Falling Pay and Rising Taxes (Feedback)

Looking at this week’s comments, it seems that pay and bonus levels do appear to be falling all over Japan. I must admit I thought this would be the case, but it’s interesting to hear other people’s experiences. I guess nobody really knows what will happen when the tax rate goes up, but if it does lead to a deflationary spiral, I hope the Japanese people will get very angry with the politicians who insisted on bringing it in.

It seems that like me, most of you agree that although the tax will need to be raised at some point in the future, now is not the time to do it. Despite all their promises, this government has turned out to be a huge disappointment. To be honest, I don’t even think there is any real difference between the LDP and the DPJ anymore. I’m sure you all saw the news this week that ex-prime minister Abe has been chosen as the “new” leader of his party. I cannot think of any other country where a failed leader like that would be given a second chance. It seems like a big step backwards when what Japan clearly needs is to be taking at least some small steps forwards.

By the way, some of you were wondering about the difference between cakes and biscuits, but there are far more ridiculous arguments than that one in the UK. This year, the government decided to put consumption tax on sausage rolls and pasties that were sold hot, but not ones that were sold cold. Of course, this caused all kinds of confusion. For example, what if you heat a pasty up, but then sell it after it has cooled down a bit? Should it be taxed or not? It was so ridiculous that in the end, the government gave up on the idea. Having tax on some things but not on others is a good idea in principle, but it’s quite difficult to implement in practice.

Anyway, here is some feedback on your comments.

I have heard from my older brother that his salary was cut…
My older brother told me that… (A-Z: hear from)

As a natural consequence his salary has gone down since then.
Nice sentence.

Terrible accidents happened yesterday in Miyagi and Yokosuka.
There were two terrible accidents yesterday in ….

I feel relieved when I heard there were the dead in the train accident in Yokosuka.
I was relieved when I heard that no one had died.

I couldn’t agree with you more.
This is a good expression to learn if you don’t know it.

That means more work for the same salary and that’s not fair!
True, but it’s a nice sentence.

I wrote my comment after an interval of one month! Sorry…
It’s been a month since I last wrote a comment.

Of course, I’m happy with it if the government would not raise the consumption tax.
Of course, I would be happy if the government didn’t raise the consumption tax.

I still get in touch with friends from there.
I still keep in touch with friends from there.

But his salary and bonus got down sharply.
But his salary and bonus went down sharply.

I’ve read in somewhere before that….
I’ve read somewhere before that….

but they just put too much energy on “raising” taxes.
but they just put too much emphasis on raising taxes.

I’m afraid it’s quite common story in Japan last for some years.
I’m afraid it’s become quite a common story in Japan in recent years.

I’m not saying this because my husband is a foreigner!!
In this context, we would probably say “It’s not only/just because….

a friend of mine told me that her husband who works for an automobile company had to stay at home for weeks
This is quite interesting. If you don’t separate “who works for an automobile company” from the rest of the sentence with commas, it looks as though your friend has more than one husband! So it should be “Her husband, who works for an automobile company, had to….”

I’ll just correct students’ papers(junior high school English) by PC.
Feel free to ask if there is anything you are not sure about.

Congratulations for getting a job.
Congratulations on getting a job.

“Your talks reminds me ” should be “Your talks remind me.”
It should be “Your discussion reminded me…” or “Your comments reminded me….” (A-Z: talk)

“I lived together to take care of my parents-in-law.” should be “I lived together with my parents-in-law to take care of them.”
I lived with my parents-in-law so that I could take care of them.

What a coincidence!(← I wanted to use a different expression, but I couldn’t think of any other one. Do you have any suggestions, David?)
That’s the one I would use. I can’t think of anything else that would fit there.

Regarding the tax difference of cakes and biscuits, …
Regarding the tax difference between cakes and biscuits, …

And she drove me home!
Nice sentence.

I suspect a bit that it might be because of the last part of the URL.
Nice sentence.

Anyway, it is nice to know that I’m still “useful” for someone else outside home!
The thing that Japan needs more than anything is children, so you are already doing a useful job!

That’s all for today. We have done two fairly heavy topics recently, so I’ll try to think of something a bit lighter for Monday.

Have a great weekend, and feel free to ask if you have any questions about my feedback.