Search - life

 
 
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 9, 2012

It will take more than a pop group to save Fukushima's reputation

Last March, Tatsuya Yamaguchi of the idol group Tokio told the media that he was determined to someday reopen Dash Village, the farm that he and his bandmates built from scratch as an ongoing project on their long-running Nippon TV series "The Tetsuwan Dash." The farm is in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Sep 9, 2012

Yamadera, the man with 1,000 voices

Prior to interviewing Koichi Yamadera, a top voice actor, mimic and TV celebrity, I thought it would be tacky to ask him for samples of his many voices, from the characters on the popular "Anpanman" kiddy cartoon show to the hero of Hitoshi Takekiyo's new animated horror-comedy "Hokago Middonaitazu (After...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 9, 2012

Sail through time with hobikisen on Lake Kasumigaura

It's difficult to imagine what Lake Kasumigaura in Ibaraki Prefecture would have looked like a century ago. Most of its surrounding areas have now become dormitory towns for Tokyo, just 50 km to the southwest. These days, too, where the traditional old lotus paddies do remain, they tend to be covered...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 9, 2012

Putin's siege-mentality Russia now firmly in the grip of a 'cold civil war'

There is an old Soviet-era Russian joke about two rival groups of archeologists who cannot agree on the age of a mummy discovered in Central Asia. At their wits' end, they call in the NKVD — the name of the dreaded KGB in Stalin's time — to settle the dispute.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 9, 2012

Sea changes set in motion

Between 20 and 30 percent of Japan's marine fisheries production was lost in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu on March 11, 2011, followed by huge tsunamis and explosions and reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. In...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 8, 2012

Do you overestimate your dental IQ?

I really feel sorry for dentists because they have to deal with difficult patients, especially those who have inflated ideas about their own dental IQ.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2012

Orix setting its sights on local banks, asset managers in South America

Financing company Orix Corp. opened a Brazil unit this month to seek acquisitions in South America.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2012

'Yume Uru Futari (Dreams for Sale)'

Ever since her 2003 directorial debut "Hebi Ichigo (Wild Berries)," a black comedy about a dysfunctional family, Miwa Nishikawa has been exploring the infinite human capacity for duplicity and the elusiveness of truth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2012

'The Dictator'

Sacha Baron Cohen is back, and after skewering white-boy hip-hop poseurs (Ali G), unwittingly offensive "foreigners" (Borat) and ridiculously camp gay fashionistas (Bruno), his newest target is a timely one: pompous, pampered, preening Middle Eastern tyrants.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2012

'Safe House'

Watching "Safe House" reminded me of something a savvy girlfriend once said to me: "When a guy tells you that his top-secret real job is working for the CIA, get out of the relationship as fast as you can." Not because of the obvious risks such a job may involve, she said, but because "the guy is a big...
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2012

Japan's history is in the details

In his Aug. 26 letter, "Military brothels go way back," Takashi Nagata treats us to a generalized history lesson: Europeans and others kept "comfort women." ... South Koreans had separate brothels for their soldiers and Americans in the 1970s. ... The film "Sandakan Brothel No. 8" depicts a brothel worker's...
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2012

Building a musical following

Regarding Ian Martin's Aug. 30 column, pay to play is not a system unique to Japan. Ticket sales, space and equipment rental are a fact of life for musicians everywhere. Of all the performance-level musicians in the world, only a very small percentage make their living with music. And, by and large,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 6, 2012

Hammer-Head studio to support young artists in Yokohama

Ever since 2002, when then-Yokohama mayor Hiroshi Nakada lit the fuse on his Creative City plan, Tokyo's southern neighbor has hosted a more-or-less unbroken series of cultural events that have leaped, Chinese firework-style, back and forth between the city's many hitherto-underutilized publicly owned...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2012

JAL reportedly gets all IPO orders

Japan Airlines Co.'s ¥663 billion initial public offering, the largest since Facebook Inc., has drawn orders for all the stock being sold, according to two sources with knowledge of the transaction.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 5, 2012

