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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 29, 2012

Japanese families on endangered list

The family is humanity's oldest and most universal institution. But its shape, size, aims and ideologies seem infinitely variable. Japan's families down the ages have been polygamous and monogamous, multigeneration and single-generation, swarming with children or comparatively, if not entirely, devoid...
Reader Mail
Apr 29, 2012

The level of corporate ineptitude

Regarding the April 24 Kyodo article "Plant used bad breaker for decades": I have to say that I do not understand this level of corporate ineptitude, incompetence and failure of due diligence. Tokyo Electric Power Co. probably should not be allowed to run nuclear power stations, and one wonders if they...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 28, 2012

Taxis' internal surveillance cameras create stir over privacy

Taxi companies are installing video systems in their vehicles to reduce passenger conflicts in a move that is raising privacy concerns because of vague warnings that are leaving many unaware they are being recorded.
Reader Mail
Apr 26, 2012

All designers make assumptions

Kenichi Ohmae's April 18 Focus page article, "Fukushima: Probability theory is unsafe," appears to criticize the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., but actually it is an attempt to save the nuclear industry and the governments that support it.
Reader Mail
Apr 26, 2012

Why are nonbelievers distressed?

Regarding Scott Mintz's April 19 letter, "Catholic Church's belief crisis" (which was in response to Kevin Rafferty's April 11 article, "The pope's leadership crisis"): To begin with, in no way does the Catholic Church "demand" or "command" anyone to believe anything. Why do non-Christians like Mintz...
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Apr 24, 2012

No legal cure-all for fixed-term job insecurity

We like to think that work is about more than just making money, but the reality is that most of us have to work to earn our daily bread. A steady job is crucial for our long-term well-being.
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2012

Up, up and away like a buffoon

Regarding the April 18 front-page Kyodo article "Ishihara seeking to buy Senkaku Islands" (from the landowner): Whose tax money would Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara spend to do this? And would he do this without a referendum?
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2012

Fitting analogy for health debate

Yoshi Tsurumi's April 16 article, "Supreme Court is destroying U.S. democracy," shows the writer's lack of understanding of the American system. No one is saying health care isn't a mess, but the protest is against President Barack Obama's plan that, in effect, makes it a crime, punishable by a fine,...
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2012

Different take on 'mass suicide'

Regarding Eric Johnston's April 19 article, "Doubt in Kansai grows over plant restarts, blackout predictions": Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yoshito Sengoku is quoted as telling an audience in Nagoya that shutting down all of Japan's nuclear power plants would be akin to "mass suicide."
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 21, 2012

Spirituality drove Mie native to scale mountains for 9,738 consecutive days

A photo exhibition celebrating a Mie Prefecture man who climbed mountains for nearly 10,000 days straight, and who only stopped because he died last year, opened earlier this month at the Mont-Bell outdoor and climbing goods store in Nagoya.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Japan Pulse
Apr 20, 2012

Kokeshi back in style with a new look

Once sinister-looking souvenirs, kokeshi make a comeback.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 20, 2012

Government shows awareness of something called 'child support'

New divorce notification forms finally acknowledge that some couples have kids.
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2012

Respect for the balance of power

The constitutionality of the "individual mandate" at the center of U.S. President Barack Obama's health care plan may be a close question, but what is far more clear is professor Yoshi Tsurumi's complete misunderstanding of the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in giving voice to the Constitution's checks...
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2012

Catholic Church's belief crisis

I usually enjoy Kevin Rafferty's social commentary, but his views expressed in his April 11 article, "The pope's leadership crisis," need to be challenged. His assertion that the story of Jesus "requires less suspension of belief than Harry Potter" is ridiculous. To truly believe that Jesus was the son...
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2012

'Sink or swim' ethic in America

Regarding Robert J. Samuelson's April 16 article "Look at Social Security for what it is: welfare," unfortunately millions of retired Americans depend upon Social Security payments for survival. Because the concept of "lifetime employment" is virtually unheard of in the United States, we do not often...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 17, 2012

Bread and becquerels: a year of living dangerously

My New Year's resolution back in January was to survive this year, and many more to come, which means keeping myself and my family as far from harm's way as possible.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 17, 2012

Texan's magic transforms verandas

When you step out onto the veranda of Theodore Jennings' penthouse apartment in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, it almost feels like you're on vacation in some other location — be it New York or some European resort.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 16, 2012

U.S. digs in to hold Futenma

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has asserted that a Japan-U.S. agreement struck in February will help resolve the issue of relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which now sits in the middle of densely populated Ginowan City in the central part of Okinawa Island.
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2012

The hunt for Japan's civilization

The perennial debate on the death penalty again reared its head with Cesar Chelala's excellent April 11 article. But I fear that his exhortations will once again fall on the deaf ears of those who kill in the name of the state, both in Japan and in the United States.
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2012

Cultural choice of punishment

Regarding Cesar Chelala's April 11 article, "Why Japan and U.S. should ban the death penalty": I applaud the Japanese government for literally executing the will of the people instead of bowing to nongovernmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, that lack any democratic legitimacy. It's...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 2012

An idol 'graduating' should not be front-page news

Following Atsuko Maeda's March 25 announcement that she was leaving the all-girl idol collective AKB48, a rumor circulated on Twitter that a male University of Tokyo student had committed suicide in response. The rumor was quickly exposed as a hoax, but the point had been made. People were taking the...
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2012

Too soon to the back burner

Regarding Takamitsu Sawa's April 10 article, "Energy conservation is key": I agree that more conservation is of utmost importance, but I don't see Japanese companies, the Japanese government and the Japanese people doing much.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 15, 2012

Wild Watch turns 30 this month

As April 2nd's 30th anniversary of my first Wild Watch column in The Japan Times neared, I was in India — teeming Delhi to be precise, with its cacophony of people, honking traffic and barking dogs, though a tailorbird would stop and call outside my window, where a palm squirrel never tired of chattering....
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2012

The Titanic and the nuclear fiasco

On the night of April 15, 1912, 100 years ago today, the allegedly unsinkable luxury liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. Of the ship's 2,200 passengers, 1,500 lost their lives. Since then the Titanic has become an object lesson, an obsession and the subject of countless...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 14, 2012

De-icing agent in deer debate

Nagano Prefecture applies a de-icing compound to its roads to prevent them from freezing over in winter, but the substance may be endangering wild deer by luring them to busy routes to feed on the salt it contains.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 14, 2012

What's needed to put something on the World Heritage list?

Last week I talked about Japanese food becoming a UNESCO World Heritage. This got me to thinking that perhaps American food too should qualify. Stop laughing.
Reader Mail
Apr 12, 2012

Texting piece leaves bad taste

Even though the When East Marries West column for April 7, titled "Texting in the proper context," was short, I felt incredulous after reading it. I would have read it again, but the text-speak writing was atrocious and difficult to read. People don't actually text like that in English; it surely defeats...
Reader Mail
Apr 12, 2012

Disingenuous fear of China

Regarding Michael Richardson's April 5 article, "U.S. and allies move to counter Chinese power": Richardson repeats the disingenuous U.S. allegation that China is threatening freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
Reader Mail
Apr 12, 2012

Classifying nonsubstantive facts

Regarding the April 6 front-page article "First glaciers in Japan recognized": This is the silliest research I have ever seen. Of course, there is ice movement; it's happening on a micro-scale in every place with ice and, by implication, with permanent ice.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past