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COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 6, 2011

For the sake of Japan's future, foreigners deserve a fair shake

These past few columns have addressed fundamentally bad habits in Japanese society that impede positive social change. Last month I talked about public trust being eroded by social conventions that permit (even applaud) the systematic practice of lying in public.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 5, 2011

Competition taking a bite out of dentistry schools' tuition schemes

Dentistry schools in cutthroat competition for new students.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2011

Avoid 'new normal' of shortages

Nearly nine months after the March 11 disasters, power-generating capacity in many parts of Japan may still not be up to demand, according to Eric Johnston's Nov. 29 article, "Utilities to cut it close amid winter demand." In the name of power conservation, individuals are being asked to sacrifice comfort...
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2011

Bigger offense to apologize for

As for the Dec. 2 article "Noda apologizes for axed official's Okinawa gaffe": Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa visited Okinawa Friday to personally apologize to Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima for an extremely inappropriate remark made by Okinawa Defense Bureau chief Satoshi Tanaka, who was fired.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2011

Carmakers are jumping the gun

I've been an ardent fan of the Tokyo Motor Show, having been there twice. I much regret that I can't be there this year. But after reading reports such as the Dec. 1 article "Green is the big thing at this year's Tokyo Motor Show," I have doubts about its success this year.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2011

Averting an energy chokehold

In his Nov. 30 article, "Realpolitik drama unfolds in the South China Sea," Mark Valencia fails to include in his analysis the broader context of the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea realpolitik.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 3, 2011

Health drinks making major Mideast inroads

Japanese health drinks have been gaining popularity in the Middle East.
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2011

Asia's water stress challenges growth and security

Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that will determine whether Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa, but Asia, where availability of freshwater is not even half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 2, 2011

Annals of cheap: 5manika.com

A new website works a niche and specializes in cheap but decent apartments in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Dec 1, 2011

Is it in CEO's interest to serve?

Yes, the Nov. 26 front-page article "Woodford: Board must be purged" reminds me of Tokyo in 1988-89, when many companies lost focus and undertook "zai-tech" investments that went sour.They try to sweep these bad investments under the tatami.
Reader Mail
Dec 1, 2011

Just deserts of the Ichihashi flick

Regarding the Nov. 25 article "(Tatsuya) Ichihashi book on life on lam to be made into flick": An honorable thing to do would be to have the proceeds from the film contributed toward a memorial to the young woman whose life he took.
Reader Mail
Dec 1, 2011

Olympus scandal is no surprise

I recently read an editorial in The Japan Times contemplating the damage that the Olympus scandal could have not only on the company itself but on the reputation of Japan Inc.
Reader Mail
Dec 1, 2011

Tourist tickets go the wrong way

Regarding the Oct. 12 article: "Tourism blitz: 10,000 to get free flights to Japan": I can think of three reasons why we shouldn't be using the national budget to pay for these tickets:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Dec 1, 2011

Restless Arab region presents curatorial challenge

In mid-February, Mori Art Museum Associate Curator Kenichi Kondo noticed an article on the Nafas website, which specializes in art news from the Middle East. Egyptian media artist Ahmed Basiony, it said, had gone to Tahrir Square in Cairo to join the protests against president Hosni Mubarak. He had been...
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2011

TPP: APEC's anti-China son?

The French have a saying: "The more something changes, the more it remains the same thing."
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2011

Welfare recipients hit new high

The health and welfare ministry announced on Nov. 9 that the number of people on welfare receiving livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection) reached 2,050,495 nationwide as of July 2011, topping the monthly average record of 2,046,646 marked in fiscal 1951, when Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2011

The two pillars of the world's future

Our world is about to be transformed. It is too early to tell what changes will come about. Yet, there is a premonition that the future relationship between America and China will set the course for the entire world.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 28, 2011

Existential fear stalks M.D.s

The Japan Medical Association (JMA), once the most powerful lobby group with mighty political clout, still clings to its position of staunchly opposing any scheme to increase the number of doctors, in order to protect its own vested interests.
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2011

Send paternalistic types packing

As an "English gentleman," brought up in the latter days of the British Empire, I was encouraged to feel "superior" in being British. As a military officer, I was instructed to be superior to those of a lower rank, so I know much about "superiority". But we were taught NOT to feel superior in matters...
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2011

Beware the foreign academics

Regarding the Nov. 22 Zeit Gist article by Nicolas Gattig, "MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes": I'm sure that Gattig-sensei receives many murmurs of approval as well as hidden yawns when he makes presentations at Japanese ESL conferences. This same glib message can no doubt be...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 26, 2011

Yairi using tsunami pine for guitars

Yairi Guitar, the famed guitar maker in Kani, Gifu Prefecture, is using pine trees knocked down by the March 11 tsunami to fashion instruments in hopes of engraving the disaster on people's memory through music.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 25, 2011

Nakase becomes first female head coach in bj-league

It's official: Natalie Nakase is the first female head coach in bj-league history.
Reader Mail
Nov 24, 2011

So who is actually cooperating?

I am a regular recipient of the emailed Japan Times. Thank you so much for the good service to this retired professor. I teach English at a university in Fukuoka, and News Digest is the regular textbook for all of my classes. I recommend to students that they read the latest articles on the Internet....
Reader Mail
Nov 20, 2011

Irony of Japanese psychology

Takamitsu Sawa's Nov. 15 article, "Scientific mind meltdown" provides a lot of food for thought, valuable lessons and a peek into Japanese psychology. But are people really listening? I wonder.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 20, 2011

Paradoxes pervade gender issues' public face in Japan

Transgender people are popping up everywhere in the current Japanese media landscape. Whether it's appearing on variety shows or hawking soft drinks or makeup in TV ads, the current crop of "new-half" celebrities have established themselves in the mainstream in a way that has surprised many onlookers....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 19, 2011

Fallen soldiers' kin visit Saipan to meet U.S. vet

Relatives of Japanese victims of World War II in Aichi Prefecture visited Saipan to meet a U.S. veteran in October.
Reader Mail
Nov 17, 2011

Incredible support for tobacco

Regarding the Nov. 11 article "DPJ shelves tobacco tax hike to appease opposition": With the No. 1 preventable cause of premature death being from smoking, it is just incredible that the tobacco tax increase was rejected because lawmakers have cozy support from tobacco farmers.
Reader Mail
Nov 17, 2011

Blithe rhetoric toward disaster

I must condemn the Nov. 10 Washington Post article by Nicholas Eberstadt, "Five myths about global population," in the strongest language possible for its irresponsible position on the problem of the burgeoning human population. Such bland denial of the wolf that is at everyone's door borders upon insanity....

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?