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COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2013

How much longer will the Iran 'game' go on?

The latest failure of talks on nuclear development between Iran and six world powers indicate that mutual animosity will increase without a new approach.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 14, 2013

Tabloids sharpen claws for North Korea's 'X-Day'

Three months before the present crisis on the Korean peninsula, Shukan Jitsuwa (Jan. 24) ran an uncharacteristically astute article predicting that in addition to potential for armed conflict with China over the disputed Senkaku Islands, North Korea, under its inexperienced young leader Kim Jong Un, posed a serious threat to Japan.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

'Iron Lady' is worth emulating

Much has been written and said about the life and times of Margaret Thatcher. I was especially pleased to read Gwynne Dyer's balanced article "The Iron Lady's lasting legacy" and George Will's complimentary "Margaret Thatcher buoyed by vigorous virtues," both published April 11 in The Japan Times print...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

When is enough, enough?

Regarding the April 6 AFP-JIJI article "Whale institute still justifying lethal research": I believe a few points need to be raised.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 14, 2013

Net TV expresses views the mainstream ignores

Last week's column mentioned "Pack-in News," a current-affairs talk show that used to stream on the Internet TV channel Kinkin.tv, which is the personal project of veteran actor-emcee Kinya Aikawa. It was a continuation of "Pack-in Journal," a show hosted by Aikawa on the satellite station Asahi Newstar...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

No reason to fear North's nukes

The argument posed in the April 9 AP article "Japan has real reasons to fret about North Korean nukes" does not hold up to scrutiny.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 13, 2013

Aichi tries to hang on to female doctors

Starting from April, female doctors with children at Fujita Health University Hospital in Toyoake, Aichi Prefecture, who need shorter working hours to care for their young will have the option of working 20 or 30 hours a week, instead of the regular 40 hours.
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013

Silly statistics on the ephemeral

Regarding the April 5 Jiji Press article "Aomori blossoms 'best'": Are you kidding me? Did Weathernews Inc. really take a hanami survey to find out all the important statistical data about the cherry blossom viewing habits of Japan's hanami-loving devotees?
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 10, 2013

Employment counselors forced to sit on the other side of the window

In one area of employment public servants have it worse than private sector workers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 9, 2013

Whatever happened to the Goldman Sachs union?

In February 2012, a small band of sacked workers in Japan took on one of the world's biggest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, unionizing in a bid to keep their jobs and win a better deal from a firm they believed had treated them unfairly.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2013

Comparing tobacco fight to the Opium Wars

The struggle against tobacco is not being won. It is being relocated from industrialized countries to the developing world.
Reader Mail
Apr 7, 2013

Violent impulse of Americans

Regarding the April 3 AP article "Death penalty sought in Colorado shooting case": In the wake of each mass shooting, the question on everyone's mind is always "why?"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 7, 2013

Men cry discrimination as women's status rises

Japan, it seems, is forever discriminating against someone. Women, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, lifestyle minorities, the disabled, part-time workers — all have made claims against a state and a national psychology that define acceptability very narrowly relative to most other developed societies....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Apr 4, 2013

Interest in final resting places never dies

High-rise cemeteries make it possible for the dearly departed to stay in the big city.
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2013

Japanese-Brazilian's amazing feat

Regarding the March 30 article, "Japanese-Brazilian beats the odds to win place at university": Japan should offer more support to bicultural individuals such as this gentleman. (Twenty-year-old Rafael Yukio Kusuki, a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian, is said to be living in an Aichi Prefecture public...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 3, 2013

Akita veteran guard Hasegawa to retire after season

What has been expected for many months is now official: Makoto Hasegawa is set to retire after this season, the Akita Sakigake Shimpo and other media outlets reported on Tuesday, Hasegawa's 42nd birthday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2013

How three central bankers made today's world in three days

The BlackBerrys all started buzzing, just before dinner was to begin at the Palacio da Bacalhoa, a 15th-century estate outside Lisbon. The 21 men and one woman charged with charting the course of Europe's economy looked down to find startling news that evening of May 6, 2010.
BASKETBALL
Mar 31, 2013

Miyazaki Shining Suns in limbo

The cash-strapped Miyazaki Shining Suns have made it known they want to fold the team or defect to the NBDL (the re-launched JBL2) next season, the Miyazaki Nichinichi Shimbun reported Saturday.
Reader Mail
Mar 31, 2013

What are Americans' excuses?

Regarding The Washington Post article by Max Fisher, published March 25 in The Japan Times under the headline "Did success have a prayer in Iraq?": Lessons will go unheeded by the "38 percent of Americans" who continue to think the Iraq war was "worth it."
Reader Mail
Mar 31, 2013

Comeuppance for Osaka mayor

The March 26 Kyodo article "Osaka city survey on labor plans ruled illegal" was good to read. I think it is about time that someone stood up to the bullying nature of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and the dictatorial way he has treated city employees.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 31, 2013

Last post: Japan's outdated model is dead; long live the emerging vision

As of today, Roger Pulvers takes leave of Counterpoint, for which he has written weekly since its inception on April 3, 2005. In his final three columns, he set out to consider in turn Japan in the past, present and future. This is the concluding part of that trilogy.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 30, 2013

Nippon Ishin unveils new platform at convention

Nippon Ishin no Kai introduces candidates for the Upper House election and a new platform that calls for revising the 'Occupation Constitution' at its first-ever convention.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 30, 2013

Japanese-Brazilian beats the odds to win place at university

Rafael Yukio Kusuki, 20, a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian, has been accepted to Aichi Prefectural University, his first choice, after overcoming a host of difficulties — including homelessness — to continue his studies.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 30, 2013

The car of the future that runs on air

There was a sense, when I arrived in Paris a couple of weeks ago, that France was if not quite in meltdown then certainly enduring a profound existential crisis.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2013

Summly highlights how smartphones are upending media models

Many this week celebrated the latest tech wunderkind, a British teenager who made a fortune selling an app that boils down news reports, no matter how important or complex, into a pithy 400 characters. But for some of those who prefer heartier servings of news, the development carried at least a whiff...
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2013

To build brand, firms produce own media

The Red Bulletin is a handsome Web and print magazine that practically oozes testosterone. Recent issues have featured stories on the world's deepest free diver, human-pyramid building in Spain and a guy who rappels into volcanoes. All of it is embellished with photography worthy of Sports Illustrated....
WORLD / Society
Mar 28, 2013

Effects of same-sex parenting debated

Amid the legal arguments at Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing on same-sex marriage, there loomed a social science question: How well do children turn out when they are raised by gay parents?
Reader Mail
Mar 28, 2013

Situations that Japan inherited

Paul Gaysford, in his March 21 letter, "Qualifying Japan's flexibility" (which commented on my March 13 article, "Flexibility key to resolving Japan's territorial disputes"), correctly suggests that Japan has been a bit too "flexible" in the handling of those disputes, and that more "truth, integrity...
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 27, 2013

LDP undaunted by vote-value rulings

Despite a spate of high court rulings that last year's general election was unconstitutional and even invalid due to large vote disparities, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party doesn't think it is necessary to hold another Lower House campaign as long as it works on election reform, Secretary General...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 26, 2013

If corporal punishment works, where are all the champions?

In the final scenes of Aaron Sorkin's powerfully written film "A Few Good Men," one of the U.S. Marines on trial for the murder of a fellow serviceman is bewildered as to why he has not been cleared of all charges after his commanding officer admits ordering the attack. "We did nothing wrong," cries...

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