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Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013

Beware of dangerous ethics

Two recent articles in The Japan Times reported on the government's decision to teach ethics in elementary and junior high schools, and to revise textbooks in order to "instill a sense of national pride in students."
Reader Mail
Nov 27, 2013

A tale of two untimely deaths

William Andrews' Nov. 19 article "Wife fights decades-long battle to free activist leader," underscores the typical treatment of a death, or a human life, because a riot police member trumps a citizen. On the one hand a poor policeman, dispatched to Shibuya from Niigata was fatally set afire by demonstrators...
Reader Mail
Nov 23, 2013

A profoundly tense, sad time for Americans

Because I've been getting The Japan Times since they added it to the New York Times International edition, I was able to read Mark Schreiber's Nov. 17 piece, "The day JFK died." It was a great summary, extremely nostalgic, if that is a good word (painful is closer). I was 12 (in 6th grade) when that...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2013

Get Koizumi: Nuclear village goes on offensive

This is a first for Japan: A political figure who not only undergoes a change of mind in public, but tries to make a difference after giving up the political power to do so.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 26, 2013

'Scary as hell' ocean-research storm breaks

'The long-held barriers between nature and culture are breaking down. It's no longer us against 'nature.' Instead, it's we who decide what nature is and what it will be.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 19, 2013

Enough already: Can Japan settle for less?

The pua-ju016b philosophy in short: Poverty as Japan understands it is not real poverty and does not rule out happiness. In fact, it may even be conducive to it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Oct 7, 2013

The Special Dismissal Zone: where legal protections no longer apply

The government's Special Employment Zone wheeze has already been dubbed the Special Dismissal Zone, or kaiko tokku, by the media.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 2, 2013

Where there's a will: Attitudes toward inheritance change

Japanese baby boomers are facing up to the responsibilities of dying.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 21, 2013

Upgrading from four wheels to two or three

Careening through the winding streets of Chennai, India, in the back of black and yellow auto-rickshaws, I am always amazed by the drivers' audacity — or perhaps a better term would be "death wish." These are the subcontinent's equivalent of New York's exuberant cabbies, but these drivers are much...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 11, 2013

Why the Syrian crisis matters for Japan

U.S. President Barack Obama's weeks of fumbling during the Syrian crisis may create dangerous uncertainties for Japan during the rest of his presidency.
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 3, 2013

Gay Russian teens face life in closet

Like other gay teenagers in Russia, Maxim Moiseyev grappled with his identity alone, frightened and uninformed. Adults either ignored him or admonished him. Classmates reviled him. And a new law that forbids minors from hearing anything positive about homosexuality has only made life harder.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 26, 2013

Denials of defoliant at former U.S. base site in Okinawa fly in the face of science

The inescapable fact is that the U.S. military, on Kadena Air Base, disposed of materials in drums containing 2,4,5-T , a wartime defoliant, and TCDD, the most toxic component of the dioxin family, known to be associated with the manufacture of such herbicides.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 16, 2013

NSA broke privacy rules repeatedly, audit finds

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2013

Future of military self-restraint

This year's anniversary marking the end of World War II comes as the Abe administration appears girding to discard the postwar principle of military self-restraint.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2013

Fed's dark succession games

It's strange how, in the first half of the year, humans beat robots in the dark art of interpreting the gnomic utterances of the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman.
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2013

Time for collective self-defense

Hisahiko Okazaki's well-reasoned July 30 article "Japan could soften U.S. cuts" should stimulate discussion on the rights or wrongs of amending Article 9 of Japan's Constitution.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 28, 2013

Fukushima: evolving fear into fact

Misinformation and flawed reporting about Fukushima radiation levels and reactor stability persisted even when scientific data had become readily available.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2013

Hayao Miyazaki: Leave Constitution alone

Anime master Hayao Miyazaki blasted the government's push to revise the Constitution, saying that politicians without any understanding of history "shouldn't be messing" with the foundation of the country.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2013

Critical issues at stake in election

Besides 'Abenomics,' voters in Sunday's Upper House polls would be wise to weigh the merits of constitutional revision and nuclear power generation.
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2013

The limits of radioactive waste

According to the July 10 AP article "Tepco safety drive hires foreign advocate," Lady Barbara Judge believes that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has changed enough under a new president to begin restarting its reactors. Has it really? Is she not saying these kinds of things simply to please Tepco, Keidanren,...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 14, 2013

Major parties both fall short

It should be of concern to Japan's voters that the LDP's proposed constitutional revisions run counter to the principles of freedom and democracy.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2013

Komeito to campaign for nuke phaseout, denies disconnect with LDP

New Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, pledged Thursday to push for a nuclear phaseout at the earliest possible date and bolster the Constitution by adding more provisions, a sharp contrast to the LDP's desire to promote atomic power and rewrite the national...
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 26, 2013

DPJ hopes platform derails 'Abenomics'

The Democratic Party of Japan, hoping to rebrand itself as the only viable alternative to the Liberal Democratic Party, unveiled a hastily resurrected platform for next month's Upper House election with vows to help the middle class, revive its reactor phaseout goal and oppose any push to amend the Constitution....
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 25, 2013

Unpaid overtime excesses hit young

Some companies are compelling their younger employees to work more than 100 hours of uncompensated overtime a month to maximize their profits.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2013

'Hate speech' in the media, but not the legal code

This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 21, 2013

Ambivalent Japan turns on its 'insular' youth

Japan's decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade negotiations shows that at least some in government have accepted the fact that 'opening up' Japan is in the nation's best long-term interests.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
May 21, 2013

Precedent backs (nearly) equal pay for equal work

In 2012, Japan had 51.73 million workers, of which 33.3 million were regular employees, or seishain, according to the latest survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Contingent, or nonpermanent, workers (including part-timers, haken dispatch and shokutaku semiregular employees) numbered 18.43 million, over 35.5 percent of the workforce.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji