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COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2009

Bolstering Japan-U.S. ties

The Obama administration has shown great good will toward Japan. This was evidenced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing, her choice of Japan as the first country she visited after taking office and the fact that Prime Minister Taro Aso was the first foreign...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 7, 2009

Accommodation advice and visas

It's good to be able to report some positive experiences regarding finding accommodation in Japan. Here are a couple of letters we received.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 7, 2009

Cops crack down with 'I pee' checks

My blog has been getting periodic pings about rumblings in Roppongi: Tokyo cops cleaning out pesky foreign touts before Olympic inspectors see them; the U.S. Embassy warning Americans to stay away from the area after reports of drugged drinks and thefts.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jul 7, 2009

Calderon case shows need for new mind-set

Dear Japanese lawmakers,
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2009

What are lawmakers trying to do?

Regarding the June 30 article "Activist sees holes in bills to snare illegals": It is heartening to read about a Japanese national with a heart that cares about issues of the non-Japanese community. Akira Hatate (director of the nongovernment organization Japan Civil Liberties Union) is absolutely right...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 5, 2009

Why Murakami's best-selling '1Q84' is worth the wait

When Shinchosha decided not to run a pre-marketing campaign for Haruki Murakami's new and highly anticipated two-volume novel, the publishing house must have banked on the book creating its own hype. It worked. The void soon filled with publicity and media speculation about the book's only available...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jul 3, 2009

Hatoyama gaffe exposes opposition rifts

When Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama let slip on FM radio on June 15 that a coalition with the Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) was paramount — but only until the DPJ wins next year's Upper House election and acquires a single-party majority — both...
Reader Mail
Jul 2, 2009

Luring homegrown sumo talent

Regarding the June 24 article "Sumo world's foreigners on rise, roll with punches": Tell me how shoving sand into a wrestler's mouth builds character, strength and stamina. And for a change of pace, we are expected to believe that pushing salt past the lips builds more virtuous qualities.
Reader Mail
Jul 2, 2009

Suicide mirrors others' disinterest

In the June 18 article "The safety nets for would-be suicides," Yasuyuki Shimizu, director of the suicide-prevention organization Lifelink, is quoted as saying that most people have regarded suicide as a personal problem, not society's. In her June 25 letter, "Enjoying what surrounds us," Japan Times...
Reader Mail
Jul 2, 2009

How to deal with a rising China

I respectfully disagree with Brahma Chellaney in his June 25 article, "Dancing with the dragon." As a center-left American, I agree with President Barack Obama's approach to China and would prefer that he go further. If any country is likely to become the next superpower, it is China. It is ahead of...
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2009

Don't bait the Russian bear

U.S. President Barack Obama's Moscow visit offers a historic opportunity to avert a new Cold War by establishing a more stable and cooperative relationship between the West and Russia.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jul 1, 2009

Walsh still trying to clean up mess Thomas left

NEW YORK — In 14 months as Knicks president, Donnie Walsh's claim to fame is erasing two bloated salaries belonging to Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford ($27,413,333) from New York's 2010 payroll, therefore, giving the team roughly $34 million in "additional" cap space to charm a couple collector items...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2009

Older, smaller population to impact Japan's choices

— The next few months will be crucial for Japan's defense and security policies. The National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG), which outline the framework for national security policy, are due by yearend. This in turn provides the foundation for the Mid-Term Defense Program, which translates that...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 30, 2009

Re: Something to sing about?

Following are some readers' responses to Nicholas Drapier's June 2 Zeit Gist article "Something to sing about?":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 30, 2009

The slippery slope of shogakko

Although July's stickiness unglues most minds from study, it is at this time of year that mothers in Japan turn their thoughts toward school. Enrolling children in summer cram programs, visiting potential private schools, researching every possible option — all are occupations to fill the barefoot...
Reader Mail
Jun 28, 2009

Concept of Japanese citizenship

In mid-March I found an article about the Japanese government granting one-year temporary resident status to Noriko Calderon, a Japanese-born Filipino girl. Noriko's parents, facing deportation for being undocumented workers, thought it was better for their daughter, who speaks only Japanese, to stay...
Reader Mail
Jun 28, 2009

India can live without its tigers

Regarding Gautaman Bhaskaran's June 19 article, "Poachers driving Indian tigers into oblivion": The arguments put forward here are false. According to the World Wild Life Organization, there are more than 10,000 tigers in the wild and more than 6,000 still in India. There are too many tigers in India,...
Reader Mail
Jun 28, 2009

Whaling subsidies are not wasted

Regarding the June 20 Kyodo article "WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) raps use of taxes for whaling": About 1 million minke whales in the oceans consume about 400 million tons of fish per year, while mankind consumes about 90 million tons of fish per year, according to Kanagawa Prefecture. With consumption...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 28, 2009

Priorities and politics 'must change fast' to head off global calamity

The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer declared: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Reader Mail
Jun 28, 2009

Focus effort on new energy source

Regarding the June 11 article "Aso pledges emissions cut of 15% by '20": The issue of emissions is a global problem and will not be resolved by the actions of any one country. Until a new energy source is developed and implemented, the problem will continue. I believe that Japan, with the development...
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2009

Dancing with the dragon

Nearly six months after U.S. President Barack Obama entered the White House, it is apparent that America's Asia policy is no longer guided by an overarching geopolitical framework as it had been under President George W. Bush. Indeed, Washington's Asia policy today appears fragmented. The Obama administration...
Reader Mail
Jun 25, 2009

Doesn't MOJ already have data?

Doesn't MOJ already have data?
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 22, 2009

Factional beat of the LDP

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party could very well be in for a bitter power struggle among three of its principal intraparty factions following the general election expected by September. The outcome of that struggle could also be a harbinger of a broader political reorganization involving not only...
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2009

Arrests hardly seem surprising

Regarding Tom Plate's June 16 article, "Jailing U.S. journalists could prove costly": If not for the nuclear threat, it would indeed be curious that such a small, mostly insignificant country as North Korea could constantly make the top news. Its actions are illogical and sometimes unpredictable.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2009

Tokyo spurned in the 'ultra miracle' of new film's linguistic embrace

On June 8, the evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on a fascinating phenomenon — one that may be a harbinger of a broad cultural and social movement in Japan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 21, 2009

My son, I give you power over the people

Last Monday, TBS's noontime show "Hiruobi" was covering Kim Jong Un, the son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and presumed successor. One commentator on the show, an editor for an entertainment magazine, wondered what the citizens of North Korea really thought of this dynastic system. "In Japan right...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 21, 2009

Injured Baker in limbo over cash dispute with Apache

First in a two-part series
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2009

Imagining a postwar possibility

I read with interest Mariko Kato's June 6 article, "Occupation orphan traces roots." Perhaps in an alternate universe a similar orphan boy would have been adopted into a mining magnate's family, graduated from Tokyo University's law department, become a Diet member from a rural economically depressed...
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2009

Useful but unofficial translations

The title of the June 10 article "Laws, legal terms get official translation" is misleading. As shown on the Web site in question and indeed on the predecessor site: "These are unofficial translations. Only the original Japanese texts of the laws and regulations have legal effect, and the translations...

Longform

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