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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 16, 2013

Tales of wonder from Tohoku's deep past

The first time most people outside Japan heard about the country's northern Tohoku region was when it was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, leaving more than 15,000 dead and a million buildings damaged or destroyed. But to those familiar with Japan, Tohoku has long been...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 1, 2013

Writer, translator, yoga instructor finds inspiration in 'the voices that history silences'

Leza Lowitz has shared the worlds of kamikaze pilots and their last letters to their families, published lesbian writings by contemporary Japanese poets, specifically sought out Ainu writers, and journeyed into the mind of Japan's foremost modernist poet, Nobuo Ayukawa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2013

'Late Mizoguchi'

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 25, 2013

Nothing shouts 'Japan!' like a housewife, her Pomeranian and a fish

Halloween is almost here,' he tells me — 'he' being a friend with a passion for holidays — 'and I need a costume! Something that shouts 'Japan!' Any ideas
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

The Little Book of Japan

Covering a broad range of topics for the first time visitor, yet comprehensive enough for the truly Japan-obsessed, "The Little Book of Japan" is certainly not small in scope. Sectioned into four chapters — Cultural Icons, Traditions, Places and Spiritual Life — this book includes 44 essays from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 11, 2013

Camera Grandma's photos document Gifu village's demise

Izu Photo Museum in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, is exhibiting the work of late amateur photographer Tazuko Masuyama on the Tokuyama Dam in Gifu Prefecture, where a small village vanished under the waters of a reservoir decades ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2013

Diplomats bag 'cool' photo prizes

Ciaran Chestnutt, first secretary of the Australian Embassy, on Thursday won the Prince Takamado Memorial Prize while Mayssa Hamada from the Egyptian Embassy received the Grand Prize in this year's photo contest featuring the works of diplomats posted in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 3, 2013

Ebizo rethinks kabuki's strategy

In the glitzy and gossipy world of Japanese celebrity, hardly a week goes by without revelations being made about — or made by — Ichikawa Ebizo XI.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 15, 2013

Nadeshiko — adorable till they die

"France for food, Japan for wives." That was basically the conclusion made by French journalist/novelist Pierre Loti, who dropped by our shores in 1885 and wrote a book about his stay called "Madame Chrysantheme." Loti hadn't exactly caught the Japan bug — he was critical of many facets of Japanese...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 5, 2013

Manga fans to gather in Kyoto for annual fair

Kyoto is well-known for temples, geisha and other pieces of Japan's past. This weekend, though, the city will be abuzz with the country's present treasured artifacts.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Aug 28, 2013

Twenty years ago, Cornelius releases the track that defined Shibuya-kei

The song "The Sun is My Enemy," released 20 years ago on Sept. 1, 1993, may have only reached No. 15 on the Japanese singles charts, but its importance lingers.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Aug 17, 2013

Sumida River swimmers, brides for Manchoukuo, driving chaos, PM's Recruit incident remarks

'O Joy! Come in and splash me!' The exhilarating shouts of boys and girls are heard all along the Sumida River, which has been turned into a continuous swimming pool by the young men and women of Tokyo, driven out of doors and into the water by the heat.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 9, 2013

Sifting through the rubble of Hashimoto's political ambitions

In 1995, the late University of Illinois professor David G. Goodman observed that when serious disagreements arise between Japanese people and foreigners, the former invariably internalize the debate among themselves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 21, 2013

Views of Japan through Western films

Most readers encountering a book called 'Under Foreign Eyes: Western Cinematic Adaptations of Postwar Japan' will expect it to contain an interesting claim or claims about these Western representations of Japan, and that the claim or claims will be buttressed by sophisticated analysis of the films.
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

Takarazuka hits discordant note

I read Mark Buckton's April 14 Timeout feature article, "Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100," and thought, "Maybe I need to get out more."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 3, 2013

'A person and a possession': Japanese women in history

SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover)
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 1, 2013

Den: Modern Japanese with a wry twist

Japanese cuisine at its loftiest is elegant and profound. It can be taut as a tea ceremony or exquisite as a furisode kimono. But inventive, irreverent? Only at Den.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 24, 2013

Osaka: Japan's latterday second city forever breaks the national mold

They're funny, finicky and feisty, not to mention being full of wicked mischief, with their own way of talking, too. Outside of Japan, think of Liverpool, not London; or Munich, not Berlin; or Mumbai, not Delhi. I'm talking about the people of Osaka.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 14, 2013

Pianist Yazawa looks to the past to find security in the future

Pianist Tomoko Yazawa always thinks about her music with the future in mind. However, for her latest album, "Playing in the Dark," she made a rare diversion into the past — specifically, France at the end of the 19th century.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Noted scholar Kyoko Iriye Selden dies in U.S.

Kyoko Iriye Selden, a scholar and teacher at Cornell University, died in Ithaca, New York, on Sunday at the age of 76 after contracting pneumonia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 4, 2013

Misogura Tamayura: Welcome the new year with a taste of tradition

Tradition rules at this time of year, and few parts of Tokyo are more traditional than the grid of narrow streets to the south of Ueno's Shinobazu Pond. Although many of the buildings in this former geisha district have seen much better days, there are still gems to be found — and Misogura Tamayura...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 29, 2012

Textile scholar advocates sustainable fashion

Yoshiko Wada, textile artist and scholar, believes the word "sustainable" in foods and fashion shares the same philosophical taste. "Both are a holistic approach, about health, environment, and the community that supports it. We must recapture and rethink how we are going to sustain our Earth and society,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 18, 2012

Yoshiwara busts send message: 'Keep it clean'

On May 24, 1956, the Diet voted Japan's anti-prostitution statute into law, effective from April 1, 1957; but enforcement was postponed a year to give sex workers time to seek new livelihoods.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 11, 2012

Heartening new film will add to rising dementia awareness in Japan

"My mother having dementia turned into a chance for us to relate to each other again and even have fun in each other's company."
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2012

Special screenings and other spinoffs at TIFF

The Special Screenings section at Tokyo International Film Festival is largely made up of films that will soon be opening in Japan anyway, but there are still a few hot tickets this year. With "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away," TIFF has scored the world premiere of this 3-D spectacle featuring the much-loved...
Japan Times
CARTOONS / ZERO GRAVITY
Oct 7, 2012

Geisha Reception

Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2012

Home is always where the heart is

Contemporary artists are a product of a globally minded world. While artists of past ages have had clear goals of making it in London, Paris or New York, artists of the 21st century seek stimulation from any number of locations across the planet. All they need is a passport, a place to stay, and ideally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2012

From Comme des Garcons to Somarta, Japanese fashion excels at weaving past, present and future

In 1981, while Western designers focused on shoulder-padded power suits, bright colors, sharp stiletto heels and statement jewelry, Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo sent their models down the runway in defiant black, voluminously draped garments, accessorized with nothing but flat shoes....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 14, 2012

Why we came to Japan — a different realm

"Why did you come to Japan?" We've all been asked this question. I still can't give a good answer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jun 27, 2012

Today’s J-blip: Perfume daifuku

A small traditional sweet shop in Nippori offers updated, flavorful renditions of the Japanese sweet daifuku.

Longform

Tour guide and history buff Rory Dent left his job at a U.K.-based tour operator to move to Japan and start his own business.
Guiding Japan through the challenges of overtourism