5 ms·

Hilarious. Any evidence? even the slightest? Look, yes, it may be the case that there is widespread corruption in the reporting of those statistics. But reall

by jfoutz 11y ago

Hilarious. Any evidence? even the slightest? Look, yes, it may be the case that there is widespread corruption in the reporting of those statistics. But really, this is the same culture that produced the joke: no more that 1% failure rate in product, that ships 9900 perfect products and another box with 100 failures. Yes, salarymen may not tell the whole truth, but pervasive corruption seems, well, unlikely

shasheene 11y ago
Japan had a widespread pension fraud scandal that made headlines in 2010: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071 From my understanding, the government is extremely inefficient technologically (it wouldn't surprise me if most population records are still in paper form and faxed between government departments)
- shiro 11y ago
  The citizen and resident registration system in Japan has already become electronic. The online system has little to do for the fraud, since you need human staff to check if the online record match the reality anyway (unless you implant chips in citizens and monitors them mechanically). The government inefficiency comes not from the technology, but the complicated rules and ambiguous responsibility between sections. Note also that the "missing" has different nuance in Japan and in US (I only lived these two countries, so I can only tell about them). In Japan, every resident must register his address to the city or county office; if someone doesn't live in the registered address, the person could be technically "missing" for the purpose of statistics or census (police investigation or other official matter uses more strict definition of "missing", off course.)
Chris2048 11y ago
"Hilarious"? Is that a glib response? In any case, you want me to provide evidence? of what? Why? It's not my job. My statements are perfectly true. If we take reported stats at face value, the UK has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. In reality, they have the highest reported rate of sexual assault. The most problematic of the stats you mention is the crime rate - Japan also has a fairly high "suicide" rate: "The NPA has admitted that in Japan only 10 percent of suspicious deaths result in an autopsy. However, when a death initially appears to be due to suicide, only 5 percent are autopsied. The lack of a comprehensive use of autopsies was only brought to the public’s attention after several cases of “missed murders” came to light. The 45 known cases may just be “the edge of the graveyard” as some cops have put it." -- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-national/japans-suicide-statistics-dont-tell-the-real-story/#.VyCmxPkrLct http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-n...
- nihonde 11y ago
  This whole line of argument makes no sense. Why wouldn't every country overreport old people or underreport deaths, as the case may be? Just about every country has an incentive for pension fraud. So...why Japan? Incidentally, old people are in visibly high numbers here in Japan. I joke sometimes that it's like living in a zombie movie——it's not uncommon to be completely surrounded by only elderly people shuffling to and fro.
  - Chris2048 11y ago
    What line of argument? It feels like you're referring to an argument I haven't made - The one where I say stats must have their potential for error considered, but only wrt Japan. Also, some of the links posted here show particular reasons to consider these Japanese stats suspect: > Just about every country has an incentive for pension fraud. Not all countries investigate pension fraud equally.

by jfoutz 11y ago

shasheene 11y ago

Japan had a widespread pension fraud scandal that made headlines in 2010: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071 From my understanding, the government is extremely inefficient technologically (it wouldn't surprise me if most population records are still in paper form and faxed between government departments)

shiro 11y ago
The citizen and resident registration system in Japan has already become electronic. The online system has little to do for the fraud, since you need human staff to check if the online record match the reality anyway (unless you implant chips in citizens and monitors them mechanically). The government inefficiency comes not from the technology, but the complicated rules and ambiguous responsibility between sections. Note also that the "missing" has different nuance in Japan and in US (I only lived these two countries, so I can only tell about them). In Japan, every resident must register his address to the city or county office; if someone doesn't live in the registered address, the person could be technically "missing" for the purpose of statistics or census (police investigation or other official matter uses more strict definition of "missing", off course.)

Chris2048 11y ago

"Hilarious"? Is that a glib response? In any case, you want me to provide evidence? of what? Why? It's not my job. My statements are perfectly true. If we take reported stats at face value, the UK has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. In reality, they have the highest reported rate of sexual assault. The most problematic of the stats you mention is the crime rate - Japan also has a fairly high "suicide" rate: "The NPA has admitted that in Japan only 10 percent of suspicious deaths result in an autopsy. However, when a death initially appears to be due to suicide, only 5 percent are autopsied. The lack of a comprehensive use of autopsies was only brought to the public’s attention after several cases of “missed murders” came to light. The 45 known cases may just be “the edge of the graveyard” as some cops have put it." -- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-national/japans-suicide-statistics-dont-tell-the-real-story/#.VyCmxPkrLct http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/02/03/national/media-n...

nihonde 11y ago
This whole line of argument makes no sense. Why wouldn't every country overreport old people or underreport deaths, as the case may be? Just about every country has an incentive for pension fraud. So...why Japan? Incidentally, old people are in visibly high numbers here in Japan. I joke sometimes that it's like living in a zombie movie——it's not uncommon to be completely surrounded by only elderly people shuffling to and fro.
- Chris2048 11y ago
  What line of argument? It feels like you're referring to an argument I haven't made - The one where I say stats must have their potential for error considered, but only wrt Japan. Also, some of the links posted here show particular reasons to consider these Japanese stats suspect: > Just about every country has an incentive for pension fraud. Not all countries investigate pension fraud equally.