author

 
Menu
Search
 
August 15, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Tomoko Otake

Meta

Twitter

@Tomoko_Otake

Tomoko Otake
Tomoko Otake is a senior writer with a strong interest in health, medical and social issues. A native of Nara Prefecture, she obtained an M.A. in journalism from The University of Montana.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 1, 2009
Ministry insider speaks out
Health ministry bureaucrat Moriyo Kimura made headlines in late May just after the H1N1 flu outbreak sparked a massive mask-buying spree across the nation. Appearing before a Diet committee as an expert witness, the 44-year-old quarantine officer sharply criticized her own ministry — and especially...
LIFE
Nov 1, 2009
Symposium hears of new 'pan-Asian' trend
"It's been years since Japan, in the eyes of outside observers, entered the phase of "Japan Nothing." This followed an era of "Japan Bashing" during its 1980s economic heyday and then "Japan Passing" in the post-bubble '90s.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 23, 2009
Yokohama turns Yamashita Park into massive outdoor gallery
Yokohama's Yamashita Park will turn into an outdoor gallery on the weekend of Oct. 30-Nov. 1, with the Yokohama International Open-Air Art Fair 2009 — featuring artworks by U.S. and Japanese artists.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Oct 6, 2009
'Outsider' shares unique take on life, prejudices in the 'real' Japan
As a "blonde-haired, blue-eyed" American woman living in the rural farmlands of Tokushima Prefecture with a Japanese husband and their twin children, one with hearing disabilities, author and novelist Suzanne Kamata has gained a unique perspective on life in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2009
Bike-share project kicks off
Japan's first community bicycle program kicked off on an experimental basis in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district Thursday with 50 bikes at five locations.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009
Let's Bike!
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama could have made a stronger impact at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in New York last week had he trumpeted another environmentally laudable proposal in addition to his declared goal of Japan cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009
Bike tours offer a new view of the city
Despite long-standing conflicts between cyclists and others with a stake in using Tokyo's streets, Japan's capital can be a great place to tour by bike — as I discovered last weekend while participating in the "Tokyo Great Cycling Tour," a one-day guided trip organized by Tokyo-based operator Alive...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Sep 20, 2009
Mystery on the 'Dark Dinner' menu
...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Aug 25, 2009
Socializing on the volleyball court in Roppongi
Roppongi on Saturday morning tends to be quiet and empty, and pretty much all you see moving there apart from cars and trucks are a few sleep-deprived, hung-over remnants of the Friday night party crowd hobbling toward the station.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 21, 2009
Laugh along with mangameister Fujio Akatsuka
Fans of pioneering manga artist Fujio Akatsuka (1935-2008) will be able to soak up more of his jokes, his manga works and details of his colorful life at an exhibition at the Matsuya department store in Tokyo's central Ginza district.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 21, 2009
Yokohama to stage truly magical jazz
Yokohama Nigiwaiza in the city's Sakuragi-cho district will stage a magical jazz show on Aug. 29-30.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 16, 2009
Tokyo bees make honey high over Ginza
Forget Chanel, Cartier and H&M, the buzz on Ginza — long Tokyo's most glitzy shopping and entertainment district — is now all about . . . honeybees.
Japan Times
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Aug 2, 2009
Sokun Tsushimoto: Caring for body and soul
With his shaven head, straight back and deep, calming voice, Sokun Tsushimoto, a newly qualified physician who started practicing at a Tokyo clinic in April, clearly betrays evidence of his long and rich life experience.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jul 28, 2009
Ability to bridge the gap a banker's boon
For Sanjeev Gupta, senior managing executive officer and head of the Individual Group at Shinsei Bank, his 25-year career in Japan started out with a resume he dropped off at an accounting firm in Tokyo while visiting Japan on a tourist visa.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 24, 2009
Taking out the kids might be a disaster
I don't know why, but children love disasters — or at least, simulating ones. So, of all disaster prevention centers in Tokyo, the Honjo Bosai-kan (Life Safety Learning Center), in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, is worth a visit, because the facility, operated by the Tokyo Fire Department, offers entertaining...
LIFE / Digital
Jul 22, 2009
Google Books leaves Japan in legal limbo
For a long time, the Japanese publishing industry was in the dark about the Google Book Search Library project, the ambitious endeavor by the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant to create a vast online library by scanning millions of books. Google announced the start of the project in 2004, but...
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2009
Google should help make copyright agency: lawyer
Google Inc. should help create a Japan-based copyright dispute settlement agency over Japanese books the firm has scanned as part of its massive online library project, a lawyer representing 182 authors in Japan said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 21, 2009
Comedy with a sting in its tales
As a reporter, I don't particularly enjoy being swamped with breaking news to cover. That's when the pressure really becomes intense to get all the quotes and check all the facts in as short a time as possible.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 19, 2009
A chance to grab a bargain
Antique lovers will have a bargain-hunting opportunity at the 129th Heiwajima Antiques Fair, the oldest and the biggest fair of its kind, to be held in Tokyo's Heiwajima district from June 19 through June 21.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 18, 2009
The safety nets for would-be suicides
...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality
mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER