“What the hell” in Japanese law, part 2

(Part 1, in case you missed it, was about companies.)

Anyway, there’s a provision in the Japanese Civil Code related to a certain class of contract (委任 “mandates,” in case you care). The article simply says:

This type of contract may be terminated at any time.

Looking this up in the unannotated English version, I was surprised at how simple it seemed to be. Hooray for civil law!

A little while later, I looked up the same article in the annotated Japanese version of the Code, a big honkin’ book which links each article of the code to relevant court cases that further define its meaning. Here’s what I found:

This type of contract may be terminated at any time.

– – –
NOTES: (1) When the terminating party has entered the contract for profit, this Article does not apply. Judgment of the Supreme Court of Judicature, [some date in the 1910s I didn’t bother to write down]

My response was something like the 50’s TV Dad below:

Note to self: Save this picture; you’re going to want to use it in a PowerPoint someday.

You’re not for me, punk rock girl

Who can forget the classic song “Punk Rock Girl” from 90s novelty band the Dead Milkmen? I remember buying their tape for 99 cents at an Ames.

I tapped her on the shoulder
And said do you have a beau?
She looked at me and smiled
And said she did not know
Punk rock girl give me a chance
Punk rock girl let’s go slamdance
We’ll dress like Minnie Pearl
Just you and me punk rock girl

OK, apparently my memory/hearing is not that good since I always thought it said “looks just like Minnie Pearl.” But, I wondered after listening to the song, what in the hell does Minnie Pearl actually look like? Here is the awful truth:

I guess the Milkmen used the word “punk” in the broadest possible sense of the term.

Quick Note on Comments

I have traveled the world creating this drink.

For some reason every single comment has required moderator approval since yesterday. Perhaps it’s because we keep getting innocuous-looking spam comments like this:

From: Xxyz
Website: BETTERSEXNOWWW.comz

Interesting post..
Can’t say I really agree..
I guess we can’t agree on everything, right?

It looks like people are actually taking the time to type in spam comments manually (a phenomenon that C. Buddha noticed some time ago). If the spammers can manage to make their URLs look innocent as well then a vague comment like that might get past even my honed spam-radar senses.

So in closing, if you don’t see your comment right away, don’t worry! It will appear shortly because I usually manage to check the blog at least once every 2 hours. Yes, I am obsessed.

(The picture should give an idea of what is in store for you jerkwad manual spammers. Click the picture to find out what bloated action stars drink to stay awake!)

Calling all meatcutters!

I ran across this while perusing the Federal Government’s job website. I think i might be a little underexperienced with a cleaver for this one, but I know somewhere out there, someone will see this and think to themselves, “I am so qualified for THAT!”

MEATCUTTING WORKER / MEATCUTTER
Salary Range: 28,028.00 – 44,265.00 USD per year

Job Summary:

Consider the rewards that this challenging opportunity may provide. In this position, you may supervise, lead, assist, or perform work involving cutting, trimming, and removing bones from meat and preparing and processing fish and poultry. This includes cutting meat into steaks, roasts, chops, cutlets, ground meat, and other small cuts, using powered equipment such as meat saws, slicers, grinders, and hand tools such as meathooks, knives, saws, and cleavers. A great opportunity is just a click away ? apply now.

And, if Japan ain’t your thing, how about beautiful Guam?

MEATCUTTING WORKER
Salary Range: 10.20 – 19.48 USD Hourly

Work Schedules: May be part-time ( 16-32 hours per week ), intermittent ( work on an as-needed basis ), or full-time ( 40 hours per week ).

Major Duties: The work involves cutting, trimming, and boning meat, fish, and poultry using hand tools and operating power meatcutting equipment. Receives instructions on work to be done and the tools and equipment that will be needed. Through day-to-day assignments, Meatcutting Worker becomes skilled in standard meatcutting techniques and broadens knowledge of established methods of processing assigned cuts.

Qualifications: To meet the screenout for this position, applicants must show they have the ability to do the work of Meatcutting worker without more that normal supervision. Examples of experience that would indicate this ability is Basic knowledge of the muscle, seam, and bone structures of different kinds of animals, the ability to learn methods of processing meat when given detailed instructions; and skill in using hand tools such as knives, scrapers, and handsaws.

Education Requirements: There are no minimum education requirements for this position.

“Basic knowledge of muscle, seam and bone structures of different kinds of animals?”

