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Reader Mail
Mar 19, 2009

Media should choose high road

Thank you for publishing Gwynne Dyer's solidly written March 15 article, "Planets like Earth appear to be out there." It provides timely, insightful, scientifically based, thought- provoking information that is a pleasure to read while one considers the wider implications.
COMMENTARY
Feb 5, 2009

What's wrong with the way English is taught in Japan

The good news is that Japan's education bureaucrats realize that despite six years of middle and high school study many Japanese are still unable to speak English well. The bad news is that the bureaucrats plan to solve this problem by giving us more of what caused the problem.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2009

Ruling bloc steamrollers second extra budget

Overriding shouts of protest from the opposition parties, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito bloc rammed the second extra budget for fiscal 2008 through the Lower House on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 8, 2009

Outlook is mixed for 2009

Looking at 2009, the good news is that the global economy is likely to recover much faster than predicted. The bad news is that global politics are likely to deteriorate much more rapidly than most expected.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 7, 2008

Graduates' security goes to pot

Last week, a 25-year-old University of Tokyo graduate was arrested for allegedly posting death threats on his blog. The police say that the man, who has been unemployed since graduating from Japan's most prestigious university, had written that he would kill members of the education ministry for misleading...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 13, 2008

Will Japan emerge from crisis as a real financial center?

The events of the past weeks and days have dominated headlines and are threatening the world economy. Like so many dominoes, share prices and banks, big and small, have fallen in the United States and Europe, wiping out massive amounts of capital — about $21 trillion as of the end of September.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 5, 2008

Yasukuni in spotlight as Aug. 15 nears

Aug. 15 marks the 63rd anniversary of the end of World War II. For the people of Japan, including relatives of the war dead, it is a day of remembrance and of peace.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 27, 2008

Cancerlike corruption thrives in heads of bureaucrats

The ongoing investigation into charges of bribery and employment-rigging in the Oita prefectural school system has occasioned more than the usual amount of harsh commentary you hear when public servants do bad things. That's probably because in this case it is believed that the minds of innocent youths...
Reader Mail
Jul 20, 2008

Nature of rights violations

Regarding the July 15 Zeit Gist article, "Human rights -- strictly personal, strictly Japanese?": Doshisa Law School professor Colin P.A. Jones suggests that the Justice Ministry would like us to think, at least where Japan is concerned, that "human rights violations are a problem caused by citizens...
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2008

Rice flour to rescue ramen?

I read with great interest the July 13 editorial "The price of ramen," because I've been working on an article on ramen in America. Undoubtedly, rising prices for this convenient foodstuff will be a challenging problem for some time.
Reader Mail
Jun 8, 2008

Most Koreans not 'forcibly brought'

The final line of the June 4 article from Kyodo News, "Chinese now No. 1 foreign group," erroneously characterized the 426,227 Koreans who are classified as special permanent residents as "those who were forcibly brought to Japan from the Korean Peninsula when it was under Japanese colonial rule, and...
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...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 4, 2008

Hideki Noda: Acting with joy in his soul

Even in today's theater world in Japan, which tends to venerate age, at just 52 Hideki Noda is already a towering, legendary figure.
JAPAN
May 1, 2008

Gas tax bill is rammed through Diet

If you forgot to fill up your gas tank last night, you're out of luck.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 27, 2007

Prints rejected, scribe accepted

T he center of the little monitor — I'd guess about 20 cm from the looks of it — flashed the word "Yokoso" (welcome). Its colored border was festooned with a collage of images near and dear to visiting tourists' hearts: "torii" gates, the shinkansen, Zen gardens, Mount Fuji . . .
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2007

Leverage in showing displeasure

The Oct. 23 Lifelines article, "NHK: To pay or not to pay," was timely in that I recently told the NHK collector to return next month for payment, and informed him that this action was the only way to show my displeasure with NHK for interrupting an after-midnight program to break the news of an earthquake...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Oct 7, 2007

A Golden Age everywhere but at home

More high-profile new cars are hitting the market than have been seen for nearly 20 years, creating buzz everywhere but Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2007

The camera and the truth

With his fake documentary purporting to show serving President George W. Bush's assassination, director Gabriel Range has made this year's most controversial movie
MORE SPORTS
Aug 25, 2007

Distance great Bekele aims for more glory

OSAKA — Kenenisa Bekele is the greatest athlete you've probably never heard of.
BASKETBALL
Aug 16, 2007

Saitama's James holds his own in NYC hoops tournament

"If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere," legendary crooner Frank Sinatra told us in "New York, New York."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 25, 2007

Our world is being driven by denial

As an environmental columnist, one question that repeatedly comes to mind is, "How much denial is humanly possible?"
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 29, 2007

Taste receptors bow to flavor god

It used to be said that the human tongue perceived flavor in the form of four basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Then a Japanese scientist, Ikeda Kikunae (1864-1936), detected a rich, satisfying taste common to meat, cheese and Japanese dashi (stock) — among other things — which couldn't...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2007

Political pressure puts press freedom to test

, director of the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization, announces during a news conference on March 7 the formation of a new subcommittee to prevent fabricated information from being broadcast by TV stations. KYODO PHOTO
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2007

Mr. Abe's summitry success

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had his first summit in the United States with President George W. Bush. Describing the aim of his U.S. visit, Mr. Abe said at a news conference in Camp David, "The biggest objective of this visit this time was to reaffirm the irreplaceable Japan-U.S. alliance and to make it...
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2007

Who will judge what's 'false'?

Regarding the April 7 front-page article "Cabinet OKs bill to boost grip on broadcasters": The fears of censorship are entirely understandable. Japan must have laws covering fraud. But don't such laws already apply to broadcasters?
Reader Mail
Mar 7, 2007

Irresponsible story selection

Regarding the front-page, Feb. 21 Kyodo News article: "Archives: Stalin, Kim and Mao plotted Japanese invasion?": No research, no additional information is provided -- just an "unnamed source" floating a rumor from more than 40 years ago, which U.S. intelligence didn't believe and for which there's no...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2006

LDP will not accept contributions from banks, Abe decides

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will not accept political donations from major banks, whose plans to resume contributions have drawn heavy criticism.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 23, 2006

The many hazards -- especially for kids -- of living the high life

Some news stories make you laugh and some make you cringe. If you live in an apartment you may have done both while reading the July 13 story in this newspaper about an employee of Schindler Elevator K.K. getting trapped in a Schindler lift in the same Tokyo residential building where a teenager was...
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Magazine appeals ruling on sources

The president of Themis magazine on Tuesday appealed a Tokyo District Court ruling that the source for a 2002 article on tax evasion by the Japanese subsidiary of a U.S. health food company must be revealed if it was a tax official.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go