author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 16, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Mark Schreiber

Meta

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 / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 4, 2011
Occupy Wall Street resonates within Japan
While Japan's vernacular media has regularly reported on the Occupy Wall Street movement that has swept the United States over the past several months, coverage regarding the movement and its aims has been somewhat bland.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 20, 2011
Is Aum's guru finally headed for the gallows?
Tomorrow, Nov. 21, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling on the appeal filed by Seiichi Endo, a former member of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult. Endo, now 51, was sentenced to death in 2002 (upheld in 2007) for his role in the nerve gas attacks in Matsumoto City in June 1994 and...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 6, 2011
Penny-pinching on pensions threatens to raid retirees' nest eggs
Much of the global media's attention this week was turned toward the possibility of Greece's default. Its direct effect on Japan is difficult to foresee. On the one hand, the approximately ¥1 trillion in national bonds Japan holds from the fiscally ailing countries that are referred to collectively...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 30, 2011
Less acclaim, more fun for Japan's Ig Nobel Prize winners
Since Hideki Yukawa in 1949, a total of 16 Japanese nationals have been named recipients of Nobel Prizes. In 2010, when the most recent Japanese winners were announced to receive prizes for chemistry, NHK interrupted its scheduled programming with a nyuusu sokuho (breaking news) announcement.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 10, 2011
Harnessing intuition to boost kanji comprehension
Many years ago, the manager at a hotel where I was staying in Taiwan informed me that his boss was ailing due to diabetes.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 2, 2011
Bikes keep the wheels of progress rolling
With the onslaught of super typhoon No. 15 on Sept. 21-22, for the second time in a little over six months Tokyo's public transport network was snarled by a natural disaster. Several hundreds of thousands of hapless commuters found themselves stranded for hours as kitaku nanmin ("refugees" unable to...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 25, 2011
Japan's noisy neighbors keep-a knocking
Sanshoku, the word for "encroachment" in Japanese, is written with characters meaning "silkworm" and "to eat." Imagine a mulberry leaf, being slowly consumed from the outer edges, nibble by nibble, by writhing white worms. Then overlay this leaf on a map of the Japanese archipelago, and look at the spots...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 11, 2011
Print ad featuring MacArthur sends muddled message
On Sept. 2, a controversial newspaper advertisement placed by Takarajima-sha, a mid-tier publisher, went viral on Japanese blogs and Web news sites.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 11, 2011
The Russians are coming!
SATORI, by Don Winslow. Grand Central Publishing, 2011, 548 pp., $7.99 (paper) 9 GOLD BULLETS, by Christopher G. Moore. Heaven Lake Press, 2011, 365 pp., $14.95 (paper) Readers of mystery and thriller fiction can be extremely loyal and publishers, knowing this, sometimes arrange to bring fictional...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 28, 2011
Rising yen, falling prices, cheap beer
Beginning last Wednesday, Aug. 24, the Ito Yokado supermarket chain announced a five-day sale at 120 of its branches in the greater Tokyo area. Among the reduced-price items were U.S. beef, Australian oranges and South African pineapples.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 14, 2011
A heady witches' brew of midsummer nightmares
Aside from the Summer High School Baseball Tournament at Koshien Stadium and NHK documentaries reminiscing about World War II, mid-August tends to be a quiet time and most of Japan's weekly magazines skip an issue.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 8, 2011
Goro-awase system spins off numbers you won't forget
One boast you'll never hear from me is that I have a good head for numbers. I'm all right up to two figures beyond a decimal point — I know that 3.14 approximates to the 円周率 (enshūritsu, Pi, i.e., the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) and likewise 2.54 cm is approximately...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 7, 2011
Chilling Japanese tales just the thing for broiling August
KAIKI: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Volume 2: Country Delights. Kurodahan Press, 2010, 286 pp., $16 (paper) Kaiki, according to my Japanese-English dictionary, means "grotesque; bizarre; mysterious; strange." And since August is the traditional time in Japan for telling hair-raising tales, this anthology...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 31, 2011
Rail rivalry outcome hinges on speed vs. safety
Following the July 23 collision of two high-speed trains in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province — blamed on faulty signaling equipment — that killed at least 39 passengers and injured over 200, Japan's media, to their credit, suppressed any obvious overtones of shadenfreude. But in the weeks...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 10, 2011
Media were quick off the mark with March 11 disaster publications
...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 3, 2011
Great Asian thrillers to get you through the summer
LARRY BOND'S RED DRAGON RISING: Edge of War, by Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice. Forge, 2010, 380 pp., $25 (hardcover) Future war fiction is mostly fantasy, and fortunately such stories seldom come true. But some do. One example was a book titled "Banzai!" Published in 1908 by Parabellum (nom de plume...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 26, 2011
Eastern Japan edgy as power demand soars
Back in the early 1970s, electronic signposts in Tokyo and other major cities used to display levels of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants along with the temperature.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 20, 2011
Let one character lead to enlightenment and civilization
Many of Japan's admired historic figures were adulated for being "warrior scholars," since they were equally adept at leading armies and composing poems. This ideal is referred to as 文武両道 (bunbu ryodō). Bun refers to writing and by extension the literary arts. Bu relates to martial or military...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 12, 2011
Eccentric wanderer discovers his destiny in Meiji Japan
"Japan," asserts the fictitious character Lafcadio Hearn on page 97, "has chaos at its core. The closer one approaches that core, the deeper one fathoms the world of illusion and warped contradiction. Such a country is begging for citizens such as Yakumo Koizumi, that is, me."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 12, 2011
Mutant rabbits, economic meltdowns and nuclear tourism
In the first week of June, media attention shifted briefly from the Fukushima reactor calamity to skirmishes on the floor of the National Diet, where the government headed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence vote.
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality
Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER