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Reader Mail

Oct 19, 2013

Resilient myth robs sports of their merits

The Oct. 12 editorial "Preparing for the 2020 Olympics" shows how deeply into the popular imagination false thinking about organized sports has burrowed. It's dug in like a flea, and fleas are notoriously resilient.

Reader Mail

Oct 19, 2013

Arrests of soldiers would raise storm

Americans take their soldiers very seriously, and if it were found out that such primitive conditions were being imposed on U.S. soldiers, there would be an utter sh—storm — and not just from right-wing zealots.

Reader Mail

Oct 19, 2013

Japanese justice sure to surprise

Regarding the Oct. 13 editorial "Revising Status of Forces Agreement" and, specifically, the statement in the editorial that "A new agreement should oblige the U.S. to turn over suspects with the provision that they be accorded the same legal treatment in Japan as they would be given in the U.S." (the...

Reader Mail

Oct 19, 2013

Spirit of kanji is alive in Korea

Regarding the use of Chinese characters in Vietnam and Korea, Dipak Basu [in his Oct. 13 letter] is simply wrong.

Reader Mail

Oct 19, 2013

Liberal arts foster a lifelong quest

With regard to Dipak Basu's Oct. 13 letter, "Limited time to learn essentials," and to the recent debate on the letters page concerning the liberal arts and their link, if any, to "innovation": There is confusion as to what constitutes the liberal arts, as established at the universities of Cambridge,...

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Kanji delays students' objectives

Regarding Shinjiru Kanda's Oct. 10 letter, "Kanji requirement for daily life": Today kanji serves only a decorative purpose in the Japanese language and daily life. It is not essential for communication or written expression when hiragana plus some katakana can do what kanji does.

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Police must confront 'stalkers'

Regarding the Oct. 11 front-page article "Tougher stalking law failed to stir police": The death of a child may not be the police's fault, but there are serious issues with Japan's police force. Not accepting the victim's first report and suggesting that the victim take the matter to another police station...

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Forget about cellphone warnings

Regarding the Oct. 12 article "Police partially blame stalking slaying to cellphone mixup": What a headline! So, if only the Mitaka police had had Charles Thomas Ikenaga's telephone number [instead of his friend's], there never would have been a savage murder right in front of the victim's home.

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Let 'approval vote' end the vitriol

We can significantly reduce polarized politics in the United States by officially adding just two more words to ballot instructions. Instead of "Vote for one," our ballot instructions should read "Vote for one or more." Call it "approval voting." It would mean that:

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Vital role in curtailing whaling

Grant Piper's letter "Activists who act like terrorists" brings to mind a certain phrase attributed to former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. "

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Universities' problems unrelated

I still cannot agree with Dipak Basu's recent letters opining against continuance of the kanji system. Basu has argued about curriculums and programs at universities, and the problems that Japan's universities have been suffering from for a long time.

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Tough armchair conservationist

With his Oct. 10 missive, "Activists who act like terrorists," Grant Piper reveals himself to be a true hang 'em and flog 'em Tory. While he admits to caring "very much about environmental and wildlife conservation," he prefers, like most of us, to do his caring comfortably at home.

Reader Mail

Oct 16, 2013

Obama's 'dawdle' a wise move

In his Aug. 29 article, "Obama's great Asian dawdle," Brahma Chellaney gets it wrong on two major points.

Japan Times

WORLD / Politics

Oct 15, 2013

Senate leaders nearer deal on raising federal debt limit after flurry of talks

In a long-awaited breakthrough, Senate leaders close in on a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling and end a two-week-old government shutdown as Washington scrambled to avoid the nation's first default on its debt.

Reader Mail

Oct 12, 2013

Ospreys baited the government

As for the Sept. 30/Oct. 1 editorial, "Spreading worries about Osprey": Despite Okinawa's vehement opposition to the deployment of tilt-rotor Ospreys at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, it was reported that Tokyo was considering buying the aircraft for the Self-Defense Forces (Ryukyu Shimpo, Oct....

Reader Mail

Oct 12, 2013

Let robots replace Tepco workers

It seems that almost daily the amateurs at Tokyo Electric Power Co. plead that human error has caused some disruption in the cooling or radioactive water containment procedures at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Perhaps it is time for Tepco to start deploying robots to replace these workers.

Reader Mail

Oct 12, 2013

Bringing out Japan's hospitality

I am very glad to know that the word "hospitable (omotenashi)" is a very popular topic now in Japan because of television presenter Christel Takigawa's impressive speech last month to invite the Olympic Games to Tokyo in 2020.

Reader Mail

Oct 12, 2013

Veterans group sees last days

I have learned that the Japanese Disabled Veterans Association decided on Oct. 3 to disband because its members have aged. Few Japanese know that such an organization still exists in Japan, but it is something Japanese should remember.

Reader Mail

Oct 12, 2013

Limited time to learn essentials

Regarding Robert McKinney's Oct. 6 letter, "The kanji cultures pack a punch": The original debate was not about whether an "innovator" should be interested in literature or music in his spare time but about whether liberal arts courses in university programs for science, engineering and medicine can...

Reader Mail

Oct 12, 2013

Cigarettes belie health campaign

Regarding the Oct. 8 article "Japanese convenience store chain going healthy": I enjoy shopping at Lawson, but it seems blatantly hypocritical for the chain to launch a PR campaign that says the company is "going healthy."

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

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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