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Reader Mail
Oct 7, 2007

Domestic stand doomed Abe

In his Sept. 20 article, "Decline of the Liberal Democratic Party," Gwynne Dyer blames the downfall of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration on its continuation of Japan's post-World War II subservience to the United States in matters of foreign policy. He boldly proclaims that the "deeply...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Oct 7, 2007

A Golden Age everywhere but at home

More high-profile new cars are hitting the market than have been seen for nearly 20 years, creating buzz everywhere but Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2007

Ruling bloc, in rare twist, hands MSDF bill to opposition

The ruling coalition Friday submitted to the opposition camp the draft of a new bill to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan — a key goal of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in the current Diet session....
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2007

Flawed reliance on confessions

With the lay judge system scheduled to be introduced by May 2009, a system should be developed to ensure that investigators' records of suspects' oral statements are trustworthy. Recent cases involving false confessions highlight the urgent need for such a system.
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2007

A reason to forgo pregnancy

Regarding the Sept. 28 article "191 multiple refusals of pregnant women found": The world knows that the population of Japan is declining. I have heard some say that this is due to marriages in which a man finds a wife only to take care of him. I have heard others say it is because married couples don't...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2007

Limited value of katakana

Regarding the Sept. 23 article "Japanese: a language in a state of flux": Having spent much time in Japan, I can say that the only katakana I find useful is company names, brand names and some signs (such as the one for "toilet"). This is all based on visual recognition, rather than a phonetic comprehension. ...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2007

What good are these hospitals?

Regarding the Sept. 28 article "Woman rejected by seven hospitals (in Mie Prefecture) after giving birth": The fact that this happened to a non-Japanese woman is not only disgusting but also against everything that hospitals and the medical profession stand for. Where do these establishments get off,...
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2007

Middle names stop the show

When I saw the title of Thomas Dillon's Sept. 30 article, "The curse of the middle name," I just knew what to expect. And, I wasn't wrong. Mr. Dillon, I hear you!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2007

The camera and the truth

With his fake documentary purporting to show serving President George W. Bush's assassination, director Gabriel Range has made this year's most controversial movie
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2007

Heading for a French Sixth Republic?

PARIS — Nearly 50 years after the creation of the Fifth Republic by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to change France's fundamental institutions. An expert council will send him its proposals by Nov. 1.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2007

Real cost of self-sufficiency

Regarding the Sept. 18 editorial, "Self-sufficiency amid diversity": Perhaps I am missing something, but in every article about Japan's food self-sufficiency that I have read so far, the word "oil" is never mentioned. Where I live, out in the countryside, besides bird songs and distant ambulance sirens,...
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2007

Hurdles to teaching English

Regarding the article "Is it all over for Nova?" on the Sept. 25 Community page: I used to work at Nova as an assistant trainer until about two years ago. I quit because I was worried about the company's future at that time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 2, 2007

Japan faces hunger pains as poor slip through net

First in a two-part series
Reader Mail
Sep 30, 2007

Dilemma for America's left

Ted Rall's Sept. 24 article, "Ugly truth of antiwar lefties," makes some important points about the hypocrisy of the antiwar movement. What he fails to point out, however, is how rightwing, prowar interests have so strongly defined the debate that the left is now forced to sculpt their argument to be...
Reader Mail
Sep 30, 2007

Union accepts Nova teachers

Regarding the Sept. 25 article in the Community section "Advice for teachers": The statement that "The General Union and Nambu decided on a policy that we won't take new members if Nova goes bankrupt" is not an accurate reflection of the General Union's policy. The General Union has no special policy...
Reader Mail
Sep 30, 2007

Time to kill the dolphin cull

Kudos to Nigel Barker for his brutally honest photos, and to Boyd Harnell for his equally succinct commentary, for the Sept. 19 article "Tokyo sanctions an extended cull of Taiji dolphins." As a former resident of Japan, I know that in some corners there are those who not only will never see the cruelty...
Reader Mail
Sep 30, 2007

