Passing grades? Where is it not a thing?

There is significantly higher pressure to conform to societal norms there, including misogynistic views on a woman's role and a more stratified social hierarchy - but there's also a belief that government exists to support society instead of existing to support moneyed interests.

I'm gonna say that your experience is very specific to you.

I have an American friend who lived in Japan growing up (military brat) and who speaks fluent Japanese. She worked several jobs for Japanese firms both in Japan and remotely before she decided to stop making use of this very lucrative skill. Her reasoning:

• The Japanese are workaholics who expect everyone else to be as well. You are expected to always be available and to always give the appearance that you are working even if you literally have nothing to do. If you don't appear to be living up to this standard, it isn't uncommon for your boss to publicly shame you in front of your coworkers.
• The Japanese are extremely hierarchical. What the boss says goes, literally no matter what. You should never question or correct your boss, either publicly or privately, regardless of whether or not they are wrong, or if their mistaken assumptions could harm the business. If you do this, you should expect retribution.
• The Japanese are paralyzingly perfectionist. One of her jobs was teaching American businesspeople Japanese. She also tried teaching Japanese businesspeople English, but found it was impossible, because her Japanese students experienced so much anxiety about making any mistakes while speaking English that they refused to try - which resulted in them never learning any English.
• The Japanese are extremely sexist. People in public will openly make sexist remarks about women and/or slut shame them. It is common for Japanese men to refuse to speak to women about anything important and demand to speak to a man instead. And there's the whole issue with upskirt photos on trains.
• The Japanese are outwardly racist. If you are white, you should expect to be stopped on the street for people who will demand a photo with you. If you are black, expect to openly be accused of being a criminal and a drug addict in casual conversation. If you make Japanese friends, odds are they see you more as a mascot than anything else - you can't really be true friend, because you aren't Japanese.
• They are extremely sexually repressed (hence all the weird porn).
• Almost all the non-japanese people who know Japanese or want to learn are sexist weebs who don't shower and creeped her out.

Like, yes, the Japanese have very nice trains. But the country has some really serious problems that trains don't solve.

Don't forget the xenophobia.

Imagine if school buses didn't exist and someone suggested them today. They'd be cursed as fucking commies and and ridiculed.

Yeah I think improving public transport should be #1 priority but capitalism would suffer. I mean we gotta sell shit cars and keep that industry alive.

Awesome. Thanks!

And then sent her to jail for not being educated enough to have a job to pay the fine.

The US is really where the Outerworld's is a documentary of, the only difference is that it is in space. But Robbie Williams is also not a money, but he was displayed as a monkey in Better Man so I guess is can still be an accurate documentary.

I can see where I was confusing.

School district was rezoned. Not sending busses to my area. He'd have to switch schools for 8th grade to get a bus or I'll have to find a way of transportation.

I walked a mile to my elementary school. Had to walk a block or two for my middle school bus.

Two blocks is not very far to walk to catch a bus?

You’re right, my previous comment doesn’t quite follow the wholesome theme here.

Many commenters are under the impression that the train is leaving the station solely to pick up this student, drop her off at school, and then travel back to the station. That would make sense if it was a taxi of some sort and she was the only passenger. However, trains in Japan have long routes, multiple stops, and pick up many, many passengers along the way. Keeping this stop for this student might add a few minutes to the total time it takes the train to run its full route but in no way is it a dramatic waste of resources and time that some people here are claiming. I’ve ridden on trains in Japan with hundreds of passengers that traveled hundreds of miles. Sometimes a train would make a stop in a rural area to pick up a few folks and other times we’d stop in a major city and pick up dozens of people. If one of those rural stops were nixed, I (as an existing passenger on the train) would barely notice a difference (maybe save a few minutes on my route), but I would bet the few folks who depend on that stop would be severely inconvenienced and struggle to find alternative means of transportation.

humans civilization existed for over 10 thousand years, modern capitalism has existed for a couple hundred and is literally destroying the planet.

smart person online: "If we have to choose between Coca-Cola or a liveable planet, I choose exctintion, you know, instead of actually hurting the handful of billionaires who are destroying the planet"

The fall in human population is happening at way too slow a pace to help the environmental crisis. At the same time, it's happening at way too fast a pace that it's going to trigger multiple social crisis' around the end of the century.

Overpopulation combined with the inefficient resource consumption of modern society. If our resource usage per person reduced at the same rate that population increased, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Also that graph is ridiculous. If there was one less child born per person alive, there would be zero children being born in most developed countries (it takes two people to have a child, which would mean two less children per couple). Of COURSE that would result in a drastically reduced carbon footprint, because we'd die out.

Bold strategy to double-down on the antinatalism after the recent terrorist attack by a hardline antinatalist.

The sad part about this story is that the station closed, so if the next year there are other students they won't have the option.

One of the worst myths about capitalism is equating profit with efficiency.

We’re making a lot of assumptions here.

Not to mention you need to buy gas, schedule & pay for maintenance, etc.

So you’re telling me that running, staffing and maintaining a train is more environmentally friendly than 1 electric vehicle?

Right but now is it more environmentally friendly or efficient to maintain, staff and run a train for one person? Give her an EV and everybody wins

I do so love block bait that so clearly identifies itself.