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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2009

A freedom that fostered richness

Two exhibitions now showing at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography offer a fascinating contrast in photojournalism.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 28, 2009

When in war, why bomb the innocent?

How one feels about what one is reading can differ depending on where and when. Reading these essays while boarding a flight from Tokyo, transiting Hanoi and then arriving in Laos — all places that have been subjected to extensive U.S. bombing — is to feel the long arm of history tug at one's conscience....
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 28, 2009

Luang Prabang, Laos: Mekong musings and much more

Watching sunset over the swirling Mekong River from one of Luang Prabang's riverside cafes while sipping a therapeutic Beer Lao is hard to beat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 26, 2009

A re-imagining of Osaka's riverfront

"Tadao Ando Exhibition 2009: The City of Water/Osaka vs. Venice" seems like a fixed fight. Many would even balk at the idea of the match-up.
Reader Mail
Jun 25, 2009

Bill unlikely to improve recall

The bill just passed to "help" foreign residents by centralizing data collection at the Ministry of Justice does nothing to solve the original problem: foreign residents forgetting to re-register with local authorities after moving. The call for this new law arose at a gathering of city and town officials...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 22, 2009

Unions give athletes solidarity, provide more protection

Second in a two-part series
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 21, 2009

Punchy posters urge Tokyoites to mind their manners

It doesn't take a genius to realize that public spaces in Japan are filled with numerous audible and visual reminders about the importance of maintaining personal decorum.
/ Sarah Furuya Coaching
Jun 18, 2009

Ship inspections could be a recipe for conflict

KUALA LUMPUR — In response to North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test, the U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution (1874) that expands and tightens the sanctions specified in its earlier resolution (1718), passed in response to North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006. But it goes a step further...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 12, 2009

Nomura fuses science, mysticism in artworks

If Pythagoras, Aristotle or any of the other axial luminaries of the Classical World were alive today, they might just be working as conceptual artists in the mold of Hitoshi Nomura, rather than philosophers and scientists. This is because the science and philosophy that these intellectual giants practiced...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jun 10, 2009

Just Hungry, Just Bento

The kitchen has long been used as a portal to distant places and times, and Just Hungry and Just Bento are two blogs by Makiko Itoh that put all the wonders of Japanese cuisine within a cutting-board's reach. For Makiko, cooking has been a way to re-create comfort foods from Japan while living abroad...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 7, 2009

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: No ordinary Joe

Perhaps no Asian film director since Akira Kurosawa has received the critical attention bestowed on 39 year-old Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His "Blissfully Yours" won a major Cannes Festival prize in 2002; "Tropical Malady," took the 2004 Jury Prize and the Tokyo FilmEx first prize; and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2009

'Ultra Miracle Love Story'

Johnny Depp seems to be a role model for Japanese actors with leading man looks, but who almost never plays straight leading man roles. That is, roles in which they romance and win the leading lady — comic fight-and-make-up scenes optional. If Depp's career is any indication, this is a brilliant strategy,...
JAPAN / Media
May 31, 2009

Pigs, pimps, prostitutes and other things — Japan's New Age

Fifty years is a long time, especially in film history. The iconoclastic Japanese New Wave, born with the release in 1959 of Nagisa Oshima's debut feature, "A Town of Love and Hope," is now an established part of Japan's cinematic canon. And in contrast to the French Nouvelle Vague, several of whose...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 29, 2009

Dynasties that knew good living

Off the beaten path in the Kita-ku district in northern Kyoto sits a veritable jewel, the charming Koryo Museum of Art, which houses a collection of Korean traditional arts. Koryo is unique in Japan for its more than 20-year mission of exhibiting traditional Korean artwork.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 26, 2009

'Manga': heart of pop culture

From "One Piece" and "Naruto" to "Doraemon" and "Sazae-san," comic books have been the heart of Japanese pop culture.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 24, 2009

From Meiji gentleman to 'Japanese Yankee'

This curiosity (a first-person account of the writer's gradual transformation from Meiji gentleman to self-proclaimed "Japanese Yankee") was first published in 1898 (by the Congregational Church) and never again seen until now.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 24, 2009

The beat goes on in Japan's jazz hub

As one of Japan's longest-standing maritime gateways to the world, Yokohama has absorbed many cultures from the West over the last 150 years — not least its abiding love of jazz.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2009

Rothkos reunited in Chiba

The surfaces of Mark Rothko's canvases loom large, impenetrable and formidable, inviting you in but simultaneously denying you entry. Their deceptive simplicity has long posed a riddle to those who stand before them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
May 22, 2009

Sea urchin delicacies at Grand Hyatt, budget plans at Swisshotel, and catering from Dazzle

Special kaiseki menu of uni
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 22, 2009

Hard rockers Detroit7 return with dirty tales

'In Croatia, we played in a huge club and we were the only band, but around 200 people came along to see us and went totally crazy. Everybody there loves alcohol, and so the toilets were filthy!" laughs Miyoko Yamaguchi, drummer with garage-rock band Detroit7. "The toilets around Europe were all dirty....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 21, 2009

Fashion up from Down Under

When Myf Shepherd, the next "It girl" model, stepped out onto the runway at Rosemount Australia Fashion Week in a slinky jumper, it wasn't only camera flashes that lit up the room — so did the glow of computer screens and handhelds. Not only did pens record notes like lightning on paper — keyboards...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2009

Cheap tolls may worsen traffic jams

Prime Minister Taro Aso's economic stimulus measures are about to unleash the nation's worst highway traffic jams, toll operators and police say.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 26, 2009

Hell: A very personal and eternal nightmare

Characters who re-live their mistakes, their cruelties, and their sexual indiscretions populate Yasutaka Tsutsui's hell, a netherworld built in ever-decreasing circles of guilt, memory, and desire. If, as Jean-Paul Sartre claims, "Hell is other people," then it is the reflection of one's self in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 24, 2009

Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit first attracted attention as the runnerup in the 1998 Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition held in New York, but her musical sensibility seems better suited to Broadway show tunes than jazz standards.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 23, 2009

Stylish ways to organize clutter, keep time, track burned calories and send letters

A stylish plug
CULTURE / Books
Apr 19, 2009

Race, ethnicity and identity in Japan

Japan is a multiethnic society largely in denial about its diversity. Here we can examine the contradictions and consequences of this discourse. This second edition published a dozen years after the first is a welcome update with 10 chapters analyzing, inter alia, Japan's six principle minority groups...

Longform

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