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CULTURE / Books
Aug 21, 2011

Poetry as stimulating as a stun gun

THE NEW YURI AND SELECTED YURI: Writing From Peeling Till Now, by Yuri Kageyama. Ishmael Reed Publishing Company, 2011, 134 pp., $19.99 (paper) In the babbling cosmos of contemporary literature, there have been a handful of distinguished cross-cultural writers who have made the English language their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2011

Pitt, Penn heap praise on Malick's 'real world'

Terrence Malick kicks off his new film, "The Tree of Life," with a bang. The Big Bang, actually. Over the next 138 minutes, the viewer witnesses a journey through history that ends up in a small town in Texas. Critics seem to agree that you'll either love it or hate it.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Aug 18, 2011

Men look to shed a few years off their aging skin

The rough-hewn look might be on its way out as makers of skin-care products aim for the middle-aged male market.
Reader Mail
Aug 18, 2011

Geothermal is the most practical

With respect to Pete Hourdequin's Aug. 7 letter, "(Prime Minister Naoto) Kan's vision is commendable": Renewable energy in its current state is NOT a viable solution for Japan. Solar power cells may continue to advance technologically, but they don't make sense for Japan geographically.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2011

Trippple Nippples

You're based in Japan, how was it playing at Summer Sonic?
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2011

Tsunami spared Matsushima but swept away bay's tourists

Matsuo Basho, arguably Japan's most famous haiku poet, is said to have been at a loss for words when he first saw the hundreds of pine-clad islets scattered around Matsushima Bay during a 17th-century journey to the Tohoku region.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 8, 2011

Unbeautiful yen's rise will help the economy more than hurt it

The yen continues to appreciate as Japan struggles to get a handle on recovering from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the unresolved crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and the inability of the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan to implement policy actions to deal with the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2011

'Days of Heaven' / 'Nashville'

It's somewhat depressing to think that the two best films on offer this summer, by far, were made over three decades ago. Robert Altman's epic "Nashville" came out in the torrid summer of 1975, while Terrence Malick's sophomore film, "Days of Heaven," was released in '78 after two years in the editing...
LIFE
Jul 31, 2011

Most unlikely bedfellows

"How wonderful! How marvelous! From here to the southeast is what the Westerners call the Pacific Ocean and the American states! They must be very close!" — Watanabe Kazan, artist and samurai, in a diary recording a sojourn in Enoshima, an island off Kamakura in present-day Kanagawa Prefecture,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2011

Very different approaches to the struggling hero theme

James Gunn wrote the screenplay for 2000's "The Specials," a low-budget indie comedy that mocked superheroes, showing them kicking back, whining about their action figure deals or bloviating about their origin stories, but never once engaging in actual crime-fighting.
Reader Mail
Jul 21, 2011

Winding road to one's potential

Regarding Roger Pulvers' July 17 article, "In charting their life's course, today's youth might better stay foolish": Wonderful article! I read the Steve Jobs' speech cited by Pulvers several years ago, and it continues to inspire me through thick and thin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 21, 2011

Looking beyond the landscape view

Most of us understand bridges to be structures that help us keep our feet dry. However, in the latest exhibition at the Mitsui Memorial Museum, "The Bridge in Japanese Art: From Ama-no-Hashidate to Nihonbashi," it turns out that we've only been partly right. The bridge is also a device to help us see...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 21, 2011

Years in the making, Warpaint to hit Fuji

Even when enjoying some downtime in her Los Angeles home, Jenny Lee Lindberg still feels as if she is "whirlwinding around." But then, it has been that sort of year for the bassist in Warpaint: her band has spent 12 months carrying the "next big thing" tag.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2011

Nikko Asset reportedly choosing underwriters

Nikko Asset Management Co. this week began choosing lead underwriters for an initial public offering, setting up the first debut share sale by a major Japanese asset manager in a decade, three sources said.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 17, 2011

Erasing the bloody wounds of war

IMAG(IN)ING THE WAR IN JAPAN: Representing and Responding to Trauma in Postwar Literature and Film, edited by David Stahl and Mark Williams. Brill, 2010, 375 pp., $179 (hardcover) This anthology is as incisive and demanding of consideration as any that I have read. The central question reframed again...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 15, 2011

"The 100th Anniversary Of Felix Hoffman Exhibition: The Beautiful Picture Book As A Gift"

In Japan, Swiss painter Felix Hoffman (1911-75) is known for illustrating popular children's picture books such as "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids" and "Sleeping Beauty." In his home country of Switzerland, however, he is also recognized as an artist in various genres including prints, murals and...
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2011

Nikko said gearing up for IPO March 31

Nikko Asset Management Co. began this week choosing lead underwriters for an initial public offering less than two years after Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co. purchased the firm, three sources said.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 15, 2011

Celebrated U.S. ballet to tour Japan

Local audiences will have the chance to see premier ballet when the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and its international cast of dancers return to Japan this month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2011

"Collection of Beautiful Women in Art: Gorgeous Women in Japanese Paintings"

The beauty of women has long been a favorite subject for many artists. For example, during the Heian Period (794-1185), beautiful women were often depicted on picture scrolls, and in the Edo Period (1603-1867) they were seen in ukiyo-e (Japanese-genre paintings and prints).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2011

'Bal'

As Hollywood films become ever more breathless — with special effects sidelining nearly all plot and character development, and digital-editing abuse leading to few shots that last beyond a second — art cinema has moved just as extremely in the opposite direction, with slow, meticulous pacing; long,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 2, 2011

Long and short of pet grooming

"Wow, what's that?" I asked Mrs. Amano. In her arms she was holding a furry thing with whiskers. I couldn't quite recognize the animal as it had tufts of hair sticking out all over it — like a hexagram with a cat face in the middle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 1, 2011

'Ogawa no Hotori (On the Bank of the Stream)'

When I saw Yoji Yamada's "Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai)," a lyrical, low-key 2002 drama about a low-ranking, family-loving samurai forced to kill for his clan, it struck me as a throwback to the genre's 1950s Golden Age. But this, I later discovered, was the first feature based on the fiction...
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2011

Boosting Japan's flagging tourism

In 2010, a record number 8,612,000 tourists from abroad visited Japan — up 26.8 percent from 2009 — and it was hoped that more than 10 million tourists would visit this year. But the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters dashed this hope.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jun 28, 2011

Some new old favorites

Ready for the summer buzz There's one summer discomfort that has yet to kick in: the dreaded mosquito attacks. To help us win the battle over insects, household goods brand Vitantonio has teamed up with Kincho, an insect-repellent manufacturer, to create the Mosquito Buster.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2011

"Hello, It's We: New Paintings by Rob Judges and Mike Ness"

Moscow, Nakameguro Closes Aug. 25
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 26, 2011

Inside Aokigahara, Japan's 'Suicide Forest'

I am walking through Aokigahara Jukai forest, the light rapidly fading on a mid-winter afternoon, when I am stopped dead in my tracks by a blood-curdling scream. The natural reaction would be to run, but the forest floor is a maze of roots and slippery rocks and, truth be told, I am lost in this vast...

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?