I have subscribed to The Japan Times for over 18 years but this is the first time that I've felt the need to write. My concern is the new format for the weather forecast. What happened to the instructional weather map, the percentage chance of rain and the "Today's Weather" description? Is The Japan Times so restricted for space on its sports page? It also seems that you expect your readers to have a magnifying glass handy to read the weekly temperature predictions, which are now half the size of the "pretty" weather symbols, indeed they are even smaller than the "Around the world" temperatures (which implies that future weather predictions for Japan are deemed less important than past weather conditions around the world). I take it that the main readership base of The Japan Times is in Japan, and therefore predominantly interested in Japanese weather conditions.

A final point that seems to underline the casual way this feature put together: I note that while the minuscule numerals in the "Weekly weather forecast" format read from maximum to minimum temperatures, the "Around the world" temperatures read from minimum to maximum. At least be consistent, please. Am I the only reader to object to this "dumbed down" version of the weather forecast?

l. ichikawa