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November 22, 2024
 

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Mark Schreiber

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Mark Schreiber
Mark Schreiber worked as a salaryman in travel, consumer electronics, computer software, advertising and market research before turning to translation and writing full time. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has lived in Tokyo since 1966.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 18, 2013
Best to consult an expert before getting a cryptic kanji tattoo
"Mami," I said, reading the kanji 「真実」tattooed on the bicep of the young man seated beside me last December, aboard a flight bound for Houston, Texas. "Is that the name of your Japanese girlfriend?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 10, 2013
No clearing the air over neighbor's pollution
Pollutants from China and their resultant problems are nothing new to Japan. Acid rain, principally caused by high levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in industrial pollutants, has been a concern for several decades.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 24, 2013
Overseas voyages by retirees include more than a few shipwrecks
In 1986, shortly before the beginning of Japan's "bubble economy," a department in the former Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced a plan named Silver Columbia 92.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 18, 2013
Can-can dancers, tea-time snacks and katakana confusion
In last month's column, I looked at the origins of several famous Japanese product brands. Thinking back, perhaps the very first brand I noticed here was a confectioner named 文明堂 (Bunmeido). The company, a 老舗 (shinise, well-established shop), was founded in Nagasaki in 1900, taking its name...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 10, 2013
Lots of blame, but few solutions to terrorist attacks abroad
On Jan. 16, Islamic militants believed led by the elusive commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar struck a natural-gas processing plant in Ain Amenas, Algeria. In the rescue attempt by units of Algeria's army, as many as 81 people may have died, among which were 10 Japanese employees of JGC Corporation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 28, 2013
What's in a Japanese name? More than you might expect
Last year I went to Yumenoshima Park in Tokyo's Koto Ward to see a museum housing the 第五福竜丸 (Dai-go Fukuryu Maru, aka No. 5 Lucky Dragon), the ill-fated fishing boat that inadvertently sailed too close to a 水爆実験 (suibaku jikken, thermonuclear test) at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 26, 2013
Paying a record tuna price is simply good advertising
“Even considering that Ooma tuna is a prestige brand, its tuna might normally sell for about u00a54,000 to u00a55,000 per kilogram,” a seafood trader tells Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 8).
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 14, 2013
Hit product lists laud the year's marketing successes
Toward the end of every year, Japan's print media and many business organizations look back on "hit products" whose successes helped define consumer spending over the previous 12 months.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 13, 2013
Magazines struggle to maintain relevance
The print edition of venerable U.S. weekly news magazine Newsweek is no more. From the Jan. 4 issue it relaunched as a digital-only publication.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Alternative histories about JFK
The 50th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy next November is expected to see a flood of new works on that topic. Two alternative history novels have already appeared on this theme. In Stephen King's "11/22/63: A Novel" (Scribner), Maine high school teacher Jake Epping...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 17, 2012
Buzzwords show the changing face of Japanese in 2012
While hamming it up before the TV cameras on a diving board last September, entertainer "Sugi-chan" (real name: Eiji Sugiyama) suffered a fractured thoracic vertebrae.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 16, 2012
Japan loses its cool as South Korea heats up
Last month, a nationwide survey of 3,000 people by the Cabinet office found that the percentage of Japanese who do not view South Korea on friendly terms rose to 59 percent, up by 23.7 points from 2011. The sharply negative shift appeared to reverse over a decade of warming relations between the two...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 9, 2012
New breed of 'criminal elements' emerging from the shadows
Don't look now, but some new bad guys have come to town. Referred to as han-gure, they've actually been around for a while already, flying under the radar of the mainstream media.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 9, 2012
Serious business of murder turned into entertainment
THE INCENSE GAME, by Laura Joh Rowland. Minotaur Books, 2012, 290 pp., $25.99 (hardcover) ONE RED BASTARD, by Ed Lin. Minotaur Books, 2012, 280 pp., $25.99 (hardcover) Since publication of her first mystery, "Shinju," 18 years ago, Laura Joh Rowland has churned out about one book a year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 26, 2012
Notable negatives, funny titles and other linguistic oddities
When I was a wee lad of 4 or 5, I would sneak up on a chair and explore my grandfather's desk, atop of which was situated a curious object: a paperweight featuring the famous three wise monkeys of Nikko. At its base was inscribed the warning: Don't monkey with anything on this desk.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 25, 2012
The convoluted crime spree of Amagasaki's 'piranha family'
By next week, the media will start compiling lists of the top news stories of 2012. The short list can be expected to include natural and manmade disasters, political bombshells, international disputes, indiscretions by celebrities in the worlds of sports and entertainment and, of course, sensational...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 18, 2012
Yoshiwara busts send message: 'Keep it clean'
On May 24, 1956, the Diet voted Japan's anti-prostitution statute into law, effective from April 1, 1957; but enforcement was postponed a year to give sex workers time to seek new livelihoods.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 4, 2012
It's a bad time for Sapio to downsize
Japan's first two shūkanshi (weekly magazines) appeared so closely, their arrival could be described as analogous to a "photo start" as opposed to a photo finish. The Asahi Shimbun launched Junkan Asahi on Feb. 25, 1922. Rather than appearing weekly, however, it was issued on the 5th, 15th and 25th...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 29, 2012
Halloween in Japan: no trick or treat, but scary spots galore
Japanese people generally have a well developed appreciation for the supernatural, and while the American practice of ringing doorbells in the neighborhood to demand "trick or treat" has yet to take root, Halloween-related events continue to grow in popularity.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 21, 2012
In search of the fearsome Onibaba
"Here's as close as I can take you," said my taxi driver, a charming fellow named Ishii whose pronounced zuzu-ben (Tohoku accent), was strong enough to cut with the proverbial knife.
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.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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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