Search - topics

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 27, 2009

Inner life of a giant revealed

REFLECTIONS IN A GLASS DOOR: Memory and Melancholy in the Personal Writings of Natsume Soseki, by Marvin Marcus. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2009, 268 pp., $49 (hardcover) Author of a well-received study of the biographical writings of Mori Ogai ("Paragons of the Ordinary," 1993), Marvin Marcus...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2009

Dancing around delicate issues

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met with U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday for the first time amid concerns that the new Japanes government's policy could harm the two nations' long-standing alliance centered on the bilateral security treaty. Mr. Hatoyama apparently avoided friction by skirting touchy...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 13, 2009

Securing the best education for your child

GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN JAPAN: From Anxiety to Opportunity, by Caroline Pover. Alexandra, 2009, 667 pp., ¥4,762 (paper) Expatriates in some countries face a scarcity of options when it comes to educating their children, but in Japan the reverse is true: The array of alternatives and the potential...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2009

The return of Franco-German leadership

PARIS — Regardless of who wins September's parliamentary election in Germany, the time has come once again for a major Franco-German initiative.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2009

Money: the root of all optimism

A New Development Model for Japan: Selected Essays 2000-2008 by Akira Kojima. The Japan Journal, 2009, 362 pp., ¥2,625 (cloth) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles Dickens in the opening passage of his famous novel "A Tale of Two Cities." Although written 150 years ago,...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Sep 1, 2009

Students from around Asia team up at GPAC

Students from across Asia gathered last week to promote friendship and discuss some of the world's pressing issues at the Global Partnership of Asian Colleges 2009 event.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2009

'30 Days of Night'

Director David Slade, who gave the world the vein-freezing, hemoglobin-depleting "Hard Candy" four years ago, has turned his hand to making a genuine horror film — a vampire thriller that plops A-list actor Josh Hartnett in the middle of a seemingly low-rent basement production called "30 Days of Night."...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 27, 2009

Political shift gives hope to gays

The possible power shift in Sunday's general election signals change for many, and one minority interest group is daring to hope it will bring about the biggest change yet.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2009

Scrutinizing the Chinese threat to Taiwan

LOS ANGELES — In the United States we refer to it as the Powell Doctrine. And it helps unravel a bit of mystery about what China is up to these days. Remember Colin Powell? Before Barack Obama rode into the U.S. scene on his white horse, Powell was America's most admired black public political figure....
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Aug 19, 2009

Driving you 'crazy for kanji' — in a good way

Here's an addiction that doesn't require a 12-step recovery program. For the past six years, Berkeley, Calif.-based freelance writer Eve Kushner has been a self-proclaimed, unapologetic "kanji-holic." Kushner details her passion for Sino-Japanese characters in a new textbook, "Crazy for Kanji: A Student's...
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2009

Seven topics for a summer day

LONDON — As Japanese lawmakers campaign for the Aug. 30 Lower House election, British members of Parliament are in recess and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is on holiday. Papers and weeklies are scraping the barrel for something to write about. Many fill their columns with so much sports that foreign...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Aug 4, 2009

Spontaneous Japanese TV keeps Dave Spector on his toes

Michael Jackson's death meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For Japanese television celebrity Dave Spector, it meant being woken on the morning of June 26 at 6 a.m. and spending most of the next two weeks either studying or commenting on the performer for the benefit of Japanese...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jul 31, 2009

The eyes have it — false lashes catch on big with Japan's women

Long, thick, perfectly curled eyelashes are pretty much the desire of every Japanese woman.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 27, 2009

How to Japonese

The blog How To Japonese should appeal to anyone studying intermediate and advanced Japanese, but don't expect structured step-by-step courses. Launched in 2008 by Daniel Morales, a New Orleanian who first came to Japan in 2002 and currently works as a translation coordinator in Tokyo, the blog pretty...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 22, 2009

The world's best one-stop shop for Nihongo

"The number of people learning Japanese has increased and is currently estimated to be more than 3 million worldwide," says Nobuyuki Suzuki, deputy manager of a very special store in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 20, 2009

Two brothers competing on Japan's political ladder

One of the major topics of speculation among political observers nowadays is what course of action former internal affairs minister Kunio Hatoyama will take following his revolt against Prime Minister Taro Aso. He will have to make up his mind soon now that the date of the next general election has just...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jul 15, 2009

Fish-shaped 'taiyaki' is always evolving

"Taiyaki," a fish-shaped pancake of sorts made of flour and filled with "azuki" sweet bean paste, has been around for a century.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 14, 2009

'Discontinuous minds' and discrimination: some responses

Following are some readers' views on Dan O'Keeffe's June 16 Zeit Gist article " 'Discontinuous minds' block progress on discrimination":
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2009

Ishihara must face the opposition

The Democratic Party of Japan's rise to pre-eminence in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly may force Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to bend on some of his more controversial policies, notably the funding of troubled lender Shinginko Tokyo, according to observers.
JAPAN / G8 ITALY SUMMIT
Jul 8, 2009

L'Aquila to answer questions of G8 relevance

It's that time of year again when the richest nations in the world gather to discuss themes ranging from the slumping economy to global warming.
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2009

Iraq oil minister may visit for investment talks

Iraq's oil minister may visit Tokyo next week and discuss the prospect of Japanese investment as the Middle Eastern nation plans to increase petroleum production.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2009

G8 still relevant but must lead, envoy says

Despite doubts cast on its influence over the global economy, the Group of Eight will remain a key framework to guide the world out of the economic downturn, one of Japan's top coordinators for the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 2, 2009

Whether to come out at the office

"Do you live on your own?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jun 29, 2009

Fun and fashionable rubber boots help shake off rainy season gloom

Rainy days can be a downer, especially for women who want to look fashionable but don't want to get wet in soggy and gloomy weather.
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2009

Those maddening economists

For most mortals, economics is a dark and deeply confusing topic. The vocabulary is dense, the relationships contorted. Economists are notorious for offering two — contradictory — opinions on most topics. So forgive us if we are confused at the most recent forecasts of the global economic outlook....
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2009

One every 15 minutes

For the last 11 years, one Japanese person has committed suicide every 15 minutes. This suicide rate, compiled by the National Police Agency, means that more than 30,000 suicides occur every year, a third of a million people in a decade. This astonishingly high rate, by far the highest for all developed...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 7, 2009

Illuminating flashes of China's fictive light

Divided into thematic segments such as Portraits, Relationships, Family and Existential Moments, more than a hundred writers are represented in this stubby new collection from China.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.