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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Sep 23, 2013

Matahara: turning the clock back on women's rights

Both statutory and case law are crystal clear on the illegality of firings due to pregnancy. But the law is one thing; practice is quite another.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2013

Exclusive: Red Hat's lethal Okinawa smokescreen

In July 1969, a leak of chemical weapons on Okinawa sickened more than 20 U.S. soldiers and laid bare one of the Pentagon's biggest Cold War secrets: the storage of toxic munitions outside of continental United States.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 13, 2013

Democracy hits the Web, but are the 'real' voters listening?

The Wall Street Journal posted an interesting article on its Japan Real Time blog regarding the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP's) beef with broadcaster TBS, whom it accused of bias against the ruling party on its "News 11" program.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2013

Alternatives to Mr. Abe's way

The July 21 Upper House election will have a great impact on Japan's future. Voters would do well to consider alternative paths to the prime minister's way.
Reader Mail
Jun 23, 2013

Right to express religious views

When I noticed Drusilla de Lanor's June 13 letter, "No offense taken to 'that guy' " (which was a reaction to Brian Redmond's June 9 letter, "An offensive religious reference"), I thought of how enlightened De Lanor must be.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2013

What political parties have to offer

Voters shouldn't let the Upper House election campaign lull them into thinking that the Liberal Democratic Party no longer cares about constitutional revision.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
May 21, 2013

Records offer rare glimpse into Justice leak probe

When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2013

Weep for poor Earth itself

What would prompt a respected international investor to lament that the global economy shows signs of potential failure that has brought down civilizations before us?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 6, 2013

Plan to introduce TOEFL to universities has its merits

The media and kyōiku senmonka (教育専門家, pundits on education) have been voicing the pros and cons of the idea put forward by the Jiminto (自民党, the Liberal Democratic Party) to make TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) mandatory for entrance exams at all Japanese universities.
COMMENTARY / World / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 28, 2013

West never tires of the 'burden' of baiting Iran

Is The New York Times inciting a U.S. war against Iran? As it did the war against Iraq?
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2013

Komeito as countervailing power

Since the formation of a coalition government on Dec. 26, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito have gotten into the full swing of governing. The parties jointly occupy more than two-thirds of the Lower House seats — enough to overturn Upper House decisions on legislative bills.
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2012

Equal vs. special rights for gays

A more accurate headline for the Dec. 7 Kyodo article "LDP: Gays don't need special rights" would be "LDP: Gays don't need equal rights." Based on The Japan Times' headline, I expected to read about the Liberal Democratic Party advocating against bestowing some unique and "special" rights to gay people,...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 11, 2012

'Changed' Abe makes case for fresh chance

In an article published Monday in the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine, Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe apologized for abandoning the prime ministership a year into his term in 2007 but insisted he is a changed man and deserving of another chance.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 13, 2012

There's much more to Mormonism than this

The truth of Mormon As a Mormon living in Japan, I would like to take a moment to comment on John Spiri's article "Against all odds, Mormons in Japan soldier on" (Zeit Gist, Oct. 23).
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 14, 2012

Check with school, kids before posting videos of children online

Reader A writes: "I'm a junior high and elementary school teacher, and I was wondering if you'd published any articles outlining the law regarding privacy policy and children in Japan?
Reader Mail
Aug 9, 2012

A sign of giving up on pacifism

In his Aug. 4 article, "Why Japan should amend its war-renouncing Article 9," Craig Martin tries to make a case for giving in to the demands of Japan's rightwing by ending 65 years of pacifism. Not only do I think that this is a foolhardy idea but also that it couldn't have come at a worse time.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 31, 2012

SOFA a source of sovereign conflicts

The July 23 arrival of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture and plans to deploy them this fall to Okinawa have fueled stiff opposition from local governments nationwide.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 24, 2012

'Flyjin' feel vindicated, worry for those left in Japan: some readers' responses

Responses to Patrick Budmar's June 12 Zeit Gist article, " 'Flyjin' feel vindicated, worry for those left in Japan:"
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 10, 2012

Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary

Some readers' responses to "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary" by Patrick Budmar (Zeit Gist, July 3):
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 8, 2012

A decade serving the community

Wednesday marks the 10-year anniversary of the Community pages, which have been providing news, analysis and opinion by, for and about the foreign community in Japan since May 9, 2002.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 6, 2012

'Hidden children' of politicians no hurdle to success

Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa was acquitted last week of conspiring to file false financial reports for his political group. He can now return full-time to the job he was elected to do, but the sense you get from the mainstream media is that he's through as a politician. The press has...
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2012

Rushing for constitutional changes

Japan marked the 65th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution on Thursday, and 60 years have passed since the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, ending Japan's occupation by the Allied Powers. Until that day, decrees issued by the occupation forces headquarters...
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2012

Fat claims skinny on details

The March 12 Bilingual page article, "Japanese men love their men more than their women," raises the awareness of ramen shops in Japan and mentions their health risks. It states that Japanese men will stand in line for hours for their beloved ramen.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 26, 2011

Strange how isolationist stance can ruin a politician's reputation

Perhaps because it's a round number, the 70th anniversary of Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor has given me the impression that more articles on it saw print than in the past, except for, as I recall, the 50th anniversary of the same.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 20, 2011

Cultural relativism, Meiji, phonetics and eigo woes

Some readers' responses to Nicolas Gattig's Nov. 22 Zeit Gist column, headlined "MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes":
Reader Mail
Nov 24, 2011

Reports are walloping tourism

The Nov. 18 front-page article "Cesium fallout widespread" states that there has been continued testing of soil throughout Hokkaido since before and after the March 11 nuclear accidents at Fukushima, the results of which can be found at: http://monitoring-hokkaido.info/index.php?lang=en
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2011

Arab revolutions unable to waken media to revolutionary discourse

When President Ali Abdullah Saleh tried desperately to quell Yemen's popular uprising, he appealed to tribalism, customs and traditions. All his efforts evidently failed, and the revolution continued unabated.
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."

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building