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COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 25, 2008

Fukuda's pain is Aso's gain

The focal point in Japanese politics has been shifting from when Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will call general elections to who will replace him.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 25, 2008

Animals, wives, togs, renovation

Foreign brides Regarding the " 'gaijin' lady thinking of marriage to her Japanese guy" (March 3), LGK is surprised we didn't direct her to the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese ( www.afwj.org ), which boasts a membership of 500.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 16, 2008

Car industry hitting the bumps as wheels lose their cachet of cool

Anew TV commercial for insurance company Tokyo Kaijo Nichido features two newborns lying next to each other in a hospital maternity ward, telepathically discussing the "pleasures" that await them in life.
Reader Mail
Mar 11, 2008

iPhone sales may surprise

Regarding the March 6 article "Warm reception may not await iPhone in Japan": The iPhone may be a big hit anyway. Why? Because the reasons cited in the article are based on logic, and consumer behavior in front of such a toy is anything but logical. If you consider the electronic music market, you could...
LIFE / Language
Mar 11, 2008

Smart tips for avoiding those 'White Day' blues

This coming Friday, March 14, is Howaito Dei (White Day), when males follow the custom of reciprocating the Valentine's Day chocolates (or other gifts) they received a month earlier.
Reader Mail
Mar 11, 2008

NATO states need straight talk

Regarding the March 6 article by former defense chiefs of staff for five NATO countries, "New times require a new NATO strategy": This so-called new strategy should rest on old common virtues -- honesty and transparency in an overdue public debate. But what the writers (including Klaus Naumann, former...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2008

Bolstering U.S.-ASEAN Cooperation

BANGKOK — The strategic presence of the United States in Southeast Asia takes two forms, both of which are interrelated: The relationship is institutionalized through the Pacific Command in Honolulu and then formalized through various hub-and-spoke agreements with member states of the 10-member Association...
Reader Mail
Mar 2, 2008

Fear of foreigners holds Japan back

Regarding the Feb. 27 article (from Sentaku magazine) "Wanted: world's best minds": The writer evidently believes that Japan is largely unable to attract the best young minds from abroad for studies and employment because politicians and bureaucrats have been unwilling to institute the necessary measures,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 27, 2008

Wanted: world's best minds

With further globalization of economic strategies among the industrially advanced nations, fostering and securing "brains" in the scientific and technological fields has become of utmost importance to every country.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2008

Critique of culinary culture

I am a food barbarian. The Feb. 21 article "Tokyo's samurai chefs devoted to their craft" got me thinking more about the wasted concern that restaurants, hotels and food professionals afford their Michelin ratings. There are only three things important to me about food: (1) is it delicious? (2) can...
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2008

Promo piece light on research

The Feb. 20 article "Dyson urges youths to take interest in engineering, science" was a sad piece of journalism. The real story on British-born James Dyson (the founder of Dyson Ltd. who was in Tokyo this month to promote a new vacuum cleaner) would require a more time-consuming article on the quality...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 24, 2008

Rightwingers who scream the loudest allowed to win in Japan

Major media coverage of the legal standoff between the Japan Teachers Union (Nikkyoso) and the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo had little effect on the standoff itself, mainly because coverage didn't really take off until everything was over.
Reader Mail
Feb 21, 2008

The root of national identity

Regarding the Feb. 16 article "(Tokyo Gov. Shintaro) Ishihara laments loss of national identity": Ishihara is quoted as saying that if North Korea launched a missile, "the Japanese would instantly change." When North Korea launched six missiles two years ago, did Japan change as a result of that?
Reader Mail
Feb 21, 2008

Students need various viewpoints

John Spiri's Feb. 19 Zeit Gist article, "Sitting out but standing tall," offers an excellent overview of the repression the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education employs against expressions of conscience with regard to the national anthem Kimigayo and the national flag Hinomaru. It is ironic that a country...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2008

