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Reader Mail
Nov 10, 2011

Equality of housing insulation

The government's cancellation of summertime electricity curbs does not free us from the necessity of continuing to save electricity in these difficult times. Next, we face renewed energy reduction and savings quotas for the cold winter season.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 1, 2011

Ganbatte and gaman stifle debate, hinder recovery

Nuclear debate discouraged Re: "Japan needs less ganbatte, more genuine action" by Debito Arudou (Just Be Cause, Oct. 4):
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2011

Wall Street mans the barricades

In spite of the current economic turmoil, some Americans do not have any problems with jobs, money or housing. Indeed, Houston oil executive John Schiller built a new Cape Cod house for just $50,000 a couple of years ago. A bargain, you might think, except that this was a play-house for his four-year-old...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 30, 2011

Yea! As I walk through the valley of Todoroki . . .

Todoroki Valley Park, a protected green swath along Tokyo's only ravine, strikes me as an interesting and possibly quite sheltered destination on a brisk and breezy fall day.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 30, 2011

Irabu spent final days lost, without purpose

For the late pitcher Hideki Irabu, the surname Irabu had come from Hideki's mother. It was her surname, and Hideki's stepfather, Ichiro Irabu, had been a common-law husband.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2011

Only the Japanese public's will can raze that lethal 'village'

"Of all the places in all the world where no one in their right mind would build scores of nuclear power plants, Japan would be pretty near the top of the list," wrote Leuren Moret in a "Power and the people" Timeout special in The Japan Times on May 23, 2004.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 23, 2011

Unbeaten Jets edge B-Corsairs in OT

Coming off a pair of victories in their first two regular-season games, wins over the two-time defending champion Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, the Chiba Jets were fired up to play the first home game in team history on Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 18, 2011

Agent Orange revelations raise Futenma stakes

On Sept. 26, Nago City Council became the first municipality on Okinawa to adopt an official resolution calling for the governments of Japan and the United States to conduct an investigation into the spraying and storage of Agent Orange on the island.
BASKETBALL
Oct 16, 2011

Osaka's Washington reaches 5,000-point milestone; Jets win first game in team history

Star forward Lynn Washington scored his 5,000th point in an Osaka Evessa uniform on Saturday, leading the hosts to a 79-60 season-opening victory over the Takamatsu Five Arrows at Sumiyoshi Sports Center. The Chiba Jets, meanwhile, collected a win in their first game in the bj-league.
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2011

Beware the nuclear apologists

Regarding the Oct. 4 article "U.K. expert says limits on radiation 'unreasonable": It is disconcerting to read physics professor Wade Allison claim that radiation levels at Fukushima and in foodstuffs are no cause for concern. Medical experts dispute this, among them Tokyo University's Radioisotope Center...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 7, 2011

Selfless Shimura relishing basketball's return to Sendai

In the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Sendai 89ers guard Takehiko Shimura emerged as an encouraging voice and a brave, positive symbol of hope for the Tohoku region. And his tireless efforts involved traditional and contemporary methods.
Reader Mail
Sep 29, 2011

Word about the weather forecast

As a 30-plus-year subscriber to The Japan Times, I have always had the greatest respect for this newspaper, which I have relied on for good journalism and insightful reports. I would like, however, to mention the weather forecast printed on the last page, which I find quite irritating as the temperatures...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2011

Monitoring of cesium in food

It's good to see The Japan Times covering the issue of radiation in food. Tomoko Otake's Sept. 20 article, "Hold the cesium: ways to reduce radiation in your diet," contained useful information, but I would take issue with one point.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 18, 2011

Get your kicks in Japan

Walk the streets of Tokyo's trendy Harajuku and Shibuya shopping districts and the sheer variety of fashion worn by people passing by can be, to the uninitiated, simply mind boggling. But, look at their feet and more often than not they are wearing shoes that are more familiar — sneakers. Even if at...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 11, 2011

