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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 15, 2009

Movie JAL doesn't want you to see snubbed by media

Big-budget movies need all the help they can get recovering their production and promotional costs at the box office, so advertisements stating that the 3 1/2-hour epic "Shizumanu Taiyo" ("The Sun That Doesn't Set") is a "big hit" should be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, every movie released...
Reader Mail
Nov 12, 2009

Why put off the flight cuts at JAL?

The Nov. 7 article "JAL must stay aloft until January: turnaround chief" states that Japan Airlines Corp. will scrap 16 money-losing domestic and international flights by the end of May. How much money are these flights losing? Why not shut them down next month? Why spend good money after bad?
Reader Mail
Nov 8, 2009

Couples' weak pursuit of romance

Regarding Debito Arudou's Nov. 3 article "Demography vs. demagoguery: when politics, science collide": Arudou's comments remind me of . . . . the recent phenomenon of "plant-eating men" — those who prefer a "metro-sexual" lifestyle of fashion and hobbies over pursuit of a girlfriend.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2009

How the U.S. can clear Guantanamo's name

TUCUMAN, Argentina — The U.S. Senate decision allowing terror suspects held at the U.S. Navy's Guantanamo Bay facility to be brought to the United States for trial is a significant development toward resolving the human rights issue surrounding their detention.
Reader Mail
Oct 25, 2009

Right of foreigners to leave Japan

In the Oct. 20 Zeit Gist article "Foreign parents face travel curbs?," why does professor Colin P.A. Jones write: "Japanese citizens have a constitutional right to leave their country. And foreigners? They apparently lack this right."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2009

Of simmering frogs and economists leaping to terminal conclusions

They say that if a frog is dropped into boiling water it will jump out, but if it is placed in water that is then heated slowly it will steadily acclimate and boil to death — having missed its chance to escape.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 24, 2009

Standing army still the prize peace-breaker

NEW YORK — The news that President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize immediately brought to mind comparisons with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who received the same prize back in 1973. In the outpourings of sharply divided reactions that ensued, a great many, it turned...
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2009

Foreign parents face travel curbs?

I think it is safe to say that the countdown has begun — the countdown to it becoming more difficult for you to leave Japan with your children. Difficult, that is, if you are non-Japanese and traveling without their other parent (or his or her written consent).
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 20, 2009

Seeking some advice, a lost father, friend

Where is my father? Yovichi (Yoichi?) Perez is "Japinoy," meaning of Filipino-Japanese ancestry. He saw a letter from a Japinoy like himself, also looking for his father, so he thought he would try his luck with us.
Reader Mail
Oct 18, 2009

First diplomat came from Spain

Regarding the Oct. 3 article "The first Western diplomat in Japan": Rodrigo de Vivero y Velasco (born in Laredo, Spain) was a Spanish officer from The Viceroyalty of New Spain, who was appointed interim governor of the Philippines from June 15, 1608, to April 1609. The Viceroyalty of New Spain included...
JAPAN / Q&A
Oct 10, 2009

Custody laws force parents to extremes

The high-profile case of Christopher Savoie, a Tennessee man who was arrested in Fukuoka Prefecture for snatching his two children from his Japanese former wife and now faces kidnapping charges, illustrates the extremes a partner in a broken international marriage will resort to for child custody.
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2009

Wish list of a bicyclist in Japan

Regarding Tomoko Otake's Sept. 27 feature article, "Let's Bike!": I love being able to bike around, and it's definitely safer here than in my hometown back in America. But the article should have mentioned the bad behavior of people not on bikes.
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2009

Term 'offends' many foreigners

Regarding Ronald Kessler's Sept. 29 Zeit Gist article, "Gaijin health coverage: an appeal for choice": Why do (headline writers) repeatedly insult and offend many of The Japan Times' non-Japanese readers by referring to them as "gaijin"?
Reader Mail
Sep 27, 2009

Folly of shopping with the eyes

"Why don't we eat bent cucumbers?" (Sept. 17) is a fantastic article. Many years ago, when I lived in Japan, I was always buying the "cheap" baskets of fruit and veggies sitting on the ground and not the vendor's table. I spoke pretty good Japanese, but despite repeated questioning, I never got a straight...
Reader Mail
Sep 27, 2009

