Kaoru Kanetaka was a Japanese ambassador of sorts, certainly a woman of great ability, ambition and energy ("Kaoru Kanetaka, travel reporter, dies at 90," in the Jan. 10 edition). She's a role model for young Japanese women of today. Kanetaka helped the world to see ...
The disgraceful detention of Carlos Ghosn by Japan's prosecutors is a blatant violation of human rights. It is also, from my reading, a breach of a habeus corpus act passed in 1948 to bring Japanese law into line with international juristic standards. Ghosn's case is, ...
Regarding the Dark Side of the Rising Sun column headlined "Is global scrutiny of Japan's justice system fair?" in the Jan. 6 edition, compared with the United States, Japanese authorities are more careful about issuing arrest warrants, which has brought about peculiar investigation methods. ...
While John Gunning's Inside Sumo column Jan. 3 was interesting, I truly wish he would address two issues that have seen the sport devolve into what it is today. Keeping the word hinkaku (dignity) in mind, the two things I would like to see ...
In my optimistic youth, I promised my Japanese wife that we would return to Japan someday to care for her aging parents. Twenty years later, she reminded me of my promise and that is how I came to be living in Yamanashi Prefecture at ...
Thank you for covering the Henoko base construction issue in Okinawa a little, but we need much more coverage, and also some analysis, right now. As professor Douglas Lummis has written, there are huge engineering obstacles that the government must overcome, besides all the other ...
The article "Away from it all: More tourists shun hot spots for taste of the country life" in the Dec. 27 edition prompted me to ponder the unique meaning of a farm stay. It is good news that so many overseas travelers are coming to ...
The decision by the Japanese to resume commercial whaling is disgraceful. Some countries will not be satisfied until species are hunted to the brink of extinction or extinction. The business of pulling out of international agreements when it suits a country is another problem. There ...
Regarding the story "U.S. users of DNA tests warned on privacy and shock results" in the Dec. 24 edition, on the brighter side, more Americans could realize their multiethnic roots and America is likely to be the better for it, as its citizens give ...
Japan's decision to leave the International Whaling Commission ("Japan to leave IWC and resume whaling" in the Dec. 27 edition) is indeed a big blow to the global efforts in whale conservation. To my mind there is an unfortunate clash of cultural conflicts between the ...
The Big in Japan column titled "Second opinion: Should you trust your doctor?" in the Dec. 9 edition was a good opportunity to rethink how to consult a doctor. What matters most is a doctor's quality. Some physicians just look at the screen of the ...
Regarding the article "For me, 2018 was the year Japan began to listen" in the Dec. 20 edition, after wading through the self-promotion and self-adulation, I was able to turn my thoughts toward reasons for living in a foreign country. For those of us unencumbered, ...
