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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 21, 2011

Korean television dramas are not the real problem

On July 23, actor Sosuke Takaoka tweeted that he was sick of all the Korean dramas on Fuji TV, a network he "used to be indebted to," and demanded more "traditional" Japanese programming. "If anything related to South Korea is on," he continued, "I just turn it off." The backlash was swift, and the actor...
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 20, 2011

War-era canvases of animals resurface

Wartime-era paintings depicting animals have been stored in obscurity for decades at Nagoya City Art Museum and until recently their existence was unknown to the general population.
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2011

Power-saving mindset has limits

Regarding the Aug. 10 article "Nuclear power debate heating up": I strongly disagree with the notion that just because we seem to be doing fine amid the current electricity deficit, Japan will be just fine without nuclear power plants in the future.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 14, 2011

Media coverage often 'the last push' to suicide

In May, 24-year-old TV personality Miyu Uehara was pronounced dead shortly after a friend found her hanging from a door in her Tokyo apartment. Uehara's death was called an "apparent suicide" by the media, and while the terminology was cautious the reporting itself took for granted the belief that Uehara...
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2011

Noda delays announcement of bid to replace Kan amid market turmoil

With financial markets in a state of tumult, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided Tuesday to postpone the anticipated announcement of his candidacy to succeed Prime Minister Naoto Kan as president of the Democratic Party of Japan.
Reader Mail
Aug 4, 2011

Dumb statistic on foreign exodus

The July 31 Kyodo article "10% of foreign residents have left disaster-hit prefectures" is a rather poor example of journalism, as it fails to provide the full context. Yes, perhaps 10 percent of foreigners left the prefecture, but in the bigger picture, how many Japanese also left the prefecture?
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 2, 2011

World needs lessons in dealing with difference; Japan needs an education in attracting students

Following are three more readers' mails in response to both Gerry McLellan's May 24 Hotline to Nagatacho column "Japanese adults need an education in dealing with difference" and other letters published on the subject on June 28.
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2011

Update of released radiation due

Regarding the July 28 article "Threat to food chain grows as contamination spreads": In this article, and in a number of others, I have seen the following statement: "On June 6, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant released about 770,000 terabecquerels of radioactive material into...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 31, 2011

Rail rivalry outcome hinges on speed vs. safety

Following the July 23 collision of two high-speed trains in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province — blamed on faulty signaling equipment — that killed at least 39 passengers and injured over 200, Japan's media, to their credit, suppressed any obvious overtones of shadenfreude. But in the weeks before the...
Reader Mail
Jul 28, 2011

Disappointing answers on beef

I was shocked to see that the July 23 question-and-answer article, "Are worries over meat warranted?," made it past editorial screening. For starters, I refer to the last paragraph of the first answer: "The 82.65 microsieverts compares with the 100 microsieverts of radiation a person would be exposed...
Reader Mail
Jul 28, 2011

How much radiation got out?

I agree with the July 24 letter from the Marumori-machi, Miyagi, man, "Open letter to nuclear experts," who evacuated his wife and children from their home near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. I would like to recommend a very interesting article on how Tokyo Electric Power Co. has betrayed...
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2011

Photo bares caption-writing flaw

Regarding the July 21 article: "Ichihashi trial bares translation woes": The irony of an article rapping the translation skills of Japan's court interpreters accompanied by a photo caption identifying Julia and Bill Hawker as Julia and Bill "Walker" is just too delicious. Keep up the good work.
Reader Mail
Jul 21, 2011

Winding road to one's potential

Regarding Roger Pulvers' July 17 article, "In charting their life's course, today's youth might better stay foolish": Wonderful article! I read the Steve Jobs' speech cited by Pulvers several years ago, and it continues to inspire me through thick and thin.
Reader Mail
Jul 21, 2011

More cruel than 'widow penalty'

The July 17 AP article "'Widow penalty' immigrants finally allowed back in U.S." tells the story of Miwa Neal, a Japanese woman who married an American man but who was denied permanent residency in the United States because her husband died after less than two years of marriage.
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2011

Throw out the 'what if' scenarios

I'm sorry to say that the July 13 article "Fukushima plant site originally was a hill safe from tsunami" is mere speculation, a "what if" scenario and thus 100 percent irrelevant.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

The talent to help prevent suicide

Tokyo English Life Line suggests that journalists and anyone writing about suicide please read the readily available "Guidelines on Reporting Suicide in the Media" (www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/426.pdf).
CULTURE / Books
Jul 10, 2011

Watch your manners!

MANNERS AND MISCHIEF: Gender, Power and Etiquette in Japan. Edited by Jan Bardsley and Laura Miller. University of California Press, 2011, 245 pp., $22.95 (paper) Don't let the cutesy Hello Kitty cover fool you. "Manners and Mischief" disdains frivolity and stands firm as an academic text for students...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 10, 2011

Japan's attention to detail is all in the delivery

While in California recently, I saw a reality program called "Undercover Boss," in which the president of a company disguises himself as a new hire and works beside his frontline employees. The boss thus comes to appreciate how important those people are to the success of his business. At the end of...
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Sensible transfer goes begging

I was glad to see the June 28 article "Daylight savings is it finally time to convert?" I have been a summer resident and law teacher in Kyoto for six of the past eight summers and have found many things about Japanese life that are more sensible than in America, my home country.
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Food safety precedes 'uniqueness'

Regarding the July 1 Kyodo article "UNESCO listing for Japan fare?": While it is apparent that Japanese authorities need to do what they can to promote safe Japanese food products in the aftermath of the recent tragic events in Japan, I am concerned, after reading this article, that too much emphasis...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2011

DST is no shoo-in to save energy

While the June 28 article "Daylight saving: Is it finally time to convert?" does a fair job of presenting the daylight saving time issue, it presupposes that switching the clocks will save energy.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 28, 2011

Daylight saving: Is it finally time to convert?

The nation's sweltering summers are threatening to become even more oppressive with the chance of power outages because of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and the reactor shutdowns that followed throughout the country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 28, 2011

Does Japan need an education in dealing with difference?

The Community Page received a large number of emails in response to Gerry McLellan's May 24 Hotline to Nagatacho column "Japanese adults need an education in dealing with difference." The following is a selection of readers' views.
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2011

Quotes differ from personal view

Giovanni Fazio's June 19 comments about my June 6 Bilingual Page article, "What will Japan learn from the Fukushima meltdowns?," attributes opinions to me that I do not hold and — unless I'm badly misreading my own writing — did not express.
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2011

All the news facts except 'who'

Regarding the June 22 Kyodo article, "Minami Sanriku (Miyagi Prefecture) must pay rent on temporary facility": Why didn't the reporter mention which construction company owns the buildings, and who is demanding rent?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 26, 2011

Eastern Japan edgy as power demand soars

Back in the early 1970s, electronic signposts in Tokyo and other major cities used to display levels of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants along with the temperature.
COMMENTARY
Jun 22, 2011

Kissinger analysis key to understanding China

It is very tempting to proclaim "On China" as the most important new nonfiction book of 2011. But that it may well be.
Reader Mail
Jun 19, 2011

Meaningful levels of radiation

Regarding the June 16 Kyodo article "Tokyo ups radiation checks to 100 sites": I would like to inform you that the measured values reported in this article are meaningless unless you give a time that the values relate to, such as 0.06 microsievert per hour (which I assume you mean in this case). Otherwise,...

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building