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COMMENTARY
May 26, 2008

Second wind for cigarette sales

At the initiative of the Finance Ministry, the government has introduced a system to verify the age of anyone using a cigarette vending machine. But the system reportedly is not widely used.
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Too quick to blame Bangladesh

Our attention has been drawn to the May 17 Reuters article "Bangladesh group linked to blasts (in western India)." This report has no remote connection to reality. Bangladesh neither tolerates nor harbors any anti-Indian elements in the country.
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

The reconciliation of opposites

Peter Singer's brilliant article May 19, "If there is a god, then why is there suffering?," made me laugh. It is one more example of the rationalism that has invaded the Western world since the time of the Greeks.
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Japan already finances U.S. wars

Regarding the May 21 front-page article "Up defense spending, Schieffer tells Tokyo": U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer's complaint about Japan's military spending amounts to blatant interference in Japan's internal affairs. More than 60 years after the end of the war, Schieffer is still not free from...
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Better answers are out there

As a member of the diplomatic corps in Tokyo, I would like to share my thoughts on Peter Singer's article. Singer obviously capitalizes on the recent catastrophes in Myanmar and China to deliver to the distraught public a classical piece of atheist propaganda. It always strikes me how reliable anti-religious...
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Know where the argument leads

I would say that it is important to understand not only Peter Singer's arguments, but where those arguments lead him. For example, in a question-and-answer article published in Britain's Independent in 2006, Singer repeated his notorious stand on the killing of disabled newborns. Asked if he would kill...
COMMENTARY
May 24, 2008

Cross-strait opportunity

"Be careful what you wish for." This Chinese proverb came repeatedly to mind when listening to incoming Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's forward-leaning inauguration address that sent so many olive branches toward Beijing that even some of his ardent supporters feared he had "gone too far." Protesters...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
May 23, 2008

"The Hunting Party"

Director: Richard Shepard
Reader Mail
May 22, 2008

The right thing for public health

Tom Plate's May 4 article, "A chance for Beijing to take a stand on health," is insightful in that it points out that health, press freedom and, most of all, human consciousness are our most precious assets. There are no national boundaries for epidemics such as SARS and bird flu. They could occur in...
Reader Mail
May 22, 2008

Release imported-rice stockpile

Regarding the May 19 article "Fukuda sets $10 billion climate aid to Africa": Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's investment, coupled with sound oversight and accountability, should indeed provide a model for other Group of Eight nations to consider.
Reader Mail
May 22, 2008

Reincarnation may be the answer

Regarding Peter Singer's May 19 article, "If there is a god, then why is there suffering?": There aren't any easy answers to this age-old question. But outside the Christian faith, there are answers that are more acceptable to thinking minds than such dogmas as Original Sin and Eve's willful eating of...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 20, 2008

Lifelines to the past

We have been receiving inquiries asking for help in finding old contacts, friends and family. Since we are unaware of any organization that specifically handles this kind of request, the best we can do is to print them here. Just send your name and as many details as you can dredge up from the past,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 19, 2008

Early election plot thickens

The ripples of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's hint in a recent speech at an early dissolution of the Lower House and a general election seems to have spread to leading figures in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008

Consider election consequences

Last month I read about (U.S. Democratic presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton's win in the Pennsylvania primary. Every Japanese newspaper put Clinton's exciting big face in their articles. She looked so happy, pointing her finger at supporters. Looking at these photos, I thought that Americans seem...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 18, 2008

Pandas: pawns in a game of international diplomacy

As he often does, Shintaro Ishihara recently offered his views on a subject that didn't concern him and kicked up a controversy. During a press conference, the Tokyo governor sardonically questioned the "divinity" of pandas and wondered out loud, "Do we really need them?" — thus adding fuel to the...
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008

Homelessness in both countries

Regarding the May 13 article "Team Japan faces huge hurdles on road to Homeless World Cup": I applaud The Japan Times for covering the topic of homelessness. It is a serious issue affecting many people in Japan as well as the United States. It is tragic that there exists such biased attitudes toward...
Reader Mail
May 15, 2008

More of Koizumi? No thank you

Regarding Tom Plate's May 10 article, "Japan needs a dose of Koizumi's old magic": Let me have a say as a son of a small shopkeeper. Since the Koizumi administration, in our neighborhood, a big supermarket has opened, two middle-size supermarkets have closed and a small shop near the big one has closed....
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 14, 2008

Road-tax bill clears Diet

The ruling bloc rammed a bill through the Diet on Tuesday that allows the government to use road-related taxes solely for nationwide road construction for the next 10 years, even though the Cabinet agreed earlier in the day to free up those revenues starting next April.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 14, 2008

Space defense no reason to ax gentler projects

For a country with a constitution "forever renouncing war" (Article 9), Japan spends an awful lot of money on its military. In 2005 it was the fifth largest military spender in the world. And now there is the unsettling news that Japan is expanding its powerful self-defense capability into space.
COMMENTARY
May 13, 2008

Argentine economy, public health unraveling

NEW YORK — A recent visit to Argentina brought home the fact that, just four months after her inauguration, President Cristina Kirchner's government is unraveling.
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2008

Row that demonized China

So now we know, officially, that the U.S. military contemplated a nuclear attack on China during the 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis. But what few realize is how this then led to a violent slanging match between Beijing and Moscow, which in turn was to lead to the Vietnam and other Indochina wars, which in...
Reader Mail
May 11, 2008

The Japanese view of ending life

Regarding David Quintero's May 4 letter, "High Japanese suicide rate mystifies," and the question he poses (Why do so many Japanese people kill themselves?): I don't have a definitive answer, but I have come up with a few theories:
Reader Mail
May 11, 2008

East jump-started West's progress

Guy Sorman's May 1 article, "What exactly is the West," is the most confused piece of writing I ever read, displaying an amazing ignorance of the world and its history that only the French are capable of! Sorman claims the progress made in Europe in the last few centuries, including some progress in...
Reader Mail
May 11, 2008

Measure of Christian influence

I read with great interest Florian Coulmas' May 4 article, "Japan as a land of many religions," which was a review of the book "Prophet Motive" -- about the important role played by Oomoto founder Deguchi Onisaburo, founder of the "highly successful syncretistic sect" Oomoto.
Reader Mail
May 11, 2008

U.S. knew what it wanted in Iraq

Regarding Hiroaki Sato's April 28 article, "Bush's brutal war stirs memories of Vietnam": May I point out one big difference between America's invasion of Vietnam and the internationally illegal one going on in Iraq right now? To this day the world still can't pin down exactly why the United States invaded...
JAPAN
May 10, 2008

For the moment, panel turns aside road tax bill

An Upper House panel rejected a contentious bill Friday to use road-related tax revenue exclusively to pay for road construction for the next 10 years — even though it will likely be rammed through the Diet by the ruling coalition next week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 9, 2008

A drop of Malbec from down south

Despite being the fifth largest producer of wine in the world, when it comes to quality wines, Argentina has long been in the shadow of neighboring Chile, where spicy Shirazes and surprising Chardonnays have consistently outshone anything from the other side of the Andes.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 6, 2008

Finance Ministry losing its luster

The Finance Ministry has long been known as the most powerful and elitist of Japan's bureaucracy. When Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda repeatedly tried in March to appoint a former vice finance minister as the new Bank of Japan governor — only to be rejected by the opposition-controlled Upper House —...
Reader Mail
May 4, 2008

Mental check of sailors a good idea

Regarding the April 30 article "U.S. sailors to undergo mental check": The survey seems like a great idea and should have been part of our overseas survey. But people are going to lie about things and lie about stuff they did.

Longform

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