Search - article

 
 
Reader Mail
Apr 6, 2008

Better to stay home than dis the flag

Regarding the April 1 article "20 teachers punished over 'Kimigayo' row": In my view not facing one's country's flag at important public functions, especially in the presence of students, is a selfish and highly disrespectful act sending the wrong message about what loyal patriotism for a country...
Reader Mail
Apr 6, 2008

Be thinking about the big one

Regarding the April 3 front-page article "Earthquake will pack millions in tight areas": With the extent of crowding outlined, people would spill out over the roadways. There would be no vehicular traffic, not even emergency vehicles. Perhaps the solution would be to limit freeway traffic to one lane...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 6, 2008

Tom Maschler: A storied life of luck and literary passions

Regardless of whether you take it with a pinch of salt or think this consummate professional is simply being modest, Tom Maschler says that throughout his celebrated publishing career, "luck" has often played a significant role.
Reader Mail
Apr 6, 2008

Capitalize an eco-tourism industry

Boyd Harnell's March 30 article, "Secret film will show slaughter to the world" -- about the making of a documentary on the dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture -- was riveting. I was especially struck by the chasm separating the worldviews of the parties involved: a sophisticated network of international...
SOCCER
Apr 4, 2008

Fenerbahce surprises Chelsea

LONDON (AP) Deivid de Souza scored a late goal Wednesday to give Fenerbahce a 2-1 upset over Chelsea, and Liverpool got a crucial away goal in its 1-1 draw at Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2008

What 'rules' for China and India?

What 'rules' for China and India?
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2008

Emphasize the levels of mercury

Congratulations on the March 30 article "Secret film will show slaughter to the world". A key to success requires that Japanese people become more involved and active to spread the information at the local level and lobby at the higher level. Foreigners may not be able to bridge the cultural gap; distributing...
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2008

Domesticate effort to save dolphins

Regarding the March 30 article "Secret film will show slaughter to the world": I applaud the recent heroic actions of the Oceanic Preservation Society, among other groups, in their efforts to prevent the pointless slaughter of dolphins and whales -- by certain parties -- in Japan. However, the thing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 1, 2008

'Half-alien' group foresees disaster, Japan UFO landing

In December, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura caused quite a stir with his bold statement that "UFOs definitely exist." In subsequent clarifications, the government claimed that there have been no confirmed sightings, but if a UFO was to appear, "fighter jets would be scrambled to attempt...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2008

'Extinct' bird on ¥10,000 note makes dramatic reappearance

It looks like an oversize, long-necked chicken with a piercingly loud squawk and impressive yellow-gold tail plumage.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 1, 2008

Public forums, spinning wheels

A friend sent me a Yomiuri article (Feb. 10) about a neighborhood forum in Kanazawa. Its title: "Citizens consider how to live together with foreigners."
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2008

Cost at pump to drop until April-end vote

Gasoline prices are set to fall by ¥25 per liter after the ruling bloc and opposition camp failed to agree Monday on extending provisional extra levies on gas and other auto-related taxes.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 31, 2008

Oxymoronic sustenance and sustainability

NEW YORK — Earlier this month there was held, in a midtown hotel, an International Conference on Climate Change. Yet another one? you might ask. But, no, this one was to make the case that Al Gore, with his argument in "An Inconvenient Truth" is a fraud, a swindler. One of the conferees' premises was...
Reader Mail
Mar 30, 2008

'Better services' claim rings hollow

Regarding the March 27 front-page article "Report urges closer watch on foreigners": It seems that neither the reporter nor the government panel involved in the story is aware of how the foreigner registration system currently works.
Reader Mail
Mar 30, 2008

Paths of Japan, China, India differ

Regarding Kazuo Ogoura's March 28 article, "Bringing in China and India": The circumstances under which China and India are emerging as global powers are totally different from what Japan faced before and after World War II.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 30, 2008

Flying in the face of common sense in building new airports

Several weeks ago while walking through Tokyo's Ueno Station a friend and I passed a poster advertising the new Ibaraki airport. After we boarded our train, we started talking about the poster. Neither of us were aware that Ibaraki had an airport and we wondered why the prefecture needed one.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 29, 2008

Welcome to Milkland

There is something Bovinian in the air. I am in Hokkaido and I can see farms all around, but no animals. As a matter of fact, you'd think all these farmers were farming snow, because that is all you can see — deep, deep snow behind the fences.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2008

Seeding the nuclear renaissance

The world is on the brink of a second nuclear renaissance. Prodded by rising oil prices and concerns about global warming, nations are reconsidering the nuclear energy option and finding it attractive. A significant increase in the number of nuclear reactors worldwide, however, also increases the risk...
Reader Mail
Mar 27, 2008

Unilateral bias hurts Japan

Professor Teruhiko Mano begins his March 24 article, "Chinese frozen food and frigid bilateral relations," by stating that he sees problems with the responses from both the Chinese and the Japanese sides in the poisoned-gyoza case. However, it turns out that Mano one-sidedly slams the Chinese side for...
Reader Mail
Mar 27, 2008

A look back at the Elizabethan Era

I wholeheartedly sympathize with Erin Aubry Kaplan's righteous response in his March 23 article, "American black anger and the pulpit," just as I wholeheartedly sympathize with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his forthright remarks on the subject, and as I similarly sympathize with U.S. Democratic presidential...
Reader Mail
Mar 27, 2008

Smiling faces at trial troubling

Regarding the March 20 article "Akita woman who killed daughter, boy gets life term": I was surprised that 3,000 people turned up for the 26 seats available at the trial of the accused, Suzuka Hatakeyama. She was accused of murdering her daughter, and later a young boy from her neighborhood, and was...
COMMENTARY
Mar 26, 2008

Why this foreigner supports Obama

WATERLOO, Canada — Barack Obama's speech on race and politics on March 18 came from and spoke to the heart. It was brutally, searingly honest. Nothing he said or could have said will appease the detractors and the naysayers. But their sniping and carping will diminish them and betray their smallness...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 26, 2008

Can three experts all be wrong on looming disaster?

If you ask British scientist James Lovelock about the future of humanity, be prepared for a shock.
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2008

Japan peers into the abyss

HONOLULU — It is an item of faith for many Japanese — and many Japan watchers — that their country will never build or acquire nuclear weapons. Japan's nonnuclear status, a product of both the searing experience of August 1945 and a calculation of the strategic value of nuclear weapons, has been...
Reader Mail
Mar 23, 2008

Video of murder suspect too late

I was completely underwhelmed by the March 19 article " 'Wanted' video to go up on Web site," which stated that the Japanese police have just posted a video on their Web site relating to the suspect in the murder of 22-year-old Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker -- a whole year after the murder.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Mar 23, 2008

Columbia's Matsui aims to be a leader

Just days after his junior season concluded, K.J. Matsui has already set big targets for his final college basketball season at Columbia University.
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2008

Tibet and Olympic Games

Events in Tibet have turned ugly. Once again we see the harm caused by Beijing's heavy-handed bureaucracy, and its panicky, untrained soldiers used for crowd control. But even when combined with all of Beijing's other alleged sins — Darfur, pollution, human rights and other issues — does Tibet justify...

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