Search - author

 
 
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2012

End the demonization of Iran

Will the demonization ever end before another catastrophic war takes place in another Middle Eastern country? In Shai Greenberg's Feb. 23 letter urging Japan to boycott sales of Iranian oil, "Unbearable cost of Iranian oil," we are treated to the usual blather about Iran developing an "offensive nuclear...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2012

In the realms of true love and devotion, few could fault Akiko Koyama

On Feb. 21, 1996, Akiko Koyama, the actress wife of renowned film director Nagisa Oshima, received a phone call at her home in Kugenuma Kaigan, Kanagawa Prefecture. It was from an official at the Japanese Embassy in London.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2012

Hungary needs voice of Radio Free Europe

In recent weeks, the Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban has frequently attacked Western media outlets but none more than CNN for its reports on the sorry state of Hungarian democracy. Hungarians can still watch CNN, but since January, the network is no longer part of the package...
COMMENTARY
Feb 29, 2012

Why China resists Western intervention in Syria

Intellectual precision is especially vital in times of geopolitical passion. The full totality of evil of the Syrian government is now on display for the entire world to see. The brutality of President Bashar Assad is beyond immense. And so the blame game has begun.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 29, 2012

In Iraq, done in by the Clinton-Lewinsky affair

The recent public-television documentary on the Clinton presidency has focused attention anew on the scandal involving Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Overlooked is the important role this affair played in the confrontation with Iraq in 1998.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2012

Hamas' diaspora leader comes in from the cold

Amid revolutionary change in the Middle East, the forces of political Islam have scored one electoral victory after another. As the West grapples with the rapid rise of moderate Islamists in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, the issue of Hamas' role in the Palestinian territories looms large.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2012

Effects of China's Cultural Revolution revisited

More than 45 years ago, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the tumultuous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which led to the destruction of millions of Chinese lives. It was a tragedy of unparalleled proportions, and yet the Communist Party continues to honor Mao and refuses to allow in-depth study of...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 27, 2012

The first rule of writing ate-ji: There are no rules

As a general rule, kanji (Sino-Japanese ideographs) are classified in dictionaries according to two readings: kun-yomi (native Japanese) and on-yomi (approximation of the original Chinese pronunciation). For example, 東, the tō in 東京 (Tokyo), meaning "east," is an on-yomi that came from the Chinese...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2012

Over-the-top comments on Japan

The letters from Patrick Byrne (Feb. 19, "Japanese people deserve better") and Marvin Motsenbocker (Feb. 16, "Japan remains the best choice") both contain elements of truth. Motsenbocker's lyrical fawning over a near idyllic Japan is decidedly over the top — a potentially rosy economy combined with...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 26, 2012

A quintessential Korean epic to rival the very best of Tolstoy

LAND, by Pak Kyung-ni, translated by Agnita Tennant. UK: Global Oriental, 2011, Three Volumes, 1,172 pp., $187 (hardcover) Given its length — the 1,167 pages translated, in three volumes, into English, are only one section of a five-part, 6-million word epic — and given its scope, comparisons between...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2012

Kōji — Japan's vital hidden ingredient

The development of Japanese cuisine owes much to the humble kōji or kōji-kin. A type of fungus or mold, it is used in all kinds of foods and beverages. It's as important in Japan as the fungi, bacteria and yeast that give character to cheese, yogurt, wine, beer and bread are in the West. The difference...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2012

'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" was released last Christmas in the United States, slightly after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One would like to suppose that the filmmakers realized the crassness of opening a 9/11-themed film any closer to the actual anniversary, but I'd bet...
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2012

A false spring in South Asia

From the armed coup that recently ousted the Maldives' first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, to the Pakistani Supreme Court's current effort to undermine a toothless but elected government by indicting Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on contempt charges, South Asia's democratic advances...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2012

"The 250th Anniversary of Hokusai's Birth: Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts"

The Honolulu Academy of Arts boasts a collection of some 10,000 ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) , around 5,400 of which were donated by the American author James A. Michener.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2012

"The 250th Anniversary of Hokusai's Birth: Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts"

The Honolulu Academy of Arts boasts a collection of some 10,000 ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) , around 5,400 of which were donated by the American author James A. Michener.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2012

A 'stewpid' time to raise VAT

The International Monetary Fund has joined Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and leading politicians and bureaucrats in laying down a remorseless softening up barrage of facts, figures, argument and just plain determination that the country's consumption tax should rise as quickly as possible.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2012

Why Iran thinks it needs the bomb

Bombastic claims of nuclear achievement, threats to close critical international waterways, alleged terrorist plots and hints of diplomatic outreach — all are emanating from Tehran right now.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2012

Dangerous myth of China as a harmless tiger

Chinese dissident writers exiled to the West today get a very different response than Soviet writers received not so long ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2012

Myth of the U.S. president as master of events

Americans are presidency-addicted. We can't get enough information about our commanders in chief, yet there is a woeful misunderstanding of the office.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2012

How the Arab Spring was hijacked

A year after the Arab Spring came to symbolize the ascent of people's power, hope has given way to a bleak sequel.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 19, 2012

An ode to Japan's magnificent Sika Deer

Deep powdery snow is to a Sika Deer what a stage covered with fluffy feather pillows would be to a top-ranking ballerina. Both lead to loss of grace and floundering, for slim-footed deer and ballerina alike.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 12, 2012

Stiff drink required for half-measure of multicultural insight

HYBRID IDENTITIES AND ADOLESCENT GIRLS: Being 'Half' in Japan, by Laurel D. Kamada. Mulilingual Matters, 2010, 268 pp., $49.95 (paper) As the American mother of two Japanese-American "hybrids" (yet another moniker for hafu/double/Japanese-plus-another ethnicity), I had high expectations before reading...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 11, 2012

TOEIC for Caribou

"Here's an idea. . . . Why not plug my book?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 10, 2012

NNTT hopes Generation 2.0 hears 'Silence'

The late classical composer Teizo Matsumura, American film director Martin Scorsese, and playwright/director Keiko Miyata may seem an unlikely trio, but they share a reverence for "Silence," the 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo.
Reader Mail
Feb 9, 2012

'Couch-surfing' not for the fearful

What makes the Feb. 5 travel article "Yakushima free-stay takes some fearful turns" so special is that the place is so far from Tokyo that even The Japan Times sends a reporter here only when the trip is sponsored, and apparently has to rely on "freeters" to come up with something out of the ordinary....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2012

Obama bows to Arab royalty in democracy push

Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration announced in December an enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia, with a price tag greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half the countries in the world. The administration hailed the sale as a...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2012

Egypt muddies waters of relationship with U.S.

When the government of erstwhile U.S. ally Egypt shut down 17 Western prodemocracy groups, trashed their Cairo offices and slapped travel bans on some of their staff, political relations between Washington and Cairo hit a new and unexpected low.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 7, 2012

Questions raised about account of Tokyo cop assault

Some readers' responses to the Jan. 24 Zeit Gist column by Simon Scott, headlined "American claims Tokyo cop assaulted son, 8":
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2012

Battlegrounds for bringing Wall Street to justice

What shall we make of the surprise pronouncement in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that a belated investigation has been launched into the role of fraud in the financial crisis?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2012

What does Egypt's military leadership want?

"Whatever the majority in the People's Assembly, they are very welcome, because they won't have the ability to impose anything that the people don't want."

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight