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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2017

Why it's so difficult to die in peace

The rhetoric about 'end-of-life' care has changed more than the reality in the U.S.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 28, 2017

When too many things 'spark joy,' it's a Wonderwall life

Masamichi Katayama, founder of interior design firm Wonderwall, describes the importance of accumulating and keeping objects and artworks in life — even if you have more than 500 of them.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 6, 2016

The life of Osamu Tezuka, Japan’s ‘god of manga’

Osamu Tezuka, the "god of manga," was born in 1928 in Osaka Prefecture. Though he showed early promise as a young artist and storyteller, no one could have imagined how successful he would become. Tezuka is a hero in Japan, a pioneer on equal standing with the world's other great illustrators and animators,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jul 5, 2015

Life's ups, downs lift manga artist Misako Rocks! to success

Manga artist Misako Rocks! is a challenger and a woman of passion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Dec 6, 2013

Writer inducted into intricacies of country life shares her story

Home for Rebecca Otowa is a 350-year-old farmhouse nestled on the edge of a tiny village in Shiga Prefecture, where generations of her husband's family have lived. It is a lifestyle she has grown to cherish since arriving in rural Kansai as a bride more than 30 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 21, 2013

Six great thinkers' 'lessons'

Life is a career that none of us chose. The rich and credulous hire life coaches to flatter them. Others who crave enlightenment can sign on to the School of Life set up by entrepreneurial egghead Alain de Botton.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2013

Capitalism is destroying southern European life

The popular civilizations of Greece, France, Spain and Portugal appear endangered, because of a pincer movement by tourism and the north's economic doctrines.
LIFE
Jul 13, 2013

Gender bending in Japan

Do our genitals define us? Increasingly, they do not. Is sexuality more complicated than male/female? Increasingly, it is.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 1, 2012

New tragedy brings to life others still painfully unresolved from long ago

On March 11, I went to Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, to deliver an address at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the awful tsunami it caused, which inflicted terrible destruction and loss of life along some 400 km of the Tohoku region's Pacific coast.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 23, 2010

Big changes from life's small lessons

Naotaka Aoki, a black belt in tae kwon do, stands tall among his students. A few days later, he stands at ease while leading 160 service members from the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base on a recent tour of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Fluent in English and Japanese, he laughs quickly in every language.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 12, 2009

Drifting through life; in a good way

When an American journalist, remarking on Yoshihiro Tatsumi's growing popularity in the United States, suggested that the manga master must be similarly well-known in his own country, Tatsumi laughed and explained that there are not, at present, any venues in Japan willing to publish his work. That being...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 7, 2008

A bend in time, disengagement and the life of the mind

BIRNBAUM: A Novel of Inner Space, by Michael Hoffman. Printed Matter Press, 2008, 321 pp., ¥2,000 (paper) In writing about the process involved in the creation of this novel, Michael Hoffman observed that "Often as I wrote, I had no idea where this was going." This sounds a little like the literary...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 22, 2008

A firm grip on life by the handlebars

"Enjoy life and laugh," says cyclist Mio Yamasaki when asked her motto for living. "No, wait," she interrupts, as she ponders the question further. "Make other people laugh. This is the happiest way to live your life."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 9, 2008

Life and left-handed meteorites

I wonder if Empress Gensho, who ruled Japan for nine years and died in 748, had something against left-handed people.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2007

Dai-ichi Mutual Life to go public in 2010

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co., one of Japan's leading life insurers, is planning to go public in early fiscal 2010, the company said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 20, 2007

Butoh flowers of life and decay

There is a muscular eloquence to Junichi Kakizaki's constructions. He describes himself as a floral artist — not an ikebana (flower arrangement) master — and has won awards for his interpretation of the traditional Japanese art form. He considers his works to be contemporary art — either installations...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 1, 2007

Kotaro Sawaki: Writer on the road of life

Kotaro Sawaki is one of the most popular nonfiction writers in Japan. He made his name with "Shinya Tokkyu (Midnight Express)," a reportage of a yearlong overland trip through Asia and Europe he took when he was in his mid-20s. Those stories — whose title refers to a euphemism for "prison break" used...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 2, 2006

A long life on the island

Reaching 100 has long fascinated societies. The century mark is regarded as an almost supernatural seal of hardiness and good health.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 2, 2005

Goya brought to life in flamenco

La Yoko, as she is known by those in the flamenco world, is the woman responsible for not only bringing this ethnic gypsy-rooted form of dance into Japan but also establishing the first flamenco dance company on this far eastern island 36 years ago. In 1959, Yoko Komatsubara, after having seen the spectacular...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 9, 2005

Feminist life actually: singing in the pain of Japan

The word "feminist" has been stripped of the luster it had back in the 1970s, and few Japanese women are more aware of this than Michiko Kasahara. Widely regarded as one of Japan's leading feminist curators, Kasahara was responsible for groundbreaking exhibitions such as "Gender: Beyond Memory" at the...
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2004

Nippon Life cedes lead to AFLAC

Nippon Life Insurance Co. had lost its No. 1 position in the individual life insurance market by the end of September for the first time in the postwar period, industry officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2003

Life insurer chief offers stock tip to BOJ

As the Bank of Japan delves into unconventional policies, it should consider buying bank stocks from life insurers and other large bank stakeholders, the chairman of the Life Insurance Association of Japan said Friday.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan