Regarding the Jan. 12 article "U.S.-China ties worry Ishihara": Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is right to worry about Japan following the American model of capitalism. Look at what has been done to the medical system here. Near universal health-care coverage of 90 percent was reduced to 70 percent. This has created a co-pay system like that of health maintenance organizations in the United States.
The only real reason for this was to create a market for insurance companies to sell cancer insurance. Without extra coverage, people would be forced to spend their life savings to pay for care. So the drug companies continue to make a killing; now the insurance companies are getting in on the act. I would like to know what kind of political contributions are made by these corporations in Japan.