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Reader Mail

Aug 31, 2013

The Catholic acceptance of gays

Regarding Jeff Kingston's Aug. 25 Counterpoint article, "Gay marriage in Japan? Only over the reactionary LDP's cadaver": This sentence in the article caught my eye: "Despite the Philippines being largely Roman Catholic, 73 percent of respondents there said society should accept gays."

Reader Mail

Aug 31, 2013

Enough unsolicited information

The more I hear in the news about civil rights for sexual minorities, the more confused I become. Maybe I am intimidated by rapid change in society. Or maybe I'm homophobic.

Reader Mail

Aug 31, 2013

Egypt's transition to democracy

As ambassador of Egypt, I wrote the following so that Japanese friends will accurately know about recent developments in my country.

Reader Mail

Aug 31, 2013

Logical end to 'scientific' whaling

Regarding Rowan Hooper's Aug. 11 Natural Selections article, "In science terms, Japan has no need at all to kill whales": I favor the discontinuation of such whaling — not because it's unlikely that Japan's claim will be upheld in the International Court of Justice or that Japan's "commercial" whaling...

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

Western behavior back home

It's rather unfortunate that Chavez's message has been rather misinterpreted by some readers. The message is not "Westerners are discriminated against in Japan just like African-Americans and Muslims in the U.S." That would be a daft thing to say.

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

'Gainsaying' by no man's leave

Father Peter Milward, in his Aug. 22 letter, "Legacy of Christian humanism," would appear to have no idea what I'm talking about.

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

Far cry from real discrimination

Chavez wrote: "Just once I'd like to hear someone who has been discriminated against in Japan say, 'Now I know what it is like to be an African, Iranian or Muslim in the U.S."

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

Something valuable to take away

I appreciate Chavez's article very much, as my hardships of being a foreigner in Japan were hardships I had never experienced in my home country, which then allowed me to put myself in the shoes of minorities elsewhere.

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

Encounters of the foreign kind

Chavez's article left me with mixed feelings. Living in foreign countries, everybody will have certainly felt that he or she is supposed to be discriminated against to some extent, but according to Chavez and the opinions of my foreign friends, they tend to feel this way more often in Japan than in other...

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

Power to discriminate as a group

Sorry, it's a failure of Western thought to assume that absolute morality is possible or even desirable.

Reader Mail

Aug 28, 2013

Minority experience understood

Regarding Amy Chavez's Aug. 16 column titled "What being a minority allows us to see": Actually the fear and hurt I felt while dealing with certain bureaucratic nonsense in Japan allowed me to understand a small piece of the American minority experience.

COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY

Aug 26, 2013

Of nuclear village idiots and radiation scare-mongerers: letters

Nab Tepco execs, take over the clean-up

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO

Aug 26, 2013

Denials of defoliant at former U.S. base site in Okinawa fly in the face of science

The inescapable fact is that the U.S. military, on Kadena Air Base, disposed of materials in drums containing 2,4,5-T , a wartime defoliant, and TCDD, the most toxic component of the dioxin family, known to be associated with the manufacture of such herbicides.

Reader Mail

Aug 24, 2013

Respect life at the seashore

If you have been at the beach during these hot weeks, you have surely noticed that there are less and less fish in our seas.

Reader Mail

Aug 24, 2013

Giving pet adoption a chance

The Aug. 18 editorial "Too many abandoned animals" caught my attention because it refers to the Feb. 19 article "Millions of dogs, cats coddled, 200,000 gassed each year in pet-mad Japan."

Reader Mail

Aug 21, 2013

Reasons for opposing whaling

It is expected that before the end of this year the International Court of Justice will hand down a decision with regard to Japanese whaling in the Arctic Ocean. Of course, we will have to accept whatever decision the judges may reach, but I hope that decision will not be influenced by feelings rather...

Reader Mail

Aug 21, 2013

What's important to the elite?

As William Pesek makes very clear in his Aug. 14/15 article "Fukushima replaces economy as Abe's legacy issue," it is truly mind-boggling that Japan's most senior leaders don't seem to be able to acknowledge the worst crisis in their nation's history since the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima.

Reader Mail

Aug 21, 2013

Unbelievable front-page choice

The Aug. 18 front-page Kyodo article "Anti-Japan protests mark anniversary" was ridiculous. I would like an explanation, and I'm sure many others would, too. This was not news. It simply reminded people that protests in China occurred one year ago. And, unbelievably, above the article, there was a photo...

Reader Mail

Aug 21, 2013

Common perception on history

These days Tokyo's views and attitudes toward the aggression committed by Japanese forces during World War II are much talked about not only in neighboring countries but also among common Japanese. Lately I had the opportunity to talk about our former history classes in school with friends from different...

Reader Mail

Aug 21, 2013

Loath to call a crime a crime?

I was greatly disappointed by the Aug. 18 editorial "Spare the rod at school." Despite the details on the use of corporal/physical punishment in Japanese schools, the editorial board's opinion on solving this serious problem and its apparent belief that the word "punishment" is inappropriate and that...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

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