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EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2012

An election that really matters

The results of the Lower House election to be held on Sunday will have a great impact on the future and general posture of Japan as well as Japan's standing in the international community. Voters cannot be too careful in deciding which party to support.
Reader Mail
Nov 8, 2012

Retreating from the car boom

The Oct. 29 front-page article "Declining Japan loses once-hopeful champions" must be seen partially as U.S.-style debunking of the Democratic Party of Japan for being less servile to the United States than the Liberal Democratic Party had been when it was in power.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2012

Mr. Ishihara goes national

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced Thursday that he will resign and return to national politics by launching a new political party and becoming its leader. He is stepping down as governor nearly two and half years before his term expires. Given his popularity and personality, and voters' frustration...
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Nearly 50 years ago, Tokyo meetings focused on liquidity

For Tokyo, 1964 was definitely one of the biggest years.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 25, 2012

Fears over Hashimoto, beefs with Berlitz story

A recipe for 'Hashism'? Re: "How did we end up here, in 'Hashimotopia,' 2022?" by Christopher Robinson and Ben Stubbings (Light Gist, Aug. 28):
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 24, 2012

An ominously familiar Japanese contemporary

Things do sometimes go backward.
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2012

Worse off for reading the news

Regarding the Sept. 13 Kyodo article "Fukushima finds first child thyroid cancer after 3/11": What shameful journalism. Everyone with whom I've shared this article and who read only the headline assumed that a link had been proven between the nuclear reactor disasters at Fukushima and higher rates of...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 11, 2012

Three steps to judging whether a disciplinary measure is legal

An English teacher writes: "Recently, my company placed me on a three-month suspension from work, until five days before my fixed-period employment contract expires. As I am still employed, I cannot claim unemployment benefits, and this lengthy period makes it almost financially prohibitive to remain...
COMMUNITY / Issues / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 31, 2012

Debate rages over value of JET program, assistant language teachers

Some readers' responses to letters published in this column on July 10 ("Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary") regarding Patrick Budmar's July 3 Zeit Gist article, "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary":
Reader Mail
Jul 19, 2012

High cost of a solar power plan

Does Michael Hoffman's July 15 Big in Japan article, "Aging village shows the way with switch to solar," really demonstrate the viability of solar power? Let's do the math:
Reader Mail
Jul 19, 2012

The privilege to criticize Japan

I was amused to read Roger Pulvers' Counterpoint article July 8, "The sorry state of affairs in Japan is enough to turn WGs into FGs."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 10, 2012

Japan's battered men suffer abuse in silence

As in many surveys, numbers and percentages are abundant. But for me, it was that little 3.4 at the bottom of page 21 that stood out more than any other: 3.4 percent of married men in Japan say that their spouses have forced them to engage in sexual relations against their will. And that is down from...
Reader Mail
Jun 24, 2012

Okinawan students vet Osprey

Regarding the June 20 article "Okinawa governor opposes Osprey deployment": This semester I am teaching "Current Affairs in English" at Okinawa International University. Almost all of the students in my class are English majors, and many view the U.S. military presence in Okinawa in a positive light....
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2012

What 'international outcry'?

The June 17 Page 2 article "Oi decision draws international outcry" is very interesting with regard to the disparity between the headline and the body of the article.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 28, 2012

Unmachinable, unreformable, but necessary

One recent topic for The Wall Street Journal's front-page space set aside for stories other than the daily shenanigans of business, politics and wars was the community in Florida created for retired letter carriers. ("In Florida, These Retirees Deliver a First-Class Protest," March 27.)
COMMENTARY
May 11, 2012

Chance to improve public health in Myanmar

In 1998, the publication Burma Debate included my article "The Health of Burma's Women and Children," which was a critical assessment of the health situation in the country. It was a groundbreaking article in that as soon as it was published I received a midnight call from UNICEF's representative in...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 11, 2012

Hamamatsu, Ryukyu, Osaka favored to make Final Four

The Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix have a rookie head coach in Ryuji Kawai, but a veteran nucleus of players that captured consecutive championships in 2009-10 and 2010-11 under Kazuo Nakamura, the bj-league's elder statesman.
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2012

Root of fear is not knowing

The March 12 AP article "'Invisible enemy' stalks Fukushima" describes daily life for city residents of Fukushima and the negative effects from the stricken nuclear power plant. Many people also are affected emotionally because of the lack of information and the irresponsibility of the government's [statements]....
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Mar 6, 2012

A few of readers' favorite things; heated discussion on the burning issue of warmth

A selection of readers' responses to Debito Arudou's Feb. 7 Just Be Cause column, "These are a few of my favorite things about Japan":
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2012

Hurdles to ending the recession

The Feb. 21 front-page article "January trade deficit hits new high" is not badly written, but it lacks honest answers to what is on the minds of readers in Japan. Everyone wants to know just when the "high yen" (endaka) recession will end. Most people know it is due to closed markets and may feel from...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 14, 2012

Solving Japan's succession conundrum

Lack of males a recent trend I very much enjoyed the comprehensive article on the Japanese Imperial family by Prof. Colin P.A. Jones of Doshisha Law School in Kyoto ("And then there was one?: Japan's right royal crisis," Zeit Gist, Jan. 17).
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 8, 2012

Bills could render Hague toothless

Japan may sign the Hague Convention, but if planned new laws for ratifying the treaty fail to compel family court judges to adhere to its principles, the whole exercise could be meaningless, legal experts and people whose children have been victims of parental abductions say.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 30, 2012

Aggression born of American 'exceptionalism'

I thought American exceptionalism was debunked and dying. I was wrong.
Reader Mail
Jan 15, 2012

Won't dumb down the homework

Regarding Minoru Matsutani's Jan. 10 article "Student count, knowledge sliding": I teach university-level English conversation for first-year students and have become increasingly frustrated with my students' performance concerning the basic English that is taught in all junior highs throughout Japan....
Reader Mail
Jan 15, 2012

Lack of motivation for studying

Shiga University President Takamitsu Sawa's Dec. 19 article, "Motivation for college study," leads me to believe that he missed the point of his own article. Japanese students, generally speaking, are not motivated to attend college abroad mainly because they are not motivated to study or encouraged...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 15, 2012

Nakajima, Aoki reminders that posting system is an inexact science

There were some strange goings-on in the attempts by Japanese stars Hiroyuki Nakajima and Norichika Aoki to leave their clubs and carve out careers in the major leagues via the posting system.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 8, 2012

Stop the presses and hold the front page

It was perhaps the biggest financial story of postwar Japan — or it should have been.Yamaichi Securities, one of the nation's four top brokerages, which was among the world's six largest in the 1980s, had in 1992 started to illegally bury millions of dollars in red ink off the books, setting up dummy...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

Japan's troubled royals put up a brave front

Bungei Shunju ("literary spring and autumn") is arguably Japan's most prestigious monthly magazine. Emblazoned in celebratory red across the cover of its New Year's edition is the rather ominous headline, "The Day the Heisei (Era) Ends."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Dec 27, 2011

2011: a year of disaster in quotes

This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order:
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Criticism of criticism puzzling

I can't for the life of me understand why Donald Feeney — in his Dec. 1 letter, "Unbalanced article on immigrants" — believes that Hiroaki Sato (Nov. 28 article, "Learning to live with the builders of America") should feel obligated to bring up Japan in his article on American immigration policies....

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