Print ad featuring MacArthur sends muddled message

On Sept. 2, a controversial newspaper advertisement placed by Takarajima-sha, a mid-tier publisher, went viral on Japanese blogs and Web news sites.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 6, 2011

Kang family takes fight for justice to Tokyo

Sung Won, the father of Hoon "Scott" Kang, the Korean-American tourist who died in mysterious circumstances in Shinjuku last year, arrived in Tokyo this week to continue his fight to seek justice for his son.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 6, 2011

'Sexlessness' wrecks marriages, threatens nation's future

In its cover story last month, The Economist newsmagazine looked at the issue of "Asia's lonely hearts: Why Asian women are rejecting marriage and what that means." It offered many reasons — including economics, education level, changes in family structures and gender roles, divorce difficulties, and...
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2011

Where did Agent Orange stop?

Regarding Jon Mitchell's Aug. 24 article "Okinawa vet blames cancer on defoliant": The Japan Times journalists working on this very controversial story should be considered eligible for a Pulitzer Prize. I don't know of any newspaper in the United States that is reporting on this story. There are probably...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2011

Okinawa vet blames cancer on defoliant

When Caethe Goetz was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare form of bone marrow cancer, at age 49 in 2003, both she and her doctor were perplexed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2011

Pitt, Penn heap praise on Malick's 'real world'

Terrence Malick kicks off his new film, "The Tree of Life," with a bang. The Big Bang, actually. Over the next 138 minutes, the viewer witnesses a journey through history that ends up in a small town in Texas. Critics seem to agree that you'll either love it or hate it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2011

Agent Orange buried on Okinawa, vet says

In the late 1960s, the U.S. military buried dozens of barrels of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in an area around the town of Chatan on Okinawa Island, an American veteran has told The Japan Times.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2011

A deal struck in Washington

German statesman Otto von Bismarck is credited for pointing out that "laws are like sausages: It is better not to see them being made." Never has the truth of that old saw been more evident than during the week through Aug. 2, when the world witnessed the sorry spectacle of U.S. politicians scrambling...
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 6, 2011

Nakazawa hoping to return to national team

On Tuesday afternoon, Yuji Nakazawa could never have imagined the events that would unfold over the course of the week.
COMMENTARY
Aug 4, 2011

A stinging defeat for Obama

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman nailed it right away: "Basically the Republicans [said] we'll blow up the world economy unless you give us exactly what we want, and the president said, OK. That's what happened."
COMMENTARY
Aug 1, 2011

A less blinkered view of the Dalai Lama

As expected, China reacted strongly to the meeting between Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, saying this had "grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, hurt the feelings of Chinese people and damaged Sino-U.S. relations."
Reader Mail
Jul 31, 2011

Avoid meat and feed more people

The July 21 article "What it takes to banish starvation," by former European commissioner for agriculture Franz Fischler, repeats all the silly ideas that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has been promoting for years, and that has led directly to the development of gene-modified food and seeds....
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2011

South profits from nuke scare

South Korean food exports to Japan are climbing at their fastest pace on record after radioactive contamination and supply disruptions prompted consumers to switch to overseas producers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 29, 2011

Local galleries move to fore at Art Fair Tokyo

On the Japanese cultural calendar, visual-art events tend to take place in the more pleasant seasons of spring and autumn. Classical music and ballet have winter sewn up, with dozens of performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 or "The Nutcracker" being held over the Christmas-New Year period,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2011

Winning the transition to democracy

Is the Arab Spring turning into a gloomy autumn? With brutal crackdowns in Syria, a bloody civil war in Libya, and Yemen teetering on the brink of chaos, the number of skeptics is growing. Although Egypt and Tunisia's prodemocracy movements achieved rapid regime change, uncertainties remain in those...
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2011

Mindful of pesky value judgments

The Japan Times runs opinion articles written by current and retired Japanese bureaucrats. Professor Takamitsu Sawa's July 12 article, "Advantage of taking notes," was a waste of space even though Sawa sounds more like a journalist than a bureaucrat.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami