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June 06, 2025
 

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Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013
Christians' false claims of credit
In his April 14 letter, "Social justice here and now" (a response to my April 4 letter, "Where does human respect live?"), Thomas Clark proves my point. Unable to refute what I actually said — that there is a correlation between human rights and the secularity of society — he goes off somewhere else...
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013
Democratic defense against abuse
Regarding the April 11 article "Ishin leaders, Abe meet on revising Constitution": Once more, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has indicated his desire to revise Article 96 of the Constitution so that it can be amended by a simple majority in the Upper and Lower houses of the Diet rather than by the two-thirds...
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013
The joy of not being accepted
I am so grateful to professor Jeff Kingston for his April 14 review of Adam Komisarof's book "At Home Abroad: The Contemporary Western Experience in Japan." I've lived here for nearly 17 years and have never really understood my own deep feelings about this country and its people.
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013
Application of statistics fails
As someone who has spent his entire academic life in computational economics, I would like to comment on the April 12 Bloomberg article by theoretical physicist Mark Buchanan, titled "Beware economists who peddle cute models."
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013
Takarazuka hits discordant note
I read Mark Buckton's April 14 Timeout feature article, "Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100," and thought, "Maybe I need to get out more."
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013
Learn from Margaret Thatcher
Regarding the April 12 editorial "A decisive but divisive leader": Once upon the time, the United Kingdom was labeled the "sick old man of Europe." Margaret Thatcher, a female prime minister, challenged that image and wiped it out.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Apr 16, 2013
Education: What are we paying all the money for?
Dear Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura,
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2013
M5.2 quake jolts Fukushima, vicinity
An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 5.2 jolts Fukushima Prefecture and its vicinity Sunday evening.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013
'Iron Lady' is worth emulating
Much has been written and said about the life and times of Margaret Thatcher. I was especially pleased to read Gwynne Dyer's balanced article "The Iron Lady's lasting legacy" and George Will's complimentary "Margaret Thatcher buoyed by vigorous virtues," both published April 11 in The Japan Times print...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013
Social justice here and now
Vimal Malik, in his April 4 letter, "Where does human respect live?," says we must look at the world we actually live in, not through the "stained glass of dogma." I agree, yet it apparently is Malik's "dogma" that social justice sprang up spontaneously from late modern secularists and Scandinavian social...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013
When is enough, enough?
Regarding the April 6 AFP-JIJI article "Whale institute still justifying lethal research": I believe a few points need to be raised.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013
Taking back students' lost years
As an associate professor at a national university, I completely agree with The Japan Times April 8 editorial "Delay recruitment even longer." The current regimen robs students of critical time for education, experience and maturity.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013
Conventional attack bad enough
Regarding the April 9 article "PAC-3 batteries deployed as North Korea threatens missile launch": Russian President Vladimir Putin, who oversees a vast military nuclear complex, has warned that any nuclear conflict on the Korean Peninsula "could make Chernobyl look like a fairy tale."
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013
No reason to fear North's nukes
The argument posed in the April 9 AP article "Japan has real reasons to fret about North Korean nukes" does not hold up to scrutiny.
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013
Aversion to blue-collar work
Regarding The Washington Post feature article that ran in The Japan Times April 8 under the headline "India students' aspirations, job market don't match": The writer has perhaps made a sincere attempt at bringing up a serious problem. But how novel is this problem? Many graduates are known to have gone...
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013
Marketing of students comes first
Regarding the April 6 editorial "Delay recruitment even longer": The reality is that the top-down system of behavior in Japan won't allow for the flexibility or freedom of thought on mainline policies, whether it concern [corporate recruitment of new university graduates] or society in general.
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013
Silly statistics on the ephemeral
Regarding the April 5 Jiji Press article "Aomori blossoms 'best'": Are you kidding me? Did Weathernews Inc. really take a hanami survey to find out all the important statistical data about the cherry blossom viewing habits of Japan's hanami-loving devotees?
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013
Targeting ethnic high schools
On March 31 about 6,000 people attended a meeting in Tokyo to demand that Korean high schools remain eligible for free tuition. In February, the Abe Cabinet revised the law to exclude ethnic Korean schools, chosen gakko, from the free-tuition provision for students, enacted in April 2010. Certain municipalities...
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013
The misogyny problem in India
Regarding Dipak Basu's April 7 letter, "Shameful coverage of rape case": I would like to ask Basu if he is denying there is a misogyny problem in India? I would also like to ask him if he thinks it is intellectually honest to claim that First World countries like the United States and Britain are worse...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Apr 9, 2013
Rosy Fukushima health report faulted by experts
Dear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
Japan’s fertility rate hits record low despite government push
The total number of births dropped to about 686,000, marking the first time the figure has fallen below 700,000, according to a health ministry release on Wednesday.
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.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
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.
Is Japan ready to say goodbye to tax-free shopping?
Arrows lead to the tax-free counter at a branch of discount retailer Don Quijote in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
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.
Six months into 2025, J-pop is having a full-on identity crisis (and a great time)
The year so far is only proving that Mrs. Green Apple is the biggest band in Japan. Their success also seems to be hinting at a change in the musical landscape more broadly.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.

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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