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Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

The boys are back in town

Here in Nagoya many sumo stables graciously allow visitors to the morning workout, and I made my first, fascinating visit last Sunday. Men of varying ages and weights practiced in a regimented routine not unlike a ballet class or scales for a musician.
Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

Don't sell out basic services

Regarding the June 20 article, "Dilemma: How to shed white elephants' red ink?": The word "reform" sounds good, but if corporations become a permanent fixture in government functions, we will simply be exchanging "government corruption" for "corporate greed."
Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

The dreams of young workers

The headline "Unpaid overtime excesses hit young" for the June 25 article by Ayako Mie is misleading. The problem is not just the unpaid overtime; companies are ruining young recruits' lives by abusing them as a matter of routine — within the regular workday and after 5. And the problem isn't limited...
Reader Mail
Jul 6, 2013

Luxury train a new beginning

The June 23 editorial "All aboard the luxury train" conjured up the allure of travel by train in Japan. It is true that Japan's train system is the envy of the world and has been symbolized by the Shinkansen with its safety, punctuality and speed. But I believe that the bullet train system lacks a certain...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 2013

Loss of innocence in war for a youth looking for some meaning

Koji Obata, the protagonist of Hiroyuki Agawa's novel, tends not to feel strongly about things. He is, however, convinced that this detachment is an aspect of his character that he'd like to change. Early in the novel he decides that "he [is] looking for something he could confront openly, something...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 5, 2013

Hate pornography, sure, but be wary of banning it

Prosecutions for the possession of the filthiest pornography confirm foreigners' suspicions that the British care more for animals than people. Between 2008 and 2011, the English and Welsh authorities charged 1,922 men for having images of bestiality about their person. By contrast, they brought only...
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 5, 2013

We see ourselves in celebrities

We are all guilty of harboring certain fascinations with celebrities. I don't care how many times you might loudly sigh as your friends discuss model and actress Kelly Brook's most recent holiday snaps, you'd be hard-pushed to find anyone who wasn't interested in the life of at least one specific someone,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / MAKING THEIR CASE
Jul 5, 2013

Whatever LDP stands for, we don't: Ozawa

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policies cater to big business at the expense of the people and will only widen the wealth disparity between rich and poor, Seikatsu no To (People's Life Party) President Ichiro Ozawa said in a recent interview.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 5, 2013

Hard-charging foreigners inspire Nagoya University sumo team

With the 2013 July Grand Sumo Tournament in Nagoya set to kick off Sunday, Osunaarashi of Egypt is grabbing the media spotlight as the first pro sumo wrestler from Africa.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 5, 2013

Desperately seeking Snowden in Sheremetyevo: Fugitive eludes all at Moscow airport

Every year, around 25 million passengers enter Sheremetyevo airport — and usually they come out again. Not Edward Snowden. The guy who was made famous by spilling the beans about U.S. surveillance programs has managed to keep his own whereabouts strictly hush-hush.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 5, 2013

Tweet Beat: #音楽の日, #ときレス, #シュール

A live-TV music festival, a bishi videogame boy and some surreal tweets made the top Twitter hashtags in Japan last week.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jul 4, 2013

'The Deep' to feature ocean's oddities

While some companies have started to offer trips to the Moon, there is still more to be discovered hidden on our own planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2013

Financial engineers restarting the risk generator

The last thing one would expect the U.S. government to do is open the floodgates to severe risks in financial markets again. But that is what's happening.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2013

'Lawless (Yokubo no Virginia)'

The relationship between singer Nick Cave and filmmaker John Hillcoat has been a fruitful one over the years; while Hillcoat has done a lot of music-video work for Cave's gothic-blues group The Bad Seeds, Cave has also worked on Hillcoat's feature films, providing music for "The Road" (2009) as well...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 3, 2013

Matthew Bourne's 'Dorian Gray' will never grow old, says its lead dancer, Richard Winsor

"Matthew and I are very excited to see how Japanese audiences react — but I think everyone is absolutely going to love this show," English dancer Richard Winsor said at a Tokyo press conference held in May to preview next week's season of Matthew Bourne's "Dorian Gray," in which he plays the title...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2013

