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Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Foolish proposal for the marines

Regarding Yoshio Shimoji's May 8 letter, "Better use of the U.S. Marines": The short answer to Shimoji's concern that U.S. Marines should be deployed to their own country to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters is that there are enough marines and other military service members, as well as the...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 11, 2011

Road ahead won't be easy for Lakers

Oh, but it's weird and it's wonderful; here we are, forsythia is on sale for 50 percent off, and we're on the threshold of talking about "next season" regarding the Lakers instead of "next series."
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2011

China anticipates 'explosion' over anything

"They feel they are sitting on a volcano," said a prominent Chinese academic when explaining the government's crackdown on its critics.
JAPAN
May 10, 2011

Osaka day laborer duped into reactor cleanup

An Osaka day laborer who responded to an ad for a truck driver in Miyagi Prefecture found himself working beside the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, it was learned Monday.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Don't bet that the worst is over

Before al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed, there was seemingly little enthusiasm among most Americans for this country's decade-long war against al-Qaida worldwide and against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Better use of the U.S. Marines

In April 27, 135 killer tornadoes struck America's southern states, devastating towns and villages and killing 337 people. Alabama sustained the greatest damage, and reported 249 deaths. Nearly 1 million customers were forced to go without electricity, a scale comparable to that caused by Hurricane Katrina,...
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Knowing what needs to be done

Regarding the May 3 Kyodo article "Ex-JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program) teacher dashed from U.K. to help": It was so uplifting to read this article — to see that someone cares that much for others and is willing to help out (following the March 11 disaster in the Tohoku-Pacific region).
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Bin Laden's execution disappoints

In American schools, we were taught about equality before the law. If a person commits a crime, he or she is brought to court where innocence or guilt is decided. The penalty for the crime is decided by a judge.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Insane choice for future energy

Regarding the May 4 editorial, "Triple disaster and the Constitution": The nuclear plant disaster at Fukushima disaster is not over, and there will likely be other reactors in Japan and around the world that will meet the same fate because of the fact that there are 440 nuclear power plants globally...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 8, 2011

Hearty bunch enjoyed Japan tour

Earthquake, tsunami, radiation threat; despite it all, five dedicated fans from overseas followed through on a planned trip to Japan to watch Japanese professional baseball games in mid-April, just a few weeks after the devastating events that occurred in the Tohoku region of the country beginning...
Japan Times
LIFE
May 8, 2011

A volunteer's journal of hope for Tohoku

When the magnitude 9 megaquake hit northeastern Japan in the early afternoon of Friday, March 11, I was at work in The Japan Times office some 250 km to the south in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 8, 2011

Kashima's ancient rock of faith

Long before the theory of plate tectonics emerged in the 20th century to explain the mechanism behind earthquakes, Japanese folklore had attributed the terrifying phenomenon to the thrashings of the o-namazu — a giant catfish that inhabited the bowels of the Earth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2011

American's food import firm has grown organically

Jack Bayles, owner of Alishan Organic Center and founder of Tengu Natural Foods, has lived within a 5-km radius his entire time in Japan in the shadow of the verdant, hazy mountains of Chichibu near the Koma River in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture.
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Potential to waste viable organs

Regarding the April 28 Kyodo article "Child organ transplants still face hurdles": The under-age transplant law is a big step forward in children's health in Japan. It is a shame that children would have to die when there are organs available that could help them. The law has potential to waste viable...
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Reconstruction a matter of time

Takeshi Kanno, a Japanese doctor selected as one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people," recently commented in New York that his selection symbolized the recognition of all people who have been courageously working to help disaster victims in the Tohoku-Pacific region since March 11.
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Kan serves as convenient target

Regarding the May 2 article "Kan's leadership poor" (poll): No matter how poor Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of the recent tragedies may or may not be, it withers in comparison with the news media's thirst for the blood of a hapless scapegoat.
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Teachers must know their limits

Thank you for the April 10 editorial "Ready for English": With all due respect, I would like to offer a few thoughts.
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Need for better entrance exams

Regarding the March 14 editorial, "Cheating and the cheated": Japanese universities need to introduce a system for evaluating the ability to take advantage of information.
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

New record label Pachinko starts up despite uncertain times

In 2010, legal downloads of music in Japan increased marginally over 2009, but CD sales were down by 12 percent, and sales by foreign artists, both imports and nihonban (domestically manufactured discs), by 15 percent. It doesn't sound like the best time to start a new record label featuring overseas...
JAPAN
May 5, 2011

Workers set to enter reactor 1 building

Eight workers are scheduled to be the first to enter the reactor 1 building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant since it was ripped apart by a hydrogen blast the day after the March 11 tsunami, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday.
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Facing up to Tokyo's inevitable

Philip Brasor's April 24 Media Mix column, "Decentralizing Tokyo may save the nation," reminded me of the common saying that is such a cliche that it is embarrassing to note: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

Oorutaichi

Osaka artist Oorutaichi has long tried to test listeners' ears by blending together many disparate styles, so much so as to render the concept of "genre" irrelevant when discussing his music. For an upcoming concert in Tokyo he hopes to further challenge the sensory experience through the addition of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011

From within the 'outsider' came a wealth of imagination

"American Innocence, Welcome To The Realms of the Unreal" at the Laforet Museum brings together 64 paintings and some personal objects of the "outsider artist" Henry Darger, who was born in Chicago in 1892.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
May 4, 2011

The quake hits Nintendo while hackers shake Sony

For much of March, regular television advertising was all but replaced by public service announcements. Understandable really: Who wants to be the official sponsor of the biggest tragedy to hit Japan since the war? But what if you had just rolled out a new product and wanted to promote it?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2011

Tight-lipped Tepco lays bare exclusivity of press clubs

It was a shocking revelation for a majority of the people in Japan, but maybe not so for major media organizations.

Longform

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