Limit the numbers at fish market

Regarding the Feb. 7 article "Tsukiji looks to curb pesky glut of tourists": While having some sympathy for the fishmongers of Tsukiji market, the article presents the inescapable and, unfortunately, all-too-common whiff of xenophobia in Japanese institutions (however insignificant).
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2008

Chinese views on North Korea

In recent years, issues pertaining to North Korea have been hotly debated by Chinese institute researchers. The publication of conflicting views in authoritative media suggests that these debates are sanctioned by the Chinese leadership.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2008

Tsukiji looks to curb glut of pesky tourists

The Tsukiji Fish Market, one of Tokyo's most popular and well-known tourist draws, has adopted rules urging visitors to voluntarily "refrain from coming," because of sanitation concerns and the disruptions they pose to auctions.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2008

Overriding vote passes '07 extra budget

The Lower House on Wednesday overrode the Upper House's rejection of a ¥1.78 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2007 and rammed it through the Diet, the first such move pertaining to an extra budget in 15 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2008

Handling the Taiwan issue

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Opinion polls indicate that one-third of Americans believe that China will "soon dominate the world," while nearly half view China's emergence as a "threat to world peace." In turn, many Chinese fear that the U.S. will not accept their "peaceful rise." Americans and Chinese must...
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2008

Obsession blinds rational debate

The headline for bioethics professor Peter Singer's Jan. 17 article, "Hypocrisy weakens West's whaling protests," was misleading. Any number of other key points in Singer's article would have made for more appropriate titles, such as "Whales cannot be humanely killed." And that's just to start with!...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2008

Hope for pacifying the strait

The following passage, which was not given wide press coverage, was included in a report that Chinese President Hu Jintao made to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last fall:
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2008

False choices for Tokyo

HONOLULU — A gloom is settling over Tokyo. A recent visit revealed deep and deepening frustration and anxiety as Japanese contemplate strategic options. Decision-makers in Tokyo have framed their choices in overly simple terms that do not reflect the range of possibilities in foreign and security policy....
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 21, 2008

Fukuda's house won't stand

It appears all but certain that the Japanese political landscape will undergo a drastic change this year as a result of general elections following the dissolution of the House of Representatives by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
Reader Mail
Jan 17, 2008

Far-fetched claim to 'life force'

Regarding Angela Jeffs' Jan. 12 article, "Therapist brings healing through hypnosis": Just when I thought that Angela Jeffs had run out of faith healers and quacks, here comes one more. According to "The Skeptic's Dictionary" -- the practitioners of reiki (and other energy healers) believe that health...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2008

Billing Catch-22 traps patients

On Oct. 6, 2005, when Nobuhito Kiyosato went to the Kanagawa Cancer Center, where he had been treated for kidney cancer since 2001, he was told there would be a major change in his treatment.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2008

Illness, not policies, ended my time in office: Abe

The abrupt and, at the time, inexplicable resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September stunned the nation, prompting criticism that he was an irresponsible and immature politician who couldn't even offer a convincing explanation as to why he quit the nation's top post.
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2008

Looking forward to moving up

Regarding the Jan. 5 article "Assistant language teachers in trying times": Finally a realistic take on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and the subject of ALTs. I am finishing up working two years with Interac. Aside from the grievances listed in the article, add that I was made to change my...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2008

Establish limits on naval support to U.S.

As the debate continues in Japan's Diet this month over a new Antiterrorism Special Measures Law (ASM Law) authorizing Japanese naval force activities in the Indian Ocean, serious attention must be paid to the issues of exactly how such activity is to be limited, and how the Diet can meaningfully monitor...
Reader Mail
Jan 8, 2008

Extortionist fees for insurance

Thank you for the Jan. 4 article "The doctor will see the moneyed and insured, but less fortunate also ail" -- about the plight of the uninsured and underinsured in Japan. One point that the article failed to mention is the difficulty of entering the Kokumin Insurance program even if you are a legal...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2008

Food for oil: global version

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — It has always been interesting to me how much of a role sheer coincidence has played in the history of the world.

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