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November 21, 2024
 

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Janet Ashby
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Dec 17, 2004
Book Trade Booms in 2004
2004 was a prosperous year for the Japanese book trade with revenues exceeding the previous year's figures for the first time in seven years. Despite many small bookstores going out of business, innovative marketing from publishers and book retailers produced several million-sellers.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Nov 18, 2004
Hey Mr. Trainman
A new best seller has appeared, bringing an old-fashioned love story into the digital age. "Densha Otoko (Trainman)," whose author writes under the pseudonym Nakano Hitori, is the saga of the romance of a 22-year-old otaku, the "Trainman," with "Miss Hermes," an attractive young woman he saves from the...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Oct 21, 2004
New life patterns for a new age
The end of the high-growth period and of the go-go bubble years has brought both new opportunities and great uncertainty as the old social system based on lifetime employment crumbles and even the outlines of its successor system remain hazy. Such uncertainty no doubt played a role in propelling novelist...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Sep 28, 2004
Japanese mega-stores blazing trails in a brave, new publishing world
The Japanese bookstore world used to be one of "If you put it out, it will sell." But that comfortable age is over. Seven straight years of declining book sales have killed off some 1,500 bookstores.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jul 27, 2004
Publishers bid to halt reading slump with flood of new youth-oriented titles
"Reading at Risk," a report published in the United States this month by the National Endowment for the Arts, deplores the decline of reading. Now, fewer than half of American adults read fiction, with the rate of decline especially sharp among those who are 18 to 24 years of age. Newsweek (7/19) notes...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jul 1, 2004
Mystery writer Nishimura continues on winning run of great train stories
The recently released list of top taxpayers for fiscal 2003 has shown that, despite the overall slump in the book trade, the payoff can still be great for authors who strike a chord with the public.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Apr 1, 2004
Losers, winners in contemporary Japan
Bridget Jones in London, Ally McBeal in Boston, Carrie and her friends in New York City. Now Sakai Junko has published a best-selling volume of essays on singletons in Tokyo over the age of 30, like herself, whom she calls -- in a mix of ruefulness and pride -- makeinu (losers). In "Makeinu no toboe"...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Mar 4, 2004
New Akutagawa winners offer hope
It's been amazing to experience all the excitement surrounding the latest winners of the Akutagawa Prize, a famous literary prize awarded twice a year to promising, new authors. While TV cameras and photographers crammed Tokyo Kaikan, newspapers and magazines wrote breathless descriptions of what the...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Feb 5, 2004
Japan mulls its future with Koizumi
What stance should Japan take in a world dominated by the American superpower? Is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi no more than an errand boy for bullyboy George W. Bush, as a Shukan Gendai headline implied last March? Is he an incompetent know-nothing who has casually thrown away Japan's precious pacifist...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jan 8, 2004
Japanese books climbed walls, went back to the past in 2003
The particular combination of theme, packaging and timing that produces a best seller is always a mystery, and last year's top sellers in Japan presented even more of a puzzle than usual. What is it about "Baka no Kabe" by anatomy professor Takeshi Yoro that took it to the top of the chart soon after...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Dec 4, 2003
Living on 3 million yen a year
Is there a conspiracy among Japanese politicians, economic experts and elite bureaucrats to destroy Japan's egalitarian postwar social and economic systems and replace them with an American-style, dog-eat-dog type of capitalism typified by a society of haves and have-nots? In his best-selling "Nenshu...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Nov 6, 2003
'Grotesque' cuts too close to the bone
Do the suffocating pressures of Japanese society produce monsters? Does trying to live by men's rules drive women crazy? These are two of the questions posed by Natsuo Kirino in her powerful new novel, "Grotesque."
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Oct 9, 2003
Does ' baka explosion' indicate identity crisis brewing in Japan?
Japan has been witnessing something of a baka explosion recently. Whether or not the actual number of idiots or incidents of idiotic behavior are on the increase or not, there is certainly a sharp rise in the public irritability index, a lowering of the threshold at which people call others "baka."
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Sep 11, 2003
Naoki Prize winner asks Japan to put more faith in the young
For the past several years, the Japanese public has been wringing its hands over the new phenomenon of 13- and 14-year-old killers. However, an evocative portrayal of a group of ordinary, young boys, "4teen," by Ira Ishida, was selected as cowinner of this year's Naoki Prize, showering money and fame...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Aug 14, 2003
Manga culture ignites craze in media markets overseas
American boys can now read popular Japanese manga like "One Piece" in an English-language "Shonen Jump" and German girls can read girl's manga in the German-language magazine "Daisuki." Is this a passing fad or the start of a full-scale manga invasion?
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jul 17, 2003
Manga attempt to evolve against multiple threats
Manga and anime from Japan are increasingly popular overseas, with Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" receiving an Academy Award earlier this year. In their birthplace, however, manga seem past their glory days when loyal readers eagerly awaited the next installment from their favorite authors, such as...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jun 19, 2003
Top-selling authors go abroad
Once again, the Japanese tax office has issued its annual list of top taxpayers for the previous year. Not surprisingly, it reflects the continuing economic slump, with a contraction in the amounts paid. What's more, six of the top 100 taxpayers are Wall Street bankers -- and five of them are foreigners....
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
May 22, 2003
Book Off chief rolls with the blows as status quo publishers complain
The Japanese may love a hardworking and unassuming company man who out of nowhere wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but they are still wary of the true entrepreneur who is willing to take risks and shake up long-established ways of doing things.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Apr 24, 2003
Challenging English at 65
April is traditionally the time of new beginnings in Japan, at school and at work. Novelist Sae Shuichi, however, makes it a practice to embark on a new project every five years. At 55, for example, he took up kendo. And at 65, as detailed in his latest book, "65-sai Ojisan no Eikaiwa Benkyo ga Tanoshiku...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Mar 27, 2003
Libraries under attack
Are public libraries stealing the livelihoods of Japanese authors? So say writers and publishers as the number of books borrowed climbs while sales of books and magazines steadily decline.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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