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June 08, 2025
 

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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 1, 2015
Most read Community stories of 2014
Welfare for foreigners, bicultural names, pick-up artists . . . these were just a few of the topics explored in the most read Community stories of 2014.
Japan Times
SPORTS
Jan 1, 2015
Most read Sports stories of 2014
With the exception of shooting star on the tennis court and a questionable ref at the World Cup, much of the big sports news stories  for Japan happened on the ice year.
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2014
Shameful decision to close parks
Regarding staff writer Tomohiro Osaki's Dec. 29 article, "Shibuya shuts parks, thwarting year-end soup distribution for homeless": I would like to thank The Japan Times for running this story. Shibuya Ward's closure of the three parks during the new year holidays will prevent supporters of the homeless...
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2014
The shocking reality of slavery
I was shocked to read the Dec. 21 editorial "End the global slavery scourge," which includes the revelation that there are 35.8 million people enslaved across the world in new, horrifying ways.
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2014
Tourists want to go off the track
Regarding the Dec. 23 Jiji article "Tourists flocking to Japan but few venture off the beaten track": I have escorted 10 tours to Japan from Australia over the last few years and we certainly have ventured off the beaten track, visiting such places as Cape Soya and Cape Nosappu in Hokkaido, Fukaura,...
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2014
Double punishment is not right
The Dec. 14 AP sports article "Peterson loses appeal" describes the NFL's decision to suspend Adrian Peterson until next spring as punishment for his disciplinary switching of his son, which was deemed abusive.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 30, 2014
China banking on projects
The key factor that has led Beijing to create the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is the belief that creating new demand abroad is the only way to avoid a simultaneous collapse of local governments and state corporations.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2014
Christmas in Japan 2014
At first glance, the Christmas trees and illuminations might look familiar, but a few holiday traditions are undoubtably unique to Japan. Here are a few examples from social media.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Dec 25, 2014
Japan Times Advisory Board serves up brickbats, praise for newspaper's coverage
Ichiro Fujisaki, who formerly served as Japan's ambassador to the United States, praised the paper for its "readability." He said he senses that the editors try to choose phrases and words that are easy for Japanese readers to understand.
Reader Mail
Dec 24, 2014
The Christian message in Japan
Michael Hoffman's The Living Past article on Dec. 20, titled "Christian missionaries find Japan a tough nut to crack," gives a well-researched history of Japan's first encounter with the Christian faith 400 to 500 years ago, but says little of what has been happening since then. There is much to be encouraged...
Reader Mail
Dec 24, 2014
Priorities of dignity and security
Regarding the Dec. 10 editorial, "A test for Taiwan and China": I would like to bring the following points to the attention of The Japan Times readers. The "nine-in-one" nationwide local government election of the Republic of China on Taiwan on Nov. 29 marks the largest local government electoral event...
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 22, 2014
Real costs of nuclear power
Until now, Japan's power industry and the government have emphasized the lower energy costs from having nuclear plants generate the nation's electricity. And until now, consumers and business circles have bought into that myth.
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2014
Opposition's pain, LDP's gain
Regarding the Dec. 14 article "Abe tightens grip on power as ruling coalition wins 325 seats in Lower House election": Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the main and possibly only beneficiary of this exercise in expensive futility. He can spend Christmas and New Year's knowing that he has already spent his...
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2014
Nuclear arms threat will persist
Regarding Ramesh Thakur's Dec. 16 article, "Reducing the global threat posed by nuclear weapons": Uh, good luck with that! The United States and the Soviet Union came very close to nuclear conflict a number of times during the dark days of the Cold War, either because of a misunderstanding in communications...
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2014
Despicable attack on violinist
As a musician and composer, I was greatly saddened to read in The Japan Times-incorporated International New York Times the Dec. 9 article "Fraud accusations stir violin world," describing an American violinist's despicable attack on the late Shinichi Suzuki, Japan's highly respected founder of the world-famous...
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2014
Move toward a sustainable life
Consideration of Michael J. Boskin's Nov. 22 article, "The next trade breakthroughs," encourages my opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Keizai, the Japanese counterpart for the word "economy," originally meant managing the state and supporting people's lives — not making money.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 15, 2014
Lower House election results
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, its junior partner in the ruling coalition, win the Lower House election by a landslide Sunday, claiming 325 seats.
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2014
Population worry is short-term one
Shinji Fukukawa offers many valid comments and criticisms in his Dec. 9 article, "Post-Abenomics" reforms," but of his six suggestions for reform, the first one — that Japan must repopulate — is a red herring.
Reader Mail
Dec 10, 2014
Advances without atonement
I read with interest William Pesek's Dec. 6 opinion piece, "Japan's media needs to act as a watchdog, not a lapdog."
Reader Mail
Dec 10, 2014
Distorted claims against China
Only the title of Brahma Chellaney's Dec. 2 article, "Tibet core to Sino-Indian ties," gets it right. Elsewhere, Chellaney lets his usual anti-China biases take over.
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

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