Social Media Edition
RetireJapan has an Instagram account, and I’m trying to be a bit more active over there, so if you are into that kind of thing please consider giving us a follow and a signal boost.
This week’s links
- Seems pretty tawdry: Greg Kelly’s prosecutors have painted themselves into a corner
- I love these so much. My favourite this time? The guy that definitely knows the difference between good and bad coffee: Japan’s Jimi ‘Mundane’ Halloween Costumes of 2020
- Gorgeous photos: Hiking: Mie Coast – Mt. Tsubonegachō – Mt Hoppō
- Ugh. This sounds horribly counterproductive. What’s wrong with producing hydrogen domestically using renewables??? Why produce it from coal in Australia then bring it here by ship? Ambitious but controversial: Japan’s new hydrogen project
- I have never put this much thought into light bulbs: What You Should Know About Buying Light Bulbs
- I think we featured this video before, but it’s a good one so here it is again for people that missed it first time round: Countryside living is cozy and affordable for residents willing to buy abandoned houses
- Very interesting, but maybe just for investing nerds: Portfolio tracking: how to track your investments using a money-weighted return
- This video was very interesting (nothing to do with money, but a glimpse of a completely different world): World’s Most Dangerous Roads – The Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Well, that’s clear as mud: The ins and outs of Japan’s eased re-entry steps for foreign residents
Short and sweet(?) this week. Anything good in there? Definitely number 2 for me.
This week’s books
- The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I, by Robert Caro. Heard very good things about this.
1 – No Legal Aid for defendants in Japan?
I believe there is a public option, but like in most countries, it’s not likely to be as good as paying the best lawyers.
Legal aid is only available to people with assets of less than 500,000 yen.
Even then, he would get a lawyer who is paid peanuts (a lawyer working on legal aid rates only get paid 84,000 yen for the average case that has three appearances in court, plus a bit extra for visits to the lockup) and puts in the corresponding amount of effort.
Aussie Pete, I understand that there is a high conviction rate in Japan. But when defendants are found not guilty, are their legal costs reimbursed? I wonder how many defendants are bankrupted by legal costs in Japan? Here in the UK even though I retired some years ago I continue to pay job related group insurance which includes Legal Insurance. Is there any Legal Insurance available in Japan? 20 years ago a day in a UK Magistrates Court would cost £800, and a day in a Crown Court would cost £8000. Probably a lot more today. How about daily Court costs in Japan?
No, the principle in Japan (whether civil or criminal court) is that each party pays their own legal fees. The loser pays in civil court only if it is included as a term in a contract, or in some other specific circumstances (e.g. a victim of a traffic accident can get legal fees up to a certain percentage of their overall claim).
Even in Australia, criminal defendants are not awarded any costs if they are acquitted of an indictable offence. The theory is that money should not be a factor for prosecutors when deciding the merits of a case.
Insurance for legal fees in Japan is certainly available.
I do not know if it includes criminal defence in general, but a few years ago there were news stories about insurance products specifically aimed at protecting men should they be accused of groping a woman on a train. It included the insurance company dispatching a lawyer to the train station as soon as an allegation was made.
Lawyers here tend to work on a fixed retainer more than hourly rates. A retainer for a criminal matter is typically structured in pre- and post-indictment stages. For example:
Stage 1:
Pay “X” if the prosecutors do not indict.
Pay 80% if dealt with summarily
Pay 50% if indicted
Pay “Y” if bail application is granted
Stage 2:
Pay “A” if found not guilty
Pay “B” if the sentence is less than the prosecutor’s demand
Pay “C” if the sentence is suspended
Etc. Etc.
Apart from the big Tokyo firms, lawyers in Japan are generally much cheaper than the West. This was traditionally due to the national bar association setting standard rates until about 10 years ago. More recently, there has been a large oversupply of new lawyers in the last 10 years which has kept the market down.
The Caro biography of Johnson is impressive and enormous. I have checked out that first volume several times from a library close to my relatives in the US and read a few hundred pages but felt I hardly made a dent in it (I think Johnson was just beginning to manipulate his fellow students in college) and of course there are several volumes after that first one. It really sets a new standard for a detailed biography.
> What’s wrong with producing hydrogen domestically using renewables???
I think it is easier said than done. Japan has already maxed out hydroelectric capacity. There is no free space for electrovoltaic panels for mass production of energy. I saw a solar farm in Japan close and they don’t look too environmental friendly because the while ground under panels is covered with plastic cover so all vegetation is dead. Not to mention the panels itself emit no so healthy gases and the landscape change is awful. I would prefer to see forest instead of solar farms. Regarding wind energy there is a potential for an offshore wind farms that is currently explored. But onshore wind farms are know for causing harm to birds, they are not currently recyclable much and they also affect the landscape and would require clearing forest around them.
I think more practical would be to utilize nuclear energy and invest in the methods to recycle the nuclear waste and safety.
Turn 65 tomorrow……..what does that mean? I have sent in all my papers to get my full nenkin so now I just wait to see how much it will be. Better be a lot but I doubt it.