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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 6, 2012

"New Year Exhibition: Modern Japanese Paintings"

Although its aesthetic origin originally came from China, nihonga (Japanese-style painting) developed into a style of its own through its focus on motifs deep-rooted in Japanese culture. Bijin-ga (paintings of beautiful women) and sansui-ga (landscape painting) in particular present subjects familiar...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 6, 2012

"New Year Exhibition: Modern Japanese Paintings"

Although its aesthetic origin originally came from China, nihonga (Japanese-style painting) developed into a style of its own through its focus on motifs deep-rooted in Japanese culture. Bijin-ga (paintings of beautiful women) and sansui-ga (landscape painting) in particular present subjects familiar...
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2012

JAL readying ¥1 trillion IPO in September

Japan Airlines Co., the carrier that exited bankruptcy last year, is planning an initial public offering that may raise as much as ¥1 trillion as early as September, two sources said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 5, 2012

Tenniscoats "Papa's Ear"

Tokyo's Tenniscoats have certainly kept busy over the last nine months. In April, the indie-pop duo of multi-instrumentalists Takashi Ueno and Saya (who goes by only her first name) released their "Tokinouta" disc and in October they issued "Enjoy Your Life," a collaborative effort with American lo-fi...
Reader Mail
Jan 5, 2012

What a 'war-lover' has wrought

Talk about living in a glass house. I have a couple of questions for Kenzaburo Sugai (Jan. 1 letter, "What drives a war-loving culture?"):
COMMENTARY
Jan 4, 2012

Can China sate its thirst for energy?

Among the sinews of superpower strength in the 21st century, maximum energy self-sufficiency will be critical as nations jostle to secure supplies of oil and natural gas, as well as food, water and minerals.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 3, 2012

Kim to 'flyjin,' a top 10 for 2011

Here's JBC's fourth annual roundup of the top 10 human rights events that affected Japan's non-Japanese (NJ) residents last year. Ranked in ascending order of impact:
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 1, 2012

For how much longer will Japan's fate remain in the hands of amateurs?

As we enter into a new year in which last year's greatest event is still, dreadfully, uppermost in the mind of everyone in Japan, let's pause to think hard about the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, the tsunami it triggered, and the release into the environment of radioactive substances from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 1, 2012

Media awards: Tokyo powers down as idols power up

Media Figure of the Year: Tepco A fact of modern life that the Occupy Wall Street movement brought home to the average person is that corporations are nominally "persons," meaning they have been granted the same "rights" as individuals, at least in the United States. In Japan, such legal definitions...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

Japan's troubled royals put up a brave front

Bungei Shunju ("literary spring and autumn") is arguably Japan's most prestigious monthly magazine. Emblazoned in celebratory red across the cover of its New Year's edition is the rather ominous headline, "The Day the Heisei (Era) Ends."
Japan Times
JAPAN / NUCLEAR AWAKENING
Jan 1, 2012

DIY cesium scanning store may be 'new normal'

Kashiwa, about 30 km northeast of Tokyo, is known for its humble beginnings as a 1970s bedroom community for Tokyo workers.
Reader Mail
Jan 1, 2012

Socially conscious global model

I love Amy Chavez's Dec. 24 Japan Lite column, "" How wonderful it would be if the whole world were to behave like many Japanese as a social norm.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 30, 2011

Rice takes prized, symbolic yearend form

Shōgatsu (New Year's) is the most important holiday on the Japanese calendar, and the dishes associated with it are laden with symbolic meaning. While the colorful foods of osechi, packed attractively in jūbako (stacking bento boxes), are the flamboyant attention-catchers of the New Year's feast, the...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2011

Letter from a Ukraine jail

It has been said that there are no atheists in a foxhole. Here, after my show trial and 4½ months in a cell, I have discovered that there are no atheists in prison, either.
EDITORIALS
Dec 30, 2011

Resurrection of Yanba Dam project

The government and the Democratic Party of Japan on Dec. 23 decided to resume work to construct the Yanba Dam in Gunma Prefecture and to include a necessary fund in the fiscal 2012 budget after a two-year freeze. By this decision, the DPJ has broken one of the main promises in its manifesto for the August...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 30, 2011

Films that make you feel it like the first time

My one wish for the New Year would be to wipe my brain clean of all the movies I've ever seen. With a fresh slate, I could sit back and enjoy, say, some new neo-noir without comparing it to "Chinatown." On a bad day I'll think that cinema is most intense at first blush, that the films that imprint themselves...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 30, 2011

Nobeoka Gakuen captures third title of 2011

Mission accomplished. And Nobeoka Gakuen achieved that feat in dominant fashion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 27, 2011

Kamakura: What word for you sums up 2011?

Mattia CimolaiStudent, 23 (Italian)Change. I'm from Italy and this year a lot of things have changed there, like the government and so on.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2011

Quake workers bolstered by training

Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku, staff members of the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Tokyo English Life Line felt they needed to help not only the survivors, but also the volunteers, NGO and welfare workers who supported the hard-hit people in the affected areas.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2011

The greater evil is to expect an Asia-Pacific war

Now that the war in Afghanistan appears to be reaching an end, President Barack Obama has indicated that the United States will shift focus toward the Asia-Pacific.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Misconceptions about college

Takamitsu Sawa's Dec. 19 article, "Motivation for college study," shows us what is wrong with the educational system in Japan. The comments made by a university president that are not based on knowledge or statistics are quite shocking. I started out hoping to learn more about motivation and ended up...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 25, 2011

Fantasy alive in the real world

Fantasies are central to several of the best books published in the last year. These works are not, of course, tried and tired swords-and-lords style epics, but rather books that tackle the imaginings that have made and molded the world in which we live.
JAPAN / Media
Dec 25, 2011

The aftershocks of 2011 will be felt for many years to come

We made history this year. They'll be writing about 2011 a hundred, maybe a thousand years from now, seeing it more clearly than we can. We're too close for a proper perspective. We know what it feels like — not yet what it means.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 25, 2011

It's time to turn over a new leaf in the sheaf of identities we carry with us

Far be it from me to put soot in Santa's chimney, but there is a pet peeve I've just got to get off my chest.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 25, 2011

Close-up on a people's disaster

"Everything Is Broken: Life Inside Burma" is the second book by Emma Larkin, a Burmese-speaking American journalist who gathers her touching stories traveling incognito in Burma (aka Myanmar).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 24, 2011

Volunteers' hugs warm tsunami-hit Ofunato

When the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan, numerous volunteer organizations rushed to help the survivors with basic necessities like food and clothing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 23, 2011

"Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing"

The Tokyo National Museum is marking the 40th anniversary of the normalization of relations between Japan and China with a selection of pieces that "define" their permanent home — the Palace Museum, in Beijing.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 23, 2011

New Japan Pro-Wrestling hits 40

High-impact slams, chokeholds and daredevil feats of athleticism aren't the usual way to celebrate a 40th birthday, but that's how New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) will be spending its big day.

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