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Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2015
Jan 21, 2015

Spreading culture through cuisine

"One of the easiest and most effective ways to understand a culture is through its food," said Yoshiko Nishihama, owner of Zurich's Nishi Shop, a store specializing in Japanese imports and an affiliated company of Japan Restaurant Bimi in Zurich. "That's why, as representatives of Japan, we take our...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 16, 2014

A slice less ordinary: the 'cheese guy' of Okinawa

Briton sells cheese-eating culture to Okinawa and a taste of the Ryukyus to the rest of Japan as a retirement hobby morphs into a business.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 8, 2014

Zen and Japanese Culture

This is one of those books you read to the last page without ever finishing; you keep going back for more — and finding it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AT A GLANCE
Aug 3, 2014

Tokyo's storied Nihonbashi raises profile to promote historical role

The Nihonbashi district prospered as Japan's financial and trade center after shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu moved the capital to Edo, the old name for Tokyo, in the early 17th century.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jul 30, 2014

Japan's culture of overtime thwarts Abe's plans for more working moms

Hiroko Yano, who's worked 20 years at the same company, was recently told she could become a manager. The mother of three, who puts in an average of two hours of overtime a day, rejected the idea, saying she doesn't want to be stuck in the office until midnight like the other managers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 21, 2014

Kokusai Dori: Getting bitten by Okinawan Culture

Kokusai Dori is the name of a 2 km stretch of shops, hotels, bars and restaurants which cuts through the heart of downtown Naha, the largest city in Okinawa. The street's name in English is International Road, supposedly named after the Ernie Pyle's now-closed International Theater, which was a popular...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 15, 2014

Culture and nature vie over ancient hinoki

If you're looking for a fine piece of wood, you'd be hard put to improve on a slab of hinoki (Hinoki cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa) from the Kiso Valley straddling Nagano and Gifu prefectures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2014

'Changes in Lifestyle: Showa Era Food and Kitchens'

Every year, the Akashi City Museum of Culture presents a "Changes of Lifestyle" exhibition showcasing aspects of life during the Showa Era (1926-1989). Designed to teach children and teenagers about recent history as well as help them visualize the life of their parents, grandparents or even great grandparents,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 16, 2013

Kawaii!! Japan's Culture of Cute

Kawaii!! Japan's Culture of Cute; Manami Okazaki & Geoff Johnson; PRESTEL
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Oct 31, 2013

History repeats itself in Tokyo's Asakusa area

Asakusa is a busy but attractive area of Tokyo that still retains much of its historical charm. Legend has it that, in the year 628, two fishermen found a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon mysteriously floating in the Sumida River. The chief of the village enshrined the statue in what is now Sensoji Temple,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 12, 2013

Pynchon's multigenre novel loses itself in glib in-jokes and pop-culture references

Thomas Pynchon's new novel prompts a question relevant to him and to all contemporary artists, from writers to directors to choreographers: If the present day is atomized, paranoid, infantile, obsessive, can a work of art capture this without taking on these attributes itself?
Events / Events In Tokyo
Sep 26, 2013

Indian festival to tout culture and tradition

In today's world, cultural exchange has become increasingly important — and fun.
CULTURE / Books
May 5, 2013

Exploring a world of all things cute and the people who buy them

'Hello, Cutie!' is a cute book about cute things and the (sometimes cute) people who create those things.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 1, 2013

Mortgage fraud culture has its walk of the stars

A few criminal convictions have sent a powerful signal in the fight against insider trading. The stars of wider-scale bank mortgage fraud have walked.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

The road to a volunteer culture

Regarding the May 18 editorial "Helping people help NPOs": With more companies concerned about corporate social responsibility, this is a great time to start encouraging companies to cooperate with the operations of nongovernmental organizations. I just came back from Japan after living there through...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 1, 2012

Mayumi Kagita: A fusion of cultures revealed in dance

On Nov. 19, the Pit hall of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in Shibuya, was filled with hundreds of eager theater-goers. They had come to see a performance of "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku" ("The Women-Killer and the Hell of Oil"), a play written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) — Japan's greatest...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 13, 2011

When the 'City of Water' was a font of culture

From the Byzantine times in the 9th century, Venice was a strategic trading center straddling Europe and the East. Venetian merchants traded wool and silk textiles for spices, grains and other commodities from Asia, making the city — and the Venetian Republic of which it was the center — one of the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2011

Nuclear meltdowns and Japanese culture

Japanese engineers have a much deserved reputation for efficiency. How else could they have created a car industry that could defeat the U.S industry on its home ground? But the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant suggests a partial rethink is needed. When it comes to nuclear affairs, maybe...
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 13, 2011

Japan as a rice culture? Not so quick, says anthropologist

What could be more Japanese than rice? Without the pearly white grain there would be no mochi (rice cakes) at New Year's or sake at shrines, no sushi, no lunchtime onigiri (rice balls), no verdant paddies to mark summer in the countryside.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 11, 2010

Giving thanks for Ainu culture

Ainu culture will be celebrated in Yokohama this weekend to commemorate June 6, 2008, the date when Japan's government acknowledged the Ainu as indigenous people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Mar 2, 2010

Openness is key, bookseller says

Alastair Lamond, a 47-year-old Briton, is like many English-speaking foreigners. He began working in Japan as a teacher of his native tongue.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 29, 2009

Stray observations on booming pet culture

Pets are big business these days. Cat and dog cafes, animal accessory shops, dog hotels and even aesthetic salons for animals are easy to find. On weekends, in the large park near my house, I see people walking what appear to be entrants in a pedigree dog competition: dachshunds in mini-sweaters promenade...

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