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Reader Mail
Mar 22, 2012

Total protester count low-balled

I would agree with the March 18 editorial "Time for antinuclear protests." But I was surprised to find a total estimate of "at least 20,000" who turned out at antinuclear protests in Japan on the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011, disasters. I was at a rally in Koriyama that filled a baseball park...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 18, 2012

Quake insurance is but a token offering

As the government continues to push for an increase in the consumption tax, a question related to last year's disaster is still being debated: How much of the burden for rebuilding should be shouldered by taxpayers? We live in a resolutely capitalist country that stresses personal responsibility, and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2012

Mental health must match post-3/11 recovery

Over the past year, the tsunami-ravaged coastline of Japan's northeast has undergone a cleanup never seen before in history for its sheer scale and speed.
COMMENTARY
Mar 6, 2012

Hamas' perilous maneuvers

Despite all of Hamas' assurances to the contrary, a defining struggle is taking place within the Palestinian Islamic movement. The outcome of this struggle — which is still confined to polite political disagreements and occasional intellectual tussle — is likely to change Hamas' outlook, if not fundamentally...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 28, 2012

Threatened Goldman Japan workers unionize

The past year has been anything but business as usual for the financial industry. Faced with a frosty economic climate, financial service companies have been busy chopping dead wood. Last year, 200,000 financial service jobs ended up on the cutting block worldwide.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 19, 2012

Media ratchets up fear of another major earthquake

So called megathrust earthquakes such as the one that struck off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture on March 11, 2011, tend to occur in pairs, with a relatively short gap between them.
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Explaining things to Okinawans

I write in response to a Japanese newspaper's editorial view that the outcome of last Sunday's Ginowan mayoral election in Okinawa Prefecture should serve as a springboard to ensure that U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is relocated to the Henoko district of Nago in the same prefecture.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2012

Finer details of atmospheric science in Beijing

In July 2009, China's Foreign Ministry made a demand of the American embassy: Stop taking measurements of air pollution in Beijing available to ordinary Chinese since they conflicted with official data and could lead to "confusion" among the public and undesirable "social consequences."
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 9, 2012

China's Un-relenting watch

The entire world was shocked by the news of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who was as vicious a dictator as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin or Mao Zedong.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 27, 2011

Readers' views: Do foreigners deserve a fairer shake in Japan?

Some responses to the Nov. 6 Just Be Cause column by Debito Arudou headlined "For the sake of Japan's future, foreigners deserve a fair shake":
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 13, 2011

Real cause of nuclear crisis

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the operator of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Station, has been insisting that the culprit that caused the nuclear crisis was the huge tsunami that hit the plant after the March 11 earthquake. But evidence is mounting that the meltdown at the nuclear power...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 10, 2011

CL exit exposes Man United's flaws

Three weeks ago, Sir Alex Ferguson walked out of a UEFA news conference when he was asked a question by a reporter that began: "With the two best teams in the Premier League struggling in Europe. . . "
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Dec 1, 2011

Restless Arab region presents curatorial challenge

In mid-February, Mori Art Museum Associate Curator Kenichi Kondo noticed an article on the Nafas website, which specializes in art news from the Middle East. Egyptian media artist Ahmed Basiony, it said, had gone to Tahrir Square in Cairo to join the protests against president Hosni Mubarak. He had been...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 28, 2011

Existential fear stalks M.D.s

The Japan Medical Association (JMA), once the most powerful lobby group with mighty political clout, still clings to its position of staunchly opposing any scheme to increase the number of doctors, in order to protect its own vested interests.
Reader Mail
Nov 24, 2011

So who is actually cooperating?

I am a regular recipient of the emailed Japan Times. Thank you so much for the good service to this retired professor. I teach English at a university in Fukuoka, and News Digest is the regular textbook for all of my classes. I recommend to students that they read the latest articles on the Internet....
Reader Mail
Nov 13, 2011

Occupy Tokyo a welcome sight

Regarding Michael Hoffman's Nov. 7 Bilingual page article, "Occupy Tokyo lacks focus but still demands change": I am a 21-year-old African American who has watched and participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement of Oakland, California. I am happy to hear that the movement supporting the future of...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 21, 2011

Kabaya starts strong as B-Corsairs evolve

With four games in the books, the expansion Yokohama B-Corsairs now have several relevant things that can be discussed in team meetings. A few trends have started to emerge, too, including the solid play of guards Masayuki Kabaya and Kenji Yamada.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 10, 2011

Tepco guarding its ground

Recent moves by Tokyo Electric Power Co. vis-a-vis Tepco's Management and Finance Investigation Committee, an independent government panel, show how the power company has tried to avoid being forced to sell large chunks of its assets.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 3, 2011

Restaurant chain retains No. 1 position in sales . . . and robberies

Why has the Sukiya beef bowl chain become such a magnet for thieves?
Reader Mail
Sep 11, 2011

What's wrong with Indian labor?

Regarding the Sept. 7 Kyodo article "Strong yen forces Toyota to end Camry exports to U.S.": The stronger the yen becomes, the more such news will appear from all exporters of Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2011

Beating the midlife blues

Are you feeling down about middle age? Do you find yourself thinking that time is hurtling and you'll never reach your goals — or, perhaps more distressingly, that they don't even fit who you are anymore?
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2011

China turns up the heat

As Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino in Beijing recently at the start of a state visit, the official Xinhua news agency laid out terms for a sustained improvement in relations between the world's second biggest economy and its much smaller and weaker Southeast...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2011

Italian reporter caught in media glare

Pio d'Emilia, an Italian journalist and long-term Tokyo resident who has been Prime Minister Naoto Kan's friend for about 20 years, has suddenly been put in the spotlight of the Japanese media for reportedly influencing Kan's position on nuclear power and his remote connection with an extreme leftist...
Reader Mail
Aug 4, 2011

Japan's road to justice for all

I was interested in The Japan Times' publication of the news article "Lay judges convict 99%" and the editorial "Reform of prosecution" in the same edition, Aug. 2.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 10, 2011

Up close and personal with MIT robots

I'm in a lab surrounded by computer and video equipment, toys, and robots. Lots of robots. I'm like a kid in a candy shop. It's the modern equivalent of an Aladdin's cave for otaku (geeks).
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 9, 2011

Nagoya assistance for disaster-hit city a bit rocky at times

More than two months have passed since Nagoya started sending its officials to support the understaffed municipal government in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, where 68 out of its 295 employees were killed in the March quake and tsunami or remain missing.
Reader Mail
Jun 30, 2011

Better trip for Japanese retirees

Regarding the June 26 Kyodo article "Ogasawara Islands join World Heritage family": Last year I was part of a delegation of foreigners sent by the Japan Tourism Agency to assess the overseas tourist potential of the Ogasawara Islands.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 5, 2011

Sadly, the pleasant diversion of literature is losing its appeal

Radiation and rubble — that's Japan's reality now and for the foreseeable future; the only escape is to seize the bull called "relevance" by the horns and fling it to the devil. Gladly I accept the challenge. If I need an excuse, the bimonthly magazine Brutus provides one. Its June 1 edition, 118 pages...
COMMENTARY
Jun 3, 2011

The Fukushima disaster and Japan Disincorporated

The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster is being used to convince the world that nuclear energy generation is inherently dangerous, especially in earthquake-prone Japan.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years