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June 07, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013
Funny piece about 'bosozoku'
The April 18 article "Documentary chronicles disappearing world of 'bosozoku (biker gangs)" was funny! Kazuhiro Hazuki, a former gang leader, is quoted as saying he couldn't stomach the violence of being a yakuza loan shark, so he became a kick boxer.
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013
Challenge of modern retirement
I have the opportunity to hold seminars for those who have worked in traditional Japanese companies, to give them hints on living a happy life after they retire. In former times, seminar participants tended to be eager to know how far their pension benefits would go and how to practice a thrifty lifestyle...
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013
Try adding specialist teachers
The April 23 article "LDP looks to double JET Program's ranks in three years" leaves this reader feeling it's time to reassess English education in Japan. Increasing the number of Japan Exchange and Teaching participants twofold is not the answer.
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013
Survival as a nation ruled by law
Regarding the April 18 article "Pulvers wins Noma translation prize": I can't thank former Japan Times columnist Roger Pulvers enough for his great contribution of introducing Japan's literary legacy to the world. That said, with all due respect, my thoughts are a little different from his March 31 article,...
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013
Ways to check violence in U.S.
Regarding The Washington Post editorial that was printed in The Japan Times on April 20 under the headline "U.S. Senate misfires": In spite of recent mass shootings, a gun background-check proposal failed to win a sufficient majority in the U.S. Senate, apparently because of pressure from the National...
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013
Save us from business strategies
Regarding the April 21 letter "A situation similar to Britain's": It's true that Japanese people like "reform." Since the end of the Cold War, many political leaders have tried to reform society. But it seems they've had no remarkable success so far.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
Fewer babies no cause for panic
Regarding the April 17 editorial, "Japan's depopulation time bomb": So much fuss has been made in the news media about the declining birthrate that it would be easy to mistake it for an impending disaster. Despite the pressure on an overburdened pension system, perhaps Japan should be looking further...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
Climate's effect on the web of life
Regarding the April 18 Kyodo article "Chilling: Arctic explorer Yamazaki sees climate change impact up close": While a scientist can observe its impact very clearly in the Arctic, global climate change is no longer something only specialists can detect, but a phenomenon that affects us all, regardless...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
War industry still sustains U.S.
I agree with Gregory Clark's April 18 article, "Blame Western 'demonists' for Pyongyang's belligerence." The U.S. economy depends on its war industry. The U.S. bluff with its theory of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was seen by all. In Afghanistan, it is leaving without achieving much. So it searches...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
Yasukuni serves useful purpose
Regarding the April 22 Kyodo article "(State minister Keiji) Furuya shows up at war-linked Yasukuni": I am a U.S. citizen with Japanese heritage on my mother's side. I was born in Japan only 16 years after the end of the great war. Although I do not have any real memories about what life was like at...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
Christian witness to abolitionism
Vimal Malik's hyper-literal April 18 response, "Christians' false claims of credit," to my April 14 letter ignores history: Abolitionism was almost entirely driven by Christian witness.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
Polarization in modern politics
I found the April 18 Bloomberg article by Cass R. Sunstein, "Why well-informed people are also close-minded," very interesting. The problem here is figuring out what phrases like "well-informed" and "political knowledge" actually mean.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013
Rightward-bound regardless
Regarding Paul Gaysford's April 14 eulogy of Margaret Thatcher, 'Iron Lady' is worth emulating": I don't believe history is made only by leaders. With or without Thatcher, Britain would have swung right. It was already happening with James Callaghan (prime minister 1976-79), who could be described as...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
Appreciation for the Oki Islands
I live in the Oki Islands and work for the Nishinoshima Tourism Association. I discovered the April 14 Timeout travel article "The Oki Islands: where time seems to have stood still."
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
Kudos to Japan and Taiwan
Regarding the April 14 editorial "A positive step in Senkaku dispute": Disputes over sovereignty are never easy to solve. Therefore, the agreement signed between Japan and Taiwan the week before last over fishing rights in the disputed sea near the Senkaku Islands (allowing Taiwanese trawlers to operate...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
A situation similar to Britain's
The April 12 editorial "A decisive but divisive leader" makes me contemplate a lot of things. For better or worse, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher played an active role in ending the Cold War and was one of the tough advocates of neoliberalism. A lot of people, though, believe this led...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
Universities far from flourishing
Regarding the April 12 Kyodo brief "Japanese universities best in Asia: It would be hasty to jump to the conclusion that Japan's universities are flourishing despite the data released by the London-based Times Higher Education magazine. A reading of the original magazine article gives a little better...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
Consequences of health planning
Anyone who has been around someone who is trying to quit smoking knows the common effects: increased appetite and irritability. Therefore, the headline of the April 17 AFP-JIJI article "Australians smoking, drinking less, but getting heftier, more anxious" should come as a surprise to no one.
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
U.S. doesn't deserve high score
I am baffled by the April 12 Kyodo article "Hiroshima gives disarmament grades," which reports that Hiroshima prefectural authorities have judged the United States second best in reducing its nuclear arsenal and working for nuclear weapons nonproliferation. The U.S. is spending an additional $185 billion...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013
Thatcher's dealings with Iraq
In his April 14 paean to Baroness Thatcher, "'Iron Lady' is worth emulating," Paul Gaysford advises Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to read her memoirs, "The Downing Street Years," to fully grasp her own brand of conservatism.
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.
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.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
Trump and Musk trade barbs on social media as alliance crumbles
The trouble between U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk started brewing days ago, when Musk denounced Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
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.
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.
Six months into 2025, J-pop is having a full-on identity crisis (and a great time)
The year so far is only proving that Mrs. Green Apple is the biggest band in Japan. Their success also seems to be hinting at a change in the musical landscape more broadly.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.

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

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