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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Aug 21, 2013
Legacy of Christian humanism
It is difficult to know what precisely Jim Makin is getting at in his Aug. 15 letter, "Common Western fetishism."
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 19, 2013
Abe and his ministers give anti-foreigner rallies tacit green light
To the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:
Reader Mail
Aug 17, 2013
Bigger picture of the Japanese
The Aug. 13 Community page article, "Ainu fight for return of plundered ancestral remains," interested me very much. When Japan basked in the world's attention because of its strong economic growth, it would often be described as a "homogenous" society, a result of the Japanese being composed of a single...
Reader Mail
Aug 17, 2013
A distraction from a tragedy
In his Aug. 11 Big In Japan column, "'Haiku killings' recall infamous horror story," Mark Schreiber does a great job of summarizing the recent beating and arson deaths in the mountain hamlet of Mitake, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Given my plodding translation skills, it certainly would have taken me a long...
Reader Mail
Aug 17, 2013
Clean up Fukushima or else
Two months since The Japan Times' June 11 editorial "Cease promoting nuclear power," things seem to have gotten alarmingly worse. The Japanese and the world community should come to terms with the hard reality that this island nation is the only one in human history to have suffered three nuclear disasters....
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Snowden affair challenges Putin
Regarding the Aug. 6 article by Lilia Shevtsova from Moscow titled "Putin may be the only winner in Snowden affair": I don't think so. Although the article describes the problem of balancing security and liberty, I find the affair to be the result of low-level trickery by Russian President Vladimir Putin....
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Common Western fetishism
Regarding the Aug. 2 article "Myanmar monasteries offer boot camp to calm spirits of frazzled souls": What we seem to be getting here is a case of the grass-is-greener fetishism all too common with Westerners who advocate Buddhism and other Asian religions.
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Hindrance to economic growth
Robert Eldridge's letter, "Real contribution of U.S. bases," poses the question of how Okinawa could ever break away from the lackadaisical economy based on the U.S. military presence.
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
One master as bad as another
In the Aug. 5 Hotline to Nagatacho article, "For the sake of Japan's future, stop glorifying past crimes at Yasukuni," J.F. Van Wagtendonk applauds the yearly remembrance ceremony of the Dutch while condemning visitations by Japanese politicians to Yasukuni Shrine, which, he reminds us, houses the spirits...
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Japan's assertiveness welcomed
Regarding Paul Gaysford's Aug. 8 letter, "Time for collective self-defense": China's aggressive posture is a cause of fear among a number of countries in Asia, and it is the reason that Japan wants to change Article 9 of its U.S.-imposed Constitution so that a collective defense of Asia can be established....
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Cultural autonomy for Okinawa
In his Aug. 10/11 letter, "Real contribution of U.S. bases," Robert Eldridge claims that the U.S. military's presence is much larger than the "official" 4 to 5 percent of Okinawan gross domestic income. He does not provide any statistics or basis for that assertion, but claims that his estimates show...
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Remembering the end of the war
We hear today that the majority of Japan's population doesn't know about the Pacific War firsthand. I belong to the minority that does know, as I heard the end of the war announced on the radio on Aug. 15 (1945) when I was a first grader in a small village of Nagano Prefecture. We had been evacuated...
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2013
Can't wait for lab-grown meat
Taste-testers in London recently sampled the world's first laboratory-grown hamburger and proclaimed it a virtual success. The Dutch scientist who created the burger predicts that in vitro meat could be commercially available in as little as 10 years. Although I don't eat meat — and I don't miss it...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 12, 2013
Radiation fears forced me to postpone Japan visit by U.S. students
Dear Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura,
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013
Real contribution of U.S. bases
There are many problems with Yoshio Shimoji's Aug. 1 letter, "Don't cry for Okinawa's economy." Suffice it to say that the figures that Shimoji cites from "an Okinawa Prefectural Government document" grossly underestimate the economic contribution of the U.S. military bases. Indeed, based on my preliminary...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013
A suspicious display of beauty
The photo accompanying the Aug. 6 article by The Washington Post, titled "Opening of Iwaki beaches offer semblance of normalcy," belies any notion of a typical summer day at Nakoso Beach. The two lovely young ladies look as though they're having a lovely afternoon, but in the background the beach looks...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013
Policy at odds with its purpose
Chris Clancy's Aug. 1 letter, "Language policy hurts children," makes for an interesting debate as a followup to the July 14 editorial "More people studying Japanese." I can understand that children must be the ones who are affected the most.
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013
No official religion in Thailand
I wish to set the record straight on some inaccuracies in Pavin Chachavalpongpun's July 24/25 article, "Southern Thai separatists touch trust milestone." The writer cites the supposed rise of Buddhist chauvism as one of the reasons for the rekindled conflict in the Southern Border Provinces (SBPs) of...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013
Avoiding the 'solitary death'
Reading Amy Chavez's Aug. 3 article, "The yellow flag outside the door — life or death" was instructive and impressive. In bigger cities of Japan, what they call "solitary death" has become a serious social problem because of the graying of society, the trend toward the nuclear family and people's...
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2013
Women leaders in the church
Regarding Peter McDonough's Aug. 4/5 article, "The real mission for Pope Francis": While McDonough seems to want a politically correct Catholic Church, I prefer a church that is doctrinally, morally and Biblically correct. Reforms are fine provided that they never breach that wall.
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

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Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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