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Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2007

Marriage not needed for family

Regarding Geoff Botting's May 20 translation (" 'Done it' marriages multiply") of a Shukan Post article: To my mind, the meaning of "dekikon" wasn't properly explained in the article. . . . Technicalities aside, in this day and age, pregnancies occurring among unmarried couples should not really be...
Reader Mail
May 30, 2007

'The people' means nationals

Reiji Yoshida's May 8 article, "Constitution protects all" -- about how far Japan's Constitution protects the rights of foreigners -- is a bit misleading.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2007

Basic Law of the Sea

A s an island nation, Japan owes its economic prosperity largely to trade via sea routes. The United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, which stipulates a 12-nautical mile territorial limit and a 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone, went into effect in 1994 and Japan ratified it in 1996.
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2007

More compelling than common sense

The following statement appeared in an article on the opinion page of The Japan Times in July 2003: "The main result of the U.S. action (in Iraq) will probably be to turn a nation free from al-Qaida links into yet another hotbed of anti-U.S. 'terrorism,' and to push one of the few secular Middle Eastern...
Reader Mail
May 27, 2007

Are defibrillators worth it?

I read with interest Alice Gordenker's column about the legal change that permits laypeople in Japan to operate the automated external defibrillator (AED), and the installation of AEDs in public places ("So what the heck is that?" April 17).
JAPAN
May 25, 2007

Survivors of WWII air raids begin case for compensation

Civilian survivors of U.S. air raids on Tokyo during World War II testified in court Thursday in a bid to win compensation for their suffering and, ultimately, to put the brakes on the government's drive to amend the war-renouncing Constitution.
Reader Mail
May 13, 2007

Obara ruling disgraceful

I was astonished and outraged at the acquittal of Joji Obara in the Lucy Blackman rape and murder case. If Blackman did not get the justice that she deserved, at least her case will open eyes and make people question the quality of police forensic work and, above all, the credibility of the entire judiciary...
Reader Mail
May 6, 2007

Railway's cruel omission

I noted a rather shocking contrast in the April 26 edition of The Japan Times. On page one was an article about a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the train crash in Amagasaki ("Train-crash dead mourned, except driver"), and on page nine there was an article on memorials at Virginia Tech ("Virginia...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 29, 2007

Gorilla snot and Tokyo sauce

TABLOID TOKYO 2, by Geoff Botting, Ryann Connell, Michael Hoffman, Masuo Kamiyama, Mark Schreiber; Illustrations by Hirosuke Ueno; foreword by Mark Schreiber. Toyko: Kodansha International, 2007, 288 pp., profusely illustrated, 1,400 yen (paper) The success of the first volume of "Tabloid Tokyo" has...
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2007

Worst aspect of a death sentence

Regarding the April 18 Timeout section article, "Japan's way of injudicial killing": Death by hanging must be one of the most unpleasant ways to die. For any condemned inmate on Japan's death row, the worst aspect of such a sentence is the almost sadistic dread that he must suffer every morning. How...
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2007

Australia-Japan pact welcome

Gregory Clark delivers another, predictable anti-Australia rant in his April 12 article, "Australia's anti-China pact," which is full of hypocrisies and a barely concealed loathing for his former country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 7, 2007

'Don of Roppongi' seeks peace in East Asia

It's a rum kind of shop. But then Takeshi Maki -- who, while regarding himself as a member of Japan's silent majority, is nicknamed the Don of Roppongi -- is a rum kind of bloke.
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2007

Nazis worried Roosevelt more

While in transit at Narita, I came across Mike Lidgley's March 18 letter about Pearl Harbor, "Winning the geopolitical game?," and the Feb. 24 article that it referred to, "Telling the truth at Yasukuni," by Hisahiko Okazaki. I was so shocked by the article that I referred it to a distinguished colleague....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2007

What is becoming of my grandfather's wisdom?

These days it's tough to be a journalist. This may sound like a whinge, but whinges may sometimes reflect a real situation. Oh, it's fine if you agree with the line of thought acceptable to governments, religious organizations or interest groups. But if you dare hold up a mirror to them, you may run...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2007

Koreans sue Yasukuni to get names delisted

A lawsuit was filed Monday against Yasukuni Shrine by 11 South Koreans seeking to have their names or the names of their relatives struck from the list of war dead, saying their inclusion is "an insult" that causes intolerable pain.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 26, 2007

Eastwood didn't idealize Kuribayashi

NEW YORK -- Isn't the Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Clint Eastwood's film "Letters From Iwo Jima" idealized? That was a question my poet friend Geoffrey O'Brien asked on New Year's Eve. A dedicated student of film, O'Brien had remembered a poem about the general that I translated three decades ago. Written...
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Apologies without conviction?

Regarding the Feb. 16 article "Former 'comfort women' tell Congress of ordeal": It is absolutely amazing that the "comfort women" issue is still being reported on in 2007. Then again, perhaps not -- when a Japan Times article runs comments such as: "Japan reckons its leaders have repeatedly apologized."...
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Senseless dolphin slaughter

Thank you for publishing Boyd Harnell's Feb. 14 article, "Eyewitness to slaughter in Taiji's killing coves," the account of the dolphin killings in Wakayama Prefecture. Animal cruelty occurs worldwide, but few things are as horrifying as the mass slaughter of the one of the world's most intelligent,...
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Two 'ways' of intelligent design

In his Feb. 16 article "Unintelligent designs on real evolution," Edward Humes justly posits two theories of evolution -- the scientific and the popular "straw-man image of evolution." Sadly, he is less than just in positing only one contrasting theory, which he calls "an upstart movement" ("intelligent...
Reader Mail
Feb 18, 2007

Lack of Islamic expertise shows

In Dinesh D'Souza's Feb. 5 article, "Bin Laden, America's left and the hysterical reaction to the 'The Enemy at Home' (D'Souza's book)," D'Souza argues that "Bin Laden isn't upset that there are U.S. troops in Mecca" -- since there are no troops in Mecca. This is technically true, but Osama bin Laden...
Reader Mail
Feb 11, 2007

Redrawing the battle line

Regarding the Feb. 2 article by George P. Fletcher, "Declining tolerance of dangerous words": I began the article with an open mind, but it is still unclear from what angle Fletcher was writing his piece, although this may in itself have been its angle. What I take issue with are his comments about...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2007

'I Just Didn't Do It' questions court system

, who stars in "Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai" ("I Just Didn't Do It") and Masayuki Suo, the film's director, face reporters Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. SETSUKO KAMIYA PHOTO
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2007

Will a murder help Turkey?

The assassination of Turkish journalist Hrant Dink has forced Turks to face their past. Mr. Dink was killed because he had called the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century a genocide. While his rhetoric angered many Turks, his death appears to have prompted many more of them to think twice...
Reader Mail
Jan 28, 2007

Humane alternative to abortion

Regarding the Jan. 14 article "The birds, bees and the Japanese" (Mark Schreiber's commentary on a survey published in the Jan. 21 edition of Yomiuri Weekly): I got the impression that many Japanese people feel that there are only two solutions to an unwanted pregnancy -- abortion or raising a child....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 28, 2007

More than money was found wanting in 'the lost decade'

Last week in this column, in an attempt to trace the roots of the nationalism now becoming a mainstream political force in Japan, I discussed the currents that characterized this country in the 1980s. This week I will look at the 1990s, to see how the social euphoria of the '80s led to what has come...

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