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Reader Mail
Dec 29, 2011

Pressure for higher interest rate

Raymond Regalado's Dec. 18 letter, "Misleading criticism of debt," doesn't mention several factors that are important to this topic. The ratio of Japanese government debt to gross domestic product is around 200 percent. This is among the highest of any developed country. It is sustainable only due to...
Reader Mail
Dec 29, 2011

Japanese aren't the only whalers

Regarding Rhonda Grant's Dec. 25 letter, "Resentment by a new generation": I'd like to know whether Australia's younger generations, who Grant says are voicing hatred toward Japan because of Japan's annual scientific whaling expeditions, feel the same seething animosity toward other whaling nations that...
Reader Mail
Dec 29, 2011

Gutless delivery is no wonder

Regarding the Dec. 27 Kyodo article "Futenma impact report to be mailed to Okinawa": This is exactly what one of my students and I were talking about the other day. He remarked that he would bet that the central government would not hand-deliver its findings to the Okinawa Prefectural Government. I countered...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 29, 2011

Kaori Watanabe: Preparing for the trials of adulthood

"Tradition," and how one might relate to it, is often met with censure in contemporary art. It implies inheritance and repetition and is occasionally thought of as uncreative. None of this has to be true, but the tension between the tradition of nihonga (Japanese-style painting) and the desire to be...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Dec 29, 2011

Grouses escape Yokohama with slim victory

The Justin Burrell Show didn't have a happy ending for the Yokohama B-Corsairs on Wednesday afternoon.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2011

Prepare for the Colder War

Santa Claus may see you when you're sleeping, but NORAD makes sure it sees Santa pretty much round-the-clock. The North American Aerospace Defense Command not only follows Saint Nick's sleigh ride with its famous NORAD Tracks Santa site, but it is also involved in a struggle over resources, border control...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 28, 2011

Looking forward to the next year in tech

If you can manage to look past the bummer of Mayan doomsday prophecies, 2012 looks pretty promising from a tech geek's point of view.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 27, 2011

Kamakura: What word for you sums up 2011?

Mattia CimolaiStudent, 23 (Italian)Change. I'm from Italy and this year a lot of things have changed there, like the government and so on.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 27, 2011

Readers' views: Do foreigners deserve a fairer shake in Japan?

Some responses to the Nov. 6 Just Be Cause column by Debito Arudou headlined "For the sake of Japan's future, foreigners deserve a fair shake":
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2011

A trilateral foundation for Indo-Pacific security

The first ever India-Japan-U.S. trilateral dialogue on Dec. 18 on security issues in the Indo-Pacific region could be the start of a transformation in strategic relations among the major democracies of Asia that has a lasting impact on the peace and prosperity of the region. However, translating mere...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2011

Quake workers bolstered by training

Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku, staff members of the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Tokyo English Life Line felt they needed to help not only the survivors, but also the volunteers, NGO and welfare workers who supported the hard-hit people in the affected areas.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 27, 2011

Many angles to acquiring Japanese citizenship

Nationality has long been a controversial issue in Japan. For most, it is something they are born with; for others, it is something they had to fight for. For some, nationality may be a source of pride, while for others, it may be the cause of discrimination.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2011

China sales set to dip at Hitachi Construction

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., the nation's second-largest heavy-equipment maker, said Chinese demand for excavators will decline in the first half of next year as monetary tightening slows construction projects.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2011

Noda under tax hike pressure

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda faces escalating pressure to secure support for higher taxes after the budget plan for fiscal 2012 revealed the government's record dependence on borrowing.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Overhaul job-hunting system

After a recent trial job interview, my interviewer told me that "company recruiters generally are bored because they have to handle such a large number of students, and most students use the same approach in making themselves appealing."
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Resentment by a new generation

I am an Australian who donated to the Japanese tsunami relief fund. I am disgusted that the Japanese fisheries agency is using [¥2.3 billion from an extra budget for tsunami reconstruction] to fund the hunting of whales. In Australia it has taken a long time for the Japanese to lose the World War II...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Ridiculous antinuclear claims

What Japanese actor Taro Yamamoto — the subject of the Dec. 22 Kyodo article, "Actor uses lessons learned overseas to fight nuclear energy" — ignores is that, in Germany, children are indoctrinated to hate nuclear energy. German children don't become interested in politics at a young age; they are...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Global warming trend beyond us

Regarding Ivor Paul Kaplin's Dec. 22 letter, "Humans behind climate change," the acknowledgment of the human contribution to global warming is so common now that people overlook the details of the situation. Yes, human activity is contributing to global warming. But human activity is not the "primary...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

As mysogynistic as monotheism

In his Dec 19 article, "Why are monotheisms so sexually obsessed?," writer Gwynne Dyer seems to make the common mistake of comparing Western monotheistic religions, with which he is familiar, with less familiar Asian traditions.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Misconceptions about college

Takamitsu Sawa's Dec. 19 article, "Motivation for college study," shows us what is wrong with the educational system in Japan. The comments made by a university president that are not based on knowledge or statistics are quite shocking. I started out hoping to learn more about motivation and ended up...
EDITORIALS
Dec 25, 2011

The earthquake year

The year of the earthquake and tsunami is how 2011 will be remembered in Japan. No bounen-kai (forget-the-year party) has passed without thoughts of those who lost so much in the triple earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster on or after March 11. The powerful 9.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the northeast...
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2011

Fiscal health deteriorates despite Noda's pledges

On paper, the draft of the fiscal 2012 budget appears to indicate Japan has found a way to trim about ¥2 trillion in spending compared with the current year, but in reality the national debt is snowballing as bond issuance will exceed tax revenues for the third year in a row.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 24, 2011

Tokyo's bookworms find readers' paradise in used bookstores

First of two parts
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2011

Vaclav Havel, eternal dissident

The death of North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, has obscured the passing of a truly heroic figure: Vaclav Havel. The Czech writer and dissident who became his country's first postcommunist president died Dec. 18. Mr. Havel was Mr. Kim's worst nightmare — an incorrigible and irrepressible dissenter,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 24, 2011

Politeness beyond words

We all know the Japanese are "very polite." But being polite goes beyond just saying excuse me or thank you or holding the door open for someone. Let's start with the word "teinei," or "polite," in Japanese. Teinei goes beyond the English word "polite" because it applies to far more than just people...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 24, 2011

Terry's future with England in doubt

The season of goodwill? I don't think so. Happy New Year? I doubt it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 23, 2011

2011 trends: Korean boom spreads to a new generation

The love of all things Korean continued to grow in 2011, and along with it, a bit of a backlash.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 23, 2011

Western Conference squads enjoying success on road

If this season's first 20 games have proven anything, there's no such thing as home sweet home for the Miyazaki Shining Suns. Nor is there a home-court advantage for coach Koto Toyama's team.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 23, 2011

"Ueda Souko: Busho Chajin no Sekai Ten"

During the feudal times of the Momoyama Period (1573-1615), samurai culture had come under the influence of the then growing Zen Buddhism. Buddhist art in the form of rock gardens, the tea ceremony and ikebana thus became an important part of samurai life.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb