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March 29, 2025
 

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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
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 15, 2020
The popularity of jeans in Japan begins to fray
According to industry data, total sales of jeans of all types reached 78 million pairs in 2002. The current annual figure is believed to have fallen below 40 million.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 1, 2020
Kabukicho host clubs under fire for spreading coronavirus
Some media outlets are weighing the pros and cons of mounting an actual 'blockade' of Tokyo's well-known entertainment district.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 28, 2020
Let's roll up our sleeves and get in the data
Once you know the vocabulary used in a Japanese survey, you'll be able to give your opinion on a range of issues.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2020
‘A Man’ looks beyond a stolen name and identity
An attorney turned amateur detective becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind a stolen identity in this Yomiuri Prize-winning thriller.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 18, 2020
Overindulging at home and playing the online ratings game amid a pandemic
One man reportedly left as many as 18 empty wine bottles and four large empty sake bottles out to be recycled each week during the pandemic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 4, 2020
Pandemic pours cold water on Japan's celebrated nightlife
Residents ponder whether or not it's safe to patronize their regular drinking spots.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 20, 2020
An aging sumo wrestler, food poisoning risks and safeguarding pets from COVID-19
Warning: A portion of this contribution deals with suicide, which some readers may find distressing.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 6, 2020
Olympics and UFOs can't shift COVID-19 from the spotlight
First, some glum news: John Coates, head of the International Olympic Committee’s coordination commission, was quoted in The Australian on May 21 as expressing doubt over prospects for the Tokyo Olympics to be held in summer next year. Coates went on record as saying the decision on whether or not...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 30, 2020
‘Hold Your Breath, China’ review: China is once again the center of mystery and intrigue
“Hold Your Breath, China,” is the 10th detective novel in the saga of Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 23, 2020
Rats, bugs, crooks and trucks share media spotlight amid pandemic
With city dwellers around the world in lockdown, increasing reports have surfaced about wild animals infiltrating urban areas.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 9, 2020
A pandemic potpourri of Golden Week news gems
As if the COVID-19 pandemic didn't give Japan enough things to worry about, the unseasonably warm winter and resulting lack of snow may spell severe shortages of water by this summer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 25, 2020
Pundits pore over pandemic's impact on employment
Asahi Geino warns warns that economic calamities from the COVID-19 outbreak are likely to arrive in the form of three successive waves. The third wave, if it comes, will make the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987 seem like a picnic.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 21, 2020
Exploring the origins of kanji is a fine science
Many of us learn kanji by associating them with the pictographs on which they were originally based. What happens when scholars dispute those commonly held associations?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 11, 2020
Counting the cost of postponing the Tokyo Olympics
Nearly a month before the decision was announced to postpone the 2020 Olympics, the media was already speculating over their fate. On Feb. 24, the headline in Nikkan Gendai read, “Relinquishing of the Tokyo Olympics would mean ¥20 trillion in economic losses.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 21, 2020
Why are Japan’s millennials shunning alcohol?
Some time before the coronavirus outbreak put a damper on this year’s hanami (blossom viewing) parties and other social activities, the media had already noted that the decline in alcohol consumption by younger Japanese has been accelerating. This phenomenon even made the front page of the Nikkei Marketing...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 14, 2020
The panic buying of toiletries: It's like 1973 all over again
Where are all the masks? And where's the toilet paper? Nikkei Business (Feb. 28) suggested that panic buying in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which also occurred in eastern Japan following the catastrophic earthquake of March 2011, may be influenced in part by people's collective memory — particularly...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 29, 2020
Kansai businesses suffer as COVID-19 alarm hurts tourism
The Japanese expression "kankodori ga naku" (literally, "the cuckoo sings") is frequently used to describe a business slump.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 18, 2020
Good enough: The different ways to use ii in Japanese
The discovery of an 18th-century book titled 'The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes' leads our writer on a journey into the Japanese terms used for apple-polishers and bootlickers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2020
News outlets weigh whether new virus will affect Olympics
Since mid-January, the name on the lips of increasing numbers of TV news announcers and commentators has been "Bukan," which is how the Chinese city of Wuhan is pronounced in Japanese.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 1, 2020
Dispatches from the front line of Japan's retail sector
Since October, business media have focused on two topics at the near-exclusion of numerous others: the economic repercussions of the consumption tax hike and how that increase has influenced, or accelerated, a shift from cash to electronic payments.
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Massive quake kills at least 150 in Myanmar and Thailand
Medical workers treat a earthquake survivor on a bed in the compound of a hospital in Naypyitaw on Friday, after an earthquake in central Myanmar.
Student suicides in Japan hit all-time high
A volunteer handles an incoming call at the Tokyo Befrienders call center, a suicide hotline center in Japan's capital.
Tourist submarine sinks in Red Sea of Egypt, leaving 6 people dead
The interior of a Sindbad submarine vessel at sea off Hurghada, Egypt, in August 2024, in this still image obtained from video.
Yellow sand blankets cities across Japan
The Meteorological Agency forecast the yellow sand to move away from eastern Honshu by 6 p.m. on Wednesday. But it will continue to cover parts of western Honshu and Shikoku until Thursday morning, it said.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.
Hanami season to have record ¥1.39 trillion economic impact on Japan
Cherry blossoms along a road in Tokyo on Tuesday. The 2025 cherry blossom season is expected to have an economic impact of around ¥1.39 trillion on Japan.
Tokyo Series proves to be big business for MLB — and Japanese companies
An advertisement featuring Shohei Ohtani in Tokyo.
New SDF command will be key for contingency planning, Australian commander says
A Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60K "Super Auk" from JS Shiranui prepares to land on HMAS Brisbane during Exercise Malabar 2023 while off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Japanese wages likely to rise more than 5% again this year
Wages are set for another big increase this year as annual negotiations secure generous agreements.

Podcast

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

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties
By Anton L. Delgado

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