181–190 of 204 posts
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HN comments aren't really the place for "me too" responses, but this story gave me some warm fuzzies. It was a nice story, despite the obvious inefficiencies that'll be ending very soon anyway.
Hmm true, can see how that could lead to a biased impression
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First train I took in Tokyo was the Narita Express. It was 20 minutes late so I missed the connection for the last "JR Pass"-eligible bullet train to Kyoto of the night. I had to buy a ticket for 18,000 JPY (~$150) As far as I know, no one killed themselves.
When was this? The NEX was notorious for suicides because of the speed it passed through stations along the way. I read a few years back that they did something to fix that. If you had made a big enough stink about it they would have let you ride the Shinkansen using your pass. This is the country where rail operators give out "late passes" to workers if their train is more than a few minutes late after all.
Who is "they"? I believe the train I took is not even run by the same company as the one that issues JR passes.
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Could you elaborate on that distinction? I definitely do not understand it, but I would like to.
An estate is simply the legal term given to the net worth a person has after they die. There's a legal process that allocates the dead person's resources according to various factors. Generally a person's debts will be satisfied first. Then whatever's left gets divided according to the person's will, if any. If there is no will, a judge will divide assets up amongst surviving relatives. If there is nothing left after…
Unless Japan has some unorthodox laws that make relatives of successful suicides liable for their debts to Tokyo Metro?
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Confused: wasn't it just keeping a stop on the schedule, and not actually running a line for one person? Total cost would then be in time spent stopping/restarting.
It's 'aaronchall that is confused. They were supposed to decommission a particular station on the train route, but they decided to wait a few years for that lone girl to finish her school. They reduced the amount of times the train stops at that station to twice a day, and adjusted them to the girl's schedule. The line itself is working normally, carrying many passengers between other stations. The issue was only wit…
>“Why should I not want to die for a country like this when the government is ready to go an extra mile just for me,” one commenter wrote on CCTV’s Facebook page. “This is the meaning of good governance penetrating right to the grassroot level. Every citizen matters. No Child left behind!” Ironically, the railway is a private one, i.e. Japan Railways Hokkaido[0] is private corporation, not a government agency. And ye…
In Britain there are also 150 odd request stops that you have to flag the train down.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
An estate is simply the legal term given to the net worth a person has after they die. There's a legal process that allocates the dead person's resources according to various factors. Generally a person's debts will be satisfied first. Then whatever's left gets divided according to the person's will, if any. If there is no will, a judge will divide assets up amongst surviving relatives. If there is nothing left after…
The creditors have to sue the estate, not the relatives, and if the estate is empty, they are not going to get anything. If they sued the relatives, the suit would be thrown out rather quickly. Heirs are not liable for the deceased's debts. They can choose to, and sometimes do, satisfy them for their own reasons, but there is no way a creditor can force them to do that any more than they can force a random person. Un…
That is definitely the case in the US, but I would hesitate before assuming it's that way everywhere else in the world.
I do know that there are cases in Japan where the deceased parents of suicides have had to pay compensation for the externalities of the suicide, in particular for the decreased property value of the apartment that they committed suicide in. I don't know how or why they had to do this, just that it is a thing that happens.
http://www.tofugu.com/2012/11/12/japanese-suicide-apartments...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
An estate is simply the legal term given to the net worth a person has after they die. There's a legal process that allocates the dead person's resources according to various factors. Generally a person's debts will be satisfied first. Then whatever's left gets divided according to the person's will, if any. If there is no will, a judge will divide assets up amongst surviving relatives. If there is nothing left after…
Thanks for the clarification and the article! The latter is definitely worth a top-level submission here.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10404538
I get virtually all of my reading material from HN or TheBrowser or ReadThisThing. I then save it to Pocket, getting back to it days or weeks later. I'm so far behind the curve that it doesn't make sense for me to submit anything.
Lovely story. Hats off to Japan Railways. I'm also happy that The Atlantic/Citylab decided to publish this story. And thanks 'hudibras for submitting it here! They say that it's the money that makes the world turn, and love only keeps it together. It would be easy for the Railways to ignore that girl. There's no economical reason to keep that station open. It's a waste of time and resources. And yet, someone decided…
The thing is, they (the headline) say "Japan", but this only happened because it's way out in the countryside where people have a "village mentality" of helping each other out (but the trade off is that everyone sticks their nose in your business). Japan railways itself split into several separate companies upon privatization. This would never happen in Tokyo. As much as we think of the country as being monolithic (i…
This is the UK, yes? And people won't be cursing under their breath. They'll be saying it loudly.
Lovely story. Hats off to Japan Railways. I'm also happy that The Atlantic/Citylab decided to publish this story. And thanks 'hudibras for submitting it here! They say that it's the money that makes the world turn, and love only keeps it together. It would be easy for the Railways to ignore that girl. There's no economical reason to keep that station open. It's a waste of time and resources. And yet, someone decided…
I have trouble seeing it this way. The money spent running the train could save or improve many other lives instead. It's heartwarming and all, but consider the other people who are being left to die or suffer malnutrition or some other malady that could have been fixed with the resources used to get this girl to and from school. It could be argued that the hope and inspiration and good feels justify it as a utilitar…
In short, they just agreed to give up a small bit of their own profits.