Search - agree

 
 
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2012

The Houla massacre

The situation in Syria continues to worsen. While accurate information is difficult to acquire, all indications are that the country hovers on the brink of a civil war. The most recent atrocity is a massacre in the town of Houla that left at least 108 people dead. On Saturday, 89 deaths were reported...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 4, 2012

A hot genpatsu-free summer threatens

Two things make a battered Japan cringe: genpatsu (原発, nuclear power) and fukeiki (不景気, economic stagnation). The nation has suffered deeply from both. As spring fades into a potentially sweltering, potentially stagnant summer, there arises an agonizing dilemma: Can the latter be avoided, or...
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2012

Talk about a drag on the economy

Regarding the May 31 Kyodo article "Aging population a drag on economy: Shirakawa": Isn't Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa forgetting something? The very same aging demographic whom he bemoans for being a "drag" on the economy built a world-class economy during the 1960s and 1970s!
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 2, 2012

Racism not confined to Euro hosts

Before the 2006 World Cup in Germany we were told by certain sections of the English media that neo-Nazi gangs would terrorize visitors. Two years ago South Africa would, allegedly, be a machete-wielding war zone.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 2, 2012

A different health standard

It was Friday the 13th. And two health officials showed up at our door.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2012

It's not healthy to make a chief justice 'worry'

In one of his characteristic conniptions about people who frustrated him, Theodore Roosevelt, progressivism's first president, said of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "I could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone than that." TR was as mistaken about Holmes' spine as are various progressives...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 29, 2012

Tokyo: What do you think of the move by two hotels at Tokyo Disney Resort to offer same-sex marriage ceremonies?

C. Sakai
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

Biblical vs. modern ideas of love

Regarding Catherine Wallace's May 13 letter, "People aren't compelled to love": I agree that love is genuine when chosen freely and not forced, but I don't see how this describes love in the Jesus story. Wallace stops short of identifying the "inevitable consequences" of choosing not to love Jesus: everlasting...
JAPAN / Media
May 27, 2012

Nuke documentary experiments with online fundraising

At one point or another, every filmmaker, producer or journalist has dreamed about freeing themselves from the financial restraints of media production. The team behind "We Are All Radioactive" — a documentary about a community of surfers and fishermen in the small tsunami-stricken town of Motoyoshi...
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

The road to a volunteer culture

Regarding the May 18 editorial "Helping people help NPOs": With more companies concerned about corporate social responsibility, this is a great time to start encouraging companies to cooperate with the operations of nongovernmental organizations. I just came back from Japan after living there through...
Reader Mail
May 24, 2012

The answer to who will lead us

I agree with Paul Gaysford's May 20 letter, "Stupidity of planners and builders." The problems and failures to which he points go far beyond the scope of the letter's title. Gaysford seems to expect better from the country that he and I both call home, and so do I.
Reader Mail
May 24, 2012

Drivel from populist politicians

It is my experience in Japan that there is a common tendency of people to make mountains out of molehills and to complain about things that are practically nothing at all. It's not universal, of course, but it is common enough that I think it must be a deliberate strategy to manufacture an excuse to...
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2012

Chen case highlights Beijing's misrule of law

A last-minute deal between the United States and China may afford human-rights lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng the opportunity to enroll in law school in New York. But, even if a way out of the diplomatic debacle is at hand, much about the case remains troubling. In particular, despite more than...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 22, 2012

Parents, please keep your kids away from me at feeding time

Dear Parents of Japan,
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2012

Reinventing NATO for the 'smart defense' era

This month the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will hold its next summit in Chicago. Unlike European Union summits, which take place almost monthly, NATO's are infrequent. This helps to explain the inflated rhetoric that surrounds them: The November 2010 summit in Lisbon, for example, was described...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 20, 2012

Japan faces a long, hot, nuclear-free summer

Is Japan — and particularly the Kansai region — going to have enough electric power to get it through peak summer demand? The Meteorological Agency's three-month projection for May through July, posted on its website (www.jma.go.jp/jp/longfcst/000_1_10.html) hedges its bets. For the four main islands,...
Reader Mail
May 20, 2012

Road for English-speaking robots

I agree with Natsumi Ando, but I'd like to stress the importance of the mother tongue. Without a rich experience of free discussion in the mother tongue, we will never be able to effectively debate in any language. Just witness the sad state of adults engaged in endless exchanges of meaningless words,...
Reader Mail
May 17, 2012

Let international tribunal decide

The ongoing ruckus between Manila and Beijing over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea exposes China's penchant for bullying and contempt for international law. This gives other countries that have territorial disputes with Beijing, including Japan, an idea of the standoffs they might expect with...
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2012

Beijing tightens the screws on foreign journalists

In 2001, when it made a successful bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing promised there would be complete freedom for the foreign media to report in China. While this did not occur, more liberal rules were introduced, such as not requiring official permission before conducting interviews.
JAPAN / 40 YEARS AFTER REVERSION
May 16, 2012

U.S. defense shift keeps Okinawa in strategic mix

The 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan came with a price — the continued use by the United States of sprawling military bases and other facilities in the prefecture to protect Japan and maintain peace in the Asia-Pacific region.
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2012

Okinawans deserve better

Forty years have passed since Okinawa reverted to Japanese rule on May 15, 1972, after 27 years' of occupation by the United States following the end of World War II. Polls show that about 80 percent of Okinawans regard the restoration of Japanese rule as a positive development. The central government...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 14, 2012

Nuclear watchdog autonomy

As the ruling Democratic Party of Japan under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pushed to make the yet-to-be-established Nuclear Regulatory Agency subordinate to the Environment Ministry, the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito favored granting it greater authority.
Reader Mail
May 13, 2012

Put priority on debating skills

Amy Chavez's May 5 Japan Lite column, titled "English fluency and alligator pits," deals with the very thing that I'm concerned about these days. As someone who is learning English at a university, I often sense the importance of communication skills other than what passes for "fluency" in English-conversation...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2012

Cancer survivors tell of workplace prejudice

Seven years ago, Naomi Sakurai was diagnosed with breast cancer and told she had only a 60 percent chance of surviving another five years.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb