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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 19, 2012

A voyage of discovery from Tokyo to Naha

On the Autumnal Equinox of 2011 I finished teaching a monthlong summer intensive course at a university in Tokyo, and had six days before I had to be back in my new hometown of Naha, Okinawa, for a meeting at my new university in the nearby town of Nishihara. Since I was in no particular hurry to return,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 19, 2012

From Aboriginal land to Japan's nuclear reactors

Peter Watts, co-chair of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, was recently in Japan as one of some 100 speakers at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World held in Yokohama on Jan. 14 and 15. During an interview with The Japan Times, Watts — who is a member of the Arabunna people, one...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012

"Nihon Gadan no Fuunji — Nakamura Masayoshi: Aratanaru Zenbo"

Known for his strong subversion of traditional Japanese art values, nihonga (Japanese-style) artist Masayoshi Nakamura (1924-1977) found beauty in what others might have been considered as ugly. His determination in pursuing unconventional aesthetics led him to become one of the pioneers of avant-garde...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012

"Nihon Gadan no Fuunji — Nakamura Masayoshi: Aratanaru Zenbo"

Known for his strong subversion of traditional Japanese art values, nihonga (Japanese-style) artist Masayoshi Nakamura (1924-1977) found beauty in what others might have been considered as ugly. His determination in pursuing unconventional aesthetics led him to become one of the pioneers of avant-garde...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDIA-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Feb 15, 2012

Rising consumerism in India offers Japan huge potential, experts say

India is rapidly evolving as a consumer market and Japan, whose trade and investment relations with the emerging South Asian giant have so far been limited, should take advantage of the huge potential created by the new trends of consumerism in the country, scholars and experts from Indian universities...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 15, 2012

Cosmetics review website goes public with IPO

Tokyo-based Internet company Istyle Inc. announced on Feb. 3 its intention to list itself on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market (Tosho Mothers). The planned date of the IPO is March 8, 2012.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 12, 2012

A glint of copper hints at Fukiya's mining past

Sitting in sublime obscurity in a raised valley one hour by bus from Bitchu-Takahashi, Fukiya Furusato Mura in Okayama Prefecture must surely be one of Japan's most under-appreciated rural destinations. Mention the name even to Japanese travelers and you are likely to draw blank expressions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2012

Enjoying the quiet life in Kanazawa, in black and white

Coincidence can shape people's lives in many ways. Ask Mark Hammond, and he will certainly agree.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2012

Unswayed by disaster, Iwaki spa hulas anew

A Hawaiian theme park that has propped up the economy of a rural town in Fukushima Prefecture for 45 years was forced to shut down after the March 11 disasters, but a little less than a year later the hula girls have returned.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2012

'The Hunter' / 'Poetry'

One of cinema's most constant motifs is the flawed, morally corrupt character who in the last reel listens to his conscience and decides to do the right thing. There's a good reason for this: Audiences know all too well how easy it is to be a "good German," and desperately wish it weren't so. You often...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2012

Hamilton: U.K. has lost sight of the public benefits of higher education

Professor Andrew Hamilton became the first vice chancellor of Oxford never to have been educated at the university when he took the job in 2009. He is English, educated at Exeter University and Cambridge, but for the previous 28 years had lived in America, the last 13 of them at Yale University, as professor...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 31, 2012

Culture ensnares Czech Japanophile

Petr Holy, who over the past two decades has spent a considerable amount of his time learning the Japanese language and culture, is now in return trying to spread the culture of his home country, the Czech Republic, throughout Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 29, 2012

Behavioral patterns in the male

RECREATING JAPANESE MEN, edited by Sabine Fruhstuck and Anne Walthall. University of California Press, 2011. 309 pp., $26.95 (paper) Debate on the how, when and why of mankind's creation brims over mere academic study. Sabine Fruhstuck and Anne Walthall, professors of Modern Japanese Culture and History...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2012

