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COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jun 29, 2010

Schools in Japan need to give lessons in empathy

Dear Minister of Education Tatsuo Kawabata, recently I was told a deeply disturbing story by one of my students: A car hit a cyclist outside of her house. She immediately telephoned emergency services, but as she was doing so, she was horrified to see the driver reverse his car over the body of the hapless...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 14, 2010

Tap water gains for economic not environmental reasons

Tokyo has gone to great lengths to make its tap water more drinkable ... so why do most people still buy bottled water?
Reader Mail
Jun 13, 2010

Thailand is returning to normal

A number of comments in Christopher Johnson's May 30 article, "Healing Thailand's broken spirit," could be misleading to readers. The Royal Thai Government made an all-out effort to avoid confrontation and to refrain from violence during the recent protests. On May 3, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva...
Reader Mail
Jun 10, 2010

Japan Tobacco working to cut risks

I would like to point out that Roger Pulvers' May 16 Counterpoint article, "Reality check, 2010: 'Smoking doesn't cause cancer' (Japan Tobacco)," misquotes Japan Tobacco as stating "we don't believe smoking causes cancer." We are disappointed to learn that The Japan Times ran an article with an inaccurate...
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2010

Fair report on Thailand's trouble

I would like to thank The Japan Times for publishing Kevin Rafferty's May 26 article, "Thailand is on the brink," a balanced article of high journalistic quality.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 25, 2010

Telling the other side of the Geos story

Re: "Eikaiwa on the ropes after fall of Geos" (Zeit Gist, May 4) by Richard Smart:
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 18, 2010

Why doesn't national health insurance pay for maternity care?

With high life expectancy and a declining birth rate, you'd think there would be more government money invested in maternity care.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
May 14, 2010

No Konbini No Life: instant maze-soba

Maze-soba is the latest ramen trend to make it to konbeni shelves. If you're desperate, it might hit the spot but there's nothing like the real thing.
JAPAN / CUSTODY OR ABDUCTION
May 14, 2010

Returning to Japan with kids was only safe option, two mothers say

It was a typical love story for Kyoko Yamaguchi. The couple met in Europe, fell in love, married and later had a son.
Reader Mail
May 13, 2010

Patrols are curbing pirate attacks

Regarding the April 27 article "Piracy prompts Japan to open first overseas military base" as well as recent comments from readers about the article: I would like to bring out further information on this matter while clarifying some misleading arguments about the role of the international forces patrolling...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2010

New Wave icons Plastics plan summer gigs

For artists in the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York was definitely where it was at and Japanese band the Plastics were among those who found themselves right at the heart of that heady scene.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 25, 2010

Japan needs united opinion on Futenma's fate

In the middle of March, the Chunichi Shimbun published a survey of average people's opinions of the U.S.-Japan defense alliance. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents said they thought the alliance was either very important or mostly necessary. In addition, 59 percent felt the alliance was OK the...
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2010

Fact is stranger than fiction

The April 14 article "Ex-justice taps body for easy loan, raise" reports that retired Supreme Court Justice Yasukazu Kagawa helped himself to a non-repayable "loan" of ¥15 million (of taxpayers' money) and doubled his monthly salary to ¥1 million (of taxpayers' money). The official verdict of the Justice...
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2010

Hong Kong treads the democracy tightrope

The Hong Kong government announced earlier this month that it had nominated a leading jurist, Justice Geoffrey Ma, to be the next head of the judiciary, succeeding Chief Justice Andrew Li, who served in that post since the former British colony became a special administrative region of China in 1997....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Apr 19, 2010

The knock-on effect of Murakami’s “1Q84” series

The third installation of Haruki Murakami's '1Q84' is bound produce another ripple effect in the book/music biz.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Apr 9, 2010

Kings of comedy yuck it up on April Fools

While satire isn't a staple among Japanese humorists, two kings of comedy are leading the way.
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2010

No fast-track education in Japan

It's back to school in Japan, and back to the perennial questions:
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 4, 2010

Japan, please don't go grabbing Ethiopians' land

On March 15 just gone, this newspaper carried an excellent but disturbing article by John Vidal, environment editor of the London-based Guardian newspaper. He wrote about food shortages and land-grabbing in Africa, and I was particularly troubled to read about deals going on to sell Ethiopian land to...
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2010

Did China trash a treaty?

The high profile case of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu closed with the three-judge court sentencing the Australian citizen to 10 years in prison on charges of corruption and stealing commercial secrets.
Reader Mail
Apr 1, 2010

Media rush aimed at tarring pope

There is no doubt that many bishops in the Catholic Church have failed miserably in their duty to protect children and should be removed. However, the orchestrated media rush to tar the pope with these offenses — of which Gwynne Dyer's March 26 article, "Pedophile-priest coverup transcends 'secular'...
Reader Mail
Mar 28, 2010

The limits of artistic expression

As a 28-year-old Indian, I take strong exception to the publication of Gautaman Bhaskaran's March 9 article, "Intolerance in India putting artists to flight."
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2010

DPJ rule raises Hague treaty-signing hope

It has been over five years since Murray Wood's two children left their home in Canada with his Japanese ex-wife for a supposed visit with their ill grandfather in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2010

U.S. base problem drags on

The loud dispute over the future of the U.S. Marine Air Station at Futenma, Okinawa, is puzzling. Even U.S. officialdom agrees that this base causes enormous inconvenience to the residents of Ginowan city who are forced to live alongside. Plans to have it moved have been around for years. But to where?...
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2010

Yosano faults Tanigaki rule, eyes LDP exit

Ex-Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano indicated Monday he may leave the Liberal Democratic Party and form a new party, saying LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki "is not qualified" to lead since he has failed to attack the current administration's shortcomings and thus hasn't attracted voters.
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2010

Great piece on drinking glasses

Regarding the Feb. 26 Weekend Scene article "A receptacle for the respectable": In this attention-deficit, Twitter-addled age, it takes a lot to make me read a full-page of text. Writer Nicholas Coldicott is one writer who manages it. This article about drinking glasses was his best so far. Keep it...
Reader Mail
Feb 14, 2010

Rights activists deserve more space

Thank you for the Feb. 10 article "NGOs air concerns over strife in Gaza Strip," which mentions the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution criticizing Israel for its human rights record in Gaza. Regrettably, Foreign Ministry official Mitsuko Shino is being disingenuous when she asserts that Japan did not...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan