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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 17, 2008

There's a lot to learn from the life and times of Beate Sirota Gordon

"This film is a requiem to people who have been persecuted and died in war."
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Emotional needs of 'generation Z'

Jenny Uechi's article is phrased in terms of a dominating opposition in Japanese society between seken -- the society or people that one deals with -- and what her article looks forward to -- namely, an "individualist revolution."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 17, 2008

Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global

In a September 2003 article for The Guardian newspaper, Michael Meacher, who served as Tony Blair's environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, shocked the establishment by calling the global war on terrorism "bogus." Even more controversially, he implied that the U.S. government either allowed...
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2008

Preserving the Constitution

Signs of shakiness have begun to appear in the alliance between Japan and the United States, which seemed to get increasingly strong under the coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, especially after the enactment of two laws that removed some of the obstacles to actions to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 27, 2008

Weighing up a media culture that sees 58-cm waistlines as the norm

Earlier this month, the French Parliament began contemplating a bill that would make it illegal to promote extreme thinness. Following the death in 2006 of a Brazilian supermodel from complications associated with anorexia, the issue of young women purposely starving themselves for the sake of self-image...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 3, 2008

'Lest We Forget' — what?

There may be no more potent expression of our consciousness of historical tragedy than the three words "Lest We Forget."
Reader Mail
Sep 9, 2007

When to break one's silence

I found the Aug. 26 Tokyo Confidential article "Time to dust off the swords" (Michael Hoffman's translation of a Sapio magazine article) to be highly thought-provoking because of the strong statements about Japanese ethics or norms, a rather sensitive issue to deal with. The focal point of the article...
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2007

Hypocrisy of the nuclear powers

Regarding Brad Glosserman's July 30 article, "Ending the nuclear threat": This article is misleading, supercilious and biased toward the United States. Neither the Proliferation Security Initiative (2003) nor United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004) has been very effective.
JAPAN / PARTY LINE
Jul 12, 2007

Komeito to stay firmly in coalition camp

For New Komeito leader Akihiro Ota, the priority in the July 29 election is maintaining the ruling bloc's control of the Upper House, but he won't say if he will resign if the coalition falls short.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
May 5, 2007

Modify Constitution for modern world, scholar urges

Born in 1949, baby boomer Setsu Kobayashi thanks the postwar Constitution for the freedom, peace and democracy Japan has enjoyed since its debut.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 29, 2007

The medical insurance game -- you always pay and they often play

On April 13, 12 different insurance companies apologized for failing to pay benefits for legitimate claims on life and supplemental medical insurance policies. It was the latest chapter in an industry-wide scandal that started with admissions about unpaid benefits for automobile and property insurance....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 22, 2007

Imagine all the soldiers and sailors singing and dancing in harmony

With the expected passage of a bill setting procedures for a referendum to revise the Constitution, the Japanese people are going to have to think carefully about what sort of changes they want made to the charter. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has staked his political career on revising the Constitution,...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 13, 2007

Bigger is not always better for Japan's English teachers

While exact figures are unavailable, but it is fair to assume that a large number of foreigners who work in Japan will spend at least some of their time teaching in a language school.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2007

Libel suit attacks free speech: defendant

in some Western countries, and laws and the some courts in Europe and the United States protect people who are sued in this way. Legal experts say Japan has no similar safeguards. The article at the center of the case, "The Lies Behind the Hits/Does Johnny's Get Super-VIP treatment?!/The Honeymoon Between...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 28, 2007

Natto nonsense lands television show in sticky mess

Unless you're a big fan of natto, those sticky fermented soybeans, you probably didn't pay much attention to Kansai Telecasting Corporation's (KTV) sudden apology Jan. 20 for misinformation that was given on one of its variety shows. Anyone who watches TV regularly has probably developed the ability...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2006

Education bill shifts power to the state

In the wake of Thursday's Lower House passage of the education reform bill, critics wonder whether news management may have been used to clear the path for what one commentator alleged to be a "fascist" power grab by the central government.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2006

Abe looking to beef up defense posture

Shinzo Abe, the runaway favorite to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has big ambitions for Japan's traditional pacifist diplomacy.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2006

Change needed at Yasukuni

In the Washington Post article that ran on this page Aug. 22, "Much to-do about a shrine," conservative U.S. commentator George Will suggests that Shinzo Abe, the front-runner in the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race, stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial for Japan's war dead, if he...
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2006

Reformers edge ahead in Chinese debate

HONG KONG -- Since Deng Xiaoping began the process of reform and opening up almost 28 years ago, China has repeatedly had internal debates, often heated, as to whether changes had gone too far.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2006

Bills aimed at making noise

The Diet has begun discussions on two separate bills submitted by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, and by the No. 1 opposition party, to specify procedures for holding a national referendum to amend the Constitution.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 28, 2006

'Patriotism' a useful tool for the government to meddle in education

"I Am a Patriot" was a song released by "Little Steven" Van Zandt in 1984. In it, he sang that he loved his country because "my country is all I know." It's worth mentioning as the controversy over the use of "patriotism" in the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education continues to make headlines....
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2006

China swaps historical facts for fiction

HONG KONG -- At a time when Beijing is upbraiding Tokyo for its depiction in history textbooks of the invasion and occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s -- and used it as a reason for excluding Japan from the United Nations Security Council -- it has exposed its own politicization of history by...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 29, 2006

Sifting through the geeks -- that's all of us -- to identify the perverts

Less than a week after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Jan. 17, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia had not only recorded the ruling in its entry on Miyazaki, but had added an incisive note. When the Miyazaki case was dominating the headlines in 1989, he...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2005

Koizumi aide Iijima wins libel suit

The Tokyo District Court ordered a publisher and a writer Friday to pay 1.35 million yen in damages to a key aide to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over a magazine article that claimed he is effectively subordinating Koizumi.
Japan Times
Features
Nov 6, 2005

Surveying a state of change

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi led his Liberal Democratic Party to a landslide victory in the Sept. 11 general election he called as a de facto referendum on his drive to privatize postal services.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2005

No changing colors in China

HONG KONG -- Two weeks ago, China issued a 23,000-word white paper on democracy, the first time the Communist government had ever done so. However, instead of being a blueprint for the development of representative government, the white paper turned out to be a defense of the perpetuation of the monopoly...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2005

Weekly admits plagiarizing wire poll stories

The weekly magazine Shukan Kinyobi has apologized to Kyodo News and Jiji Press for plagiarizing stories from the two news agencies about the Sept. 11 general election.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 25, 2005

Illuminating responses to 'Glimmers of hope . . . '

One of the most entertaining things about being a columnist is getting feedback from readers.

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