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Reader Mail

Feb 17, 2013

Let dreams live in championships

My opinion about organized sports is eccentric. I like sports as a recreation, but as soon as they are turned into an organized, competitive activity in which opposing teams play according to rules for the purpose of acquiring points in order to defeat opponents, then you lose me. Where's the fun in...

Reader Mail

Feb 17, 2013

Japanese art of avoiding rebuttal

According to Wikipedia, even Albert Einstein was impressed by the Japanese and their oft-touted modesty. One thing Japanese that is less lovable, however, is honne to tatemae.

Reader Mail

Feb 17, 2013

Chinese public not convinced

Regarding the Feb. 13 article "U.S. agrees: Chinese frigates locked their weapons radar on MSDF units": This is a very dangerous situation. The Chinese public will be overwhelmingly convinced that Japan is showing lying and treacherous colors familiar to them and that the belligerent Americans are siding...

Reader Mail

Feb 17, 2013

Danger to Myanmar's reforms

In his Feb. 14 letter, "Japan Inc. a dubious liberator," Richard Wilcox criticizes my Feb. 10 Timeout feature package about Myanmar, but totally misses my main points and invents ones I don't make.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 14, 2013

Allen made progress in Afghanistan

With U.S. Gen. John Allen's command of NATO forces ending in Kabul, several accomplishments by this man, tainted by an email scandal, merit praise.

Japan Times

CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Feb 14, 2013

Shirakawa Steamrolled

Reader Mail

Feb 10, 2013

The right reason to perform well

The Feb. 1 article "Two sides to corporal punishment practices in Japan" mentions the rising problem of abusive Japanese sports coaches. Recent incidents include the suicide of an Osaka high school basketball team captain after he had been physically punished by his coach, and the physical harassment...

Reader Mail

Feb 10, 2013

Console nears perceptible limits

The Feb. 4 Bloomberg article "Sony expected to beef up PlayStation 4 to keep consoles in the game" describes Sony's new console as capable of rendering games at 240 frames per second (fps). Current-generation games typically render at 30 or 60 fps.

Reader Mail

Feb 10, 2013

Town spoiling for dressing-down

Regarding the Feb. 7 AFP article "Put pants on 'David' replica, locals urge": Who would have thought that there was such a level of modesty in a culture that created such graphic works of erotica as the Shunga illustrated texts for newlywed couples or the modern "adult" manga? What gives?

Reader Mail

Feb 10, 2013

A homemade recipe for cruelty?

Ian Martin's Feb. 1 article, "AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture," calls attention to Minami Minegishi, a member of the Japanese girl pop band AKB48. She violated the Golden Rule for idols by going out on a date. The video of her making a tearful apology after she had shaved her head...

Reader Mail

Feb 10, 2013

Crying won't clean the slate

The Feb. 1 article, "AKB48 idol begs for fans' mercy after breaking dating ban" states that Minami Minegishi willingly shaved her head to beg forgiveness for breaking one of the group's rules. AKB48 has a strict rule prohibiting relationships, but Minegishi was reported to have left an actor's house....

Japan Times

CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Feb 7, 2013

Inflation Snowman

CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Feb 3, 2013

Reader Mail

Jan 31, 2013

Men must be willing to help out

Denny Pollard's Jan. 24 letter, "Men to decide demographics," gave us a perspective from Yamagata Prefecture. And I agree with it!

Japan Times

CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Jan 30, 2013

Reader Mail

Jan 26, 2013

Sober critique of American ideals

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison's Washington Post article, "Building a better U.S. drone policy," which was printed in The Japan Times on Jan. 17, is a sober, elegant and erudite critique of the "drone wars." That it is written by an American congressman is both encouraging and depressing.

Reader Mail

Jan 26, 2013

When 'patriotism' is a liability

I don't have an opinion about the legitimacy of NHK dismissing French employee Emmanuelle Bodin after she fled the country following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and subsequent nuclear plant disaster. (She is now suing the broadcaster over her dismissal.) But I do have an opinion about how the dismissal...

Reader Mail

Jan 26, 2013

How does coach avoid arrest?

Since I first heard of the physical abuse perpetrated against students by a basketball coach at Osaka's Sakuranomiya Senior High School, I've been waiting fruitlessly to hear of the coach's arrest on assault charges. I cannot for the life of me understand why this man is not being prosecuted.

Reader Mail

Jan 26, 2013

Evolving awareness of justice

Regarding Thomas Clark's Jan. 17 letter, "Keep Christianity in Perspective": In no way was I saying in my previous letter that religion is the only reason for inequality in developing countries.

Japan Times

CARTOONS / DAHL'S JAPAN

Jan 23, 2013

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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