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Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Floatable cars for tsunami

Regarding the March 6 Kyodo brief "Tsunami 'Noah's Ark": It would be a great idea for the infrastructure ministry to make special lifeboats for evacuation during tsunami. But we could save many more lives if car companies would make a new car or adapt an existing model to float for many hours or even...
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Turning logic upside-down

Regarding the May 12 editorial, "Who's to blame in Bangladesh?": Globalization will inevitably proceed no matter what we want, but why must we hastily remove the boundaries that restrict the movement of money when borders prevent us from saving millions of people from abuse by their governments.
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

More serious than their parents

I notice that a lot of senior employees of traditional Japanese companies often bemoan the fact that their daughters cannot easily find desirable husbands these days. Some people describe Japanese young men today as "grass-eating boys" who are too timid to find girlfriends. Others say today's parents...
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2013

Shut Monju down permanently

The Abe government should give up on the trouble-plagued Monju fast-breeder reactor project after the Nuclear Regulation Authority cited safety management problems.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 18, 2013

Game maker GungHo blows by rivals

GungHo Online Entertainment Inc.'s presence on the stock market has been growing rapidly on the growth of its monstrously popular smartphone game "Puzzle and Dragons."
JAPAN
May 18, 2013

New textile able to absorb more influenza antibodies

Researchers have come up with new technology that lets textiles absorb more flu antibodies, a development likely to make face masks more effective in warding off the flu bug, the Textile Industry Research Institute of Gunma said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 18, 2013

Psychiatrists under fire in mental health battle

It has the distinctly un-catchy, abbreviated title "DSM-5," and is known to no one outside the world of mental health.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 17, 2013

Veteran leadership makes Fukuoka favorite over Kyoto

The Rizing Fukuoka and Kyoto Hannaryz renew their rivalry on Saturday in the Western Conference final at Ariake Colosseum. Tipoff is set for 2:10 p.m.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2013

Overstayers need speed, lawyer says

Since debuting in October as Japan's first law office catering to foreign nationals, Tokyo Public Law Office Mita Branch — Foreigners and International Service in Minato Ward has been deluged with appointments.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 17, 2013

Flamenco queen shares 'Utopia'

Sitting in an interview room at the Bunkamura cultural complex in Tokyo's Shibuya district, Maru00eda Pagu00e9s leans forward, smiles and tells me: 'Flamenco is my language.'
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2013

Hashimoto sticks to guns on sex slaves

Osaka politician Toru Hashimoto refuses to retract his remarks justifying the use of 'comfort woman' during the war and the need for legal brothels in Okinawa for U.S. service members.
SOCCER / J. League
May 16, 2013

Kawabuchi reflects on two decades of J. League action

Saburo Kawabuchi, the J. League's first chairman, looks back at the history of the league he helped create 20 years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2013

Pair log off, hit street to meet, hear real people

Once addicted to a social-networking service, 27-year-old Lim Moon Hyang suddenly got tired of responding to instantaneous feedback from her online friends and realized with terror just how deep her SNS obsession ran.
JAPAN
May 16, 2013

Okinawa women's groups condemn Hashimoto justification of sex slaves

Women's groups and other parties in Okinawa Prefecture on Wednesday protested Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's contentious remarks about the wartime sex slaves, with some calling for his immediate resignation.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 16, 2013

Houston, we have a superstar: Crooning astronaut Hadfield's enthusiasm goes viral down on Earth

Chris Hadfield, who crawled out of a space capsule on the plains of Kazakhstan early Tuesday, is dealing with gravity for the first time in five months and sudden global celebrity after singing a gone-viral made-in-space music video.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 16, 2013

TV show gives peek into world of Chinese porn censors

In the annals of bizarre bureaucratic desk jobs, the Chinese government may have all others beat.
Reader Mail
May 16, 2013

Chinese versus U.S. corruption

Regarding the April 6 article "Can China's new government end corruption?": China's corruption can be solved by simply taking a page from the United States and legalizing it.
Reader Mail
May 16, 2013

Catholic link to human rights

Barry Andrew Ward's Catholic-bashing letter of May 9 ... falsely portrays the Cathars as an innocent, wrongfully persecuted religious minority. In fact they held that the world was fundamentally evil, that suicide was admirable, that marital intercourse and reproduction were abhorrent, and other teachings...
Reader Mail
May 16, 2013

Autocratic anti-church struggle

Unable to refute the key role of Christian principles in progressive advances, from abolition of slavery to workers' rights, or the geographical congruence of human rights with the historic arc of Judeo-Christianity, Barry Ward (May 9 letter, "Worthy fight to right the church") resorts to historically...
Reader Mail
May 16, 2013

Cause of anger toward Japan

Frankly I was very sad and disappointed with what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso had to say on the definition of "invasion" as well as their attitude toward invasion and colonization by Japan before 1945.
Reader Mail
May 16, 2013

Secondhand smoke is the enemy

In Joseph Jaworski's May 9 letter, "Limits of planning good health," he admits making the assumption linking a decrease in smoking to an increase in obesity. He then says I made an "unsupported assumption" that the decrease in smoking was from smokers dying and fewer people taking up the habit.
Reader Mail
May 16, 2013

Don't be among the hypocrites

Regarding the May 11 editorial "Preventing use of nuclear weapons": Japan's refusal to sign the international anti-nuclear weapons statement is completely reasonable and consistent with its current defensive policy.
JAPAN / History
May 15, 2013

Hashimoto takes flak for sex slave rationale

The backlash against Osaka political maverick Toru Hashimoto escalates over his remarks justifying Japan's wartime sex slave system and his suggestion that U.S. soldiers in Okinawa use more prostitutes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
May 15, 2013

Kids love park life in the summer

At long last, warm weather has arrived, which means more playtime in Tokyo's parks — from your scrappy, local patch of dirt to the manicured opulence of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. My family's favorite is Yoyogi Park. While not the most pristine public space Japan has to offer, it's certainly the...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 15, 2013

Chinese prostitutes 'routinely extorted, abused'

Police raids on brothels in China have a pattern, sex workers say, often occurring a few days ahead of politically sensitive events or whenever someone in government orders an antipornography campaign to please the leadership.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 15, 2013

IRS conservative scandal snowballs

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN WEB WATCH
May 15, 2013

Google Glass may shatter Japan's 'manner' mode

Google Glass is the latest mobile Internet gadget to grab headlines. Resembling a pair of glasses, the futuristic device enables wearers to access the Internet — in particular Google's search, maps and translation functions — as long as they have a Wifi or Bluetooth connection. The mini computer...

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped