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EDITORIALS

Apr 2, 2011

Funding reconstruction

The record ¥92.41 trillion budget for fiscal 2011 was enacted Tuesday. Although the opposition-controlled Upper House voted it down earlier in the day, it was enacted due to a constitutional provision that mandates that a Lower House vote on a national budget prevails over an Upper House vote. Even...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO

Mar 29, 2011

Blackouts crippling Kanto when country needs it most

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,

Reader Mail

Mar 27, 2011

Japan's culture is not the culprit

Gregory Clark's March 24 article, "Nuclear meltdowns and Japanese culture," reinforced the stereotyped Western view of Japan, which very often tries to cast cultural traits as a contributory cause of a failure or, in this case, a major disaster.

EDITORIALS

Mar 20, 2011

Economic gloom impacts wage talks

Difficult economic conditions caused by the 3/11 disasters, the floods in Thailand, prolonged deflation, the strong yen and the sovereign debt crises in Europe have cast a shadow over this year's annual wage negotiations. Although the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest labor...

Reader Mail

Mar 17, 2011

Nice slogans won't deter the bad

Regarding David Rothauser's March 10 letter, "Abolishing nuclear weapons use": Rothauser believes that nuclear weapons can be abolished "because we don't need them." Exactly how this ban is to be accomplished he does not say.

Reader Mail

Mar 17, 2011

A bigger matter to apologize for

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell stated on his arrival in Tokyo last week that he wanted, on behalf of the U.S. government, to express deep regret for the controversy concerning alleged statements about Okinawa by Kevin Maher, his subordinate at the U.S. State Department. It is apparent,...

EDITORIALS

Mar 14, 2011

Cheating and the cheated

Perhaps only in Japan could a young man be arrested for the crime of "obstructing university operations by fraudulent means." For weeks, the nation's headlines have been jammed with the story about a student who cheated on the entrance exam for four prestigious universities, Kyoto, Waseda, Doshisha and...

EDITORIALS

Mar 13, 2011

Massive quake hits Japan

With the memory of the Feb. 22 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, still fresh, Japan was hit Friday afternoon by a massive earthquake centered offshore. It served as a terrifying reminder that big quakes can strike anytime and that the central government, local governments and residents must be...

COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY

Mar 8, 2011

Declaring pot peccadillo was naive

Re: "Barred from Japan for a teenage pot conviction" (Hotline to Nagatacho, Feb. 1):

EDITORIALS

Mar 5, 2011

Half-baked reform won't cut it

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office (SPPO) on Feb. 23 said that the special investigation squads at the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya district public prosecutors offices will start partial electronic recording of interrogations of suspects from March 18. At present, public prosecutors are recording a process...

Reader Mail

Feb 24, 2011

Dogs have a rich emotional life

I must beg to differ with Grant Piper's views expressed in his Feb. 20 letter. From my own observations and those of a number of respected authors, it is safe to say that many animals have a very rich emotional life and are capable of higher emotions such as empathy, sadness and joy. I dare say some...

EDITORIALS

Feb 17, 2011

Steel merger aims for survival

Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's biggest steel maker, and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., the nation's third-ranked steel maker, announced Feb. 3 a plan to merge in October 2012. The merger, if it materializes, will bring about the world's No. 2 steel maker after Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, which produces...

EDITORIALS

Feb 16, 2011

End of the Mubarak era

Eighteen days of protest ended 30 years of one-man rule by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. While the demonstrations had been mounting in intensity and reflected deep-seated grievances that had been building over decades, his decision Friday to step down was never certain. As the country enters a new...

Reader Mail

Jan 30, 2011

Australia as rare earth supplier

RegardingMinoru Matsutani's Jan. 26 article, "Worse rare earth shortages 'yet to come' ": What isn't widely known is that Australia has a large part to play in resolving this situation, as Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed companies control more than 40 percent of the world's rare earth element...

Reader Mail

Jan 27, 2011

Leadership crisis delays solutions

It is with a frustrated and sinking feeling that I read the comments of the Liberal Democratic Party chief in the Jan. 24 article "LDP pledges to send ruling party packing." With all the problems facing Japan, what Japanese politics doesn't need is more of the same tribal mentality, greed and power faction...

EDITORIALS

Jan 26, 2011

Mr. Kan sets his agenda

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in his policy speech before the Diet on Monday, expressed his determination to carry out unified reform of the social security and the tax system, which would include raising the consumption tax, and "opening the nation" in the 21st century through large-scale trade liberalization....

Reader Mail

Jan 13, 2011

Aussie fisheries strictly managed

Regarding Hillel Wright's Jan. 9 Timeout article, "Are Japan's fish lovers eating tuna to extinction?": How utterly laughable it is for Hiroyuki Kuroda of Japan's Fisheries Research Agency to say that regulatory agencies believe that stock assessments of southern bluefin tuna (SBT), which are fished...

EDITORIALS

Jan 10, 2011

Relief for drug side effects

Even if one uses a medical drug properly, side effects cannot be ruled out. Thirty years have passed since the system to provide relief for sufferers from drug side effects was established in Japan. People should know more about this system and use it when necessary.

EDITORIALS

Dec 25, 2010

Up from Akatsuki's failure

An H-IIA rocket blasted the Venus planetary probe Akatsuki (daybreak) into space on May 21. But Akatsuki, Japan's first spacecraft sent to explore Venus, failed to orbit Venus after overshooting the planet due to engine trouble. The craft was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at a cost...

EDITORIALS

Dec 21, 2010

Dubious referendum in Nagoya

Mayor Takashi Kawamura of Nagoya led a signature collection for a referendum to recall the city assembly because it opposes his policies. Last month, the city's election management commission decided that many of the some 465,000 signatures collected by a group supporting the mayor were invalid and that...

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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