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November 22, 2024
 

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Stephen Mansfield

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Stephen Mansfield
Photojournalist and author Stephen Mansfield's work has appeared in over 70 publications worldwide, on subjects ranging from conflict in the Middle East to cultural analysis, interviews and book reviews. A longtime Japan Times contributor, his latest book is "Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space & Environment."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 23, 2014
Masks
Born in the late Meiji Era (1868-1912), Fumiko Enchi was not simply the peer, but the equal of writers in the order of Naoya Shiga and Jiro Osaragi. There was praise for her work from such authors as Junichiro Tanizaki and Yasunari Kawabata, towering figures in Japanese literature. Enchi, in other words,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 9, 2014
Sun-dazed on a distant archipelago
It didn't take long for a seasoned group of truck drivers to stake their claim to the best seats in the house or, in this case, ferry. They positioned themselves on tiny plastic seats at the rear of the open deck as the ferry left Tomari Port in Naha City, Okinawa, bound for the island of Kumejima. More...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 9, 2014
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
The torching in 1950 of Kyoto's majestic Temple of the Golden Pavilion remains one of the world's most discussed cases of arson — not least because the act was perpetrated by an acolyte of the temple. Transcripts of his confession and subsequent trial contain a good deal of self-loathing, but a complete...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 12, 2014
Kunisaki: into a world of moss and stone
The sense of antiquity on the Kunisaki Peninsula is immediate. There are those that believe the region — whose name is said to mean "land's end" — was created by demons in the service of powerful gods. You have to take these accounts with a pinch of salt, of course, as each explanation confidently...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 28, 2014
Forget the world in a peaceful Okinawan island garden
First came the Ishigaki-teien, a mass of soaring limestone rocks, judiciously placed cycads and two lines of highly concentrated fukugi, the closely-matted leaves of the trees traditionally used in Okinawa as typhoon barriers. Owned by the Ishigaki family, who have lived on the island of the same name...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 28, 2014
Ring
There is a long history of spooking the reader in Japan. The humid summer months are supposed to be alleviated by spine-chilling ghost stories and scary Edo Period dramas. But no particular season makes contemporary Japanese horror any less terrifying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 14, 2014
Vita Sexualis
Ogai Mori was either a very fearless writer or someone confident enough to believe his literary status would insulate him against the fallout from publishing a novel guaranteed to raise the eyebrows of even the most enlightened Meiji Era (1868-1912) reader.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 31, 2014
Almost Transparent Blue
Life around a U.S. base camp in Kanagawa in the 1970s may have mirrored certain aspects of American life, but they were often the most self-destructive elements. Set along the urban border between a military camp and Japan proper, the violent milieu of Ryu Murukami's short novel "Almost Transparent Blue"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 24, 2014
One Man's Justice
To borrow historian John Dower's expression, the conflict in World War II between Japanese and American forces was a "war without mercy." The atrocities committed by Japanese forces are well documented, those by American military personnel less so.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 17, 2014
Oya: The town that turned to stone
It's always good to know something about the ground under your feet when you visit a new destination.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2014
Koza: the carbonized city
My first glimpse of Koza was a burned out car on a monochrome print I picked up at a recycle shop in Naha. I would see the image again when I visited the history section of the Okinawa City Hall, where there was a prominent display on the Koza Riot of 1970.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Apr 12, 2014
The Key
When an aging professor attempts to arouse the repressed passions of his wife, he finds that his own declining sexual vigor may fail him in the endeavor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Apr 5, 2014
The Cape And Other Stories From The Japanese Ghetto
When reading Kenji Nakagami, it is best to forget the stylistic niceties and aesthetic fussiness of writers such as Yasunari Kawabata. Instead, this collection of structurally complex stories by Nakagami contains accounts that, eschewing inference for the explicit, are nonetheless highly sophisticated,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 29, 2014
Chishaku-in: a Kyoto garden of deep repose
As a garden, Chishaku-in has many of the attributes of Japanese landscape design that should attract a good number of visitors. The fact that the temple in Kyoto's southeastern Higashikawara-cho district is rarely crowded, and that scant attention is paid to it in guidebooks, is therefore somewhat surprising....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 22, 2014
Go potter in Mashiko
If a visitor to Mashiko had any doubts about the town's dedication to pottery, the giant, iconic stoneware jar that stands near the station ticket barrier, would dispel them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 15, 2014
Scandal
When a respected Catholic novelist by the name of Suguro meets an inebriated woman at a party, he is astounded to hear that she recognizes him from a portrait hanging in a club she claims he patronizes in one of Tokyo's more sleazy night quarters. Though in fierce denial, curiosity gets the better of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 8, 2014
A Strange Tale from East of the River
Kafu Nagai was an unapologetic sentimentalist, always an era out of step with the times. Born in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), he lamented the good old days of the Edo Period (1603-1867); once in the Taisho Era (1912-1926) he looked plangently back on the qualities of Meiji. The Showa Era (1926-1989) brought...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 1, 2014
The Ruined Map
Angela Carter wrote that Tokyo possessed the "indecipherable clarity of a dream," one in which you might think you are in control, but have, in fact, been "precipitated into somebody else's dream." A similar sensation occurs when reading Kobo Abe's novel, "The Ruined Map," though he is careful never...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 1, 2014
The Tattoo Murder Case
Still reeling from the effects of war, Tokyo, in 1948, was ripe with intrigue, not to mention men and women capable of plotting monstrous crimes. Akimitsu Takagi's crime mystery "The Tattoo Murder Case" was first published that year and his gritty scenes of the city are described with the authenticity...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2014
Exploring the realm of Lewchew
When I told the Japanese woman with whom I'd struck up a conversation in central Tokyo's very handy Haneda airport that I was flying to Lewchew, she looked puzzled.
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
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

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