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EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2013

Japan's cyber security strategy

The government's efforts to adopt a cyber security strategy deserve praise as long as the constitutional protection of communications privacy is not undermined.
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

The power of ideas over time

In his May 23 letter, "Watching what the church does," Barry Ward cannot refute Jennifer Kim's comments (May 16 letter, "Catholic link to human rights"), which show the debt owed by modern human rights conventions to Judeo-Christian teaching. So, instead, Ward fumes over historical wrongs committed by...
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

Perception of a poisoned ocean

Regarding the May 22 Kyodo article "Researchers find high cesium in some Pacific plankton": Even small amounts of radioactivity in plankton are a big problem because of bio-magnification, as it travels up the food chain as larger animals eat smaller animals.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2013

Four core 2008 Clinton staffers would pass on a 2016 bid

Howard Wolfson, the 2008 communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has said he will not return for a 2016 presidential campaign. Neither, for that matter, will Neera Tanden, the campaign's policy director. Ditto for Mark Penn, the chief strategist, and Patti Solis Doyle, the embattled campaign...
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2013

Abenomics vs. bad economics

The good news is that the Japanese economy and stocks are recovering. The bad news is that austerity hawks still view 'Abenomics' as a mere flash in the pan.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 28, 2013

When can you fight a job transfer?

A foreign reader writes: "My husband is working for a company that has branches in Shinagawa, Narita and Ibaraki. He used to work at the Shinagawa branch, and then he was forced to move to the Narita branch.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2013

Firebombing victims waved off

Japan's top court waves off allegations by civilian victims of the 1945 Tokyo firebombing raids that state relief to them was inferior to what military victims got.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 27, 2013

South Korea's 'export' crisis

South Korea ranks at the bottom of OECD member nations in 'technology trade balance,' which doesn't say much for the design capabilities of manufacturers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 26, 2013

Xenophobia stretches from the street to the dinner table

The territorial disputes between Japan and its nearest neighbors over the islands of Takeshima (Dokdo in Korean) and the Senkakus (Diaoyu in Chinese) have gradually faded from the front pages; but this does not necessarily mean there have been no repercussions.
Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Language debate goes nowhere

I assume that one purpose of publishing The Washington Post article titled "English-language education proposal has French up in arms" on The Japan Times' front page May 20 was to stimulate the ongoing debate about English education in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 25, 2013

Angelina Jolie: a brave woman and a role model

An article written by Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie provoked headlines around the world when she chose "not to keep my story private" and revealed she had undergone a double mastectomy to lower her risk of breast cancer, which was high due to her genetic inheritance. The impassioned letter, published...
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2013

Bill threatens the lives of the poor

By tightening procedures to receive livelihood assistance, a bill just submitted to the Diet could end up raising the suicide rate and the number of deaths by hunger.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 25, 2013

More women taking to plane spotting at Centrair

More women have joined the groups of men taking photos of landing and departing aircraft at Central Japan International Airport (Centrair).
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2013

Why U.K. exit from EU may now be a real possibility

The realization hits a recent visitor to the U.K. that Britain might actually leave the EU. Attitudes are hardening well ahead of a promised referendum on membership.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
May 24, 2013

Fighting for their lives, local governments shell out for matchmaking services

In Itoigawa, Niigata, the government has begun subsidizing online dating service membership in an effort to pair up more locals.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Not for impressionable men

Regarding the May 16 front-page article "Hashimoto sticks to guns on sex slaves": The cruel and insensitive statements from Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto about encouraging the U.S. military to make use of Japanese prostitutes and his apologism for wartime Japanese soldiers' enjoyment of serial-sex with...
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Perfect material for bullying

Regarding Kaori Shoji's May 13 article, "It ain't easy being a bilingual girl": I agree that bilingual Japanese face obstacles today as they did 30 years ago.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 21, 2013

China tapped Google server secrets

Chinese hackers who breached Google's servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years' worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 20, 2013

The rifleman: behind assault weapons' rise

Rene Carlos Vos, an arms dealer in Alexandria, Virginia, began hanging around the Washington headquarters of the National Rifle Association in the mid-1980s. The NRA's staff were intrigued to see the garrulous, back-slapping Vos in the group's seventh-floor suite, home to its lobbying operation and the...
WORLD
May 20, 2013

English-language education proposal has French up in arms

There was a time, not so long ago, when anyone with a proper education spoke French. Diplomacy and business were conducted in French. Knowledge was spread in French. Travelers made their way in French and, of course, lovers traded sweet nothings in French.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2013

France must lead breakup of euro

For France and for the euro system, the best strategy is to dismantle the monetary union from the top — via the exit of Germany and the other most competitive countries.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 19, 2013

Trimming the fat from Japan's problems

Why do people disagree?
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Where do these guys come from?

Regarding the May 15 front-page article "Hashimoto takes flak for sex slave rationale" and related media stories: Why would a system of government-sponsored brothels be considered inappropriate, not to mention criminal, in this day and age?
Reader Mail
May 19, 2013

Nonsecular take on a rebellion

Regarding the Washington Post article by Jackson Diehl, which ran in The Japan Times on May 8 under the headline "Putin's hand in radicalizing a secular rebellion": The writer would appear to have little knowledge of Chechnya or Russia; nor does he seem to understand the meaning of the word "secularism."...
WORLD
May 18, 2013

Before tea party scandal, IRS harassed gay groups

Before there was the tea party, there was Big Mama Rag, Inc.
BUSINESS / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 18, 2013

Aichi's drop in 2012 factory rankings deceiving, if only for lack of energy

Aichi ranked fourth nationwide in new factory construction in 2012 with 51 new locations designated for plants, a report compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 18, 2013

Minds traumatized by disaster heal themselves

One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded hit on Boxing Day 2004. The resulting tsunami devastated huge swaths of the Indian Ocean coastline and left an estimated quarter of a million people dead across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Aid agencies quickly arrived to help battered and traumatised...
WORLD / Politics
May 17, 2013

Tensions between Obama administration, news media reach boiling point

It was an article of faith among conservatives before Sen. Barack Obama became president, and has persisted through his re-election: America's first black president and the supposedly liberal mainstream media enjoy a veritable love fest.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2013

Mr. Hashimoto's unacceptable words

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's call for greater use of sex shops by U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa increase suspicions about his common sense and sense of dignity.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years