'Modern' Japanese harder to read

I found Tomoko Otake's Sept. 23 article, "Japanese: a language in a state of flux" -- about the invasion of modern Japanese by gairaigo (foreign loan words) -- very interesting. Fifteen years ago, as an education ministry scholarship student, I studied Japanese at the International Center of Keio University....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 2007

Cancer may kill, but it can also revitalize a flagging media career

Right now there's a commercial on TV for the American insurance company AFLAC featuring veteran journalist Shuntaro Torigoe, who was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. It shows the 67-year-old reporter in what looks like home videos undergoing tests, or about to be operated on, or clowning around with...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2007

The Murakami addiction

Murakami Haruki: The Simulacrum in Contemporary Japanese Culture, by Michael R. Seats, 2006, 384 pp., $70 (cloth) Haruki Murakami's novels have much in common with potato chips. Both are often addictive and both are often ultimately unsatisfying. Yet one can't help but buy another bag of chips at the...
Reader Mail
Sep 30, 2007

English school has been good to us

Regarding the Sept. 21 front-page article "Nova may close hundreds of schools": As a Nova student for 11 years, I think it's a shame that Nova has been so criticized by the media. We love Nova's system, which includes flexible lesson-time schedules, voice rooms (one ticket lets us be there seven hours...
Japan Times
CULTURE / OTAKOOL
Sep 27, 2007

Akihabara's awful truths

While the Establishment packages Electric Town as a mecca for manga and anime obsessives, and a magnet for camera- toting tourists, the reality differs: 'Akiba' is alienating the geeks who once made it great
Reader Mail
Sep 26, 2007

U.S. double standards on Taiwan

Brad Glosserman's Sept. 13 article, "Lashing out at U.S. won't help Taiwan" -- about the fallout between the United States and Taiwan over a planned referendum on U.N. entry -- misses some key points. The U.S. claims that it opposes any change in the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, yet it repeatedly...
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2007

Fukuda elected prime minister in Diet faceoff

New Liberal Democratic Party President Yasuo Fukuda was elected prime minister by a divided Diet on Tuesday afternoon amid the political turmoil stemming from Shinzo Abe's sudden resignation announcement two weeks ago.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2007

Turning waste into rich resources

Visit Calcutta, even briefly, and you soon learn the rules of the road — or rather that there aren't many, if any. You will also meet some of the planet's most resourceful people, from street children to scientists who are masters of making very little go a long way.
Reader Mail
Sep 26, 2007

Osama has everything to gain

Regarding the Sept. 9 article "Bin Laden tells America: Turn to Islam or you perish": Notwithstanding his demand to "embrace Islam," Osama bin Laden makes some good points. The warning is simply artful baiting to draw Americans deeper into the mire of Iraq and the Middle East. He has everything to gain,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2007

Rules for making 'friends' from faces

PRAGUE — I'm embarrassed to say that after reading Newsweek's recent cover story on Facebook, I joined. The majority of the social networking site's new members are people over 35: oldies like me. Still, it's uncool — and supposedly "old school" — to join because of pieces in "old media" like Newsweek....
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 24, 2007

The Self-Defense Forces: living with a lie

NEW YORK — Many commentators have invoked historical analogies for U.S. President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq and its still unfolding aftermath, with some saying, correctly, that no exact historical analogies are possible for anything, the least of all this damnable war.
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

Incomprehensible abuse case

Regarding the Sept. 12 article "Life sentence upheld for fatal abuse of two kids": Just out of curiosity, how could the Hiroshima District Court rule that "there was no intent to murder because (Kenichi) Takao had confined the (6-year-old) boy in a plastic bag only to make him fear he would die"?
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

Don't bury battle's aftermath

Regarding the Sept. 12 article "Witness: Military ordered mass suicides": Such events in the Battle of Okinawa are a very significant part of our history and we must come to terms with it. This story is also consistent with what happened in other locations such as Burma, Iwo Jima, Guam, Saipan, and...
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

Forced philosophy in Bhutan

Regarding David Howell's Aug. 30 article, "Happiness can't be legislated": Happiness is not measurable by economic and material prosperity, yet the Bhutanese regime makes every effort to force people to comply with the principles of happiness that a dictator propagated.

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