In his May 18 letter, Grant Piper makes some very good remarks on letter writing in Japan. Letter writing is a dying art. I think quantity and varying quality is a good thing and allows for more varied opinions. It also does not exclude anyone based on someone else's prejudices. The problem with The Japan Times is that too many topics grab my attention.
Piper is correct to note the lack of debate in Japan. Attempts to foster debates at my schools or with Japanese friends have been total failures. Reasons range from not wanting to disagree with peers to the suppression of debate at the school level. Debating skills could be taught in classes such as history, for example, but this would quite dangerously promote a healthy debate on Japanese history itself.
As someone who has engaged in letter writing to pen pals across the globe since university, I have found it harder to foster long-term letter-writing connections with Japanese people. There must be a reason for this.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.