Turning to Okinawa and its rituals in search of a happier new year

Without a shred of a doubt, 2011 stands out to me — in a way that hopefully will never be surpassed — as the most catastrophic I have ever known.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 13, 2012

"Beauty in Miniature: Modelers of Classic Cars and Motorcycles"

This exhibition features scale models of classic cars and motorcycles that have been built from scratch, a technique known as "scratch building." Since no model kits are used, this technique involves thoroughly researching real vehicles, sourcing suitable materials and making all the parts. Creating...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 13, 2012

"Beauty in Miniature: Modelers of Classic Cars and Motorcycles"

This exhibition features scale models of classic cars and motorcycles that have been built from scratch, a technique known as "scratch building." Since no model kits are used, this technique involves thoroughly researching real vehicles, sourcing suitable materials and making all the parts. Creating...
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2012

Thinner and thinner

Japanese girls weigh less than ever, according to an Education Ministry survey of 650,000 Japanese children aged 5 to 17. The average weight of girls in Japan was at its lowest since data started being compiled in 1948, even though average height has increased by five to eight centimeters. These worrisome...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jan 6, 2012

New Year's discounts in Yokohama

To celebrate the New Year, the InterContinental Yokohama Grand is holding the hotel's popular seasonal event, the Otoshidama (New Year's gift) Promotion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2012

'Good'

As far as movies about Nazi Germany go, "Good" belies its title and sits fidgeting on a terrain somewhere between so-so and inoffensive. But 15 years ago a story like "Good" would have been called daring — even revolutionary — for it ventures beyond caricatured depictions of monstrous Nazis and the...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2012

Looking ahead: 10 shows to mark on the 2012 calender

"Fuyuko Matsui: Becoming Friends with All the Children in the World" Yokohama Museum of ArtDec. 17, 2011-March 18.www.yaf.or.jp/yma
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2012

Looking ahead: 10 shows to mark on the 2012 calender

"Fuyuko Matsui: Becoming Friends with All the Children in the World" Yokohama Museum of ArtDec. 17, 2011-March 18.www.yaf.or.jp/yma
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2012

Exposing new spins on old-school photography

For a truly fresh outlook on Tokyo, run, don't walk, to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography to see Sohei Nishino's exciting photo-collages of Tokyo and nine other cities, on display through Jan. 29 along with works by other up-and-coming Japanese photographers.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2012

Exposing new spins on old-school photography

For a truly fresh outlook on Tokyo, run, don't walk, to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography to see Sohei Nishino's exciting photo-collages of Tokyo and nine other cities, on display through Jan. 29 along with works by other up-and-coming Japanese photographers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 1, 2012

Mayumi Kagita: A fusion of cultures revealed in dance

On Nov. 19, the Pit hall of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in Shibuya, was filled with hundreds of eager theater-goers. They had come to see a performance of "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku" ("The Women-Killer and the Hell of Oil"), a play written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) — Japan's greatest...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 1, 2012

A breath of fire for nature this new Year of the Dragon

May I wish all our readers, in Japan and abroad, a very happy New Year. After 2011, I think we need one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 30, 2011

Heian Period 'Godfather' brought to life on NHK

Marlon Brando's title character in the 1972 film "The Godfather" might not be the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of 12th century warlord Taira no Kiyomori, but the comparison has proven particularly effective for public broadcaster NHK, which will air a yearlong Sunday-evening drama about...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 29, 2011

Kaori Watanabe: Preparing for the trials of adulthood

"Tradition," and how one might relate to it, is often met with censure in contemporary art. It implies inheritance and repetition and is occasionally thought of as uncreative. None of this has to be true, but the tension between the tradition of nihonga (Japanese-style painting) and the desire to be...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 25, 2011

Soseki leaps to defense of Japanese literature

Most people probably have a list of universally acclaimed geniuses, icons and luminaries whose greatness they simply fail to appreciate. "Am I stupid?" you wonder — or do claims of greatness tend to be inflated? Topping my personal list, as far as Japan is concerned, is novelist Natsume Soseki (1867-1916)....

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?