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Tomoko Otake

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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 / Digital
Oct 21, 2008
Dining on the Web
Every day at around 4 p.m., as the air cools down, the sky takes on a purple hue and schoolchildren make their way home, hordes of people across Japan — predominantly female, predominantly in their 30s — start furiously typing on their PCs. They all have one burning question on their minds: "What...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Oct 19, 2008
Showa-ing it like it was
Most of us have things we were given years ago that we cannot simply throw away, even though they're of no use and are often simply gathering dust somewhere in the corner of a room.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2008
Tales of experience from foreign homeowners
The following are the experiences of four foreigners who have ventured into property purchase in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2008
A step-by-step guide to owning a home in Japan
So you are ready to be king of your own castle in Japan. Adios to the days when you, a mere rent-paying tenant of a grotty apartment, worried about landlords taking you to the cleaners for spilling tea on the carpet or making minuscule holes in the walls to pin up framed pics.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 26, 2008
Sounds of shakuhachi
A kikazu Nakamura, an award-winning shakuhachi flute player who has performed in more than 150 cities around the world, will hold a recital in Tokyo on Oct. 28.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 31, 2008
Is yours a sweet and eco-friendly home?
After hearing all the talk about climate change and global warming, many of us are now aware that we need to change our lifestyle in the battle to stop our planet from being a far less agreeable place to live.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 31, 2008
Why is Japan lagging in solar-energy field?
In the renewable energy industry, how does Japan compare with the rest of the world?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 31, 2008
Living a clean, green life
Sporting a smart, modern exterior, the home of Keiko and Yoshiyuki Shimizu and their children Ayano, 13, and Haruki, 11, in a residential area of Kawasaki, south of Tokyo in Kanagawa Prefecture, is full of fun features inside. The three- story house has a grassy garden on its flat roof, where you can...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 31, 2008
'Backyard naturalist' finds it fun to be green
Tadashi Nemoto's home in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, is proof that you don't need lots of expensive equipment to enjoy an ecological lifestyle.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2008
Temporary arrangements
Akio Watanabe knows what a dead end feels like.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 11, 2008
Classic songs for summer
Greg Irwin, one of very few foreign singer-songwriters of classic Japanese songs, particularly doyo (children's songs) in English, will perform two shows in Shibuya on July 18.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 8, 2008
How green are Japan's urbanites?
The Group of Eight summit began Monday at the Windsor Hotel Toya, an exquisite, maximum- security resort in Hokkaido. There, the world's top leaders are holed up in conference rooms, trying to strike last-minute deals on various global issues, the most disputed of all being climate change.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008
Foreigners flourish in the realm of Japanese arts
Japan has come a long way since the era of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), arguably the world's most famous and certainly the first Western Japanophile. Before Hearn, a Greek-Irishman who married the daughter of a local samurai in remote and rural Shimane Prefecture, and also took on Japanese citizenship,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 29, 2008
Thomas Charles Marshall: Irishman excels at age-old biwa
With his back straight and his head up, Thomas Charles Marshall sits down in an arbor overlooking a lotus-filled pond on the compact but verdant campus of the University of Creation; Art, Music & Social Work in Yoshii, Gunma Prefecture. He slowly reaches for his pear-shaped biwa, a century-old mulberry-wood...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008
Trio release music that's all bottled up
One recent night at Note Cafe, a small coffee shop tucked away on a side street off a shopping arcade in the Jujo district of northern Tokyo, two women and a man sat round a table together. They took out a dozen glass bottles of various sizes, shapes and colors, and placed them on the table.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 20, 2008
U.K. home-schoolers come to Tokyo for robot comp
Donning T-shirts of all colors and designs, some of the world's brightest science-minded boys and girls met in Tokyo in late April for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Open Asian Championship, an international robotics competition for children aged 9 to 15.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 6, 2008
A Finnish way for the Japanese educational system?
Ever since students in Finland emerged as top performers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), many teachers and policymakers in Japan have turned to this Scandinavian country of 5.2 million for insights on how to educate...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 6, 2008
Open-minded schools adopt innovative approaches
As our society continues to urbanize, it is becoming increasingly difficult for children to be children. Long gone are the days when they were free to get muddy without being told off by adults, or to run about without the threat of speeding cars. In the concrete jungle in which more kids grow up these...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008
Belly-laughs boffin puts mirth to the test
When people laugh, it is often their cheery sounds or the wrinkles around their eyes that mark out their mirth. Yoji Kimura believes, however, that the key to determining the nature of laughter lies in the diaphragm.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 18, 2008
Figuring out 'cleaning fees'
Years ago, when a friend of mine was preparing to move back home to Los Angeles, I helped her clean her rented studio apartment in Tokyo. Shoving aside a pile of books, clothes and various other kinds of clutter, we wiped the wood floor, scrubbed the bathtub and polished the kitchen sink. We spent almost...
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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