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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
May 14, 2014
Effects of bullying as bad as ever
Regarding the May 9 article "LGBT bullying rife in schools": Bullying is something that many people who are reading this can relate to. It's not limited only to children in schools, because it can easily transition into the workplace.
Reader Mail
May 14, 2014
Sex slave's story from Indonesia
In his May 8 letter "Fictions aimed at milking Japan," Koichi Katsuta claims that comfort women were "just prostitutes who earned a lot of money." Perhaps there were some in this category, but can he claim they all were?
Reader Mail
May 14, 2014
Give English market incentives
Regarding the May 4 editorial "Test problems here and abroad": Despite frequent criticism of the TOEIC and TOEFL, their results usually give a fairly good idea of examinees' English skills. Those exams at least provide a motive to study.
Reader Mail
May 14, 2014
Ministry's self-contained box
Regarding the May 11 editorial "Good example of English use": For the Japanese education ministry to promote such a limited and belated use of English — as, say, hiring an English speaker to help with meetings — may fall hopelessly short of the "good example" evaluation that the headline writer has...
Reader Mail
May 14, 2014
Vulgar model for adolescents
It was rather shocking to read some of the racist remarks with which North Korea's state run media assailed U.S. President Barack Obama recently. One wonders what sort of crude remarks the Washington establishment has made about Kim Jong Un since he assumed power. Who knew that foreign relations could...
Reader Mail
May 10, 2014
Vested interests in the test world
Regarding the May 4 editorial "Test problems here and abroad": The fraudulent visa application problems caused by a couple of criminal schools on the other side of the planet is just a tempest in the TOEIC cup with scant or zero relevance to foreign-language education in Japan.
Reader Mail
May 10, 2014
Deniers won't let war wounds heal
Regarding Koichi Katsuta's May 8 letter, "Fictions aimed at milking Japan": Nationalists like Katsuta love to claim that Japan was the victim nation in World War II and that [claims of atrocities] were all lies to hurt Japan. He says the use of the term "sex slave" is incorrect, because no women were...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 10, 2014
Osamu Hayashi teaches memory aids; painter Balthus's love life explored; CM of the week: Aflac
Osamu Hayashi is the most famous juku (cram school) teacher in Japan thanks to his frequent TV appearances and trademark phrase "Ima desho" ("Why not now?"). His main claim to fame as a teacher, however, is his ability to retain huge amounts of information.
Reader Mail
May 7, 2014
NHK failing its public mission
Regarding the May 3 article "Viewers target NHK chief Momii": This charade has been going on too long for the good of the nation. If NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii is reluctant to resign to resolve the problem that he created in the first place, and continues to cling to his benefactor — currently the...
Reader Mail
May 7, 2014
Fictions aimed at milking Japan
When you mention something about "comfort women" relating to the Japanese military, you should not use the word "sex slaves," because they were not slaves at all — just prostitutes who earned a lot of money. Fictions have been created and exaggerated by people who have tried to derive an apology and...
Reader Mail
May 7, 2014
It's a restless jungle of critics
People seem to have become more intolerant and impatient than ever before. For example, when a Japanese scientist who had announced discovering a groundbreaking new technology related to stem cells was suspected of having manipulated and faked some data, the once lionized young woman was treated as if...
Reader Mail
May 7, 2014
Time to move on, rebuild ties
The "comfort women" issue never seems to stray from the headlines. It seems that every month there is a new comment by a Japanese government official or by a Chinese or Korean counterpart that sparks unhappy responses, and further draws out an almost-70-year-old issue. In all honesty, it's time that...
Reader Mail
May 7, 2014
Storm in a Pinteresque teacup
The attention that Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers National Basketball Association team, got during the week of April 28 over publicized racist comments he made to his girlfriend really tried my patience with this American fetish. American culture pushes its obsession with race to...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 3, 2014
German documentaries explore WWI history; Yukie Nakama stars in Mitsuko Mori biopic; CM of the week: Merry Maids
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, a conflagration whose causes most people probably don't understand. This week, NHK will present a series of German documentaries, "Doomsday World War I," on its BS1 channel that attempt to explain the so-called war to end all wars, with...
JAPAN / Media
Apr 30, 2014
Advisers assess Japan Times performance after INYT tie-up
Now that The Japan Times is being distributed together with the International New York Times, the advisory board members agreed that there should be a newsroom shift toward even more coverage of Japan.
Reader Mail
Apr 30, 2014
Growing more women scientists
The April 16 AFP-JIJI article "Japan's scientists: just 14% female" must be frustrating for the Japanese government, but nowhere near as frustrating as it is for the women trying to mark their way in a field traditionally dominated by men.
Reader Mail
Apr 30, 2014
A government that can't reason
It is unbelievable how thick, stubborn and stupid the government of Japan is on some essential questions that project the Japanese people's reputation widely across the world.
Reader Mail
Apr 30, 2014
Much ado about 'fluid prejudice'
Regarding the April 28 Reuters article "China releases trove of Japanese sex slave records": It's wonderful to learn that China has released a "trove" of confidential Japanese records on sex slaves, but why weren't these records released decades ago?
JAPAN / Media / NET NEWS WATCH
Apr 28, 2014
AKB48 may be the pop the economy needs: ex-chief cabinet secretary Edano
In Yukio Edano's essay “Popular Songs Change with the Times; Yasushi Akimoto, the AKB strategy and the Japanese Economy,” the Democratic Party of Japan Lower House member of Japan argued that AKB48's business strategy “could be effective for the economy in general.”
Reader Mail
Apr 26, 2014
Depending on Obama to curb Abe's notions
Regarding U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Japan last week: Animosity among Asian leaders is nearing a critical mass as governments of the main players becoming increasingly hard-line and intolerant. America must insist that Japan cease its deliberate tit-for-tat aggravations that risk serious...
Foreign tourists with unpaid medical bills in Japan to be denied entry
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during ministerial meeting meeting on foreign residents in Japan on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office.
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.
Japan won’t wait for G7 summit for possible U.S. trade deal
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the U.S. speaks to reporters at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy
Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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