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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2014
Hashimoto owes liberty to Allies
Regarding the June 17 article "Hashimoto says WWII Allies set up 'comfort stations' after soldiers committed D-Day rapes": How dare that buffoon Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto insult the Allied soldiers who fought at D-Day!
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2014
Sign of Egypt's new beginnings
Last July 17, The Japan Times published a balanced editorial, "When a coup is not a coup?," highlighting reasons behind Egypt's popular revolution on June 30, 2013, against the Muslim Brothers' radicalism and despotic attempts to send Egypt back to the Middle Ages. However, last week's editorial "Egypt's...
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2014
Many elderly up against the wall
These days the aging society is becoming a big problem in Japan. It is difficult for family members to care for elderly people by themselves, and family members need knowledge of nursing. Many elderly people and their families are suffering. A good way to improve the situation is for the government to...
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2014
Joint development of resources
Regarding the June 8 wire service article "Abe holds talks with Pope Francis": Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reported to have talked with Pope Francis about ways of promoting peace and stability in Asia. East Asia is riven with tensions over the large number of small islands claimed by China in the East...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2014
From pets to Pikachu, Japan shows its Samurai Blue colors
[View the story "Samurai Blue fever surges for Japan's first 2014 World Cup game" on Storify]
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2014
Did Edo ancestors have a better life?
"Boohoo, boohoo, life is such a bore!" It must be a living death to be chained to a corporate desk from morning until late evening, five or even six days a week.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 11, 2014
Plot your team's progress on our World Cup 2014 wall chart
Over the past month, Mark Buckton has been collecting the views of Japan-based representatives of the 32 nations taking part in the FIFA World Cup.
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2014
New paradigm for the Olympics
Regarding the June 2 Reuters article "Architect blasts new Tokyo Olympics stadium as 'a sin, a crime' ": The pleas by the Japan Sports Council and by architect Edward Suzuki do not really contain in my mind a reasonable and convincing critique of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics stadium as proposed by Zaha Hadid,...
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2014
EU pullout would lower wages
Regarding Barry A. Ward's June 4 letter, "Discontent among Europeans": Ward seems to have a hazy knowledge of history. If brutal dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini hadn't enjoyed popular support from an ill-informed electorate, they would never have come to power. Hitler was able to wreak...
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2014
National exam mugging season
The expression "what a bummer!" hit me the other day when I got ripped off for ¥11,700. Since I left school, I've been one of the knuckleheads unable to pass the 60-percent grade threshold, sitting every summer for the tour-interpreter test. The once-a-year fee has jumped about 40 percent from last...
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2014
Abductions by any other name
The June 9 Kyodo article "Japan sends list of 470 potential abductees to North Korea" made me think. No one can begin to criticize the Japanese authorities for continuing to take a firm stand on this issue in the face of continued stalling on the part of an evil and untrustworthy state such as North...
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2014
Outsider's remedy for Yasukuni
Occasionally an outsider might help resolve a contentious issue. As an American citizen with great respect for Japan, I would like to offer some thoughts about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit in December to Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to soldiers who died in service to Japan, and how Japan...
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 10, 2014
Abe treading on lions' tails
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tendency to stumble in building allied support whenever he makes an aggressive move appears most conspicious of late with his efforts to have Japan exercise its right to collective self-defense and to reform farm policy.
Reader Mail
Jun 7, 2014
Brazil big enough for the World Cup
After reading Chikako Nakayama's May 29 article, "World Cup without succor," I would like to make a few observations, as the writer failed to grasp two basic aspects of Brazil's current political and economic state.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 7, 2014
World Cup opponent economies; riding a robot horse; CM of the week: Kirin Beer
The FIFA World Cup is about to start, and the Japan national team will face the three teams in its group. Sports programs will analyze the team's chances against these rivals in athletic terms, but, as part of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun group, TV Tokyo will look at the matter from an economic angle.
Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2014
A coup from a different view
Regarding the May 29 AP article "Thai troops detain Cabinet minister who blasted coup": Over the past week I found myself in the midst of the second coup since I came to Thailand, and the news, as reported by the Western media, has appeared fundamentally flawed. I am hoping that the lack of understanding...
Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2014
Discontent among Europeans
The June 2 editorial, "Europe takes a beating," completely mischaracterizes UKIP (the UK Independence Party) by calling it "far right." Fascist, neo-fascist and Nazi parties are far right in their disregard of democratic procedures, public opinion and the wishes of electorates. Thus "far right" is far...
Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2014
Rightists controlled by the past
Recent articles about journalist Henry S. Stokes denying that the Nanjing "incident" was a massacre remind me of George Orwell's comment that "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."
Reader Mail
May 31, 2014
An urban gem that deserves reassessment
I don't know if any other Japan Times readers have recently been to the sides of the Kanda and Zenpukuji rivers below Omiya Hachiman Shrine, but it is quite shocking what civil engineers are doing to the environment in the middle of Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / NET NEWS WATCH
May 28, 2014
Are candid photos of the Imperial couple off limits?
A high school girl in Tochigi Prefecture uploaded to her Twitter account a photo of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who visited the prefecture on a personal trip, sparking debate on whether or not she should have done it.
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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after
Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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