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COMMENTARY
May 30, 2004

Taming the culture of blame

LONDON -- An independent judiciary has long been taken for granted in Britain. It has been regarded down the ages as one of the majestic bastions of British liberties and a necessary pillar of the free democratic state.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 12, 2004

Leicester players perpetuate England's drink culture

LONDON -- If somebody offered you a job which paid £30,000 a week and one of the stipulations was that you had to give up alcohol for a certain period of time, would it be too much of an imposition on your freedom?
COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2004

China creeps toward a culture of openness

HONG KONG -- Last month, in a small but significant move toward greater openness and transparency, China for the first time made available to the public a portion of materials from its diplomatic archives for the period between the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 and 1955.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Aug 14, 2003

Manga culture ignites craze in media markets overseas

American boys can now read popular Japanese manga like "One Piece" in an English-language "Shonen Jump" and German girls can read girl's manga in the German-language magazine "Daisuki." Is this a passing fad or the start of a full-scale manga invasion?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003

Comic culture is serious business

Can anyone be in this country a week and not notice manga -- Japan's unique contribution to comics?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Mar 23, 2003

Some culture with your coffee?

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. -- As orderly creatures, Japanese generally have a fondness for numbers and happily assimilate the world in neat numerical packages. Of these, the triad has always beguiled. Japan has its Three Most Beautiful Landscapes, its Three Imperial Regalia, its Three Plants of Good Fortune...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2003

Debts, loan sharks and culture of shame a recipe for suicide

Yuki Saito should have known something was wrong when his dad quietly walked into their steaming home tub that night -- they hadn't taken a bath together in years, although it is the Japanese custom to do so.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 8, 2002

Culture shock, elusive stats, hairy insurance

Culture shock Phew. Here I am by the skin of my teeth, just back from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Victoria, where touching base with non-Japanese friends met here was sobering to say the least.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2001

Extremism fills intellectual void?

The profiles of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States remind scholar Hiromi Shimada of senior Aum Shinrikyo members.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 1999

Latino culture bursts onto scene

Fans of Latin American culture, especially salsa dancing, will definitely not want to miss Isla de Salsa '99, which takes place in Fukuoka Aug. 22.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2023

Worried about backdoor layoffs? Try career cushioning

Employees have a new vocabulary to talk about workplace gripes, and they’re using it to reevaluate assumptions about work and its role in their lives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 16, 2023

In Mikhail Shishkin’s Russia, 'hate is a disease, culture is the treatment'

The Russian author's book provides a sweep through the nooks and crannies of Russian history, while delivering a forceful defense of literature as the weapon to overcome past wrongs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 19, 2023

Kiwi cafe culture goes down smooth at Iki’s coffeehouses

In the unassuming Kiyosumi Shirakawa neighborhood, two coffeeshops pride themselves on recreating the experience of a morning out at an Auckland or Christchurch cafe.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2023

Kyoto calling: Ancient capital prepares to be center of Japanese culture again

The relocation of the Cultural Affairs Agency has raised strong hopes in Kyoto that the move will give the city a higher profile and status.
Tokyo Gendai is described by fair organizers Art Assembly as Tokyo Bay’s first international contemporary art fair in 30 years.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 22, 2023

Can a new art fair finally put Tokyo on the map?

Tokyo Gendai puts on a good event but still needs to change Japanese opinions on contemporary art.
On July 17, Jiyugaoka in western Tokyo held its summer Bon Odori Festival for the first time in four years. While the pandemic spelled the end of the road for some longstanding local events, others weathered the storm.
CULTURE / Longform
Jul 24, 2023

Fate of the fete: Japan’s matsuri fight to survive

While COVID-19 was the final nail in the coffin for many of the country's smaller festivals, others have clung on and are making a determined comeback this year.
Investigators involved in the case shed light on one of Japan’s biggest crime stories of the 2000s in “Tokyo Police Files: The Lucie Blackman Case.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2023

‘Tokyo Police Files: The Lucie Blackman Case’: Notorious crime story gets slick Netflix treatment

The detectives are the stars in the Japan-only version of Netflix’s true-crime documentary about a missing-person investigation that captured the nation’s attention.
Cameron Lew, the 27-year-old behind the California-based music project Ginger Root, crafted a detailed city-pop-inspired universe with a 1980s idol storyline for last year’s “Nisemono” album.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2023

