Re: [tlug] Wifi hotspot access in Tokyo

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Raymond Wan writes:

 > Sure, if your Japanese was native and you're able to argue to allow
 > you to use your computer, you think you "win".  But, you have (IMHO)
 > actually lost because you'll find yourself living in a place where
 > rules are bent if you (or someone else) whines enough.

That is *precisely* what many people[1] argue is the best feature of
Japan: the absolute non-absoluteness of rules.  Many crimes where the
perpetrator is caught red-handed are never punished, except with a
fatherly "more in sorrow than in anger" lecture from the policeman.
If there isn't enough parking (eg, for large trucks), the police look
the other way when vehicles are stopped at the roadside.

As a matter of personal experience, my predecessor as the head of the
experimental economics lab leafleted other professors' classrooms with
impunity, but when I succeeded him, that and most of the other
recruiting practices he followed (and left documented in a hard-copy
manual) turned out to be prohibited -- and the rules were applied to
me (not because I'm a gaijin, but because in his case he could argue
he'd always done those things, whereas I was new to the job; perhaps
with sufficient language skills I could have assumed his mantle but my
local confidants didn't think so).  I also got socked with "human
subject" regulations, but I think that was not discrimination, merely
that the university caught up with the reality of regulation at that
point.  Between the two (and a lack of help), that killed experiments
for several years.

 > [+] Sadly, a few people have taken the "subway regulations" into
 > their own hands and recorded people eating and uploaded the videos
 > up on to Youtube.  I'll take security roboto any day...

Heh.  I am *very* tempted to do that with traffic violations here....


Footnotes: 
[1]  Nihonjinron, "wet, monsoon" societies, longer intestines can't
handle beef, you know the drill.  (Or maybe you don't but it's way
off-topic. :-)