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Reader Mail
Jun 17, 2007

Reagan liked a number of people

Regarding the May 24 article "Reagan thought Nakasone 'best' Japan leader": It might be noted that in the early 1980s, Reagan also admired Saddam Hussein (fighting the Iranians) and even Panama's little drug-dealing dictator Manuel Noriega, who is now sitting quietly in a Florida prison cell after being...
Reader Mail
Jun 17, 2007

Still waiting for the truth

Alan Goodall's May 29 article, "A prodigal divides Australia" -- about Australian David Hicks, who was detained at Guantanamo Bay for five years without charges and recently returned to Australia to serve a nine-month sentence after plea-bargaining to the very recent charge of "providing material support...
Reader Mail
Jun 13, 2007

Warped sense of heroic action

I was disturbed to read the May 27 Associated Press article under the headline "Alabama boy kills monstrous wild hog after 3-hour chase." An 11-year-old boy is presented as a young hero for his achievement in finally shooting a wild boar point-blank in the head with a high-powered pistol.
Reader Mail
Jun 13, 2007

Taiwan's Lee deserves courtesy

In Robyn Lim's June 2 article, "Lee should avoid Yasukuni," Lim grudgingly admits that, as a private citizen, former Taiwanese President Lee Tung-hui is free to visit Japan and has a right to religious freedom, which includes paying a visit to Yasukuni Shrine (Lee did visit the shrine June 7). Yet she...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 12, 2007

Media scream 'yellow peril'

Days after the broken body of British teacher Lindsay Hawker was discovered in a fourth-floor flat in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, when the media feeding frenzy was at its most intense, a newspaper editor called me from London.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 10, 2007

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door — but no answer

Two deaths made headlines on May 28. Izumi Sakai, the lead singer of the pop group ZARD, was found at the bottom of an outdoor staircase at Keio University Hospital, where she was undergoing treatment for cancer. Her management quickly released a statement to pre-empt media speculation that the death...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2007

Koshu Project sets out to redefine Japanese wine

Ernest Singer is young at heart, with six children from three different families, and an office with staff members mostly half his age. "It's the young that have the passion that Millesimes thrives upon," he explains, navigating a sea of desks and concentrated faces.
Reader Mail
Jun 6, 2007

Principled stand helped East Asia

Regarding Gregory Clark's May 28 article, "More compelling than common sense": Clark is at it again about poor, dysfunctional, ineffectual Australia. Never mind the almost 11 years of record economic growth we have had, together with a strong and warm relationship with Japan -- all, apparently, accidents...
Reader Mail
Jun 6, 2007

Statue out of place for years

Regarding Gwynne Dyer's May 24 article, "Baltic cyberwar nothing but a squabble": As an Estonian historian and writer with works published in 22 countries, I suggest that Dyer research his theme better before writing about it. Both my grandfathers, Estonian senior officers, were murdered in Russian camps,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2007

An arsonist is sentenced

The Yamagata District Court has sentenced a 66-year-old man to eight years in prison for setting the house of Liberal Democratic lawmaker Koichi Kato on fire in August 2006. Circumstances show that it was a clear attempt to suppress opinion by means of violence.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2007

Political pressure puts press freedom to test

, director of the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization, announces during a news conference on March 7 the formation of a new subcommittee to prevent fabricated information from being broadcast by TV stations. KYODO PHOTO
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2007

World's 'best' health care fatally flawed

NEW YORK — One of the most contentious issues of the U.S. presidential campaign will be how to fix what many agree is a malfunctioning health-care system. Adding fuel to the fire is a recent study detailing the shortcomings of the U.S. health-care system compared with those of Australia, Canada, Germany,...
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2007

Apathetic clouds of smoke

Two years after the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) took effect, many countries are coordinating efforts to curb tobacco use.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 26, 2007

Profile: Tomisaku Kawasaki

Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki bears the distinction of having his name attached to a little-known children's disease. This naming was not something that he, a modest man, sought.
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2007

Fears of new 'Nixon shock'

HONOLULU — The U.S.-Japan relationship is on solid ground and growing stronger by the day. As a result of their recent Camp David summit, U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo have become each other's new best friend — perhaps not as close (yet) as Bush's ties with...
Reader Mail
May 23, 2007

The American failure to speak out

Ted Rall's May 6 article, "George Tenet's worst ever career choice," certainly hits the nail on the head. Why didn't former CIA Director Tenet speak up and admit that the White House was deceiving us? Why didn't so many other politicians and bureaucrats speak up? And why did it take the majority of...
Reader Mail
May 23, 2007

Superficial China-Japan entente

Regarding the May 10 article "And now to trilateralism," by Brad Glosserman and Bonnie Glaser: The supposed entente between China and Japan is superficial and will likely evaporate with the next insult from Japan or aggressive move by China in the East China Sea. The fundamental problem is not China's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 22, 2007

Seeing from the Korean side

In February this year over 300 people attended the performing arts festival at a junior high school in Okayama. It was much the same as any other arts festival at any other junior high school in Japan; the students sang, danced, played music and performed skits for an audience made up of family and friends....
Reader Mail
May 20, 2007

Baby drop rekindles memories

I sobbed Friday morning (May 11) when I read the front-page article "Calls flood Kumamoto hospital as it opens first baby hatch." Sixty-year old memories shocked me like jolts of electricity. After being abandoned in an orphanage, I spent many agonizing years not understanding the subliminal pain and...
Reader Mail
May 20, 2007

Personhood is an achievement

I was excited by the May 5 article "Activists push for chimp to be declared a 'person,' " largely because of the fascinating philosophical issues it raises and the currents in modern culture that it exposes. Personally, I disagree with the notion of animals -- even high-order animals like chimpanzees,...
Reader Mail
May 20, 2007

The toughest job in town

I just read an article in The Japan Times about the nation's record-low birthrate. I am one of the angry people who have four children in this country -- I am German and my husband is Japanese. If anybody would like to know why there are so few children, I would like to show them how hard it is to have...
JAPAN
May 18, 2007

Trail to Obara said overlooked in '92 death

Second of two parts
Reader Mail
May 16, 2007

Abe adviser is cause for concern

Regarding Ambassador Hisahiko Okazaki's April 30 article "Entente to balance China": Perhaps Okizaki's essay makes sense in its original Japanese. But its English translation comes across as muddled, disjointed ramblings. The only clear theme is his anti-China bias, which is consistent with some of...

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