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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2013

Civilizing academia's marketplace of ideas

History professor Niall Ferguson goes after liberal economist Paul Krugman, calling him the intellectual equivalent of a robber baron for the way he 'abuses his power' in the blogosphere.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 18, 2013

Nagoya temple erects Home-for-all for guests

Aioiyama Tokurinji Temple in Tenpaku Ward, Nagoya, is currently building a guest house named Home-for-all within its premises. The house will be fitted with a solar power system and will be self-sufficient energywise.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2013

Defenders of Thai monarchy busy politicizing

You would think that Thailand's state agencies would be trying to de-politicize issues related to the monarchy in light of the country's deep polarization in recent years. You would be wrong.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2013

Policy speech overlooks key issues

An extraordinary Diet session starts ostensibly to deal with radioactive contamination, reconstruction of disaster-hit areas and world trade, but the prime minister's policy speech misses.
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2013

Police must confront 'stalkers'

Regarding the Oct. 11 front-page article "Tougher stalking law failed to stir police": The death of a child may not be the police's fault, but there are serious issues with Japan's police force. Not accepting the victim's first report and suggesting that the victim take the matter to another police station...
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2013

Forget about cellphone warnings

Regarding the Oct. 12 article "Police partially blame stalking slaying to cellphone mixup": What a headline! So, if only the Mitaka police had had Charles Thomas Ikenaga's telephone number [instead of his friend's], there never would have been a savage murder right in front of the victim's home.
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2013

Obama's 'dawdle' a wise move

In his Aug. 29 article, "Obama's great Asian dawdle," Brahma Chellaney gets it wrong on two major points.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 16, 2013

Adoption and fostering, animal homes and a tribute: readers' mail

In response to a recent story about adoption and foster parenting in Japan, one woman recounts her life of doing both.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2013

The freedom of belief and religion

Freedom of belief or religion is considered in democratic countries to be a fundamental human right and is enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom of religion includes the right to change religion or not to have any religion. It also covers the freedom to practice...
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Oct 13, 2013

Japan's decreasing population

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications made public on the 28th that the population of Japan based on the basic register of residents as of the end of March this year was 126,393,679.
Reader Mail
Oct 12, 2013

Cigarettes belie health campaign

Regarding the Oct. 8 article "Japanese convenience store chain going healthy": I enjoy shopping at Lawson, but it seems blatantly hypocritical for the chain to launch a PR campaign that says the company is "going healthy."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2013

The U.S. Civil War continues

A big hoax of American history is that the Civil War ended in 1865. Unfortunately it continues — as a battle over redistributing shares of economic power in the clothing of cultural values.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 11, 2013

Camera Grandma's photos document Gifu village's demise

Izu Photo Museum in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, is exhibiting the work of late amateur photographer Tazuko Masuyama on the Tokuyama Dam in Gifu Prefecture, where a small village vanished under the waters of a reservoir decades ago.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 11, 2013

Vitamin D's aid for bones doubted

Vitamin D supplements don't help boost bone density in healthy adults, judging from a review of 23 studies that suggests the supplement should be limited to people with a documented deficiency to fight osteoporosis.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2013

Political intervention in education

The education ministry should drop its threat to have Taketomi Town of Okinawa Prefecture declared a scofflaw for refusing to adopt a school civics textbook selected by an area council.
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2013

Heroine seemed to act alone

Regarding the Oct. 2 Kyodo article "Woman killed by train after saving man": This was a heroic young lady. Sincere condolences to her family. I saw the report on TV. She (Natsue Murata, 40) was on the other side of the railroad tracks [between Kamoi and Nakayama stations on the JR Yokohama Line]. She...
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2013

Relieving environmental malaise

Regarding naturalist C.W. Nicol's Oct. 6 article, "Canadian sojourn helps to shake off Japan malaise": Wouldn't it be grand if Nicol's son-in-law, Don McCubbing, could travel to Japan and get to work restoring some of those salmon streams that the construction ministry has bulldozed under in the name...
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2013

Evidence of Mary's virginity

Regarding Reza Aslan's Oct. 6/7 article, "Separating Jesus from the legends": Aslan's accusations of irrationality notwithstanding, there is plenty of scriptural evidence to support the Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity.
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2013

Abe waiting for right moment

Regarding the Oct. 7 Kyodo article "Documents detail how Imperial military forced Dutch females to be 'comfort women’": To be made to wait seven decades for this fragment of truth to emerge about the sexual slavery of European women is a new war crime in itself, but the government's ongoing attempts...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2013

With 8% hurdle cleared, Aso eyes 10% sales tax

Just a week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his intention to raise the 5 percent consumption tax to 8 percent next April, Finance Minister Taro Aso said he was upbeat about raising the levy further to 10 percent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Oct 8, 2013

Backlash against Miyazaki is generational

If you haven't lived in Japan, it's hard to appreciate just how beloved are anime maestro Hayao Miyazaki and his creative hub, Studio Ghibli.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Oct 6, 2013

Hearing on the tax rise

An intensive meeting began on the 26th at the prime minister's office to examine economic and financial future trends. It will hear from 60 people composed of delegates from various fields, including economic specialists and experts, as to the raising of the consumption tax by the Abe administraion.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2013

The rich hit back at the poor

The economic divide between the haves and the have-nots may not be as wide in the United Kindom at it is in the United States, but it is growing dangerously.
Reader Mail
Oct 5, 2013

Abe's economic house of cards

Regarding the Sept. 30 Kyodo article "Abe appoints more women, brother to senior government posts": "Inbred nepotistic cronyism" might be the initial reaction of anyone outside Japan upon reading the list of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's appointments.
Reader Mail
Oct 5, 2013

Ambiguity turned off city voters

Regarding the front-page Oct. 1 article "Hashimoto's Osaka merger dream in jeopardy": I think it should come as no surprise that a candidate backed by the Japan Restoration Party was defeated in the Sakai mayoral election held last Sunday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 4, 2013

Rural exchange program for city kids draws down

Amid a rapidly aging and declining population in rural areas of Aichi Prefecture, an exchange program to send young students from cities to the Tomiyama district in the village of Toyone will be terminated in March 2015, along with the closure of the district's only elementary and junior high school....
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2013

Mindset trumps English ability

In his Sept. 23 article, "The communication skills for vying in the world," Sadaaki Numata expressed concern about Japan's ability to hold its own in international forums and negotiations.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2013

U.S. interest in a Japanese affair

In the Sept. 26 Kyodo article "Abe tries to counter militant image in U.S.," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says that under the current interpretation of Japan's Constitution, Japan's warships cannot "come to the aid of U.S. warships operating around Japan in international waters if they are attacked from...
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2013

Rights to our body after death

I usually enjoy Ted Rall's opinion essays, but I didn't fancy his Sept. 27 article "Mandatory organ donation." Even though he writes as he usually does, provocatively and tongue in cheek, there are serious people among us who seriously propose this dystopian stupidity.

Longform

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