived. Mr Alvarado was taken to hospital but died about 2.30pm on Saturday.

After Dean-Willcocks – wearing no shoes, and only one sock – was arrested, police noted he was intoxicated.

He has since told police he has “no recollection” of the incident and his last memory was “some time in the early hours of the morning” while he was at the Mercure Hotel in the city.

Dean-Willcocks said he did not know how he got to Cronulla.

He made no application for bail and will appear in Central Local Court tomorrow.

I’m not saying that Indonesians are dumb, but when religion gets involved people can easily act retarded or dangerous.

Anyways, if you would like to know more about her then you might want to use your good friend Google. The full article is below.

Japanese porn star stirs controversy in Indonesia over comedy film
JAKARTA —
A plan to make an Indonesian teenage comedy film starring Japanese porn star Maria Ozawa has stirred controversy in the world’s most populous Muslim country, drawing a mixed reaction ranging from street protests to messages of support posted by her many fans on the Internet.

Maxima Pictures, a Jakarta-based film company, said the ongoing controversy ‘‘has scared’’ Ozawa, who had been scheduled to arrive here Wednesday for several weeks to film a comedy film titled ‘‘Kidnapping Miyabi.’’

Ozawa is well-known in Indonesia as ‘‘Miyabi,’’ a name she used early in her career as a Japanese adult video actress.

‘‘Ozawa is so worried over the controversy. We have already announced that we will put her in a purely comedy teenage movie, without any sex scenes at all,’’ said Yoen K, an executive producer at Maxima Pictures.

Yoen said he just returned from Japan to renegotiate with Ozawa’s management in light of the current unfavorable developments that will possibly cause a delay in filming.

‘‘But we still want to release the film on Dec 31 so it will be a Happy New Year movie,’’ he said, adding that he did not want to disclose details of the new filming schedule for fear of triggering further opposition from some elements of the public.

Ozawa’s agent in Tokyo said that negotiations with Maxima Pictures are still underway and they will publicly announce their decision whether to proceed with the plan or not as soon as possible.

Metro TV on Monday aired footage of a protest against Ozawa held by dozens of students of an Islamic boarding school belonging to the largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama in the central Java town of Kudus.

Gossip shows on various television channels have covered the pros and cons surrounding the plan to make the film, which was written by a popular teenage comedy writer Radika Ditya.

Last Friday, under tight security involving the deployment of antiriot police, more than 100 members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) staged a noisy protest in front of the office of the film company, which later accepted six representatives of the militant group for a dialogue.

‘‘Reject the arrival of Miyabi, the destroyer of our nation’s morality,’’ read a large banner carried by the protesters.

However, Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni said Indonesia could not bar somebody who wishes to come to the country.

‘‘As long as she is not here for porn movie, it is alright. The most important thing is that it will be not against the law,’’ he was quoted by the leading online media portal Detikcom as saying.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), a council of Indonesian Islamic clerics from across Indonesia, urged the film company to cancel its plan.

‘‘If someday we approve the film, many teenagers will see it. Then after that, they will idolize her and we are worried that they will eventually seek out her porn films,’’ Amidhan of MUI was quoted as saying by Detikcom.

Minister of Woman’s Affairs Muthia Hatta and Minister of Communication and Information Muhammad Nuh have also voiced their opposition, with Nuh saying, ‘‘Creativity is not supposed to ignore social sensitivity.’’

The controversy has led Ozawa’s fans to rush to her support through Internet postings, with some male commentators dismissing those opposed to the Japanese porn star’s visit as being ‘‘hypocrites,’’ suggesting that they actually like her movies but don’t want to admit it.

The controversy has also boosted sales of pirated DVD movies featuring Ozawa in Jakarta’s Glodok market where they are prominently displayed to attract consumers, many of whom come to buy the illegal DVDs after seeing news coverage of the Ozawa controversy on TV.

‘‘Kidnapping Miyabi’’ would feature a plot in which Ozawa as a Japanese actress will be ‘‘accidentally kidnapped’’ by three Indonesian teenagers upon arrival at Jakarta’s airport after being chased by hundreds of fans. The story would end up with her being stranded in the city and opening up a lingerie shop there.

Another producer of Maxima Pictures, Odi Mulya Hidayat, said his company prefers Ozawa to other Indonesian or Japanese actresses to attract more audiences.

Citing an Internet survey, Odi said Ozawa has ranked at the top of the list of most ‘‘Googled’’ celebrity names in Indonesia in the recent years, defeating Pamela Anderson, who comes in second.

Born in Hokkaido on Jan 8, 1986, to a Japanese mother and a French-Canadian father, Ozawa started her adult film career in 2005 and has gained popularity not only in Japan but overseas.

Besides adult videos, she appeared in 2007 in the popular Japanese TV drama ‘‘Mission Section Chief Hitoshi Tadano’’ and last year, in a Taiwanese horror movie called ‘‘Invitation Only,’’ in which she played a supermodel. She has also appeared in music videos.