'Sho Time' delivers Fighters past Eagles

The Hokkaido Nippon Fighters nearly broke through against Manabu Mima after a double by Sho Nakata in the sixth inning.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2012

U.S. candidates can't ignore war in Afghanistan

As Republicans gathered in Tampa on Aug. 27, a 25-year-old Army sergeant serving his third tour in Afghanistan, Christopher J. Birdwell of Windsor, Colorado, was killed in action.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Sep 4, 2012

Today's J-blip: Google celebrate's Doraemon's -100th

Google Japan wishes Doraemon a very happy minus 100th birthday.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 4, 2012

Lions pounce at right time to take control of Pacific League

All season the Seibu Lions have put the 'cats have nine lives' theory to the test, and so far the Pacific League's resident felines are still kicking.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 4, 2012

Toot your own horn — don't let the modesty scam keep you down

As per this column's title, this month's topic was chosen, well, "just because" it's been on my mind.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 4, 2012

With Berlitz beaten but not bowed, union fights on

Before instructors became embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Berlitz Japan, there was a time when the English language school chain's robust image made it a top choice among foreign job-seekers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 3, 2012

Imagine a better Olympics for Japan

"Sekai wa itsuka hitotsu ni naru" (「世界はいつかひとつになる」) — that's what "And the world will be as one," from John Lennon's "Imagine," sounds like in Japanese, at least according to the Asahi Shimbun. The matter arises in connection with the dai sanjukkai orinpikku kyogitaikai (第三十回オリンピック競技大会,...
Reader Mail
Sep 2, 2012

Shake off the empty words

I share Amy Chavez's impressions expressed in her Aug. 25 column, "Veterinary clinics for the rich and famous pets."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 2, 2012

Prescient work of writer Sawako Ariyoshi begs for rediscovery

Aug. 30 marked the day, 28 years ago, that Japan and the world lost a writer of immense importance. Sawako Ariyoshi's works of fiction and nonfiction took up many social issues that came into prominence in the years after her death. To my mind, she is not only one of the greatest authors of modern Japan,...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 2, 2012

Filipinas in Japan's 'water trade'

Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo, by Rhacel Salazar Parrenas. Stanford University Press, 2011, 336 pp. $21.95 (paperback)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 1, 2012

You can swim even after O-bon — the truth about jellyfish

Despite the temperature being hot as blazes, mid-August is still considered the end of the swimming season in Japan. In our area of the Seto Inland Sea, it used to be said that after O-bon (around Aug. 15) the enko (sea nymphs) come out and can grab your legs and pull you down under the water to drown...
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2012

Deepening deflation raises contraction risk

Consumer prices slid at a faster pace in July and industrial production unexpectedly slumped, raising the danger that the world's third-largest economy has slipped back into a contraction.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2012

The blame for Diet paralysis

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan bear primary responsibility for the current paralytic political situation — the virtual stoppage of Diet deliberations after a censure motion against Mr. Noda passed in the opposition-controlled Upper House Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2012

Pawns of the neo-Putin era

After the May 7 inauguration of Vladimir Putin, the re-elected Russian president rapidly began taking revenge on those who caused him anxiety from December to March. Of late, he and his henchmen have demonstrated a sharp stance against dissent and opposition in general.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 31, 2012

'Marley' / 'Carlos'

You say you want a revolution? Well, there are two ways to go about it, with the flowers or the guns, and this week cinema offers us a case study in extremes. On the one hand is "Marley," a well-researched documentary exploring the life of Jamaican musician-cum-activist Bob Marley who — like John Lennon...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Aug 31, 2012

Farmers markets on the rise in Tokyo

In a city the size of Tokyo, it's all too easy to be unaware of where your food comes from. Most of what we eat is shipped in from far away, not just the extremities of the country but from all around the world. Japan's overall food self-sufficiency rate is bad enough — a mere 38.3 percent as of 2010....

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat