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Rob Gilhooly

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Rob Gilhooly

Rob Gilhooly is an award-winning British photographer and writer whose work has appeared in publications around the globe, including the Guardian and New Scientist. He was formerly a staff writer at the Japan Times and has contributed as a freelance since 2002. In 2004, he obtained an MA in journalism. His website can be found at www.japanphotojournalist.com

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES

Aug 2, 2015

Moriumius project brings young life and learning back to the Tohoku disaster zone

A unique educational project aims to revitalize the Miyagi town of Ogatsu, which lost around 80 percent of its buildings and 10 percent of its 4,300 population to the 3/11 disasters.

Japan Times

JAPAN / History

Jun 13, 2015

Mercury rising: Niigata struggles to bury its Minamata ghosts

The first thing Koichi Hirota noticed about Komatsu Hoshiyama was that he could not walk in a straight line. As the young neurologist proceeded with his examination in the cramped, sparse ward inside Niigata University Hospital, other symptoms became apparent: The 55-year-old Hoshiyama's body tingled...

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 25, 2015

Taiji dolphin culls dealt setback

The world's leading zoo organization announces it has lost patience with Japan's continued use of dolphins from the fisheries drives at Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, and suspends its Japanese member from its roster.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jul 26, 2013

Japan bucks trend: Captive dolphin biz big

Despite an international trend taking the opposite tack, the number of aquariums in Japan is growing and sales of dolphins continue to flourish, results of an independent study have revealed.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 16, 2013

Taiji dolphin cull inhumane: study

From a cliff above the tiny cove, a stocky, bald man could be seen between tightly drawn lengths of green tarpaulin, a metal rod in one hand, and something long, black and smooth wriggling helplessly under the other.

Japan Times

LIFE / WEEK 3

Sep 16, 2012

'Cheating' robot poses tech and ethical issues

Like a child eagerly trying to win some trading cards during a playground huddle, I scrunch up my fingers behind my back before unleashing my hand in time-honored fashion with the Japanese phrase: "Saisho wa gu, janken ... pon!"

Japan Times

LIFE

Jun 17, 2012

Exoskeletons await in work/care closet

There are friendly smiles on the faces of the engineering students peering past their PCs and half-finished gadget designs in the Tokyo lab as I try to lift 40 kg of rice. Normally I'd worry about impending humiliation, but today I'm confident my ego will remain intact.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 11, 2012

Time has stopped for parents of dead and missing children

On April 22 last year, Akemi Karino did exactly what she had done on the same day each year for more than a decade. She made a cake, sandwiches and some other of her daughter Ai's favorite things for her birthday.

Japan Times

LIFE

Mar 11, 2012

Catastrophe revisited 12 months on

The Ground Self-Defense Force troops have gone. So too the old blackboard with sheets of paper taped to it. I still remember a few of the names written in long lists there — the names of those whose muddied bodies could be identified after they were brought on military trucks to the makeshift morgue...

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 6, 2012

Island fortresses floated for Tohoku

The idea of building raised stadium-size "islands" to accommodate tsunami-ravaged communities might sound like a bad joke, but that's exactly what one architect is urging devastated towns in Tohoku to consider.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Feb 15, 2012

Fukushima farming hard row to hoe

When Takahiro Nagakura set off for distant Okayama two years ago, his plan was to complete his degree at the prefecture's agricultural university and then return to Fukushima and work his family's peach orchard.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Oct 1, 2011

Subtle aid for women facing abuse in disaster-hit areas

At a glance, it appears to be nothing more than a hand massage. In a corner of a shelter for survivors of the March disasters in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, members of the NPO Miyagi-Jonet are trying to provide some respite for stressed-out female survivors.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Sep 14, 2011

Fukushima man opts to be guinea pig

Nobuyoshi Ito is skeptical of the reported effects of radiation from the leaking Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. So skeptical, in fact, that he decided to put himself on the front line of radiation research.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Aug 27, 2011

Mask maker keeping Shimane tradition alive

Hanging on the walls of Jake Davies' home are around 20 artifacts that seem at odds with the idyllic village in Sakurae, Shimane Prefecture where his rustic abode is set.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jul 23, 2011

Romanian woman thrives as geisha

Isabella Onou is struggling to keep her hands from shaking. As she peers into the mirror and attempts to dab away a smudge of stray lipstick, she lets out a quiet, almost diffident giggle.

Japan Times

LIFE

Jun 26, 2011

Inside Aokigahara, Japan's 'Suicide Forest'

I am walking through Aokigahara Jukai forest, the light rapidly fading on a mid-winter afternoon, when I am stopped dead in my tracks by a blood-curdling scream. The natural reaction would be to run, but the forest floor is a maze of roots and slippery rocks and, truth be told, I am lost in this vast...

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jun 23, 2011

Suicides upping casualties from Tohoku catastrophe

On June 11, a dairy farmer in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, chalked a note on the wall of his cattle shed. "If only there wasn't a nuclear power plant," the message read, in reference to the damaged Fukushima No. 1 plant just 45 km away, which had effectively ended his livelihood.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jun 10, 2011

Fishermen take matters into own hands

The fine drizzle falling on the picturesque fishing village of Kyubun, Miyagi Prefecture, is dampening Toshikazu Takahashi's normally sunny disposition.

Japan Times

LIFE / WEEK 3

May 15, 2011

Japan's renegade hero gives Saipan new hope

Graciano Lisua doesn't look like someone who would get too worked up about ghosts. Yet superstition, says the broad-shouldered, barrel-chested Chomorron as he leans on his machete, is of great import for the inhabitants of the Mariana Islands.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Apr 10, 2011

MINAMISOMA, Fukushima Prefecture — There's a repellent stench coming from the cowshed. It's a mixture of manure, hay and something more difficult to pinpoint — something dank, musty, unworldly.

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

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

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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