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COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2012

Blame West for Mali's mess

The intentional misreading of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's violent, though predictable, Operation Odyssey in Libya last year. Not only did the action cost many thousands of lives and untold destruction; it also paved the way for perpetual...
Reader Mail
Apr 8, 2012

Gender equality starts at the top

Regarding the April 4 Kyodo article "Limits eyed for female Imperial branches": The Japanese Imperial system should allow not only female branches but also a future female emperor. As the U.N. charter for human rights postulates the same rights for men and women, I think the Emperor, as the head of society,...
Reader Mail
Apr 8, 2012

Sunny pipe dream in the storm

Regarding the April 5 front-page Kyodo article "Softbank plans huge Hokkaido solar plant": This project sounds wonderful in theory. In reality, the promised minimum output won't be under Softbank's control; it will depend 100 percent on weather conditions. And Hokkaido really isn't suitable for the project....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2012

Mainstream media toes the line on sales tax

A bill to increase the consumption tax has finally been submitted to the Diet. Approval is by no means assured, owing partly to the fact that the substance of the issue has changed since the idea of a consumption tax was originally formulated. The Liberal Democratic Party saw it as a source of funding...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 7, 2012

Deaf student qualifies to teach English in Nagoya

A deaf student at Nagoya Gakuin University who obtained a license to teach English to students with impaired hearing graduated on March 15.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2012

Way of thinking at stake in U.S. 'boxing match'

Japan and America may share values such as democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression and protection of human rights. But do we share the same national mentality?
Reader Mail
Apr 5, 2012

Weak spirit for sustainability

Why would anyone reading Gwynne Dyer's April 3 article, "Civilization will live or die by new technology," make any real effort to lead a life that would make Earth's future more sustainable?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2012

Myth-busting Obama's foreign policy

Barack Obama campaigned as a visionary on foreign policy. He vowed to repair the breach with the Muslim world, make a major dent in global poverty, establish detente with dictators, arrest climate change and work toward global denuclearization.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 3, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things — about the Japanese

Debito Arudou's Feb. 7 Just Be Cause column describing the 10 things he likes about Japan both inspired and depressed me. As a frequent critic of the country's legal system (among other things), his piece made me stop and think of some of the things I like about Japan that are all too easy to take for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 3, 2012

TED offers everyone the chance to speak or perform

TED — the increasingly popular New York based, California-held ideas event— is coming to Tokyo. The conference, whose speakers were previously by invitation only, will hold an audition in Tokyo on May 29 as part of a worldwide talent search. Organized by the TEDxTokyo team and hosted at Roppongi...
Reader Mail
Apr 1, 2012

The failure to tend to animals

Regarding the March 28 front-page Kyodo article "Noda draws on Fukushima lesson": I would like to add to the series of flashy remarks made by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 31, 2012

Aichi students develop disaster recovery project

Students at Aichi Gakuin University in Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture, have been striving to launch a business project that would support post-March 11 reconstruction efforts.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 30, 2012

How much money do rice farmers need to make from farming?

Since most Japanese farmers are part-timers, TPP may have little effect on their real income.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 30, 2012

Streamlined offerings from new adult anime titles

The packages get a little smaller for adult anime.
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

'Overstayers' a boon to society

Regarding the March 27 article "Visa overstayers rally to maintain privileges after immigration revision": At a time when we need people in Japan who are contributing to society, why would we want these people to leave?
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Imbalance in Japan's economy

Regarding the March 4 Kyodo article "Food must be cleansed, Chernobyl expert warns": Many Japanese citizens are skeptical about the safety of products suspected of having been [irradiated by substances] released from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Many are losing their jobs as demand for these products...
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

China 'threat' in perspective

Regarding Michael Richardson's March 22 article, "China's military buildup breeds distrust": In Ronald Reagan's immortal words, "There you go again!" Richardson seems never to miss an opportunity to bash China.
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Tap the ocean for energy

I was very interested in the March 26 article reprinted from Sentaku magazine titled "Tapping into oceanic energy." Since the 3/11 accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, several alternative-energy substitutions have been proposed:
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Infantile use of 'racism' label

In two AP articles published March 21, "Police see racist motive behind French shootings" and "British teacher used Nazi antics to rile neighbors," we see once more the common misuse of words.
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Painful to see payoffs to U.S.

Regarding the March 25 Kyodo article "Japan asked to shell out extra $1 billion over [U.S. Marines'] transfer to Guam": As a long-term resident of Japan, it is painful to see Japan taken to the cleaners. Japan signed a peace treaty a long time ago, meaning that Japan has full sovereignty over its own...
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Hope for 3/11 survivors

The March 11 article "Time has stopped for parents of dead and missing children" caught my eye. Many parents and guardians who lost children are still digging their way through the mess in Miyagi Prefecture, searching for the bodies of their sons and daughters. They say the task keeps them going, that...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 27, 2012

Suginami Ward 'informers' just doing their job

Several residents of Tokyo's Suginami Ward contacted us in response to C.W.'s experience, which appeared in our March 6 column, "Immigration 'informers' call on foreigners in Suginami Ward."
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 26, 2012

Tapping into oceanic energy

The serious physical damage caused by the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster, following the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, has reminded Japan all the more of its acute shortage of natural energy sources and the need for developing alternative sources. This has led scientists and private corporations...
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2012

Fallback on scaremongering

Regarding the March 20 Kyodo article "Diet told of interceptor response to N.K. launch": [Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka's statement that he may order the Self-Defense Forces to shoot down the North Korean rocket purportedly carrying a satellite next month if it passes over Japan] is completely irresponsible....
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2012

Afraid of their own shadow

Regarding the March 21 Kyodo article "Patriot missiles may be deployed in Okinawa to counter North Korean rocket": Why is there such an overreaction to this planned satellite launch?
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2012

Broad 'contamination' brush

The March 21 Kyodo article, "No. 1 (reactor) long way from being out of the woods," states: "Outside the plant's premises, work to reduce the contamination level of land detected to have an annual exposure dose of 1 millisievert or more, excluding from natural sources, is scheduled to accelerate in eight...
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2012

High road to a proper lunch

Regarding the March 20 Kyodo article "Cafeterias at government offices serve up buffet of corporate culture": When the Tokyo Metropolitan Government moved to Shinjuku from Marunouchi in 1991, a lot of public servants became "lunchtime refugees", meaning that there were not enough places in the Shinjuku...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 24, 2012

Higashi Mikawa mining ancient sources for tsunami info

Municipalities in the Higashi Mikawa region in Aichi Prefecture have been busy examining records of major earthquakes and tsunami that hit the region in the past.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2012

'My Week With Marilyn'

In his book "Retromania," music critic Simon Reynolds makes the case that pop music/rock has gone distressingly meta, feeding on its accumulated history at the expense of any further forward evolution musically. It's a bold argument — and well worth a read — but one could probably make the same case...

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