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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 10, 2010

Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani

Toru Iwatani, 55, is the designer of Pac-Man, the classic video game that virtually kick-started the world market for the video-gaming industry. Released by Namco in Tokyo on May 22, 1980, Pac-Man made history as the first video game that appealed to both genders and to all age groups. Idea-man Iwatani,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
May 25, 2010

Expat dancer Hibari Misora-inspired

Chris Chavez maintains an upbeat outlook about life in Japan but leaves the rosy-tinted view for idealists or those newly arrived. This Mexican-American's snapping brown eyes differentiate clearly the good, bad and indifferent of living as a foreign woman in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 27, 2010

Battered Briton survives aikido ordeal

At the end of February, a group of international students graduated from the Tokyo-based Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo, one of the most intensive martial arts training centers in the world.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 1, 2010

Message for Hatoyama from his patron saint

Saint Thomas More is the patron saint of politicians. As a Catholic myself I should have known this before, but the information actually came to me quite recently via the Mainichi Shimbun. So many thanks to the newspaper for this piece of religious education.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 21, 2010

Truly unique version of the foreigner's tale

Like a Yemenese bride-to-be who first sees the countenance of her fiance in a photo presented by relatives, Rebecca Otowa experienced a presentiment of her future in a black-and-white image of a building, a 350-year-old farmhouse in rural Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 9, 2010

'Otaku' turns passion for collecting into gold mine

Danny Choo, a Tokyo-based computer programmer and entrepreneur, calls himself a full-time "otaku."
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 10, 2010

First Snow

"Tamaki-kun! It's you, isn't it?" Startled, the man looked up from the book he'd been perusing. He stared at the woman in bewilderment. "Yes, my name is Tamaki . . . "
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 20, 2009

'2012' star tells of being John Cusack

HOLLYWOOD — The year 2012, according to the ancient Mayas, is the year Earth destructs and a new cycle of life begins. (The Aztec and other pre-Columbian American calendars also held a cyclical view of the universe, sort of a reincarnation of planets at the end of each eon). So leave it to Hollywood...
LIFE
Oct 25, 2009

Bodhisattva of the river road

"Have another drink, Boss!"
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 20, 2009

Now suicide has become a political issue, how will Japan address it?

Without a doubt the grimmest statistic coming out of Japan today concerns the number of suicides, which have exceeded 30,000 annually for 11 years in a row — engendering indescribable tragedies for so many families.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 25, 2009

Lifetime of travels at root of keen insights into Japan

One person you want to meet for a coffee in Tokyo: Stephen Mansfield. The British author and photojournalist has written 10 books (14, including collaborative work) and produced over 2,000 published articles for newspapers, magazines and journals since 1992.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jul 19, 2009

Yokohama port anniversary, population boom, Zen bus-drivers and Japanese longevity

100 YEARS AGO
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 28, 2009

Jokichi Takamine: a man with fire in his belly whatever the odds

When I had tummy ache as a child, my mother would say, "Take a diastase." So, I naturally thought — as did my mother — that what I was putting into my mouth was a "diastase."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2009

'17 Again'

"Youth is wasted on the young" said playwright George Bernard Shaw when he was long past blooming cheeks and sowing wild oats — one imagines his creased face scrunched in bitter cynicism as he uttered those words. What would Shaw say if he saw "17 Again," the tailored-for-teens fable (saddled with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 9, 2009

Tenkai Tsunami

Tenkai Tsunami, 24, is the World Boxing Association (WBA) female super flyweight world champion, a title she earned after only four years of training with Toshihiro Yamaki, who introduced women's boxing to Japan in 1999. At 160 cm and 52 kg, Tsunami is a petite right-handed powerhouse famous for a mean...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 31, 2009

Women, know your place

Every time I open a newspaper or click on the Internet, yet another article appears bemoaning the same tired trend in Japanese society: the falling birthrate. Citing everything from sexless marriages to inequality in the workplace for women, these articles all skirt the real problem — Japanese women...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 28, 2009

From a shady past to helping others

Kabukicho is Tokyo's infamous entertainment district and suburb of sleaze. A heavily populated square of sleepless activity northeast of Shinjuku Station, it is home to a haphazard mix of movie theaters, hostess bars, strip clubs, and seedy nightclubs. An illicit atmosphere permeates the air.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2009

Duffy savors fruits of success

"Half of my quarter of a century belongs to music, so I never belonged to anything else," says Welsh songstress Duffy. "I feel very able and ready!"
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2009

Duffy savors fruits of success

"Half of my quarter of a century belongs to music, so I never belonged to anything else," says Welsh songstress Duffy. "I feel very able and ready!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2009

Bent Hamer nails another odd story

N orwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer is a generous man. At the end of our interview, while waiting for the next journalist to arrive, Hamer began putting together media kits that were piled up on a desk to be sorted out by the staff of his film's promotion company. Told not to bother, he kept at it with a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2009

'Defiance'

As I sit here in a Midtown cafe, sipping a latte and gazing leisurely at the late-season Christmas lights as dusk settles over this well-heated monument to 21st-century consumer pleasures, it's hard to imagine the potential for chaos.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 20, 2009

Missionary devotes lifework to helping Tokyo homeless

Jean Le Beau says his decision to pursue a life dedicated to the benefit of others was inspired in high school when he read the story of Father Damien, a 19th-century Roman Catholic missionary from Belgium who spent his life caring for lepers cast out of normal society and quarantined on the Hawaiian...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

Mums team up to make Holland a happy home far away from home

AMSTERDAM — No friends or acquaintances, cold winters, a hard-to-learn language and the depression that comes with all that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 9, 2008

Black humor sets Hollywood alight

Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 20, 2008

Birds' heaven and hell

It is August already, and it's a matter of life and death for certain seabirds. While southern species will already have run the gauntlet of the gulls, in the north it's happening now.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2008

The challenge of Hiroshima

MEDFORD, Oregon — When the penetrating heat of summer rises to a scorching point, I am brought back to one sunny day in 1945, faraway from my Oregon home today. I was a sixth grader waiting for my mother. On that day, Aug. 6, in Hiroshima, the sun and the Earth melted together. Many of my relatives...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 28, 2008

The truth behind the 'Origin of the Species'

COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2008

If there is a god, then why is there suffering?

Do we live in a world that was created by a god who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all good?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 17, 2008

Buddha's birthday prompts call to temple

May 12 was Buddha's birthday. Don't tell me you forgot about it! You didn't even send a card? How about a gift? Well, don't feel too bad. I forgot about it too. But luckily, on the morning of the 12th, an announcement came over the loudspeaker saying "Attention Shiraishi Island residents, today is Buddha's...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?