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JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 31, 2011

Quake coverage mitigates losses from March 11

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami destroyed or swept away thousands of homes on March 11, earthquake insurance has become a hot topic.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 17, 2011

In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery

The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 12, 2011

Tomioka Silk Mill ranks as Meiji Era industrial gem

In his youth, Shinji Takahashi was a featherweight boxer. Today, working with his two younger brothers in a family legal practice based in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, he is a heavyweight lawyer and committed activist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2010

The swinging trends of modern Japanese painting

"Japanese Art 1950-2010" at the National Museum of Art, Osaka is a historical show by virtue of the span of time it covers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2010

Looking beyond art's boundaries

Art, it is often said, is a lens through which to see the world differently. "Differently" could mean more intensely, or more clearly, or in a new and unfamiliar way. This inevitably requires a separation between the artwork and the world. Art so understood thus sets up territories and borders, the lines...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2010

Harue Koga: The art of assimilating Western styles

The curse of early Western-style Japanese painters is the charge of derivativeness. Simply because they embraced foreign artistic idioms rather than their own indigenous artistic traditions, it is easy to dismiss them as mere copyists, "regurgitating" whatever it was they saw in the latest imported art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 13, 2010

Man Ray: The bright ideas of an original

"Unconcerned but Not Indifferent" reads the gravestone epitaph of American-born artist Man Ray, who was buried in his adopted hometown, Montparnasse, Paris. The same phrase is used for the title of an exhibition of the enigmatic artist now showing at the National Art Center, Tokyo. It can be applied...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 20, 2010

Immigration procedures face huge shakeup

As of July 1, there are big changes afoot for the laws governing foreign residency in Japan. Not since 1990, when the categories of residence increased from 18 to 27, has the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Bureau undergone such a wholesale reordering of its operations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 16, 2010

The talented women of Kyoto

"Women Artists of Kyoto: Bearing Burdens / Burdens Born" is ostensibly about the classification of female artists since the late 19th century. The term "keishu-gaka" refers to accomplished women artists, "joryu-gaka" to post-World War II artists who created trends among male colleagues and "josei-gaka"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 9, 2010

Komura Settai finds a new modern audience

It is often difficult to fathom how an artist so popular in his own time slides into oblivion in subsequent generations. 2010 has been a good year for one such artist, Komura Settai (1887-1940), who in his time was a prolific creator, producing illustrations, woodblock prints and stage designs. His recent...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
May 27, 2010

Smart, seasonal and celebratory

Nature is served
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 31, 2010

Onkyo notebook offers up new DIY features

Made to order: Onkyo's latest notebook computer, the DR511, is a built-to-order creation that offers something different. Onkyo highlights its own heritage with the option of an FM/AM tuner, an almost unheard of feature. The other interesting feature, which comes as a standard inclusion, is an actual...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 23, 2010

Higher education: opening up or closing in?

First in a two-part series
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 16, 2010

Help for Haiti from half a world away

A plain black bow adorns the coat of arms on the door of the Haitian Embassy in Tokyo, a poignant reminder to visitors of the hundreds of thousands who have died in the country since the devastating earthquake of Jan 12. It is a small gesture that belies the scale of the destruction wrought by the quake:...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2010

Blooming successes flower in artwork

East Asian flower-and-bird painting emerged as a genre in China around the 8th century and the tradition has survived through to the present. Its resonances for modern and contemporary Japanese artists are currently the theme of two very different exhibitions: "By the Water-lily Pond" at the Asahi Beer...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

Secrets and lies

Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 30, 2009

CJK recruits Android for new Camangi Webstation tablet

Going tablet: Android is Google's shot at hitting Microsoft where it hurts — mobile devices. Windows might still dominate PC operating systems, but it has never duplicated this overwhelming presence on the small screens of mobile phones, PDAs and the like. So far, Android has shaken things up by becoming...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 25, 2009

Hallods puts definition on its screen; Maxell turns volume up

Screen saver: Putting genuine high definition in portable-media players is a bit like trying to craft the perfect diamond. If you pull off the act it looks brilliant, but the difference between it and the normal article is nearly impossible for laypeople to actually see. Despite doubts over whether the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 11, 2009

Sony-Ericsson phone ups its appeal; Bluedot treats the ladies

Going mobile: Sony, in the guise of its partnership with Swedish maker Ericsson, is combining the much-touted Android phone platform from Google with its traditional feature-rich offerings in the form of the Xperia X10. Sporting a larger than normal 4-inch, TFT-capacitive touch screen, the candybar-style...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 27, 2009

Immigration showing signs of ninjo

Last month, I was asked to take part in a public panel discussion on the recently released Harrison Ford blockbuster "Crossing Over." In the film, Ford plays an L.A. Immigration and Customs officer with a conscience, increasingly disturbed by the human consequences of his job.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 9, 2009

Kobe to hold Scottish games, international-themed charity event

This year's Kobe Global Charity Festival promises a day of fun and international cultural exchange.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2009

Kawasaki's Nihon Minkaen: Traditional folklore in a natural setting

In an article last May 10 introducing the many attractions of Tokyo's neighbor Kawasaki, this writer made a brief reference to the Nihon Minkaen (The Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum) in Tama Ward.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2009

Kawasaki's Nihon Minkaen: Traditional folklore in a natural setting

In an article last May 10 introducing the many attractions of Tokyo's neighbor Kawasaki, this writer made a brief reference to the Nihon Minkaen (The Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum) in Tama Ward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

Art triennial helps revitalize rural Niigata

Visiting Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 is a strange and wonderful journey. A satoyama (mountain homeland) adventure replete with rice paddies brimming with bright green shoots, refurbished abandoned houses and closed-down elementary schools, it features 370 contemporary artworks by little-known and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 28, 2009

New law: no dues, no visa

In your wallet or somewhere at home, do you have a blue or pink card showing that you are enrolled in one of Japan's national health and pension programs? If not, and if you are thinking of extending your stay here, you may want to think about a recent revision to visa requirements for foreign residents....
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 1, 2009

Resilient fax machines, tinier computers, USBs

Think you know small?: Before netbooks, all the buzz was about the UMPC, or ultra mobile PC. These devices are smaller than netbooks, with 7-inch screens. They also outdo their more celebrated compatriots for innovation, as UMPCs come with touch screens. Despite the bid to do something different, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 17, 2009

Canucks abroad fret over new curbs on citizenship

Citizenship can mean the difference between "belonging" and being just a visitor. Some people endure years of waiting in line and filing applications in a bid to change citizenship; others, by virtue of their birthplace and familial ties, begin their lives with the opportunity to be citizens of two or...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 13, 2009

Going where the grass is bluer

It's a story you could write a song about. It's sometime in the 1960s or '70s. A teenager in Tokyo slips a borrowed cassette into a player and is transfixed by what he hears: the sound of guitars, banjos and mandolins; the call of mountains far, far away. He saves his money and flies to the United States,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 4, 2009

Top technology comes in small packages

Touch and go: Asus virtually created the burgeoning market for netbook computers with its groundbreaking Eee PC lineup. Whether it can give the demand for touch-screen desktop machines the same sort of boost is open for debate. But the Taiwanese maker is giving it a shot with its Eee Top 1602, due out...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2009

Western Japan's eclectic master

A matter of temperament was said to distinguish the two major regional centers of nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Tokyo and Kyoto, at the turn of the 20th century. Tokyo painters imbued their works with "brain" by way of complex content, while Kyoto artists held firm to their "brush" in a looser style...

Longform

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