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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Joseph Jaworski, in his April 21 letter, “Consequences of health planning,” claims that the Australian public health campaign to reduce smoking and drinking has “resulted in an Australian public that is perhaps less heathy (or at least, no healthier) than it was before the ...
Paul Gaysford’s reflection on his life in Japan (“The joy of not being accepted,” April 18 letter) felt familiar because its tone is congruent with similar ideas expressed repeatedly since Lafcadio Hearn. I remember the letter “Revel in being a misfit” (Aug. 3, 1997), ...
The recent visits of Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and other Cabinet ministers to Yasukuni Shrine defy common sense. At least one of the ministers said he was making the visit in both a private and public capacity, a blatant contradiction. It is hard ...
I read Robert Yamamoto’s April 25 letter, “Yasukuni serves useful purpose,” with great interest. Japanese people — especially Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his Cabinet ministers and politicians in the Diet — should remember that Japan sent troops to the northeastern part of China early ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced that the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) would be adopted in Japanese education. Considering Japan’s focus on international personnel development, TOEFL could be one of the scales to assess whether Japanese people are competent enough ...
The April 18 article “Documentary chronicles disappearing world of ‘bosozoku (biker gangs)” was funny! Kazuhiro Hazuki, a former gang leader, is quoted as saying he couldn’t stomach the violence of being a yakuza loan shark, so he became a kick boxer. The director of ...
I have the opportunity to hold seminars for those who have worked in traditional Japanese companies, to give them hints on living a happy life after they retire. In former times, seminar participants tended to be eager to know how far their pension benefits ...
The April 23 article “LDP looks to double JET Program’s ranks in three years” leaves this reader feeling it’s time to reassess English education in Japan. Increasing the number of Japan Exchange and Teaching participants twofold is not the answer. The Japanese have long ...
Regarding the April 18 article “Pulvers wins Noma translation prize“: I can’t thank former Japan Times columnist Roger Pulvers enough for his great contribution of introducing Japan’s literary legacy to the world. That said, with all due respect, my thoughts are a little different ...
Regarding The Washington Post editorial that was printed in The Japan Times on April 20 under the headline “U.S. Senate misfires”: In spite of recent mass shootings, a gun background-check proposal failed to win a sufficient majority in the U.S. Senate, apparently because of ...
Regarding the April 21 letter “A situation similar to Britain’s”: It’s true that Japanese people like “reform.” Since the end of the Cold War, many political leaders have tried to reform society. But it seems they’ve had no remarkable success so far. As for ...
Regarding the April 17 editorial, “Japan’s depopulation time bomb“: So much fuss has been made in the news media about the declining birthrate that it would be easy to mistake it for an impending disaster. Despite the pressure on an overburdened pension system, perhaps ...