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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Dec 14, 2013
One year overseas already required
Regarding the Dec. 8 editorial "English teachers to study abroad": I get the feeling that at least one year of study in an English-speaking country is already required for English teachers, even at the senior high school level. I know a man with a master's degree whose application for a position at a...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
Let's find out how smart Japan is
I would like to raise my concerns about Mark Schreiber's Dec. 8 article, "Impending Japan-China war has the makings of a [Tom] Clancy classic."
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
'Arrogant' China as a role model
The front-page Nov. 26 article "Tokyo cries foul over defense zone" quotes China as saying that aircraft entering its recently established air defense identification zone (ADIZ) must obey its rules of identification and so forth, or face "defensive emergency measures."
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
An insane offset to a greedy tax
Regarding the Dec. 5 Kyodo article "Stimulus package to ease tax hike OK'd": If there was ever a more blatant plan to use power to embezzle money from the public purse than Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's insulting intention to ease the effects of taxation by proffering a stimulus package, then I have yet...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
Surely the voters can do better
Regarding the Dec. 2 article "Secrecy law protests 'act of terrorism': LDP secretary-general": Day by day it is becoming clearer that the leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party have not really changed, as their true colors shine through with increasing radiance. Yet, once again a high-ranking member...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
No nation in Asia is an 'island'
I read Takeru Toki's Dec. 5 letter, "Leaders provoking antagonism," with deep interest, and again it made me think very seriously about Japan's relationship with China and South Korea.
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
Labeling of wartime laborers
In Roger Pulvers' Dec. 1 letter, "POWs on the Burma-Thai Railway" (a reply to my Nov. 16 letter, "Who worked the Burma-Thai rails?"), Pulvers apparently reasserts the claim from Richard Flanagan's book "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" that the Asian laborers who toiled on the Burma-Thailand line were...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2013
A better use of students' time
Regarding the Dec. 3 Kyodo-Jiji article "University students start job hunt": I have to admit that I do not get the annual university student job hunt, which started this month.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
Maritime rifts could cost China
Regarding Kevin Rafferty's Nov. 29 article, "Can Xi's reforms succeed?": Much has written about Chinese President Xi Jinping's determination to push national reforms, but he has yet to overcome three institutional obstacles.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
The reality of professors' wages
Regarding Takamitsu Sawa's Nov. 27 article, "Place university academics on an annual wage system": Professor Sawa doesn't seem to see the reality of the Japanese university system.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
Risk of losing public's 'tolerance'
Regarding the Dec. 2 article "Secrecy law protests 'act of terrorism': LDP secretary general": Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba's comments that street protesters voicing opposition to the new state secrets bill by shouting it in public demonstrations are doing something "not...
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
POWs on the Burma-Thai railway
Regarding Paul de Vries' Nov. 16 letter, "Who worked the Burma-Thai rails?" (a response to my book review of Richard Flanagan's "The Narrow Road to the Deep North"): The non-European forced laborers on the Burma-Thailand railway were prisoners of war. Noncombatants who are captured and compelled to do...
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
Leaders provoking antagonism
The relationship between China, South Korea and Japan seems to be at rock bottom. What lies behind this sad situation? Japan's aggressive conduct in the first half of the 20th century is among the factors, but why the confrontation now?
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
Get young people into forestry
C.W. Nicol's Nov. 3 article, "Hybrid furniture and the working horse" — about what could be done to turn Japan's neglected forests into useful, productive, beautiful areas — is inspiring.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2013
Prenatal test leads to abortions
It is said that since the introduction of a prenatal test, pregnant women who are anxious about the possibility of having a challenged baby have flocked to take the test. According to a newspaper report, more than 30 pregnant women who tested positive have aborted their babies. Although their decision...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 4, 2013
Japan should shun treaty that will shield nuclear tech suppliers
Japan is preparing to sign a treaty known as the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, which assigns accident liability entirely to plant operators rather than equipment and technology vendors.
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013
Hopefully sensible heads prevail
With regard to the Nov. 25 article titled: "ADIZs common but China's is worrisome," I'd like to add my two pence worth.
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013
Beware of dangerous ethics
Two recent articles in The Japan Times reported on the government's decision to teach ethics in elementary and junior high schools, and to revise textbooks in order to "instill a sense of national pride in students."
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013
Germans back legal prostitution
Regarding the Nov. 23 article, "Germany is having second thoughts on legalized prostitution": I'm a German researcher and I was a co-organizer of the protest against Alice Schwarzer's recent event in Berlin.
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013
Time to use a better weapon
The Nov. 20 editorial "Welcoming Ambassador Kennedy" stated that Caroline Kennedy "... was shaken by her Hiroshima visit. We hope she will make a positive contribution to global efforts to abolish nuclear weapons."
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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Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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