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JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Mar 3, 2013

Say goodbye to the Buddha of the yakuza

Takahiko Inoue, yakuza boss and Buddhist priest, died Feb. 10 at age 65. The police determined that he fell from the seventh story of the building where his office was located. When the ambulance arrived, Inoue told the crew: "I'm fine. Just take me to the hospital. I'll walk to the car myself." Those...
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

Circle of life in the neighborhood

There is a general hospital and a public high school within easy walking distance of my central Tokyo home. Every morning when I walk to the local subway station to begin my daily commute, I pass a stream of handsome teenagers heading toward the maw of the local school where their sports coaches are...
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

Japan doing well by its elderly

The Feb. 27 Bloomberg article "Seniors forced to go it alone as ranks swell, housing eludes" highlights some important issues, but overstates them. And by omission, it leaves the misleading impression that Japan is somehow behind other countries in providing for frail elderly people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 3, 2013

A visit to Usa, the Japanese city that knows how to win

It is the time of the year when many people get nervous about winning and losing. Students are cramming hard to pass entrance exams to get into the high schools and colleges of their dreams.
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

More women for Seoul politics

Regarding the Feb. 26 AP article "South's Park slow to pick women for top positions": As a Korean, I can say that it is true that discrimination against women in the workplace is a big issue in South Korea. And I'm looking forward to seeing changes in this area just as we welcomed the election of the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 3, 2013

Solution to bullying lies in 'resetting' culprits

"The biggest problem in Japanese education is the idea that you can eliminate bullying by reforming the system."
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

Skip the reference to James Bond

The Feb. 28 Kyodo/AFP article "125,000 lethal doses of sodium cyanide leaked in Iwate" mentions writer Ian Fleming's fictional secret agents who were issued cyanide capsules to kill themselves if they were captured. Referring to James Bond in an incident that endangered the lives of thousands of people...
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

One Australian's view of whaling

I live in Tasmania and would like to speak against the comments by Japanese fisheries minister Yoshimasa Hayashi that were quoted in the Feb. 28 AFP article "Japan will never stop whaling: fisheries chief." Here in Australia, we hear that:
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2013

Their likes won't pass this way

In his Feb. 28 letter tribute to the late movie critic and author Donald Richie, "Remembering Donald Richie," Japanologist Karel van Wolferen recalls the weekly lunches that Richie and he had with literary translator Ed Seidensticker. What a magnificent and lively gathering that must have been. It would...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 2, 2013

Russia meteor explosion shines light on Aichi's 'cape of stars'

The second-oldest meteorite in Japan, the Minamino, is housed in Yobitsugi Shrine in Nagoya.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 2, 2013

PLA hackers are just the tip of cyberwarfare risk

China is awash with nondescript new office buildings, so the 12-story tower in Shanghai's Pudong area hardly looked likely to cause global headlines. Not even propaganda posters on walls surrounding it or People's Liberation Army guards standing at the gates made the building stand out.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 2, 2013

Teacher cultivates more bilingual education opportunities for children

As international marriages rose in Japan in recent years, the number of bicultural families increased, and many children of such families are being raised to speak the languages of both parents. American Mary Nobuoka, director of the Bilingual Special Interest Group (B-SIG) and parent of a bicultural son, devotes much of her time and energy to helping other families in their journey of language and discovery.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Mar 1, 2013

Qusca: a good place to nap on the job

People fall asleep everywhere in Tokyo, but this cafe is actually made for it.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2013

Inequity of slavery reaps vengeance in 'Django'

Quentin Tarantino, whose film plots are often fueled by a mania for vengeance, has struck again with the Oscar-winning “Django Unchained.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2013

'Obey'

Director: Temujin Doran
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 1, 2013

Iconic Iwojima photo: a survival story

The battle had raged for four days, and would continue for 31 more, a marathon of sand and heat and unrelenting death. But at that moment there was an order from the brass: Get a bigger flag up there. The small American flag fluttering atop Mount Suribachi, the volcanic peak on the island, was too small...
SOCCER / J. League / 2013 J. LEAGUE PREVIEW
Mar 1, 2013

Tokyo, Antlers hoping to climb ladder

FC Tokyo leads a host of teams looking to improve their fortunes during the 2013 J.u2009League campaign.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2013

Assemblyman's rebuke of moms seeking day care draws outrage

Mothers should remember that the responsibility of raising children lies first with each household before making "shameless" demands for more nursery schools, a Suginami Ward Assembly member wrote Feb. 21 in his blog, drawing hundreds of angry comments.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 28, 2013

In New York, the Guggenheim goes Gutai

By now, the looks, character and history of Gutai, the post-World War II Japanese art movement born in 1954 in Ashiya, between Osaka and Kobe, are familiar to regular viewers of modern-art exhibitions in Japan. Last summer's "Gutai: The Spirit of an Era," a survey of the movement's evolution and its...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2013

No meat to vegetarian story

I consider the headline for Philip Brasor's Feb. 24 Media Mix article, "Japan's vegetarians stay in the closet," misleading. Most of the story is not about the vegetarian situation in Japan, but rather a discussion of animal rights. I have no idea what the author really wanted to say with regard to vegetarians...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2013

A long way to gender parity

Regarding Joseph Jaworski's Feb. 21 letter, "Cut the irrelevant gender data": While the treatment of female pop stars is not specifically a factor in Japan's low ranking of 101 out of 135 nations in The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report, the low ranking is not irrelevant. The ranking and...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2013

Too willing to send others to war

Hisahiko Okazaki's Feb. 20 article, "Japan's step toward normalcy," sounds like jingoistic bunkum. He suggests that Japan was left of center politically (during the Cold War), because less than 50 percent of the respondents surveyed were willing to fight to defend the country. According to Okazaki, it...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’