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Reader Mail

Feb 26, 2014

Cause of Chinese, Korean anger

I quite agree with Michael Hoffman's The Living Past article on Feb. 16, "Once upon a time, China anointed a 'King of Japan.' " Historically speaking, China believes it is the great master, Korea is a first disciple and Japan is a second disciple. Actually, before the Meiji Era (1868-1911), culture or...

COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Feb 25, 2014

Will Constitution survive Abe?

Conservative hawks who are close allies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe express irritation over the failure of the move to amend the Constitution to have gained as much momentum as they had hoped.

WORLD

Feb 25, 2014

The pride and misery of the Sochi Olympics . . . as seen on social media

Reader Mail

Feb 22, 2014

Let foreigners help to shape Japan's future

Regarding the Feb. 16 editorial "More foreigners working in Japan": It is true that foreign workers bring their languages and cultures with them into Japan. They provide a valuable chance for us to learn new languages and cultures as well as how to live together with people from totally different backgrounds....

Reader Mail

Feb 22, 2014

Don't wait up for a U.S. apology

I am an admirer in general of Jeff Kingston's articles, but I can't believe his Feb. 16 Counterpoint article, "Tokyo firebombings and unfinished U.S. business." Is he so naive as to think that the United States should apologize not only for the Tokyo firebombings of March 9-10, 1945, but also for the...

Reader Mail

Feb 22, 2014

Pioneer on course to foil stereotype

Rowan Hooper makes a good observation in his Feb. 16 article "Stem-cell leap defied Japanese norms." But I think this is also a cultural issue in which Haruko Obokata herself is given more importance than what she does.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Feb 22, 2014

Father documents autistic son's schooling; Nikkatsu founder's story dramatized; CM of the week: Suntory

Until about 15 years ago, many children with developmental disabilities did not receive special attention, but now some 116,000 special education students throughout Japan attend classes in regular elementary schools, and the number is increasing every year.

Japan Times

WORLD

Feb 20, 2014

Pussy Riot in Sochi . . . as seen on social media

Reader Mail

Feb 19, 2014

Senkakus as a win-win venture

In May 1969, a United Nations report suggested that there might be oil deposits in the region of the Senkaku Islands, known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and in Taiwan as the Diaoyutai Islands.

Reader Mail

Feb 19, 2014

Maizuru's 'Memory of the World'

On Feb. 16, I attended a symposium sponsored by Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, and held in Tokyo. Maizuru is a port city on the Sea of Japan. During the postwar period (1945-1958), about 660,000 Japanese were repatriated at Maizuru Port from overseas.

Reader Mail

Feb 19, 2014

Roll out carpet for foreign nurses

Regarding the Feb. 3 article titled "Give foreign nurses in Japan a boost by treating accord as long-term remedy for labor shortages": I am shocked again to realize how xenophobic the Japanese authorities are. It is evident that the nationwide nursing shortage is worsening, yet the central and local...

Reader Mail

Feb 19, 2014

Chapter on Japan and the world

I fully support the view of the Feb. 1 editorial "Reckless politicization of textbooks," as it made me ponder several things.

Reader Mail

Feb 19, 2014

Some lay judges just don't get it

For a long time, one criticism of Japan has been the paucity of broad and deep public discussion of its use of capital punishment, a lack of transparency in the process and the treatment of detained convicts in general. Successive governments have trotted out statistics declaring overwhelming public...

Japan Times

WORLD

Feb 18, 2014

U.N. investigators issue report on North Korea's systematic human rights abuses

North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and mass killings bordering on genocide, U.N. investigators said on Monday.

COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE

Feb 16, 2014

An endangered liberal voice

What has become of the Liberal Democratic Party's 'liberalism' since the Abe administration took the nation's helm? A lone survivor of that tradition weighs in on the future of 'Abenomics' and Japan itself.

Reader Mail

Feb 15, 2014

Dumb reason for embracing English class

Regarding Michael Hoffman's Feb. 2 article, "For Japan's foreign residents, the little things make such a big difference": The other day I saw a language-school ad showing an interracial wedding between a Japanese man and his blonde, blue-eyed bride, with a white male gesturing frustratedly in the background....

Reader Mail

Feb 15, 2014

In defense of our 'ocean elders'

Regarding the Feb. 2 editorial "Defend dolphins, not a 'tradition": Japanese society must join with the rest of the world in ending the exploitation and mistreatment of cetacean mammals — dolphins and whales. We now know they are advanced in intelligence, awareness and social organization. We should...

Reader Mail

Feb 15, 2014

Time for project on climate reality

Readers might find it puzzling that the subject of the Feb. 3 editorial, "Rising costs of climate change," was not front-page news. Increasingly extreme weather events brought about by man-made global warming should be a priority today precisely because it is the No. 1 threat to our future.

Japan Times

LIFE / Japan Showcase / GREAT TAMBA AREA

Feb 14, 2014

Ancient hilltop shrine, venison highlight trip to Kaibara

The path to the top of the hill in Kaibara town is shaded by maple trees, still fiery in their demise so late in the season. The smooth stone steps turn once, twice, before petering out just before a large torii gate. Beyond this wooden marker lies the Kaibara Hachimangu Shrine, the oldest shrine in...

Reader Mail

Feb 12, 2014

Creative tale of deductive thought

Regarding the Jan. 30 article by Mark Gottlieb, "The confounding case of Japan's creativity crisis": While the premise that describes "creativity" appears generally sound, Gottlieb's assertion that "At its heart, creativity is really nothing more than deductive reasoning" doesn't seem to hold up.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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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