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April 03, 2025
 

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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 / WEEK 3
Dec 17, 2006
How can anyone remember 100,000 numbers?
Unless you're a mathematician or an engineer, pi probably ranks high on the list of things that are of little or absolutely no use in your life.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 21, 2006
Label not enough for a healthy diet
Next time you go grocery shopping, take a closer look at the beverages, yogurt and other packaged foods on display in the store you're visiting. You'll most likely find a number of products bearing a special logo and a carefully worded sentence touting their health benefits.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 5, 2006
Joi Ito: Master of multitasking
Joichi Ito, better known as Joi Ito, defies any one simple label.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 17, 2006
Visiting a theme park sure beats working, unless . . .
Japan has lots of young people who are out of work or not even in the hunt for a job. The government estimates that 850,000 people, from teens through to their 30s, fall into the category of NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). Then there are the "freeters," youths who only work odd jobs...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006
Bizarre bouts of self-expression
Nearly 300 spectators cheered wildly as disco music blared. A spotlight picked out two fighters approaching the ring to kick off a puroresu (prowrestling) event held recently in a Tokyo town hall.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006
Blood battle is about the past and future
KELLY DUDA
Japan Times
LIFE / DISABILITY IN JAPAN
Aug 27, 2006
Teamwork trounces deafness
This story is part of a package on "Disability in Japan". The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE / DISABILITY IN JAPAN
Aug 27, 2006
Is 'disability' still a dirty word in Japan?
Mainstream society is slowly, but slowly, opening up to the physically ormentally impaired, as officialdom appears happy with a 'steady' approach
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2006
Sole clinical ethicist always has full plate
speaks with hospital staff at his Kissa Rinri (Ethics Cafe) at Miyazakihigashi National Hospital in late June. TOMOKO OTAKE PHOTO
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 1, 2006
Parting is such sweet sorrow: and sometimes amusement
Job-hopping is on the rise in Japan as more and more companies bid farewell to the lifetime employment system. But some managers are still so unprepared for the departure of a subordinate that they often behave irrationally -- sometimes to the point of being downright silly.
LIFE
Jul 30, 2006
What's Japan's secret of 'many happy returns'?
Japan may never have become the world's No. 1 economy, and, faced with other rising Asian powers, it probably never will be. Nonetheless, there is one thing at which Japan proudly excels above all nations: its people's longevity.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 30, 2006
Gran, 71, leaves world in her wake
This story is part of a package on "Growing old healthily." The introduction is here
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 18, 2006
Preventing suicide and axing overtime pay is a risky mix
More than 30,000 people kill themselves each year in Japan, bestowing the country with the shameful honor of the highest suicide rate in the developed world. To deal with this reality, a group of lawmakers from across the political spectrum pushed an antisuicide bill through the Diet last month to force...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006
Smiles on retail's fastest track
Triple-A-size batteries, cigarette packs, and evening papers with screaming headlines are all at her fingertips. Kiyomi Okita knows exactly where they and hundreds of other items are, as well as their prices and what is flying off the shelves to whom.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006
Simulated calamities
We would be the envy of every railway otaku in Japan: JR East had invited us to try out the company's driving simulator outside Tokyo, where real JR drivers hone their skills at the controls of a virtual train.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006
Lives in their hands
Uniformed officials of East Japan Railway Co. are solemnly but methodically at work. Their train has just made an emergency stop after running over a middle-age man, who is either unconscious or dead. The driver radios the control office in central Tokyo, from where police and an ambulance are alerted....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 20, 2006
A swelling dispute over our waistlines
Japan's citizens are well-known for their slim figures, healthy eating habits and longevity.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 18, 2006
Have you heard the one about . . ?
Maybe it's simply down to human nature, but stereotypes about foreigners seem to be joke-fodder the world over. In the corners of bars, in huddles at parties, in books and movies, countless laughs have been had, for example, at the expense of supposed American boastfulnes, "uptight" British, "humorless"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 9, 2006
Universal access -- if you speak Japanese
Despite 2 million foreign residents and calls for internationalization from within, Japan has a long way to go before becoming a multilingual society. The current state of health care is no exception. Be it university hospitals with cutting-edge research facilities or your neighborhood dental clinic,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 16, 2006
Editor on a mission for consumers
Some people sarcastically refer to journalists in Japan as "sarariman reporters." That's because even though the Fourth Estate potentially has enormous power and influence, its members are often timid, risk-averse and happy to cozy up with the politicians, government agencies and corporations they cover....
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.

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
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