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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   1425 thread views

Transnational Thursday for July 25, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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So what's more transnational than... the Olympics? The Olympics in Paris begin in less than 24 hours. So far a Japanese gymnast has already been put on a plane back to Tokyo before her first somersault. Why? She admitted to smoking and drinking. Notably the age of doing either in Japan is 20. She's 19. The issue I believe is the Japan Gymnastics Association bylaws which forbid these vices. (As far as I know she only admitted to drinking in Japan.) Also at least one Russian man has been arrested for plotting to disrupt the games, and an Australian woman (not an athlete) has aid she was gang-raped by men who "looked African." Also sex is back on the list of possibilities for athletes, after the rather celibate Tokyo games due to COVID restrictions (no word on whether that Japanese gymnast also ever had sex during training.)

Edit: Breaking: Arson attacks on French rail lines.

American military personnel in Japan are expected to obey local drinking laws. While I was 24 when I was first stationed there, there were quite a few of my younger shipmates who were in America on their 20th birthday and Japan on their 21st and thereby deprived of the (profoundly vapid) drinking birthday celebration.

My sister was 20 when she and my dad flew over to see me and so she got to enjoy a legal pint of Kirin Ichiban in a Yokohama jazz club with us.

The issue I believe is the Japan Gymnastics Association bylaws which forbid these vices.

It's certainly not French laws; isn't the Parisian drinking age second trimester?

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