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Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Pattern of denial in leadership

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto insulted people worldwide with his repeated denials and justifications of the Imperial Japanese Army's sexual slavery system during World War II. These and many other idiotic statements from Japanese politicians give us real insight into the thinking of much of Japan's leadership....
Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Break-time habits tell the score

Around 25 years ago, when Japan was enjoying the "bubble economy," ordinary company workers would eat out for lunch quite often and then have a cup of coffee in a "traditional" coffee shop. Company workers, who were called "corporate warriors" at the time, rarely ate instant noodles from a cup in their...
Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Expect Hague spirit to be abused

After reading the March 12 editorial, "Preparing for the Hague Convention," and realizing that "domestic violence" is covered as a grave danger to a child, I felt I must comment.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 25, 2013

Uganda boxing trainer gives expert advice to aspiring pugilists

If you don't get into the ring once or twice, then you're a coward, Geoffrey Ima says as he describes people's attitudes toward boxing in his hometown in Uganda. Ima has been in the ring hundreds of times and came to love boxing so much, he wanted to earn a living from it — a career choice that led...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 25, 2013

'Abenomics' still has long way to go

The recent volatility of the Nikkei 225 stock average should not be a cause for alarm, government officials assured Friday, but pundits pointed out that "Abenomics" seems to have a long way to go until the economy begins to show a robust and steady recovery.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
May 25, 2013

Moriwaki enjoying challenge playing for Urawa brings

The 27-year-old defender says he was ready for a change of scenery after helping Sanfrecce Hiroshima win theJ. League title last season.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 25, 2013

Geary's vision, drive keyed Yokohama's title run

There was something refreshing, interesting and fun about the Yokohama B-Corsairs from the beginning. It wasn't always the easiest thing to explain in a few short words.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2013

Why U.K. exit from EU may now be a real possibility

The realization hits a recent visitor to the U.K. that Britain might actually leave the EU. Attitudes are hardening well ahead of a promised referendum on membership.
JAPAN
May 24, 2013

600 students lose loans for poor performance

About 600 university students are deemed no longer eligible for student loans because of their poor academic performance last year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
May 24, 2013

Springtime beans aim for the sky

Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer's bounty of cucumbers, eggplants and so on comes a bit later. What are in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 24, 2013

Son of Cronenberg debuts with sickly body horror

Imagine you are David Cronenberg, a filmmaker but also a parent. You tell your kids that your job is making movies; naturally, they want to see one. So which do you show them? "Scanners," with its exploding heads? "Rabid," where porn-star Marilyn Chambers drinks human blood? Or maybe "The Fly," where...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
May 24, 2013

Asian Queer Film Festival to feature works from South Korea, Cambodia

The LGBT community in Tokyo is hard at work. Not even a month after the Rainbow Pride parade, the biennial Asian Queer Film Festival is set to grace the Cinemart Roppongi this weekend.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2013

As Hashimoto self-destructs, party also reels

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's remarks justifying the wartime 'comfort women' brothel system have caused major parties to distance themselves from his Nippon Ishin no Kai.
JAPAN
May 23, 2013

Education panel urges Japanese colleges to reach outside

The nation's universities should try to rejuvenate themselves by collaborating with overseas institutions to offer joint degrees and attracting more foreign teachers and students to nurture global talent among Japanese, a government panel said in proposals released Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2013

Explore one of Tokyo's most indie neighborhoods at Shimokitazawa Sound Cruising

Tokyo's Shimokitazawa neighborhood is one of the most important places for indie music in the city. A lively suburb at the nexus between the Inokashira and Odakyu train lines, it's just distant enough from the big urban hubs of Shinjuku and Shibuya to avoid being absorbed by them, but close enough that...
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Not for impressionable men

Regarding the May 16 front-page article "Hashimoto sticks to guns on sex slaves": The cruel and insensitive statements from Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto about encouraging the U.S. military to make use of Japanese prostitutes and his apologism for wartime Japanese soldiers' enjoyment of serial-sex with...
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Embarrassing for the Japanese

Many of us who are of Japanese descent, but who are now citizens of foreign countries by birth or emigration, are totally in shock and disbelief over the continuous stream of distortions of history that emanate from Japanese politicians. For what the world community describes as rape, kidnapping, slavery...
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Use of 'force' was the difference

Perhaps I am in a rare position to comment, from almost firsthand experience, on the statements [about the inevitability of wartime prostitution] made by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Hitler cited his religious faith

While there does seem to be some disagreement among historians about the degree of Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs, I think it's inaccurate for Jennifer Kim, in her May 16 letter, to claim his Catholicism was abandoned in his youth.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Perfect material for bullying

Regarding Kaori Shoji's May 13 article, "It ain't easy being a bilingual girl": I agree that bilingual Japanese face obstacles today as they did 30 years ago.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Watching what the church does

It is instructive to parse Jennifer Kim's May 16 letter, "Catholic link to human rights," to see what she is really saying:
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 22, 2013

Flawed strategy, mistakes jeopardizing Tokyo's bid to host 2020 Olympics

Have you ever given your best effort while striving to achieve something but felt like what you were doing was futile?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2013

Visa violators continue sit-in at Immigration

A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 22, 2013

Is computing speed set to make a quantum leap?

"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost," wrote Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his day, "not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things that are there." Which is another way of saying that physics is weird. And particle physics —...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2013

Osaka takes plunge with canal pool

If an Osaka company has its way, getting roaring drunk and jumping, or falling, into Dotonbori Canal after either a Hanshin Tigers victory or a wild night out in neighboring Shinsaibashi will be less risky, healthwise, but it will no longer be free.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 21, 2013

Ambivalent Japan turns on its 'insular' youth

Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact that 'opening up' Japan is in the nation's best long-term interests.

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