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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013
The 'blackface' political shtick
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso's recent suggestion that Japan's politicians take a play from the National Socialist German Workers' Party and quietly try to slip constitutional revisions under the public radar have sparked a storm of international indignation.
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013
Another view of China's strategy
In yet another of his denunciations of alleged Chinese territorial greed, Brahma Chellaney, in his July 26 article, "China's salami-slice strategy, "includes Chinese incursions across the claimed Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh portion of the Sino-Indian frontier.
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013
Keeping dolphins and whales
Regarding Rob Gilhooly's July 26 article, "Japan bucks trend: Captive dolphin biz big": I cannot agree with the opinion of Sakae Hemmi of the Elsa Nature Conservancy that the reduction of dolphins in captivity is the international trend. This trend is a current fashion of Western culture only. We must...
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013
Current behavior is the problem
In his Aug. 1 letter, "Current behavior is what counts," Peter Parisi says that "Japan has made more than adequate amends for its behavior." This is true to the extent — beginning with the late Emperor Hirohito and followed by successive prime ministers, notably Kiichi Miyazawa, and Tomiichi Murayama...
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013
Time for collective self-defense
Hisahiko Okazaki's well-reasoned July 30 article "Japan could soften U.S. cuts" should stimulate discussion on the rights or wrongs of amending Article 9 of Japan's Constitution.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 5, 2013
For the sake of Japan's future, stop glorifying past crimes at Yasukuni
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it hurts the victims of the Imperial Japanese military's war of terror that ministers of your government and members of parliament continue to visit Yasukuni Shrine.
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
Conservative sense toward eels
The July 24 editorial "The danger zone for eels" reminds me that nowadays a lot of Japanese are making a great effort to find a substitute for eels, which have become expensive and beyond the reach of common citizens. According to a TV report, conger, catfish, pork or eggplant is used as a substitute...
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
Language policy hurts children
Hiroshi Noro hits the proverbial nail on the head by pointing out in his July 18 letter, "Battling the language in Japan," that people at present are studying Japanese harder than ever right here in Japan.
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
A resurrection with messy results
An Observer article published in The Japan Times on July 20 (titled "The quest is to clone a mammoth: The question is, should scientists do it?") raises a passel of strong objections to the exciting idea of cloning a mammoth. Some scientists question the ethics of devoting so much time and money to an...
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
Don't cry for Okinawa's economy
Regarding the July 11 article "Okinawans explore secession option": Many people, especially among U.S. service members, like to speculate what would happen to Okinawa's economy if the United States withdrew its troops from the island. Even Condoleezza Rice, the former U.S. secretary of state, did so...
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
Current behavior is what counts
In Jun Hongo's July 25 article "Leave Constitution alone," anime master Hayao Miyazaki is right about one thing: There is no question that Japan committed atrocities during World War II.
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
Protection of our food culture
Regarding the July 26 editorial "TPP-ready fishing industry?": If Japan participates in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, many agricultural foods will come from America, New Zealand, Asia and elsewhere. Japanese farmers are concerned that they can't win in low-price competition and that demand for domestic-grown...
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2013
Preventing another caste system
Extraordinary, insightful and humane: These are the words that came to my mind upon reading Kevin Rafferty's July 24 article, "Obama's blunder with Bangladesh."
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
Letting the younger crowd vote
Regarding the July 22 front-page article "Ruling bloc takes control of Upper House": It is said that the votes this time came primarily from the younger crowd. It is also true that the victorious Liberal Democratic Party's inflationary policies benefit Japan's younger generation especially, paving the...
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
Nuclear safety example expected
I refer to The Japan Times' July 2 article "Nuclear safety rules put onus on utilities." While the Nuclear Regulation Authority has done well introducing more stringent requirements to ensure the safety of the nuclear power stations in Japan, on the basis of the Fukushima experience, the new rules seem...
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
Philosophy for social progress
Dipak Basu has been taken to task before by readers other than myself for playing fast and loose with the facts. In his Sept. 18 letter, "Western work ethic is wanting," he's at it again with his mischaracterization of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill as philosophers of selfish, greedy capitalism....
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
When will 'experts' get serious?
Regarding the July 23 front-page AFP-JIJI article "Tepco now admits radioactive water entering the sea at Fukushima": What is it about Japan's nuclear village and its continued defiance, lies and arrogant denial in the face of mounting radioactive contamination and the threat of crippling illness or...
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
A case of ageist chauvinism
In his July 21 letter, "The more inspiring dystopia," Robert McKinney can't admit that narratives from a game controller may equal or even surpass those of paperback novels.
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
Excellent animated story line
Regarding Mark Schilling's July 18 review of the animation film, "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)": It's an excellent movie, although I felt the end was slightly abrupt and hurried. It provides a sweeping view of history leading up to the Second World War.
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013
Results disappoint an old-timer
When I saw the election results on TV last week, I was disappointed and sad because a Liberal Democratic Party candidate from Fukushima Prefecture had been elected to the Upper House.
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

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