If Japan is serious about "welcoming" foreign workers, one valuable step it could take to make them feel less excluded would be the wider adoption of the English language. Japan is Japan, of course, and there is an obligation on those who would like to ...
Regarding the U.S. midterm elections and the wide Democratic Party gains that emerged as late ballot counts came in, voters electing a new Democratic-majority House of Representatives proves that American democracy is still alive, despite Congress' toadying cowardice before the boorish, bumbling, babbling wannabe ...
The shadow of World War II looms large in Asia ("BTS pulled from Asahi TV show over nuke T-shirt" in the Nov. 10 edition). Battles continue to rage over memory, legacy and commemoration. This contention is perfectly illustrated by the ceaseless uproar that emerges ...
Some people say Okinawa's plight is the end result of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, so that all responsibility for Okinawa's current state of affairs rests with Japan. There's some truth in such a claim, but the catch is that the war ended ...
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad being awarded the prestigious Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers by Japan makes us Malaysians walk tall again after suffering much from the kleptocracy that is plaguing us to this day. The conferment of this honor goes beyond ...
As time goes by, the advent of more sophisticated technology has surprised us and is making our daily life more convenient. Thanks to the talented inventors, gadgets including smartphones make it possible for anyone to start up their own business regardless of the size ...
The article "Empress Michiko turns 84, wishes for new era of peace" in the Oct. 21 edition made me remember her speech to the International Board on Books for Young People in 1998 and led me to ponder her way of life. According to the ...
Regarding the Oct. 8 article "Gaijin Day: How an event in Hamamatsu about unity proved to be divisive": I lived in Japan for more than 30 years and worked in a Japanese-owned company there as well as working in several universities. I finally left ...
Regarding the Oct. 31 article "Are U.S. FONOPs upholding freedom or stirring up trouble?" Denny Roy implies that Southeast Asian countries want the United States to continue its confrontational FONOPs. But that is not at all clear. The ASEAN Defense Ministers Plus Meeting expressed ...
Thank you for reporting on the latest data falsification scandal relating to shock absorbers provided by KYB Corp. to ensure earthquake resistance of buildings. It is always worrying when the government regulator — or a whistleblower — discovers problems with widely installed safety critical ...
I don't belong to any political party. I am not a political scientist. I am not an Okinawan, but I'm from Kikaijima, one of the Amami Islands between Okinawa and Kyushu. As the Sept. 30 gubernatorial election shows, a majority of Okinawan people are against ...
It should be worth noting that the local Republican Party-sponsored event mentioned in the article,"New York's Andrew Cuomo blasts Trump, Republicans over protest clash" (Oct. 16) included a re-enactment of the 1960 assassination of Japanese socialist party leader Inejiro Asanuma by a young right-wing ...
