author

 
Menu
Search
 
June 08, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Internal Submission
Reader Mail
Nov 2, 2013
Word of thanks
What pleases me most is when The Japan Times arrives at my house at 3:30 a.m., rain or shine. I've read it for 63 years.
Reader Mail
Nov 2, 2013
Save the food — beware of the TPP
I worry about the effects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Japan's food supplies. We should protect our food. I don't want farmers and fishermen to lose traditional Japanese skills. Japan's food culture needs to be passed on to the next generation.
Reader Mail
Nov 2, 2013
History defines China and Japan
Regarding the Oct. 27 Kyodo article "Abe issues fresh warning to China on isle [Senkaku Islands]row": I think the Japanese understand the virtues of peace very well — unlike the Chinese imperialists who think they can go back to the days of being the Middle Kingdom and East Asian countries being their...
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
Word 'peace' raises a red flag
I agree with most of the points raised in the Oct. 17 editorial "Policy speech overlooks key issues." But allow me to comment on the prime minister's use of the expression "proactive pacifism" during his speech at the opening of the extraordinary Diet session.
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
Not about being labeled or liked
In his Oct. 17 letter, "Tough armchair conservationist," which is a rebuttal to my Oct. 10 letter, "Activists who act like terrorists," Ivor Paul calls me a conservative for my views. It has happened before, in this column and in people's personal blogs as well.
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
Best regards for South Korea
I was very much interested in the Oct. 23 editorial "Turn Japanese-South Korean ties around." As a Japanese who was educated after World War II, I'm awfully sorry to say that Japan colonized Korea for the benefit of Japan and recruited ianfu (comfort women) for Imperial Army soldiers before Japan's defeat....
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
Coexist under any circumstances
The Oct. 28/29 editorial of "Pushing for nuclear disarmament" prompted me to share some thoughts on the abolition of nuclear weapons. Needless to say, it is good news that Japan has signed a United Nations statement calling for the nonuse of nuclear weapons "under any circumstances."
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
Diplomatic efforts take priority
Regarding the Oct. 19/20 Kyodo article "Abe skirts Yasukuni snare": I believe that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has opted for a judicial decision. It's true that Yasukuni Shrine has enshrined a lot of people killed in the Pacific War, and Japanese citizens should respect them. But this shrine was once...
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
A reason to applaud the LDP
Regarding the Oct. 25 Jiji brief "Bicycle minister pitched for Cabinet": For the first time in years I'm applauding the Liberal Democratic Party. Has this group of old cronies actually agreed to promote something so environmentally friendly? What next, an alternative energy minister? Bicycle lanes in...
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2013
A liberal arts model in Japan
In reply to Victoria Miroshnik's Oct. 24 letter, "Future of liberal arts education," generally her observations are correct, although a further comment is required. As a tutor in liberal arts studies with 20-plus years as such, I should state that yes, sometimes, when pressed for time or wishing to get...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 30, 2013
Outlook for industrial production improves on domestic demand
Manufacturers forecast the biggest jump in industrial production in more than two years this month as domestic demand strengthens, adding to signs that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can drive a sustained recovery.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 26, 2013
Twitter users find out the hard way that anonymity is just fleeting
In the ego-driven game of Twitter, Jofi Joseph was, for a while, one of the winners.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Future of liberal arts education
Regarding Geoffry Hinton's Oct. 20 letter, "Liberal arts foster a lifelong quest": The definition of liberal arts is confusing. Hinton appears to have quoted Wikipedia's 13th-century definition in which even medicine, law, and all arts and sciences are liberal arts.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Impact on Taiwan's sovereignty
Regarding Frank Ching's Oct. 21 article, "Taiwan opposition leery of China trade accord": This is sheer propaganda. Ching doesn't seem to have the foggiest idea of the negative impact that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has had, and will have, on Taiwan's sovereignty. Data to date...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Perpetual threat to our survival
Regarding Robert Spalding Oct. 9 article, "Nuclear arms also serve as instruments of peace": Spalding's argument that the possession of nuclear weapons actually helps to maintain peace among states may convince some people, but what he seems to miss is that such deterrence works only in an interstate...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Extraterritoriality is the problem
In his Oct. 19 letter, "Japanese justice sure to surprise," Ron NJ claims that if U.S. military members were subject to Japanese justice after their arrest and made to serve time in Japanese prisons, all the faults of the Japanese justice system would come to light and thus preclude the drafting of a...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Abe's quest for a nuclear base
Surely the headline for the Oct. 19 article "Fukushima 2020: Will Japan be able to keep the nuclear situation under control?" is rhetorical, as the instigator of the nuclear coverup, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is about to pass his "Whatever-I-Feel-Like-Making-Secret-Is-Secret Act," for which he will...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Veterans' 'calamities and sorrows'
Regarding Shuichi John Watanabe's Oct. 13 letter, "Veterans group sees last days": I must applaud Watanabe for bringing the fate of Japan's World War II veterans to our notice, and the "calamities and sorrows" they experienced.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Sorcerer needed for Fukushima
The most disturbing sentence in the Oct. 16 Jiji article "Tepco's toxic water failures pitiful [according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority]" is the last one: "Meanwhile, no community has volunteered to host the 'final' storage site."
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2013
Creating a future with foreigners
Regarding the Oct. 21 editorial "Firms hiring more foreign students": It really is auspicious that Japanese companies are hiring more foreign students, particularly from Asian countries including our neighboring countries South Korea and China.
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

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER