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Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Mar 3, 2009

Authors get up close and personal in monthly bookshop lectures

Stephen Kott describes himself as the "chief coffee maker" at Good Day Books in Tokyo's Ebisu district. He says it with self-deprecating humor, but it's not a bad metaphor for one of his real duties, which is to serve up an engaging brew of knowledge, opinions and humor in the store's monthly author...
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2009

High road to physical fitness

Regarding the Jan. 27 Hotline to Nagatacho article " 'Marathon' ritual must change": While I understand the author's intent in asking for change, I must respectfully disagree with him on the "need" for things like his son's "marathon" to be discontinued. I myself was much like the author's son. As a...
Reader Mail
Jan 11, 2009

Wrong people were sued

Regarding the Jan. 6 article, "Otaru ruling beats 'mob rule' ": This article misrepresents much of what the author set out to respond to, and it labels as racist those people who are not. Were the owners of the onsen hotel trying to discriminate on the basis of race? The arguments offered at court by...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2008

One man's theory, another's laugh

Conspiracy theories, occultism, UFOs and pseudoscience. Society abounds with the conjectures of people thinking far, far outside the box.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 12, 2008

1,000 years of 'Genji'

"Genji Monogatari," known as "The Tale of Genji" in English, is believed by many scholars to be the first full-length novel in world literature. Marking the 1,000th anniversary since its creation, today's Timeout introduces this masterpiece that draws readers into a beautiful world gone by full of passion,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 23, 2008

Readers get last word on 'gaijin' tag

The Community Page received another large batch of e-mails in response to Debito Arudou's followup Sept. 2 (Sept. 3 in some areas) Just Be Cause column on the use of the word "gaijin." Following is a selection of the responses.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 19, 2008

Readers respond: Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin'?

The Community Page received a large number of responses to Debito Arudou's last Just Be Cause column on the use of the word "gaijin." Following is a selection of readers' views.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 10, 2008

Sharing Japanese poetry with the rest of the world

THE RABBIT IN THE MOON/TSUKI NO USAGI by Kayoko Hashimoto. Kadokawa-shoten, 2007, 260 pp., ¥2,667 (cloth) EARTH PILGRIMAGE/PELLEGRINO TERRESTRE/CHIKYU JUNREI by Ban'ya Natsuishi, English translations by the author and Jim Kacian, Italian by Luca Toma. Milan, Italy: Albalibre, 2007, 146 pp., 10.00 euro...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2007

The sentence for keeping a journal

Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China, by Kang Zhengguo. W.W. Norton & Co, 2007, 443 pp., $27.95 (cloth) For Kang Zhengguo it all started when he began keeping a diary. In Maoist China, with no place for privacy, even an innocent record of daily life could be an incriminating document.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 18, 2007

Joking aside, the recovery offers a lifetime opportunity

The Japanese Money Tree: How Investors Can Prosper from Japan's Economic Rebirth, by Andrew Shipley. Pearson Education, 2006, 245 pp., $24.99 (cloth) Derided during the 1990s by foreign fund managers as "the sick man of Asia," Japan's weak growth performance after the economic bubble burst made it the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Mar 6, 2007

"Double or Die," "The Skunk Code"

"Double or Die," Charlie Higson, Puffin Books; 2007; 390 pp.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 31, 2006

Make sure you read the best Asia books

The holiday season is upon us, and as we look toward 2007, why not make a resolution to read some of the best books about Asia? We introduce a few of our contributors to help you decide what not to miss Donald Richie's selections: RASHOMON AND SEVENTEEN OTHER STORIES by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 17, 2006

The past captured by a photography of conflict

PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN: 1853-1912, by Terry Bennett. Tokyo/Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 2006, 320 pp., 404 photographs, $65 (cloth). This beautifully produced large-format photo collection is intended for the scholar. It is an illustrated historical accounting of all of the early photographers in Japan....
CULTURE / Books
Oct 29, 2006

Is the sun setting on the future of Japan?

SHUTTING OUT THE SUN: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, by Michael Zielenziger. New York: Doubleday, 2006, 352 pp., $24.95 (cloth). The strength of this book lies in its sensitive and poignant portraits of hikikomori, Japan's recluses. Their stories of withdrawal are etched with pain and anomie....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 5, 2006

"The Monstrous Memories of a Mighty McFearless," "The Year the Gypsies Came"

"The Monstrous Memories of a Mighty McFearless," Ahmed Zappa, Puffin; 2006; 215pp.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 30, 2006

Shower of light on Eastern philosophy

LIGHT FROM THE EAST: A Gathering of Asian Wisdom, by Frank MacHovec. Stone Bridge Press, 175 pp., 2005, $16.95 (paper). The notes to this book tell us that author Frank MacHovec is a retired psychologist who began his study of Eastern philosophies as a Marine during the Korean War, one who wanted to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 15, 2006

Spreading the word on popular literature

THE BAMBOO SWORD AND OTHER SAMURAI TALES by Shuhei Fujisawa, translated by Gavin Frew. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005, 254 pp., 2,400 yen (cloth). Japanese critics have long made a distinction between taishu bungaku, "popular literature," which is simple entertainment, and jun bungaku, "pure literature,"...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 20, 2005

Words of war, peace and the future

THE THOUGHT WAR: Japanese Imperial Propaganda, by Barak Kushner. Honolulu: The University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 244 pp., $45.00 (cloth). This completely individual and very interesting account of the uses of propaganda in Japan concludes with the observation that it would be historically naive to pretend...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

Indelible mark of the tattoo

THE WORLD OF TATTOO, by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers/Hotei Publishing, 304 pp., 720 color illustrations, $80 (cloth). Charles Darwin averred that there was not one country in which the inhabitants did not tattoo themselves. From the ancient Briton to the plains Indians, through...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 8, 2005

Window dressing the great divide

THE SARI SHOP, by Rupa Bajwa, W.W. Norton Company, 2005, 224 pp., $13.95 (paper). Indian-ness has ceased to be the flavor of the season, or at least that's what they've been saying in Indian publishing circles. One only wishes this were true. The "Indian experience" is the proverbial dead horse, flogged...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 23, 2005

As Japan goes through a transformation, so too might those who do the observing

JAPAN'S QUIET TRANSFORMATION: Social Change and Civil Society in the Twenty-first Century, by Jeff Kingston. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004, 358 pp., 3,657 yen (paper). Nothing is permanent but change. The idea of transience has a long tradition in Japan, coming to the fore at times and receding...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 20, 2004

Bangkok: Resilience in decay

FRAGILE DAYS: Tales from Bangkok, by Tew Bunnag. Singapore: SNP International 2003. 136 pp., 395 baht (paper). The Bunnag family is one of Thailand's most eminent. Siriwong Bunnag was the formidable and omnipotent Regent of Siam during the minority of King Chulalongkorn in the 19th century. The family...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 14, 2004

The Siamese revolution through the eyes of an 'impartial' Jesuit

HISTORY OF SIAM IN 1688, by S.J. Marcel Le Blanc, translated and edited by Michael Smithies. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2004, 212 pp., 625 baht (paper). This volume is the most recent in the "Treasures from the Past" series published by Silkworm Books Co., a series that deserves credit for bringing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Feb 5, 2004

"The Pig Scrolls," "Blood Red Horse"

"The Pig Scrolls," Paul Shipton, Puffin Books; March 2004; 224 pp. Author Paul Shipton warns us at the outset of his (sort of) Greek-style epic that though every effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the material, the Great Library of Alexandria was closed on the Tuesday afternoon he tried to go...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 12, 2003

From Padaung backwater to the halls of Cambridge

FROM THE LAND OF GREEN GHOSTS: A Burmese Odyssey, by Pascal Khoo Thwe. London: Harper Collins, 2002, 304 pp., $24.95, (cloth). Toward the end of this captivating memoir the author confesses that while studying at Cambridge, "Sometimes I locked myself up in my room for three or four days, just to have...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 10, 2003

Foreign visitors who found the old in a new Japan

THE GREAT WAVE: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan, by Christopher Benfey. New York: Random House, 2003, 534 pp., with monochrome plates, $25,95 (paper). In the middle of the century before last, Japan was -- as the West termed it -- finally opened up. The mysterious...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 26, 2003

Stories about the storytellers

FIVE MODERN JAPANESE NOVELISTS, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 144 pp., $24.50 (cloth) In this new book, the doyen of Western scholars of Japanese literature introduces the writing of five novelists with whom he has worked and reminisces about his relationships with them....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 15, 2002

On the trail of a killer in ancient Kyoto

RASHOMON GATE, by I.J. Parker. St. Martin's Minotaur: New York, 2002, 336 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Scholars who pen historical mystery fiction must tread a fine line between being faithful to the materials they research and creating stories and characters that will appeal to contemporary readers. It's by...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

The science of fiction: telling history as it was, and as it wasn't

DECEMBER 6, by Martin Cruz Smith (published in Britain as TOKYO STATION). Simon & Schuster: New York, 2002, 352 pp., $26 (cloth) THE MASTER OF RAIN, by Tom Bradby. Doubleday: New York, 2002, 452 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Try to imagine, for a moment, if Rick Blaine, the hardened expat cafe owner portrayed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 2, 2002

Tickling Japan's funnybone

THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AND THE FISH: Japanese Humor Since the Age of the Shoguns, by Howard Hibbett. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International, 2001, 228 pp., with 40 woodcut-print illustrations, 3,000 yen (cloth) Toward the end of this most agreeable essay on the local comic spirit, Howard Hibbett observes:...

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?