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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2011

How big is China's economy?

HONG KONG — There was much fanfare last month when Beijing reported that China had overtaken Japan to become the second biggest economy in the world. But this celebration was bogus — because the reality is that in real terms China has already become the biggest economy in the world, edging slightly...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 8, 2011

Childless Japanese couples look for bargains in Asia

More couples are turning to surrogacy in Japan, but the legal gray zone and exploitation of overseas surrogates is giving birth to a host of issues.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2011

Byzantine temp rules need permanent fix

Back in the days when I was a corporate drone in Tokyo, I had a wonderful secretary who had the good fortune to get pregnant. Bad news for me, though, since I had to endure a series of temps, some good, some bad, and one who marinated herself in enough perfume to make everyone ill. But what I found most...
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2011

Good outlook for English classes

Takahiro Fukada's Feb. 26 article, "Are schools ready for English?," accentuates elementary school teachers' concerns about teaching English as a compulsory subject to fifth- and sixth-grade students from the beginning of the new academic year. University professors express anxiety about the number of...
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2011

Who'll report on worker abuse?

Regarding the March 2 article "English big business, and growing": Please don't make it sound as if all these private companies are doing a good thing. Some pay unfair wages and do not enroll their teachers in insurance or provide other benefits. They break labor laws and no one reports on that.
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2011

Blurry separation of generations

The March 2 Kyodo article " 'Kawaii' culture taking hold in U.K." gives an an interesting contrast of the differences in the perception of "kawaii" (cute) between the United Kingdom and Japan. But I'm surprised that the writer didn't look beyond street pop culture to examine publishing.
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2011

Lives of innocents are on the line

Regarding the March 1 article "Top prosecutor opposes fully taped interrogations": Even if a criminal suspect's statement is not recorded in its entirety, the timing of any confession will be documented. And if this evidence is used in a public trial, then all parties will be aware of who confessed....
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2011

Study materials could be better

I enjoyed the Feb. 26 article "Are schools ready for English?" But by the looks of the photographed open book (presented as an example of the teaching materials to be used), my answer to the question posed by the headline would be NO!
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 5, 2011

Refugee hopefuls hold Nagoya feast to reach out to community

Hoping to give the public an opportunity to learn more about people seeking political asylum in Japan, refugee applicants being processed by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau held a community outreach party last weekend.
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2011

Teachers should not get alarmed

Regarding Takahiro Fukada's Feb. 26 article "Are schools ready for English?": I have taught Eigo Noto (English Notes) in various elementary schools for three years now, and in my opinion, Japanese teachers do not need to be alarmed. Eigo Noto comes with a CD and a very detailed teacher's guide, written...
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2011

Budget hurdles ahead

The Democratic Party of Japan and its junior coalition partner People's New Party managed to pass the fiscal 2011 ¥92.411 trillion budget through the Lower House early Tuesday morning. The opposition-controlled Upper House is certain to vote down the budget. But the budget will be enacted anyhow. Article...
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2011

Condolences and thanks to Japan

Regarding the Feb. 24 front-page article "Search ends for trapped Japanese": I would just like to offer our sincere condolences to the friends and families of those Japanese students who have passed away in the Christchurch earthquake. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2011

Let new mascot charm investors

Regarding the Feb. 23 article "TSE unveils new mascot": Aging population? Massive shortage of workers in nursing and health care? Higher taxes ahead and fewer workers per retiree? The decline in overall population but no immigration policy? Archaic trade-unit rules that keep the initial cost of investing...
Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2011

No respect for whaling argument

The Feb. 19 article "Muted response to whaling halt likely" — about the whaling efforts of the Japanese being blocked — is good news. I would have had more sympathy for the Japanese if they just admitted that their whaling is not for scientific research, but rather for commercial reasons. That would...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2011

What has become of Japan?

Recently, I had a most bizarre experience. I was walking down a street when a total stranger approached me and asked, "What will become of Japan?" And this happened not once but three times. Under a normal circumstance, those three people would have simply passed by wondering in which newspaper or TV...
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2011

Wrong choice in Kosovo

A recent Council of Europe report says that during and after the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, militia leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) tortured and killed hundreds of Serbs and political rivals in secret Albanian hideouts, removed their organs for sale and dumped their bodies in local rivers....
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 28, 2011

Judicial allergy to appeals

More than 1,800 criminal cases reached Japan's Supreme Court on appeal in fiscal 2009. But 98.01 percent of them were thrown out without a hearing. The situation is not much different with civil cases. This trend has chipped away at the very foundation of the nation's three-tier judiciary system, in...
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2011

Is it the destiny of Muslims and Jews to fight?

NEW YORK — Negative stereotypes and prejudices have been a constant source of friction and misunderstanding between Muslims and Jews. Can a level of understanding be reached between them that would make peaceful relations possible? I believe so. An almost forgotten episode during World War II could...
Reader Mail
Feb 27, 2011

Pawns of leading-edge 'research'

The front-page Feb. 22 article "Work starts at Shinjuku Unit 731" prompted me to make a few comments as a student of the Chinese language who visited the Biological Warfare Unit 731 site in the Pingfang district of Harbin, China. (The Shinjuku site in Tokyo is said to have been research headquarters...
Reader Mail
Feb 27, 2011

DPJ can do without some people

Regarding the Feb. 23 article "DPJ suspends Ozawa; Kan hints at election": As Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Hiroshi Kawauchi is one of my local representatives in the Diet, I read with some interest Kawauchi's condemnation of the suspension of former party chief Ichiro Ozawa's membership in the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 26, 2011

Car-sharing catching on in Tokai

Car-sharing services that rent vehicles to registered users by the hour have been growing in popularity, mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area. But three major companies, Orix Auto Co., Park 24 Co. and Meitetsu Kyosho Ltd., are now expanding such services in the Tokai region.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 26, 2011

Committed to 'making it work' as foreign wife

Forty-five years spent living in the Kobe area as the American wife of a Japanese businessman must change a person. Yet Winnie Inui, 68, still welcomes visitors to her suburban home in Ashiya, Hyodo Prefecture, with a blanket of felicitous concern ("Enough tea, dear?") and a flair for storytelling that...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Feb 24, 2011

Come all ye hoarders and swappers

Need some shoes .. or get rid of some shoes? Have we got some sites for you.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2011

English teachers will need support

I read with concern the Feb. 18 article "Teachers worried about new English classes," which highlighted some elementary schoolteachers' lack of confidence in teaching English as a required subject to fifth- and sixth-graders beginning in April and their perception that doing so will be a burden.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2011

Egypt's economic future

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For Egypt, the question of the day is whether the country will build an open, democratic political system or relapse into some form — new or old — of autocracy. But an equally important question — above all for Egyptians, but also for other developing countries (and for development...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 22, 2011

Monster in Blackman case still an enigma

Richard Lloyd Parry spoke about his new book, "People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman," with Jeff Kingston. The following draws on this interview and his book.
COMMUNITY / ZEIT GIST: UPDATE
Feb 22, 2011

Navy removes captain over sex abuse furor

The United States Navy has taken action against staff involved in the case of former Lt. Cmdr. Anthony L. Velasquez, a doctor accused of sexually abusing a number of women while based in Japan and Kuwait between 2007 and 2009.
Reader Mail
Feb 20, 2011

Whale hunt suspended at long last

Regarding the Feb. 17 article "Activists win; whale hunt halts in Antarctic": This is excellent news! Finally the Fisheries Agency is seeing sense by suspending the Antarctic Ocean hunt (because of obstruction by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels), after hunters killed just 30 of the target...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?