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Reader Mail
Dec 12, 2010

Atheist feeds off religious terms

Regarding The Observer article titled "Tony Blair versus Christopher Hitchens — is religion good or evil?," which ran in The Japan Times on Dec. 4: Hitchens uses the concept of "goodness" descended from a long line of religious traditions that existed when most people were religious. He sounds parasitic...
Reader Mail
Dec 12, 2010

Italian baker could use leavening

I am gravely disappointed in the comments of Paolo Aggio, the subject of the Dec. 7 Who's Who article, "Italian baker gives new life to old Tochigi warehouse." Aggio yearns for the "good old Japan" — by that he means all of 22 years ago! — and he cannot say good things about the opportunities that...
Reader Mail
Dec 12, 2010

Shortages preserve 'Dear Leader'

Regarding John J. Metzler's Dec. 3 article, "North Korea evokes pity and condemnation": We need to acknowledge that starvation is a means of preserving power for Pyongyang. Our sense of humanity is being manipulated by the Kim Jong Il regime. Kim created the food shortage; he alone has the power to regulate...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 11, 2010

UNESCO villages in battle with modernity

Shirakawa-go in Gifu Prefecture and Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture, the historic villages dotted with "gassho-zukuri" thatched-roof houses where people still follow traditional lifestyles, are marking their 15th anniversary this month since making UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1995.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 9, 2010

Caregiving not the unemployment panacea the government hoped for

Premiums for Long-term Care Insurance could be raised again in 2012. Question is, will this translate to higher salaries for low-paid caregivers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 8, 2010

'Father of the Internet in Japan' predicts the future of networked devices and tells us why Japan must deregulate online healthcare

In 1990, Jun Murai, at the time an associate professor at Keio University in Tokyo, made a prediction in an article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. When asked what the future of computer systems would look like, he described a world where, on one level there would be a network, on a second level computers...
COMMENTARY
Dec 7, 2010

U.S. remains delinquent on landmine treaty

NEW YORK — "I heard a thundering sound and saw darkness all around me. I spent three months in the hospital, and lost my leg and my son. I had stepped on a landmine and the world as I knew it had come to a halting end," wrote Monica Piloya, chairperson of the Gulu/Amuru Landmine Survivors' Network...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2010

Uniqlo billionaire Yanai goes back to the basics

Tadashi Yanai, Japan's richest man, used advice from management guru Peter Drucker to build his Uniqlo clothing empire. To pull out of a slump that's hammered profits and shares, the billionaire is revisiting the lessons.
Reader Mail
Dec 5, 2010

Whaling body belies 'awareness'

Regarding the Nov. 30 Kyodo article "Japan to propose establishing body made up of whaling states": How disappointing. So many Japanese are trying their best to make Japan appear as a nation that is aware of its actions. In this case, Japan is going in the opposite direction. How dare it criticize China...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 5, 2010

A relaxed approach makes news understandable for young and old

Two weeks ago, NHK announced that its popular half-hour series, "Shukan Kodomo no News" ("Weekly News for Children"), will be ending on Dec. 19. According to an article in the Sankei Shimbun, an executive at the public broadcaster explained the cancellation by saying that the show, which was launched...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 4, 2010

Mie housing serves notice on pet-owning tenants

Tenants who keep pets at public housing in Mie Prefecture are facing a tough choice — whether to give up their beloved pets or vacate the property.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Dec 4, 2010

A chance missed post Kyushu, 2010

Had any self-respecting sumo writer or fan been asked to predict the final score of ozeki Kaio prior to the Kyushu Basho, few would have predicted anything more than an 8-7 or perhaps 9-6 kachikoshi winning record.
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2010

The N. Korea conundrum

North Korea bombards the South Korean held island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea, killing and wounding a number of people there. The hawks call for the strongest possible response. The pundits warn of another Korean War.
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2010

Diet must focus on duties

Monday marked the 120th anniversary of the ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Imperial Diet, which was held on Nov. 29, 1890, with the Emperor Meiji attending and reading an imperial message. Under the Meiji Constitution, the Diet was composed of the House of Peers and the House of Representatives....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 28, 2010

It's time Japan shook off its past and stopped toadying to the U.S.

Allow me to introduce a Japanese word to those unfamiliar with it. It is the verb kobiru, which means "to flatter"; "to curry favor with"; "to play up to"; "to toady to." In more up-to-date parlance, it may be rendered as "to suck up to."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 28, 2010

Trans-Pacific Partnership for a cheaper bowl of beef and rice

The APEC summit in Yokohama earlier this month was a key event by any standard. Leaders of 21 countries came to discuss how to integrate the world's most dynamic region in terms of trade.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 28, 2010

NPB looks to trim deficit by having third All-Star Game

You no doubt saw the news item whereby the Nippon Professional Baseball authorities are asking the Japanese players union to have a third All-Star game in 2011, in order to blot a portion of its reported ¥60 million of red ink. Two All-Star games are scheduled so far next season: at Nagoya Dome July...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 28, 2010

Education profiteers and the public trough

NEW YORK — A college or university, especially of a private variety, may not be "an eleemosynary institution," as Sen. Sam Ervin, of the Watergate hearings, might put it were he alive, but the American insistence on free-market notions has brought the matter to the other extreme in higher education....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 27, 2010

Nagoya business chief angling for cruise lines

Less than a month since his appointment Nov. 2 as president of the Nagoya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jiro Takahashi will be traveling to the United States, Mexico and the Bahamas to lead a delegation promoting the port of Nagoya.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2010

Whaling fleet yet to depart

The whaling fleet has not yet left for the Antarctic Ocean, making this year's departure unusually late.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2010

Ask JETs for English-teaching tips

Regarding the Sept. 7 article "Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English": Participants in the Japan Exchange and Teaching program, as a a group, probably have the single broadest picture of English education in Japan. I say this because JETs talk to one another about their very different situations regardless...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 22, 2010

Japan shouldn't bet farm on China's 'middle class'

Many Japanese corporations are pinning their hopes on what they see as the expanding "middle class" in China, which they think will offer a huge potential market for their products. In reality, that class is a mirage created politically by the Chinese Communist Party and is on the verge of disintegrating....
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2010

Vote disparity condemned

In a lawsuit filed by a group of lawyers, the Tokyo High Court on Nov. 17 ruled that the Upper House election held in July — in which the vote-value disparity between constituencies reached a maximum 5.00 to 1 — was unconstitutional.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2010

Heading for the hills — in style

One sunny Saturday a couple of weeks ago, this writer joined five women and three men who met up at Ikusabata Station on the JR Ome Line in the mountains of western Tokyo.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 18, 2010

Living off the land in Okinawa

The issue of U.S. military bases in Okinawa has largely been a political argument, but there's also an economic angle that comes with the territory.
Reader Mail
Nov 18, 2010

More to globalization than English

I don't think the Japanese are working less hard, but there is no direction to all their hard work at present. Direction comes from inspiration. Confidence is low at present. The Japanese must believe in themselves and in the present, be proud of their past, and move positively into the future.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Nov 17, 2010

Possibilities are endless as Japan's manga fans turn cell phones into libraries

In a development indicative of the growth of Japan's digital publishing industry, key player Celsys Inc. was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's second section on Nov. 4. This is in addition to being listed on startup market Centrex.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 16, 2010

Justice sought after allergy trauma

One day in May, 7-year-old Kaiya Lucente was cleaning her classroom after lunch when she began coughing, her face puffed up and she found it difficult to breathe. Her eyes turned red, and scarlet blotches started to appear on her face. She had had these frightening symptoms before after accidentally...

Longform

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