JapanSoc Blog:
A few happenings from the Japan-related …
|
Top Stories | Upcoming Stories
Can you believe this? Would you give your kid an ID card so that he could go out and buy cigarettes? A Fukuoka Mom did just that and she got arrested for it.
4 Comments Add this link to...
Alert...
4 Comments Add this link to...
Alert...
I'd ask Milk, but he's sleeping right now. Lazy mutt. ;)...Oooo. I've never heard of that. I would definitely recommend looking around...I have heard of the pet hotels. Do you know how popular they are?...No kitty post because they are only one part of this post. It is the experience and...I saw Narita airport protest pictures in LIFE magazine in the 1960s. Then, in the...Actually Jordan, we have a tradition of Yum Cha (Dim Sum had in a communal way with...but I think comparing my car to a panther was a compliment too! :)...Photo of damaged Coke machine posted....Absolutely classic. It's like a watered-down version of the '78 attack on Narita...compliment for inanimate object...?
Sometimes inanimate objects are...
Sometimes inanimate objects are...
Comments
Until last October, you could legally smoke in England from the age of 16, but many would start at 15 if they could get away with it. The kid in this story is 15 and people are freaking out. Japanese law says you have to be 20 to smoke, but do you really increase your chances of getting cancer if you smoke at 15 or 16 instead of 18 or 20?
The real problem here is not the smoking, but the mother irresponsibly aiding her son in breaking the law, right? Well, I don't condone breaking any laws (even if you disagree with them), but let's not get carried away. Nothing was stolen and nobody was hurt.
This month saw a number of new laws introduced in Japan, including wearing a seat belt in the back of the car (a law which the prime minister himself broke on the first day), wearing a helmet whilst riding a bicycle and not carrying an umbrella while riding a bike.
Should we freak out if a mother doesn't give her 15 year old son a bicycle helmet? Would it be headline news if a father gives his 24-year-old daughter an umbrella to carry while she cycles to work?
Even though I don't smoke, I find all this anti-smoking nonsense over the top. Yes, it's bad for your health, but it's a personal choice and I really don't buy into the secondhand smoke concerns, either. Unless your job is to play trumpet in an izakaya, you can quite easily avoid secondhand smoke if it bothers you.
I don't disagree with anything you said Nick. What I think is appalling is the lack of a backbone that this mother has. If the kid is going to smoke he's probably going to find a way to smoke but why just give up and hand over the card if you disagree? Lack of parental responsibility is what got me more than the smoking issue....
I think that she learned her lesson and I hope that she doesn't end up in jail. A few hours of community service would suffice in my books.
By the way I didn't know that I was breaking a law by not wearing a bicycle helmet??? I'm not alone as I haven't seen anyone in my neighborhood wearing one yet. But I was asked to buckle up in the back of a cab the other day and I complied like a good little gaijin!
Parents everywhere seem to give into kids' whims these days, and this is an extreme example of that, I agree. It doesn't bode well for the future, does it?
I just asked my wife and she is 110% certain the bicycle helmet law applies to adults, but I couldn't find anything on the net to verify that... can anybody help me out here?
I knew that the TASPO card was going to be nothing but trouble. It is coming to Adachi-Ku in July and I am not looking forward it at all. I feel that I might end up beating the Liberty drum in Japan the way I did when I lived in America.