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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2014

Shimooka Renjo, back in focus

It's not surprising that the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography has organized a retrospective on Shimooka Renjo, one of the first commercial photographers in Japan. What is surprising is that it didn't happen sooner.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2014

Deep feelings at high altitudes

The photographs, taken by artist Naoya Hatakeyama, hint at both the beauty and dangers of a mountain, as reflected in the shades of light and darkness alongside textures of soft-edged snow and sharply lined rocks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2014

'From Hakubakai to Kofukai: Aspects of Japanese Oil Painting'

Kofukai, translated as "Light and Wind Club," was a group of oil painters established in Japan by seven young artists in 1912. The founding members were initially influenced by the Realist painters of Paris, whose aim in the absence of photography, was to depict the world as truthfully as possible.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 14, 2014

Dahl still drawing on the joys and absurdities of expat life

For over 20 years, Roger Dahl has been making Japan Times readers laugh — and think — with his Opinion Page political cartoons and “Zero Gravity” comic strip, which pokes gentle fun at the foreign experience in this country.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 12, 2014

Super Kabuki 'spells fun'

Just like the many native English-speakers who have difficulty understanding the language and classical references in the works of William Shakespeare, so Japanese people generally feel a sense of distance from kabuki, as though it were a foreign language.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 5, 2014

Nomura's 'Don Quixote' enlists comedy to counter today's real foes

"Whenever I am creating a new play here at Setagaya Public Theatre, I aim for something that's as universal as all those kyōgen (traditional comic theater) or noh classics that are as vivid now as when they were first staged 600 years ago. If it isn't like that, it won't reach an international audience,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2014

'The Closed Small Space, Cosmos: Painting of an Indoor Scene'

Whether focusing on the stage, salons or the dinner table, artists have always found something fascinating to depict while indoors. To many of them, being inside merely opens up different and new universes to depict.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 1, 2014

Women doctors profiled and advances in medical tech revealed; CM of the week: Nissan

It's a big week for physicians on television. First there's the two-hour special "Uman Dokuta, Mitchaku" ("Close Coverage of Women Doctors"; TV Tokyo, Mon., 7:54 p.m.), which reports on the activities of various female doctors working throughout the country. Japan has 300,000 doctors, 20 percent of which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2014

Exhausting the sense of the beautiful

The Aesthetic Movement, a loosely defined tendency in 19th-century European art, operated under the slogan of 'art of art's sake' and believed beauty was the end, not the means.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 26, 2014

Flying high, but not quite buzzing

I have vivid childhood memories of two circuses: Ringling Brothers and Shrine. The latter was a delightfully shabby affair held in an old auditorium where audiences sat on concrete bleachers that were occasionally adorned with tacky plastic chairs. There were lots of animals, and the holding areas outside...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2014

Japanese social issues await 'new dawn'

Japan is on the way up. That much is obvious from improved business confidence, its successful bid for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the early economic successes of "Abenomics," with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proclaiming to the world the arrival of "a new dawn."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2014

Decadent Literature in Twentieth-Century Japan

Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2014

'The Marvelous Real: Contemporary Spanish and Latin American Art from The MUSAC Collection'

Realism usually refers to attempts to represent subjects in a precise and truthful manner. However, here, the "realism" of Spanish art is not about technique — it's about artists finding the best way to portray what they see as "real."
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERPRETATION & TRANSLATION
Feb 17, 2014

Translating Western plays for Japanese audiences

Converting each word automatically from English into Japanese is not what translating plays written in English is all about.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2014

Sure winners in 2020 Tokyo Olympics? Gangsters

As Japan bets on a big economic boost from the 2020 Olympics, it might be dismayed by what's happening right now in Russia. Moody's doubts the Sochi Games will be much of a plus for that economy.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2014

Pork-filled supplementary budget

The Diet's passage last week of a ¥5.465 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2013 is deceptive as it includes items that an expert panel had recommended eliminated from the fiscal 2014 budget last fall because they were deemed wasteful.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2014

Dance, Kobe — dance!

Whatever springs to mind when you think of Kobe, it's unlikely to be dance. Yet, from the fourth floor of a nondescript building in the port city's multiethnic district of Shin-Nagata there shines forth a veritable beacon called Dance Box.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2014

U.K. must not be left behind in the global drugs debate

Britain owes it to its own young people to help countries such as Colombia break the stranglehold of the drug lords once and for all, writes Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2014

'Mogura no Uta: Sennyu Sosakan Reiji (The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji)'

Directors in a profitable rut often feel the urge to try something new, even though the box office tells them to keep making the same old. Sometimes a change of genre can work wonders. After grinding out 48 episodes of the "Tora-san" dramedy series, Yoji Yamada ventured into the feudal past for the first...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2014

Indie designer Kanai carves out niche with analog board games

In an age when every toddler fiddles with electronic game consoles and smartphones, Seiji Kanai says his passion lies in creating analog board games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014

'Salvador Dali and Masters of Modern French Painting from the Collection of Morohashi Museum of Modern Art'

The Morohashi Museum of Modern Art in Fukushima Prefecture houses an impressive collection of European modern masterpieces, including a number of works by Spanish Surrealist genius Salvador Dali.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jan 27, 2014

This week: Kirby's now triple the fun and brands release some monster collectibles

Dealing out some monsters
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 25, 2014

Nuke issue could restore power to the regions

The LDP fears that if Morihiro Hosokawa successfully taps anti-nuclear sentiment among Tokyoites and wins the gubernatorial election, the movement could spread to areas across the country that host nuclear plants.

Longform

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