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Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2012

Nikon Corp. has rights, too

Last month's ruling in which the Tokyo District Court compelled Nikon Corp. to allow South Korean photographer Ahn Se Hong to use Nikon's property for a controversial exhibition (of former South Korean "comfort women") is no victory for freedom of expression, as argued in the July 7 editorial "Victory...
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2012

Superstitions are with everyone

Regarding Rowan Hooper's July 8 Natural Selections article, "How astrology and superstition drove an increase in abortions in Japan": I disagree with the acknowledgment (attributed to a Kyushu University researcher) that the absence of a single powerful religious belief in Japan may explain the sheer...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2012

Libya's unwilling revolutionaries

Egypt is not the only place where the bright hopes of the Arab Spring are fading. From attacks against Western governments to ethnic clashes in remote desert oases, Libya's revolution is faltering.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jul 11, 2012

Will Kim's return provide new motivation for Mao?

Great news descended upon the skating world last week when Kim Yu-na announced she was returning to competition with the goal of taking part in the 2014 Sochi Games.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2012

Prosecution's questionable call

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office on June 27 decided not to indict Mr. Masahiro Tashiro, a former prosecutor with the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. He was accused by a citizens' group of falsifying a report on his interrogation of Mr. Tomohiro Ishikawa,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 10, 2012

Tokyo: Aside from stripping down to Super Cool Biz attire, what tips do you have for keeping cool at work this summer?

Kiriko Iwa
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2012

Thomas Jefferson's view of equality under siege

A week after the 236th anniversary of the birth of the United States — which was squalling to the world in its very first utterance that all men were created equal and endowed with unalienable rights — the essence of our politics is still about who are those people who are self-evidently equal and...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 10, 2012

Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary

Some readers' responses to "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary" by Patrick Budmar (Zeit Gist, July 3):
COMMENTARY
Jul 10, 2012

Completing one's education

Until only a few years ago, Japan prided itself on leading the world in the field of manufacturing. Industry as a whole is usually classified into four sectors: agriculture-forestry-fishery, mining, manufacturing, and services. (The mining industry is virtually nonexistent in resource-poor Japan, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 10, 2012

Being in the doghouse is not always a bad thing

Joseph Kosuth, an American artist famous for conceptual, text-centric works, just put one of his good friends — Joni Waka — in the doghouse.
LIFE
Jul 8, 2012

Okinawa, nuclear weapons and 'Japan's special psychological problem'

Situated among boiling sulfur pits and magma-blackened rocks, the hot-spring resort of Hakone, 100 km west of Tokyo, provided a suitably apocalyptic backdrop for secret nuclear talks held by the United States and Japan in November 1961. The meetings, attended by U.S. President John F. Kennedy's secretary...
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Biomass: a question of viability

Regarding the June 19 Kyodo article "Biomass town shining amid Fukushima taint": As nice as it sounds, biomass will not meet Japan's power needs for the foreseeable future. ... Does the city of Maniwa (Okayama Prefecture) seriously think that harvesting trees will meet its energy needs, and for how long?...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 8, 2012

What nobody is saying about Noda's new consumption tax bill

Two weeks ago, the Lower House passed a law to increase the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, something Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has been pushing with blinkered, self-sacrificial dedication. Eventual final passage seems inevitable at this point, and so the only aspect deemed worthy of discussion...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 8, 2012

The brief life of Kaneko Misuzu; "Yumin Super Woman" visits Mt. Koya; CM of the week: The Try Group

Right after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the only commercials on TV were from the non-profit Ad Council. One of them featured a touching children's poem by Misuzu Kaneko (1903-1930) about the primacy of sibling relationships.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2012

New religions in the land of the rising sun

CELEBRITY GODS: New Religions, Media, and Authority in Occupied Japan, by Benjamin Dorman. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 296 pp., $42.00 (hardcover)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 6, 2012

Death marks beginning of life in ancient Egypt

A good portion of Japan's summer is dedicated to honoring the dead. Memorial services in early August remember lives lost to the atomic bombings of 1945, while the Bon holidays pay respect to familial ancestors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jul 6, 2012

Famed patissier to visit the Cerulean

From July 11-31, the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel in the Shibuya area of Tokyo will hold a special Laurent Jeannin Promotion featuring special lunch and dinner courses at the restaurant Coucagno on the hotel's 40th floor.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2012

Barclays ex-chief tries to deflect blame in rate-fixing probe

Fallen banking titan Bob Diamond on Wednesday described regulators on both sides of the Atlantic as partly complicit in a scandal involving the manipulation of a key interbank lending rate, telling a British parliamentary committee that government watchdogs had failed to act after his bank, Barclays,...
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2012

BOJ confusing households: survey

Households having difficulty understanding what the Bank of Japan is trying to communicate rose to their highest level in almost four years, a survey by the central bank shows.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 6, 2012

Rokurinsha: A ramen line-up worth dipping into

Even in the middle of the afternoon on a gray, rainy-season Monday, the queue in front of us is the best part of an hour deep and moving at snail's pace. Only to be expected at Tokyo Skytree, you might say. Except we're not lining up for the observation deck: We're there for the new branch of the legendary...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Advice that defies a solution

Regarding Ray Andrews' July 1 letter, "Safest bet is to skip having kids": This view, while perhaps purposely exaggerated for rhetorical effect, doesn't help solve problems. Not having kids, encouraging defeatism and hopelessness, and generally being a complete downer are not something that will improve...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Leveling the field for women

When I first read the July 1 article "Disabled women speak out on discrimination," I was so angry that I read it again — just to be sure about what I'd read. The first question that came to me: What would it be like if there were no women in the world?
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2012

Mexico's old political party needs modern vision

On Sunday, about 49 million Mexicans (roughly 62 percent of eligible voters in a population of 110 million) voted for their next president. The winner is Enrique Pena Nieto, the young candidate of an old party, the PRI, that is often associated with the image of a dinosaur.
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Drone strikes may haunt U.S.

Regarding Ramesh Thakur's June 21 article, "Drone warfare clashes with law, human rights": Congratulations to Thakur for saying what needs to be said and to The Japan Times for publishing it. Thakur points out the realities of U.S. drone aircraft attacks and raises the right questions, as troubling as...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 5, 2012

Big theater names and 'Super Kabuki'

At the start of the performances at Tokyo's Shimbashi Embujo Ichikawa theater in June this year, Kamejiro II (born Takahiko Kinoshi), 36, took the name Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, while his uncle Ichikawa Ennosuke III, famously known as the founder of "Super Kabuki," took the name Ichikawa En'o II.
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2012

Azumi blasts 'wasteful' SDF reserves

An army of reserve soldiers that was never mobilized after last year's disasters has been cited as an example of waste by Finance Minister Jun Azumi, who also called for tighter control of government spending.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 4, 2012

Breaker, breaker: How to conserve energy without thinking too much

There's an easy way to save energy this summer that the utilities don't talk about.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?