I wonder what kind of people this type of job attracts? Are there people out there who aspire to this kind of work because they are actually passionate about muscle, seam, and bone structure?

I am not poking fun (well, not too much anyway) but am genuinely curious. I never even knew “meatcutter” was a job title, but as of 10:01 am EST on 02/17/06 there are nine meatcutting jobs available with the Federal Government alone. Has anyone out there ever done this type of work and would be willing to share their experiences in the comments section?

From the NO KIDDING File: Washington Traffic is REALLY BAD

This report on how retardedly bad Washington traffic is reminds me of how hard it is to believe that Washington Post writers actually work or live in Washington:

Highway congestion has grown so severe that virtually all of the Washington region’s main commuter routes are chronically clogged and unable to move motorists efficiently, according to a regional study released yesterday.

Drivers on some highways designed for mile-a-minute travel are lucky to make five miles in an hour. Freeways that were manageable three years ago, such as the Dulles Toll Road, are now bumper-to-bumper at peak times. Congestion on some highways has doubled in three years, when the last study was released.

At the worst hour, between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. weekdays, a quarter of all freeway lanes in the Washington region are completely congested.

…

“It’s even worse than what we would have expected,” said John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “This is a template to know where the problems are. For political leaders to have this report and do nothing is akin to doing nothing while Rome burns.”

That picture isn’t even as bad as it gets!

Admittedly, I haven’t been reading the Post every day for about 6 months, but considering the power the WaPo can have over some issues, with traffic this bad in the area they should be running exposes every day. It shouldn’t take an official report to get them to talk about this more often (though one editorial remains dear to my heart).

Let me give you an example: I-66 going into the city from Virginia (where I live) is only two lanes for most of the way. The new governor of Virginia supports expanding it, but as it is now the road is constantly facing volume slowdowns. I get backed up coming home at 10pm on a Wednesday. Even the Beltway, which is 4 lanes most of the way, is more or less constantly backed up. Mrs. Adamu can back me up on this.

Maybe they just never leave the office or take cabs with tinted windows from press conference to press conference, wondering why it takes so long to drive 4 blocks to the White House.

Why MF will never be a business

Slate has an interesting look at the blog market that shows why we should not expect to ever make any money off of MF in the foreseeable future:

There are troubling signs—akin to the 1999 warnings about the Internet bubble—that suggest blogs have just hit their top:

  • The Magazine Cover Indicator
  • The Smart Guys Cashing Out
  • The Excited Dinosaurs

    • and

  • The Gullible Latecomers

    • So when the blog bubble bursts does that mean we’ll stop seeing lame Google ads/half-baked merchandizing/personal ads/Amazon Associates and/or J-List tie ins on all these personal websites? Here’s hoping!

    Illegal Bookies’ Influence Waning in Govt-sponsored Horse racing

    Horse racing in Japan (Keiba) is a government-sponsored gambling powerhouse. Other lucrative state-owned gambling venues in Japan include Keirin (bike racing, “Welcome to sports cycle race “KEIRIN” in the world to which Japan gave birth.” < - THANK YOU, machine translation!) and Kyotei (boat racing, the brainchild of war criminal and would-be Nobel laureate Ryoichi Sasakawa).

    When I was going to high school in Japan, I often spent Saturdays with my host father as he played the horses. He’d read the horse racing newspaper, call in his choice to a bookie on his cell phone, instantly fall asleep, and then wake up just as the race came on TV only to lose every time. He never seemed to mind though — every time he lost he’d just make a kind of Japanese sighing noise and look at the paper again for the next race.

    He was a hard drinking, hard smoking gambler who wheeled and dealed in local politics – all attributes that I would normally consider sleazy if he were not also one of the most warm and kindly people that I’ve ever met.

    Anyway, back to the point of this post: the Internet seems to be changing this (apparently illegal) bookie system. ZAKZAK reports (and I paraphrase):

    Bookies Disappearing as Online Horse Bets Gain in Popularity
    Raison d’etre Lost Upon Institution of High-Payout 1st-2nd-3rd Bets

    The Japan Racing Authority (which runs Japan’s horse races for the national govt) will hold the first GI race of the year, “Febuary S,” at the Tokyo Race Track. As the races are run, [yakuza-connected] “bookies,” who are officially banned by the Horse Racing Law [but nevertheless prevalent] are quickly shrinking in number. In addition to an aggressive clampdown by police, the benefits of making bets through a bookie are disappearing due to the popularity of purchasing racing tickets on the Internet (on mobile phones etc) as well as the institution of “1st-2nd-3rd” bets with high payouts.

    According to a report (PDF) by the National Police Agency, incidents for bookie activities, after peaking in 1992, have decreased 90% since then.

    The benefits of bookies were: (1) Most tickets can be bought at low prices starting at 90 yen since management expenses etc are not deducted from sales; and (2) On top of being able to gamble away from the official ticket counters by placing bets on the phone, one can pay after the fact, making it possible to bet without having any money on you at the time.

    However, as the authorities strengthened their enforcement of the law, the JRA expanded its services to allow customers to buy tickets on the internet or mobile phones. By 2005, Internet purchases had come to make up 43% of sales. In 2004, the “1st-2nd-3rd” bets were instituted, removing bookies’ raison d’etre.

    A senior detective of the Hyogo Prefectural police, who must deal with the [infamous yakuza family] Yamaguchi-gumi in its jurisdiction, comments, “Many bookies made maximum odds of 100:1. Recently 1st-2nd and 1st-2nd-3rd bets have been instituted, and even 100,000 yen tickets. The recognition spread that even buying from the illegal bookies, it was a ‘high-risk, low return’ bet.”

    As demand disappears, bookies have started to go out of business. The senior detective notes, “In Hyogo Prefecture, a certain group directly connected to Yamaguchi-gumi that had provided the source of funds for bookie activity has seen its debt skyrocketing currently due to a lack of revenue, placing it in a state of destruction. I guess there’s no longer a role for bookies.”

    ZAKZAK 2006/02/15

    The comfortable and semi-legal relationship between the government and organized crime in Japan never ceases to amaze me. Well, it’s not just that it’s so comfortable, but also that it’s so open and obvious, and not just in the realm of horse racing (see links).

    I mean, the JRA could easily have offered (pre-paid) telephone bets and high-odds betting options long ago, which would have eliminated the need for yakuza bookies.

    I’ll show you strange bedfellows

    From a story that ran today in the Financial Times:

    “The Livedoor case was expected to lead to criticism of the dark side of Koizumi’s reforms. That is what is starting to happen. It is not just about Takebe anymore,” says Takao Toshikawa, editor of Insideline, a respected current affairs magazine.

    Nonsense. Such criticisms are entirely misplaced and such links are forced. If anything, the reforms should be faulted for not going far enough by putting in regulations to prevent the kind of stuff Horie was doing. As the Economist recently put it:

    [Horie’s] practices were pretty traditional, but he used them with a speed, aggression and visibility that were new. Many of the things he is known to have done were perfectly legal, such as using after-hours share trading to build up large stakes in target companies, or exploiting artificial liquidity shortages after stock splits. In a properly regulated financial market they would not be. Nor would his accounting have been allowed to be as obscure as it was, whether or not it is proven to have been illegal.

    Then we have this from the same FT story:

    “We will continue to pursue this aggressively.The LDP is polluted with money that Horie raised by deceiving (Livedoor’s) individual investors,” a DPJ official said.

    I am laughing that this guy can even make such a claim with a strait face!

    Here are some strange bedfellows for you — anti-reformers who will do anything to link Horie and Koizumi, and politicians who act as though individual investors actually matter and that they actually care about the source of their money.

    Kobe Airport opens, but far more wackiness might be in store

    Kobe Airport, the third passenger airport in the Kansai region, opened just a couple of hours ago. So what’s next? How about a tunnel from Kobe to Kansai?

    The “Cross-Osaka Bay Railroad” is envisioned to connect JR Shin-Kobe Station and Kansai Airport via Kobe Airport in 30 minutes, using linear motor cars over the total distance of 36 km. The Kobe Airport-Kansai Airport run will take only 17 min. The cost of the tunnel is expected to be 530 billion yen.

    Apparently, this was one of those crazy bubble-era ideas that fell apart after the Kobe earthquake of 1995 and the stagnant traffic numbers at Kansai in the late 90’s. But now, authorities are saying that if traffic at Kansai picks up, the airport may have to go international-only, and this project might be needed to keep a steady flow of passengers between domestic and international flights. Hyogo Prefecture seems to be warming to the idea, but Kobe City and Kansai Airport (perhaps fortunately) think it’s pretty ridiculous.