Short shrift to suicide prevention

Regarding the Sept. 20 article "Now suicide has become a political issue, how will Japan address it?": It is refreshing to see an article on suicide in Japan focus on the fact that it takes political will for any nation to bring about any significant lowering of its suicide rate.
Reader Mail
Sep 20, 2009

Sole deterrent against nuclear war

Regarding the Sept. 15 article "Japan balks at limits on U.S. nukes": There is no defense against the use of nuclear weapons. The U.S. nuclear umbrella is a myth. Read the book "One World or None" by the Federation of American Scientists (New York Press, 2007). The renowned contributors to the book...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2009

Divining Japan's new leadership amid the expectations of change

LONDON — On a recent visit to France, I was frequently asked about the results of the Japanese election. Did the results mean that Japan was really changing? Would the new Japanese government increase Japan's influence in the world?
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2009

Where is North Korea's good will?

I enjoyed Gregory Clark's Sept. 10 letter, "Common-sense policies dismissed," which was a response to my response to his Aug. 26 article ("First ban the hawks, then the bomb"). As I said the first time through, I am not a fan of rightwing hawks; they do exist and they do make trouble. That said, my main...
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2009

Accomplices in promoting folly

How can a citizen know that what he reads, sees and hears from the media is accurate and fair? That's the question triggered by Hiroaki Sato's Aug. 30 article, "Media connivance in walking the dogs of war."
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2009

Incoming first lady has already made a big splash

Fresh off an accord to form a coalition with two minor parties, Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama began compiling a list Thursday of possible candidates to form his new administration.
Reader Mail
Sep 10, 2009

Writing about a minority group

After reading Debito Arudou's Sept. 1 article, "Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown ," I am not sure what Arudou is more upset about: Mr. James as a threat to foreign identity in Japan, or foreigners who refuse to join Arudou in his dramatic outrage. I would like to suggest that Arudou's writing does more harm...
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2009

Revisiting the folly of India's nuclear tests

WATERLOO, Ontario — Three recent events reopen the debate on the wisdom of India's nuclear tests in 1998, as judged from within the narrow framework of its own interests. Or rather, they confirm the folly of the tests:
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2009

DPJ and Japan-U.S. relations

Some media in the United States expressed concern that the new Japanese government to be headed by Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama may pursue a more independent foreign policy. The DPJ's election platform and a recent article by Mr. Hatoyama that appeared in The New York Times Web site...
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Sep 5, 2009

Ex-army cadet, 81, recalls war mind-set

25th in a series
Reader Mail
Sep 3, 2009

Excessive blame placed on Bush

Regarding Yoshi Tsurumi's Aug. 27 article "Time to reject tyranny and health insecurity": I appreciate the significant connections between the United States and Japan, but was professor Tsurumi seriously suggesting that Japan's suicide rate has been caused by George W. Bush?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 30, 2009

War over whaling takes to Japan's airwaves

In early August, director Louis Psihoyos told The Toronto Star that his documentary, "The Cove," had been submitted to the Tokyo International Film Festival and rejected. In the article he quoted an unnamed TIFF "director" who said that the festival receives funding from the Japanese government, which...
Reader Mail
Aug 20, 2009

Aquino eulogy seems exaggerated

Regarding former Philippine President Fidel Ramos' Aug. 14 article, "Cory Aquino's legacy of enriched freedom": Cory Aquino was undoubtedly a kind, honest and unpretentious president, but she was ineffectual. To attribute "enriched freedom" to her is simply an intellectual exaggeration bordering on flatulence....
Reader Mail
Aug 13, 2009

Steps toward human maturation

The Aug. 6 article by the Rev. Eric Freed, "Purpose of remembering," was one of the most appropriate statements yet with regard to the 64th anniversary of the atomic explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With persuasive and quiet eloquence, Freed appealed for our unavoidable commitment to being creative...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Aug 5, 2009

Heisei kids: a generation that struggles to dream

"Dad?"

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