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Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2014

Some lay judges just don't get it

For a long time, one criticism of Japan has been the paucity of broad and deep public discussion of its use of capital punishment, a lack of transparency in the process and the treatment of detained convicts in general. Successive governments have trotted out statistics declaring overwhelming public...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 18, 2014

Consumption tax rush approaching peak time

Many who want to avoid the higher consumption tax by buying now may not save as much money as they think.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 16, 2014

An endangered liberal voice

What has become of the Liberal Democratic Party's 'liberalism' since the Abe administration took the nation's helm? A lone survivor of that tradition weighs in on the future of 'Abenomics' and Japan itself.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2014

Now Kaieda must deliver

The head of the Democratic Party of Japan says the party will fiercely confront the Abe administration, which he called a 'raging horse,' to push politics aimed at protecting people's lives and jobs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 16, 2014

All's fair when it comes to NHK's fare

In a country where TV fare typically involves panels of posturing personalities oohing and aahing over each other's exploits, Japan's two national NHK channels are a welcome beacon of quality programming.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Feb 16, 2014

Buckingham palace seeks new housekeeper

Buckingham Palace is advertising for a new housekeeping assistant, whose duties include running the royal baths and arranging the tea service.
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Feb 16, 2014

Lack of bids threatens to keep Fukushima evacuees in temporary lodgings

Plans to build new public apartments for the nuclear refugees in Fukushima Prefecture are stalling because the prefectural government is struggling to attract bids from contractors.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2014

A tale of two Abes: PM's rosy view jars with life of toil seen in poison case

Did the frozen-food poisoner have some obscure notion of 'justice' in mind? Might it have been his way of saying to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 'Japan is not back; Japan won't be back until working for a living does not entail the sacrifice of all human dignity
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 15, 2014

Samuragochi scandal shows that tin-eared classical music fans can be suckers for stories

What makes Mamoru Samuragochi's story interesting is not that he got away with his subterfuge for so long, but that the media, the public and even professional musicians accepted the story as being proof of his value as an artist.
Reader Mail
Feb 15, 2014

Dumb reason for embracing English class

Regarding Michael Hoffman's Feb. 2 article, "For Japan's foreign residents, the little things make such a big difference": The other day I saw a language-school ad showing an interracial wedding between a Japanese man and his blonde, blue-eyed bride, with a white male gesturing frustratedly in the background....
Reader Mail
Feb 15, 2014

Time for project on climate reality

Readers might find it puzzling that the subject of the Feb. 3 editorial, "Rising costs of climate change," was not front-page news. Increasingly extreme weather events brought about by man-made global warming should be a priority today precisely because it is the No. 1 threat to our future.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 14, 2014

Chinese students put Shiga residents online

Chinese exchange students at Shiga University have been interviewing local residents and posting the videos and articles in Chinese under a project called Interviewing 100 People in Hikone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014

A butler who brought color to the White House

"The Butler" director Lee Daniels didn't start out as a filmmaker but as an owner of a nursing agency in Los Angeles. "So I know how to gather funds, get the people, and treat filmmaking like a business," he tells The Japan Times. "At the same time, once the filming starts, I can't be just a businessman...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014

Kushida's 'Flapper' comes roaring back

"Young people these days won't be too familiar with the term the Roaring Twenties, but the 1920s still hold interest as a period. It was a time of changing values, not only in the United States, but in Europe: Dadaism, Cubism, Expressionism and other non-mainstream arts were blossoming. All over the...
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Creative tale of deductive thought

Regarding the Jan. 30 article by Mark Gottlieb, "The confounding case of Japan's creativity crisis": While the premise that describes "creativity" appears generally sound, Gottlieb's assertion that "At its heart, creativity is really nothing more than deductive reasoning" doesn't seem to hold up.
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2014

Making a clear cut with the past

Concerning the Feb. 4 article "Yasukuni: It's open to interpretation": I would like to add a few historic facts. Yasukuni is barely understood in its historic context. It is not just a memorial for the war dead! In the middle of the 19th century the modern nation of Japan was modeled according to the...
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Feb 9, 2014

Olympics to have great impact on economy

Tokyo's hosting of the 2020 O lympic Games will generate up to ¥20 trillion in spillover effects for the economy, according to a projection released by a think tank on Jan. 6.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEDGE
Feb 9, 2014

Eco-labels urged to save endangered marine life

2013 highlighted the decline in Japan's fishery resources, with baby eel trading at ¥3 million per kilogram — more expensive than silver — and the catch quota of bluefin tuna being slashed at the December meeting of the Commission for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks...
BASKETBALL
Feb 8, 2014

Iwate delivers another stellar performance on road, defeats Toyama in series opener

Wherever the play, the Iwate Big Bulls seem to know what's expected of them.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 7, 2014

'Cove' to become 'aquatic nook' as Abe takes aim at improper eigo

Some say that Shinzo Abe's latest proposed tax increases, part of the 'fourth arrow' in his popular 'Abenomics' policy, are going a step too far. Dubbed the 'language tax,' the new levy is aimed at word usage.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 7, 2014

Female scientists push for breakthrough in equality

Recent news that Haruko Obokata of Riken's Center for Developmental Biology found a new way to generate pluripotent cells cast a spotlight on women in the male-dominant field of science.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2014

Samuragochi's ghostwriter speaks

The man who ghostwrote works credited to “deaf” composer Mamoru Samuragochi for the past 18 years stepped forward Thursday as his “partner in crime.”
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2014

Japan's democratic credentials

Regarding Hugh Cortazzi's Jan. 25 article, "Playing with fire is dangerous": With all due respect, Cortazzi seems misinformed about the history of Japan. In the interests of a balanced view, let me point out one crucial misunderstanding that prevails in English-speaking media: that after World War II...
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2014

Let's not ban the fun at Zushi

Regarding the Jan. 30 front-page article "Zushi looks to tame its unruly summer beach": The people of Zushi and city officials point out that young beachgoers are too wild and out of control. Huh?
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2014

Market skewed to anemic wages

Regarding the Feb. 4 Bloomberg article "Workers stumble while 'Abenomics' soars": Japan's wages are, and always have been, anemic. Among the many explanations for this, some say it is a hangover from Japan's extinct lifetime employment system, where lifelong job security compensated for lower wages....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2014

Climate-change skeptics have free-speech rights

One could find himself tugged in two directions by the latest ruling in the defamation suit filed by climatologist Michael Mann, who has long been an object of ire among climate-change skeptics. Now it seems the skeptics have let their ire get out of hand.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2014

Uphold basic living standards

To attain a national minimum for social welfare, some urge introducing a basic income — provision of a fixed sum of money to each citizen — to replace social security, which covers only needy people.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Feb 2, 2014

'Polar vortex' grips U.S. Midwest

The coldest, most dangerous blast of polar air in decades gripped the U .S. Midwest on Jan. 6. The bitter weather comes right after a heavy snowstorm hit much of the region the week before.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 2, 2014

Cooling down the history wars

To protect the integrity of history teaching, historians and teachers should insist, forcefully, that there are many spaces where patriotism can be cultivated in a modern democratic society but that the history classroom is not one of them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 1, 2014

Pursuit of happiness

The merry residents of Japan have long sought to attain the 'pleasantest of all diversions

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