Regarding the April 6 front-page article "First glaciers in Japan recognized": This is the silliest research I have ever seen. Of course, there is ice movement; it's happening on a micro-scale in every place with ice and, by implication, with permanent ice.
Consider that ice expands and contracts in volume through frost and thaw. Consider that entire hillsides do this along with unconsolidated rock and soil. Consider that this loose material puts confining pressure on accumulations of snow and ice, and that it lies on an inclined slope. It's all going to move. So, let's have a new definition of glaciers: ice that scientists decide to look at.
Governments with the power to tax have the discretion to waste people's money, while bureaucratic scientists run around classifying nonsubstantive facts. It's just a matter of confining pressure ... and wasted money.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.