Ginger Root's modern spin on Showa nostalgia

The California-based project is set to bring its distinct interpretation of city pop to Fuji Rock Festival this weekend.
Director Dean Johnson wanted to strip back the staging of “Once – In Concert” in a way that honored the film. The production had a limited run at the London Palladium earlier this year and Johnson notes the Tokyu Orb Theater has a similar set up.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 31, 2023

'Once' speaks the universal languages of music and love

Award-winning Irish theatrical production brings its dry wit and catchy songs to Tokyo for a midsummer musical experience.
The Gacha Pop playlist on Spotify offers a wonderfully scattered collection of J-pop chart-toppers, long-running favorites and next-generation names, reflecting the global ambitions of homegrown artists.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Aug 11, 2023

The summer of Gacha Pop

Spotify’s curated playlist encapsulates J-pop’s diverse range, but more than that, it shows how Japanese music travels in the world today.
The wife of an author turns into a forest after a fight with her husband and growing tired of serving as the idealized and sexualized subject of his novels in Maru Ayase's "The Forest Brims Over."
CULTURE / Books
Aug 12, 2023

Maru Ayase takes a hard look at Japanese misogyny in 'The Forest Brims Over'

Translated by Haydn Trowell, author Maru Ayase takes the reader into a surreal world to deal with a problematic issue.
Rappers Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa perform during the Hip Hop 50 Live concert, marking the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop, at Yankee Stadium in New York City on Friday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 13, 2023

Hip-hop stars helm marathon birthday party

Thousands of people partied deep into the night Friday as part of an all-star Bronx bash celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, featuring trailblazers including Run-DMC, Nas, Lauryn Hill and Snoop Dogg.
Materials derived from cabbage (left), iyokan (center) and onion by Tokyo-based startup Fabula, which is working to develop new materials that can replace concrete.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Aug 27, 2023

Japan’s scrap-and-rebuild culture faces an environmental reckoning

The nation's tendency toward new construction — rather than renovation — is coming under renewed scrutiny amid concerns over sustainability.
Korean writer-director Kim Sung Hwan's "Iron Mask" took one of the two top awards at this year's Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) in South Korea.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 30, 2023

Does South Korea now have the edge over Japan when it comes to film?

While Korean cinema tackles universal topics, Japanese studios are content to navel-gaze.
Veteran broadcaster and DJ Peter Barakan has been a fixture in Japanese music media for decades. He is now in his third year as curator and namesake of Peter Barakan’s Music Film Festival, which kicks off in Tokyo today.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2023

Peter Barakan's Music Film Festival celebrates cinema and song

The three-week event kicks off its third edition with 31 films including documentaries, concert films and narrative films centered on music.
An installation view of "Ruth Asawa Through Line" at the Whitney Museum in New York shows one of her signature suspended sculptures, a study in form, air and shadow.
CULTURE
Sep 21, 2023

Ruth Asawa: Solid form meets thin air

The Japanese American sculptor helped erase boundaries between art, craft and the decorative arts. A New York show explores her luminous connections.
Sosuke Ikematsu plays two pianists — or is it just one? — pursuing dreams of becoming a jazz musician in late-1980s Tokyo in “Between the White and Black Keys.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2023

'Between the White and Black Keys': Offbeat biopic will have you seeing double

Masanori Tominaga’s free-spirited film about jazz pianist Hiroshi Minami captures the vibe of 1980s Tokyo nightlife but remains mostly on the surface.
Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, first came to Japan in 1990 as the bass player in Beats International. He says he shares a similar sense of silliness with Japanese people, and that is part of what keeps drawing him back to the country.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2023

Fatboy Slim: 'Let's just be stupid for one night'

The DJ shares his love of soccer and silliness with fans during his two-city Japan tour.
“The Burden of the Past” is based on the real-life experiences of ex-cons and the editorial team of a magazine that supports former prisoners in finding jobs and reentering society.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2023

'The Burden of the Past' addresses bleak reality of ex-cons with some hope

Atsushi Funahashi’s film is grounded in the director’s own research about the hurdles former prisoners face when attempting to rejoin society.
A young university grad (Kana Kita, right) is introduced to the world of "shunga" erotic art by an older academic (Seiyo Uchino) in “Picture of Spring.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2023

‘Picture of Spring’: Smart, silly and lots of fun

Akihiko Shiota’s film about the world of Japanese erotic art feels like a crash course in “shunga” before veering into playfully risque territory.

Longform

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