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June 08, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Sep 28, 2013
Urban planners miss the plot
The tale of local communities losing energy and activities, told by Amy Chavez in her Sept. 21 article, "The ancient pilgrimage routes and the local community," is disheartening. If I were hyperactive, I'd immediately go to clear pilgrimage paths with Ms. Chavez. But the true solution would be to halt...
Reader Mail
Sep 28, 2013
When cartoons don't go our way
Regarding the Sept. 14 Bloomberg article "Japan to protest Olympic cartoons" (carried by French satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine): The article makes some of the differences between Japanese and French society quite apparent.
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2013
Keeping moral issues in context
Kudos to The Japan Times for running Michelle Boorstein's Washington Post piece, "Savvy pope wooing the Catholic middle" (Sept. 21), a reasonably accurate treatment of Pope Francis' interview printed recently in the Jesuit magazine America.
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2013
Questionable link to innovation
Professor Takamitsu Sawa made some factual mistakes in his Sept. 17 article, "Lack of liberal arts education is sapping Japan's creativity." In Japanese universities, students of science, engineering and medicine take courses in social studies their first year. As an economics professor at Nagasaki University,...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2013
The men that lack 'life skills'
Regarding Michael Hoffman's Aug. 31 article, "Married or single, Japan is a desolate country": I have a few elder moms as students, all with adult sons living at home.
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2013
What will replace the signature?
Regarding the Bloomberg Global Perspective of Sept. 20, "The case against cursive writing": I do not think less of children or young adults who cannot write because they were not taught cursive handwriting in school. It is a laborious, lengthy, time-consuming lesson in an environment where teachers are...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2013
So much lost in progress' name
Regarding Michael Hoffman's Sept. 22 article, "Ancient tales by the 'savages' of Hokkaido have lessons for today": British traveler Isabella Bird wrote "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" (1880) after she traveled by horseback from the Port of Yokohama to the wilds of Ezo (Hokkaido), on a journey through a relatively...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 23, 2013
Why are so many Nepalese in Japan taking their own lives?
Dear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura and Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Norihisa Tamura,
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013
Yokota reminiscent of Futenma
Regarding the Sept. 16 article "Inose revives push to let civilian airliners use Yokota air base": The aerial photo accompanying the article shows that Yokota Air Base looks exactly like Futenma Air Station on Okinawa. Both foreign bases are located in densely populated residential areas.
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013
Tokyo needs better accessibility
Regarding the selection of Tokyo as the host of the 2020 Olympics: A lot of Japanese rejoiced to hear that Japan was selected to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. While the mass media is highly likely to focus on facilities in which the games are supposed to be held, I think that a lot of...
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013
Are Japanese minds closing?
Japan's science and technology universities, including all engineering departments, should heed what the president of Shiga University, Takamitsu Sawa, had to say about the critical link between innovations in manufacturing and the humanities. Creativity takes inspiration from the heart as well as the...
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2013
Education costs influence majors
Regarding Takamitsu Sawa's Sept. 17 commentary "Lack of liberal arts education is sapping Japan's creativity": What Sawa is talking about is the difference between education and training. Although they overlap, they are not the same. Nevertheless, universities are increasingly being ranked on their graduates'...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
When is a tattoo permissible?
Regarding the Sept. 15 article "Tattooed Maori barred by bath in Hokkaido": I have mixed feelings. I suppose that the difference of perception and mind-set regarding tattoos between Japanese and others is so great that such incidents will occur more frequently as the Olympics approaches.
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
What hindrances in Japan?
Regarding Kevin Rafferty's Sept. 16 commentary "Abe's 2020 vision challenged": You get fingerprinted and photographed in a whole lot of countries these days, not just Japan or the U.S. — it's unfortunately the way the world has gone, by and large. And getting luggage inspected 20 to 50 percent of the...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
Much ado over a single cartoon
Regarding the Sept. 13 article "Japan to protest Fukushima-Olympics cartoons in French weekly": One — count it, one! — cartoon in a French satirical periodical makes the Japanese government cry "shame." This from the same government that denies Japan's World War II atrocities such as the enslavement...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
Filling up time to fend off evil
Regarding the Sept. 15 article "Japanese media declare 'dark times' are on us": Whenever there is a murder in Japan, especially of a young girl, there is always some kind of fear-mongering and citation of whatever other kinds of crimes and skewing of whatever statistics that happen to be happening/available...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
U.S. makes world more dangerous
Regarding the Sept. 15 article "U.S. arsenal offers lesson in chemical arms disposal": I've been waiting a long time to see a story like this because it reminds us that America has its own chemical weapons, too. I already knew it, but it is important to see it in print as an educational tool for Americans...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
Japanese men hard to change
Regarding the article titled "Seeking to change men's mind-sets to spur on prosperity for all Japanese" in the Sept. 11 "Summer Davos" Special supplement: Changing men's mind-sets, in Japan? What sort of quixotic nonsense is this? If it ain't broke, don't fix it and most Japanese men are very happy with...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2013
Lack of good information
A good portion of the over-65 age group comprising 1-in-4 shoplifting offenses no doubt has some root in the fact that the over-65 age group is rapidly growing, which cannot be said for that of juveniles. Seems a bit shady to leave that very important bit of information out; after all, if the author...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 16, 2013
Tokyo: the city that wants clubbers to sleep after midnight
Honorable Members of the National Diet,
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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