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Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2014

A coup from a different view

Regarding the May 29 AP article "Thai troops detain Cabinet minister who blasted coup": Over the past week I found myself in the midst of the second coup since I came to Thailand, and the news, as reported by the Western media, has appeared fundamentally flawed. I am hoping that the lack of understanding...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

What really happened at Tiananmen?

In recent years the Tiananmen Square 'massacre' story has taken something of a beating as people in the square that night, including a Spanish TV unit, have emerged to tell us that there was no massacre in the square.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 2, 2014

Letters: What did ASIJ know of Moyer sex abuse and why was nothing done?

Readers want to know why children's accounts of abuse by American School in Japan teacher Jack Moyer were not acted upon much earlier.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jun 2, 2014

Generation gaps filled by brick and mortar

Though their numbers have dwindled in the developed world over the past century, multi-generation households are still common, and in fact may become even more common in countries where income gaps are increasing. In Japan, multi-generation households have social relevance owing to cultural norms, the...
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2014

Cameron warns of Juncker election

British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned he would no longer be able to guarantee that Britain would remain a member of the European Union if European leaders elect Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission chief, Germany's Spiegel said.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 1, 2014

Gourmet comic stokes Fukushima ire

The popular manga series 'Oishinbo' came under fire again on May 12 after a character based on a real-life former mayor refers, in the manga's latest issue, to Fukushima Prefecture as unlivable because of the radiation leaking from the ruined power plant there.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 31, 2014

Media eyes trend-setting Sony's loss of momentum

Let's travel back 62 years. On the evening of Dec. 4, 1952, after NHK radio signed off its regular AM programming, an announcer proclaimed: "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo and NHK now commence a joint experimental stereo broadcast."
BUSINESS / Tech
May 31, 2014

Privacy ruling by EU puts ISPs in pickle

Google and other Internet companies find themselves in a quandary over how to strike a balance between privacy and freedom of information as the world's top search engine took a first step toward upholding an EU privacy ruling.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 31, 2014

Diamonds are suddenly everybody's best friend

Dealers are flocking to Japan to buy up all those gems 'sleeping' in people's dresser drawers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 30, 2014

As male hunters dwindle, 'hunter girls' take up shotguns

"Hunter girls" are taking up the sport of hunting to protect farmers' crops as the demographic changes sweeping Japan erode its traditionally male participants.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2014

Shaky grounds for Abe's defense bid

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe takes up the issue of collective self-defense in the Diet for the first time since he announced his desire to seek related changes to the government's long-standing interpretation of the Constitution. The scenarios he used to push his case seem unlikely.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 30, 2014

TPP no longer about free trade

It appears that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be degraded to a system of 'nonfree trade' that will increase the involvement of bureaucrats and inject huge subsidies to certain interest groups.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
May 28, 2014

Japan: a haven for the psychologically troubled

For the troubled Western expat in Japan, the reality of being on another continent can collide with normalized Japanese antisocialism to form a cocktail effective in tuning out a lot of the 'just be a normal adult' voices.
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2014

The danger of provocation

Japanese and Chinese leaders need to resolve problems through diplomatic dialogue instead of talking about military responses to each other's moves.
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

Foreign workers are not robots

Regarding the May 19 article "Success of 'Abenomics' hinges on immigration policy": Japan's demographic, economic and social future must be planned beyond Abenomics. What the Abe administration seems to be hinting at — an "immigration" policy divorced from an "immigrant" policy — is a symptom of...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

Crack down on unpaid overtime

Regarding the May 21 Bloomberg article "Foreign domestics seen as aiding working mothers": I have to say that the solution to keeping women in the workplace and to increasing family size lies not with either increasing the number of domestic helpers (which would benefit only those women who could afford...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2014

To live in a place free of garbage

The May 20 Bloomberg article "Trash troubles pile up in China's Garbage Era" reminded me of my first trip to China as a student of Chinese four years ago. It was a trip mainly to the former "Manchukuo," a Japanese puppet country before and during the war. In the major cities of Harbin and Changchun,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
May 27, 2014

Ruling bloc spars over defense shift

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito are in the midst of wading through a number of thorny scenarios relating to national defense, including one that has sparked outrage from the coalition's junior partner.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 27, 2014

Gaijin band scene welcomes music fans of all kinds

A large multicultural crowd gathered at Club Edge in Tokyo's Roppongi district in March, socializing and laughing boisterously before watching three bands. They remained pretty boisterous throughout the performances.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
May 25, 2014

Kyoto law puts 'upskirt' photography in focus

Each spring, Kyoto is at its busiest. The cherry blossoms bring in multitudes of tourists, and the start of the new academic year means not only thousands of local students returning to the classroom, but also busloads of junior high and high school students from around the country arriving at hotels...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 25, 2014

Learning Japanese by singing along

Several years before I was taught to read and sing the traditional song 「さくら、さくら」("Sakura, sakura") in introductory Japanese class, I recall driving my father's 1963 Ford Galaxie and humming along to the melody of Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki Song," broadcast over WFAY AM radio in North...
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
May 25, 2014

Australia to push retirement age to 70

The A ustralian government said May 2 that it wants to raise the pension entitlement age to 70 — the highest in the developed world — by the year 2035 to help cope with an aging population.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 24, 2014

Will Japan be a country that welcomes all?

"A nation of immigrants." Japan? The leading proponent of that vision has been Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, current executive director of the private think tank he founded in 2007, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 24, 2014

Ball and chain: gambling's darker side

With lawmakers debating whether to legalize gambling in time for the 2020 Olympics, we look at the other side of the coin — addiction
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 23, 2014

Baffled foreign tourists get little help on trains

Although Asian tourists are flocking to Japan in greater numbers, many are at a loss in railway stations, where few signs are written in languages other than Japanese and English.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2014

Opportunity for U.S. to extricate itself from Korea

The U.S. should reduce the possibility of impoverished, remote North Korea interfering with its own peace, stability and prosperity by simply going home: Terminate the defense treaty with South Korea.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 21, 2014

North Korea building disaster reveals regime vulnerability

It may have taken the collapse of an apartment block in an exclusive district of the North Korean capital to reveal the Achilles' heel of young leader Kim Jong Un's secretive regime.
Reader Mail
May 21, 2014

Abe makes old-timers bristle

At his recent press conference on the need for Japan to legalize its use of collective self-defense, how many times did Prime Minister Shinzo Abe say "... protecting the property and lives of the people and ensuring the security of the country as prime minister"? He occasionally mentioned the lives of...
JAPAN / Politics
May 20, 2014

Divided coalition begins defense talks

The ruling coalition kicked off discussions Tuesday aimed at overcoming a fundamental division on whether the Cabinet should reinterpret the Constitution and upgrade Japan's defense posture in a changing security environment.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
May 20, 2014

Why not add a little booze?

Mirin is a staple of Japanese kitchens, yet few people know what it actually is.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat