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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 3, 2011

The busy lives of Japan's super furry creatures

When first-time visitors arrive in Japan, a few things they may notice right off the bat include the juxtaposition of the high-tech and the ancient, the unfailing politeness of locals, and a curious fixation with cuteness — to wit, all the cute mascots that promote regions, historic sites, local specialties...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 26, 2011

Committed to 'making it work' as foreign wife

Forty-five years spent living in the Kobe area as the American wife of a Japanese businessman must change a person. Yet Winnie Inui, 68, still welcomes visitors to her suburban home in Ashiya, Hyodo Prefecture, with a blanket of felicitous concern ("Enough tea, dear?") and a flair for storytelling that...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Feb 25, 2011

Techno Shugei weaves craft into circuitry

Homespun crafts and ingenuity meet DIY electronics and kawaii geekery in techno shugei.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2011

'Remote Control': Big Brother is watching you

If you want an all-action, well-written and intelligent novel to read in 2011, then look no further than this excellent conspiracy-theory thriller.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 18, 2011

Art under a Roppongi roof

Tokyo is headed into "art season" with the Tokyo Frontline and G-tokyo art fairs preparing to start. Along with those events, a new gallery complex will open its doors to art lovers on Feb. 18.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2011

The inequality wild card

DAVOS, Switzerland — As the dramatic events in North Africa continue to unfold, many observers outside the Arab world smugly tell themselves that it is all about corruption and political repression. But high unemployment, glaring inequality, and soaring prices for basic commodities are also a huge...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 9, 2011

Shut sumo down for the rest of 2011, put its future in private hands

Where will it all end?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 3, 2011

Running fever kicks in as Tokyo prepares for its annual marathon

The first Tokyo Marathon took place in February 2007 and attracted 30,870 participants, despite the dismal weather. Though it has only a short history, the event has been snowballing in popularity every year to become one of the most oversubscribed marathons in the world.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CAREER-SEARCH CRISIS
Jan 28, 2011

Flawed recruiting system sparks some to fight back

When it comes to job hunting in Japan, there is something called a "naitei," an informal promise of employment given to students who pass the applicant screening, written tests and mind-crunching interviews.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 27, 2011

Champion itasha drivers Rei and Cloud

Rei Densetsu and his sister Cloud are champion itasha (decorated car) drivers. At the 2010 Fuji Speedway itasha event, where Japan's best-decorated cars are judged on their designs, Cloud won the Impact Prize and Rei received the Special Award for their outrageously decked-out vehicles. The term "itasha"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2011

Universal meanings of a poet's personal grief

Apart from glitzy musicals and kabuki, most theatrical stagings in Japan finish their run after a couple of weeks or even a few days. With no long-run system as the norm, unlike Broadway or the West End, by the time a buzz has got around that something is good, it will almost always have closed or be...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 1, 2011

Wheelchair pioneer out to change public perceptions

"You can't keep a good man down" is the darkly applicable phrase that springs to mind when listening to Yasuhiro "Mark" Yamazaki. The energy, conviction, sense of mission and utter absence of self-pity in this soft-spoken man is humbling.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 30, 2010

Mad knitters take to Tokyo's streets

This November, people strolling through a park in Ebisu, Tokyo, were baffled: Several benches there had been covered with colorful knitwear, many wildly curling around the wooden poles of backrests and armrests. Next to the benches, more wondrous knitted entities were hanging from the branches of a tree....
JAPAN / Media
Dec 26, 2010

Somehow we survived a very explosive 2010

In April, much of the world ground to a halt.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2010

Student group advocates joint child-rearing

Recent years have seen an increase in fathers who try to share in the raising of their children — an activity that even university students are starting to encourage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 25, 2010

Happily lost in the 'empire of signs'

Signs and symbols play an ever-growing role in our increasingly complex society. In this respect, Japan — the "empire of signs," as French semiologist Roland Barthes called it back in 1970 — strikes and confounds the foreign visitor with a vast array of alphabets, shapes and designs.
Events
Dec 19, 2010

KANSAI: Who & What

Kyocera lighting up Kyoto headquarters
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 19, 2010

The explosion of life: demise

Second of two parts
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2010

Japanese beatboxer Afra causes a scene

The United States can point to Rahzel, Scratch (both formerly of The Roots) and reggae-fusion artist Matisyahu as examples of human beatboxers who have experienced mainstream success. Britain has Killa Kella and Shlomo, the latter of whom, as well as having contributed to Bjork's 2004 album "Medulla,"...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2010

Shock-rock act Dir En Grey snub cartoons for cred

It's no secret that, in recent years, certain styles of Japanese music have benefited massively from a surge of interest in anime and manga in the West. J-pop acts such as Puffy and AKB48 and visual-kei artists including Miyavi and L'Arc-En-Ciel have enjoyed exposure where before there was none. That's...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 10, 2010

Fukuoka harbors hotbed of new talent

Despite its far westerly location (being closer to Seoul than it is to Tokyo), the Kyushu city of Fukuoka has for a long time been one of the musical powerhouses of Japan.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2010

Erotic destiny, palace intrigue

Based on apparent "past-life memories," this historical novel by shamanic witch, priestess and time-traveler Cerridwen Fallingstar takes place in 12th- century Japan in the period leading up to the Genpei War between the Taira (Heike) and the Minamoto (Genji) clans.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 5, 2010

Matsumoto Koshiro IX: A lifetime of kabuki

"Koraiya!" shouts someone in the audience, acclaiming the actor center stage. Feeding off the adulation, he launches into his next line. "What a useless fellow you are," he yells, berating the servant at his side. "You shall pay dearly!"
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2010

Midterm losses hobble Obama on a global scale

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's political fortunes suffered a devastating blow at the election polls Nov. 2. Since then, whether on domestic policy or in the international arena, nations as well as American politicians have raised their price for cooperating with him.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 26, 2010

Yokohama festival aims to revive the spirit of butoh legend Ohno

BankArt 1929 commemorates butoh dance legend Kazuo Ohno at a festival that continues through Dec. 12. Ohno passed away in June at the age of 103.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2010

The 'weird' world of techno's Ishino

"Salarymen are fantastic," says DJ and producer Takkyu Ishino. "If there weren't so many of them doing their thing, then people like me would not be able to exist. If more people acted like me (outside the norm), then I wouldn't have had the life that I've had."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Nov 25, 2010

Tokyo Design Week roundup

Three weeks ago, Tokyo invited designers from all over the world to show their work at three major design events — Tokyo Designers Week, DesignTide and Design Touch — as well as at a host of other exhibitions scattered across the city. Here are some of our product picks from those shows.

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.