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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Mar 12, 2014
Hong Kong likes Japanese tourists
I would like to mention something that the Hong Kong media never puts out when it comes to problems regarding Japan: Youths such as myself have no problem with Japan.
Reader Mail
Mar 12, 2014
Dissenting scholars represented
Regarding Charles Muller's March 6 letter, "Dissenting review was welcome" (in which Muller welcomes reviewer Anthony Fensom's criticism of "Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan," a volume that I edited): Muller misunderstands my earlier objection, which focuses solely on Fensom's suggestion that Japanese...
Reader Mail
Mar 12, 2014
Great divide over animal rights
When I read Philip Brasor's Feb. 23 Media Mix article, "Japan takes baby steps toward a proper debate about animal rights," I again felt regret that the gap of understanding between the two sides doesn't seem to be getting any narrower. I agree that the most important aim of the animal welfare movement...
Reader Mail
Mar 12, 2014
West showed hypocrisy to Russia
Regarding the March 8 AFP-JIJI article "Russia stands firm on Crimea standoff despite sanctions": The illegal breakup of Yugoslavia occurred under similar conditions. Yugoslavia's constitution, [for which revisions] had to have majority approval by all six of Yugoslavia's republics, was disrespected....
LIFE / Japan Showcase / AOMORI PREFECTURE
Mar 12, 2014
Freshly grilled squid on a winter train: Taking a ride on the Tsugaru Railroad
A continuous bluster rips snow from the white ground all around us and keeps sending it flying into our faces, as we stand on the platform of Kanagi Station in Goshogawara. It is frigid weather and I am relieved when I finally spot our train emerge out of the bleached hazy distance. Two identical orange...
WORLD / Politics
Mar 10, 2014
Khodorkovsky seeks a 'different Russia'
On March 9, Russia's most famous political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky visited Kiev's Maidan Square Sunday and stirred emotions on both sides of social media. (tweets translated and curated by Ekaterina Belskaya).
Reader Mail
Mar 8, 2014
Arguing point on 'massacre' hurts Japan
Recently no day seems to pass without our having to put up with double talk from a Japanese leader or a director of NHK (the national broadcaster). It wasn't even a year ago that then Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose made a spectacle of himself because of his comments in a New York Times article [suggesting that...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 8, 2014
Disaster survival tactics and a 3/11 baby; CM of the Week: Daiwa House
This week marks the third anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. On a practical level, TBS's two-hour special, "Shinsai chokugo: Seishi wo wakeru 72-jikan ni subeki koto" ("Right After the Disaster: 72 Hours Means the Difference Between Life and Death"; Mon., 9 p.m.), offers advice on how to...
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014
U.S. actions much less egregious
Regarding Yoshio Shimoji's Feb. 27 letter, "Just say the U.S. wasn't innocent": Shimoji's view that the United States should admit it "committed atrocities comparable to, or even exceeding" those committed by the Japanese misses an extremely significant point: that the Americans bombed Japanese cities...
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014
Japan wouldn't even save its own
I truly wonder at the logic in Yoshio Shimoji's Feb. 27 letter, which states in effect that the United States should admit to committing atrocities comparable to or worse than those by Japan.
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014
The crimes of an imperial power
It is clear from the front-page Feb. 25 article "Xi seeks WWII focus on German trip" that China has adopted a policy of drawing comparisons between German and Japanese contrition for World War II. This comparison is commonly made, but is characteristic of those with a less than complete understanding...
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014
Provocation of former leaders
What more compelling condemnation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's craziness can there be than the unprecedented, bipartisan outcries of three former prime ministers (Morihiro Hosokawa, Junichiro Koizumi and now Tomiichi Murayama). You would be hard pressed to find as serious an example of multidirectional...
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014
Dissenting review was welcome
In his March 2 letter, "Unfair grading of social insight," Jeff Kingston takes umbrage at a critical review of a book he edited ("Critical Issues in Contemporay Japan"), saying the reviewer "unfairly impugns [his] colleagues professional insights."
Reader Mail
Mar 5, 2014
Dog- and cat-lovers get the picture
Judit Kawaguchi's Feb. 28 article, "What we can learn from cats and dogs" (about her visit with Tokyo veterinarian Chikao Muratani), made me think of our great responsibility to co-exist with all life. The last paragraph — "Many dying cats and dogs wait for the people they love to return before they...
Reader Mail
Mar 1, 2014
Skating union should weigh effect on fans
When photos surfaced of a Russian figure skating judge — married to the general director of the Russian Skating Federation — hugging her countrywoman Adelina Sotnikova minutes after the latter won the Olympic gold medal at Sochi, the International Skating Union issued a statement that it "is confident...
Reader Mail
Mar 1, 2014
Unfair grading of social insight
Anthony Fensom's Feb. 23 review ("Japanese social issues await 'new dawn'") of the volume "Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan," which I edited, is disturbing as he unfairly impugns my colleagues' professional integrity and insights. Fensom writes: "International affairs is one section where the work...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 1, 2014
Women doctors profiled and advances in medical tech revealed; CM of the week: Nissan
It's a big week for physicians on television. First there's the two-hour special "Uman Dokuta, Mitchaku" ("Close Coverage of Women Doctors"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 7:54 p.m.), which reports on the activities of various female doctors working throughout the country. Japan has 300,000 doctors, 20 percent of which...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014
Just say the U.S. wasn't innocent
In his Feb. 23 letter, "Don't wait up for a U.S. apology," Paul Gaysford criticizes Jeff Kingston's Feb. 16 Counterpoint article, "Tokyo firebombings and unfinished U.S. business," for calling on the United States to apologize for its indiscriminate air raids during World War II, including the Tokyo...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014
To err is to trust in nuclear safety
Regarding the Feb. 23 Kyodo article, "Human error, not equipment, may have caused water leak: Tepco": It seems irrelevant to say that human error was [responsible for the roughly 100 tons of highly radioactive water released from a storage tank early last week at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014
'Adviser' digging a hole for Abe
Regarding the Feb. 20 article "Abe aide pillories U.S. on YouTube": Longtime ally to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Seiichi Eto, was wrong to take the U.S. government, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, to task for not supporting the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in December. Given that America...
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

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy
Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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