The best albums of 2013 (so far)

The year in music so far has been filled with comeback albums that "hype" their way to the top. After the Twitter hashtags subside, though, such artists also seem to leave the minds of the public. (Is anyone still talking about David Bowie? Justin Timberlake? ... Daft Punk?) The fast-paced industry of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2013

The petty source of Lincoln's majestic vision

It could be that Abraham Lincoln's triumphs of the intellect were made possible by his very proximity to the mundane events that are said to exhaust politicians today.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / MAKING THEIR CASE
Jul 3, 2013

Your Party stands against tax hike, nuclear plants

Your Party will stress its call to freeze the upcoming consumption tax hike and promise to abolish all nuclear power plants by 2030 when the campaign for the Upper House officially starts Thursday, party leader Yoshimi Watanabe said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2013

Fed approves rules requiring banks to set aside more capital

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday ordered banks to set aside more capital as a cushion against losses, bringing the United States in line with developing international standards and opening the door for a set of tougher rules for the nation's biggest financial institutions.
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Counting on Japanese solutions

I realize that agriculture is a sensitive topic in Japan. After living in Japan for almost 11 years, I became so appreciative of Japan and its people that I've encouraged my youngest son to return to Japan to study the language, deeply. He will attend International Christian University in Tokyo starting...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Mistaking preference for a fetish

In his June 25 feature article, 'Yellow Fever' and the fantasy of the Asian female," writer Nicolas Gattig asks "what are the fantasies driving 'yellow fever,' the fetish for Orientals [by white men]?" The question he should be asking is to what extent preconceptions of race and racial normalcy predispose...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Brazen proposal on Okinawa

On a June 10 news talk show, Kevin Maher, the former U.S. Consul General Okinawa and chief of the Japan Desk at the U.S. State Department, said the suggestion by the Chinese People's Liberation Army deputy chief of staff that the Senkaku Islands issue be shelved for now is like a thief proposing a condition....
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Learn the Heimlich maneuver

My wife relayed a shocking story to me this week. A child in Hokkaido choked to death on a plum pit during school lunch. More shocking is that the teachers called "119" emergency services but were apparently told to just wait for the ambulance.
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

New priority class not needed

Recently the transport ministry decided to establish a sign that indicates priority space for baby-carriage users on public transportation as part of childcare support services. This is supposed to make it easier for baby-carriage users to use public transportation. I don't think it will. I don't think...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Christian mentality showing

It's only necessary to look at the personal, seemingly malevolent sarcasm of Frank O'Brien's June 23 letter, "Right to express religious views," and Jennifer Kim's June 23 letter, "Mild wisecrack in comparison," to see what is wrong with the Christian mentality.
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Great tool for political discourse

Regarding Ted Rall's June 29 article, "End of editorial cartooning": I was surprised to learn that there is an annual conference of political cartoonists in America where "partisan divisions fall away." Hardline leftist Rall writes that "one of my dearest friends is a conservative cartoonist." What a...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Government plans for farmers

Regarding the June 28 editorial "How will Japan's farms survive?": It seems to me that the Japanese government is planning to expand farms in the future and will fight to save rice, wheat, beef, sugar and dairy products. But what do the old farmers think about this?
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Jul 3, 2013

Mandela family battles over ailing icon's legacy

A convoy of cars and buses decked with balloons streamed into Qunu on Saturday as the childhood home of Nelson Mandela hosted a wedding and enjoyed a moment of respite from the deep uncertainty caused by the health of its most celebrated son.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2013

Work-life balance? Not in politics

Tamayo Marukawa, 42, seems to have it all. A University of Tokyo graduate, she scored one of the most coveted jobs in Japan as an announcer at TV Asahi. A popular presence there for 14 years, she left for a seat in the Upper House six years ago as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2013

Salarymen's allowance falls to 1982 level

The average Japanese husband's monthly allowance slumped to the lowest level since 1982 at the start of the financial year as workers await the dividends promised by "Abenomics."

Longform

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