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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2007

"Katsutoshi Yuasa: The World is Overflowing with Light"

Cibone Gallery Closes in 55 days
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 3, 2007

Going globally mobile

David Goldwasser wrote to Lifelines for advice after being refused a mobile phone on his last trip to Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 1, 2007

Kotaro Sawaki: Writer on the road of life

Kotaro Sawaki is one of the most popular nonfiction writers in Japan. He made his name with "Shinya Tokkyu (Midnight Express)," a reportage of a yearlong overland trip through Asia and Europe he took when he was in his mid-20s. Those stories — whose title refers to a euphemism for "prison break" used...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2007

Yoshibumi Wakamiya on Japan's shift to the right

BETWEEN THE CONSTITUTION AND KIMIGAYO (Migite ni Kimigayo, Hidarite ni Kenpo) by Yoshibumi Wakamiya, Asahi Shimbun-sha Shuppankyoku, 2007, 156+184 pp., 1,890 yen (cloth) For anyone living in Japan and fascinated by Japanese politics, it is a good thing to step back occasionally from the surprises and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2007

Einsteins of anime

Headquartered in a nondescript office building in Kichijoji, a Tokyo suburb with a bohemian flavor, Studio 4°C hardly looks, from the outside, like the epicenter of anything. Yet this animation production house, founded in 1986 by Eiko Tanaka, Koji Morimoto and Yoshiharu Sato, has made some of the most...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 25, 2007

Haiku appreciation at the United Nations

NEW YORK — This month I was judge of the Japanese division of the haiku contest sponsored by the United Nations International School (UNIS). John Stevenson, editor of Frogpond, the magazine of the Haiku Society of America, judged the haiku written in English.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2007

Four Stories rises in Osaka's 'cultural desert'

OSAKA — For the Kansai region's foreign residents, a night out in Osaka has not usually meant a literary experience. Unlike neighboring Kyoto, with its reputation as a mecca for foreign artists, writers and poets, one did not usually walk into an Osaka bar or restaurant expecting to hear quality short...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2007

Services before profits

Japan Post Corp. has submitted a business plan to the government for a 10-year privatization process that begins Oct. 1. The company will serve as a holding company for four units: Yucho Bank, Kampo Insurance, a mail delivery firm and an over-the-counter services firm. The group will have some 241,400...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007

Japan's master of an ancient Muslim art

For Kouichi Honda, writing a beautiful line is what life is about. Getting every detail right — the subtle curves, the varying thicknesses and the density of the ink — matters to him as much as life itself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2007

In focus: 150 years of Japanese photography

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the oldest-known photograph taken by a Japanese person. Yet it is only in recent years that Japanese have started to take a serious interest in the history of early photography in this country, according to Terry Bennett, a London-based photo-historian.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 14, 2007

In step with nature, if not with celebrity

Renowned butoh dancer, award-winning actor, choreographer and agriculturist Min Tanaka has tried hard to escape international stardom.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 12, 2007

Horiyoshi III

Horiyoshi III is revered by tattoo enthusiasts as possibly the world's greatest horishi, or full-body tattoo artist. (Horimono are tattoos done purely for fun, while irezumi are tattoos that mark criminals.) Friendly and too cool for words, the 61-year-old loves digging his needle into people — he...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2007

Climate change raises threat of water wars

PRAGUE — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released alarming data on the consequences of global warming in some of the world's poorest regions. By 2100, 1 billion to 3 billion people worldwide are expected to suffer from water scarcity. Global warming will increase evaporation...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 8, 2007

Animated dolls, singing birds in cages in Yamanashi

The Kawaguchi-Ko Music Forest Museum in Yamanashi Prefecture is currently holding an exhibit through November 18 from its own collection of animated dolls (automata) and singing mechanical bird boxes.
CULTURE / Music
May 25, 2007

Marlene meets Masato Honda B.B. Station "Jazz 'n Out"

Since leaving fusion outfit T-SQUARE almost a decade ago, wind player and bandmaster Masato Honda has embarked on a series of projects with his group B.B. Station. The latest sees him paired with Filipina jazz singer Marlene on this collection of big band and swing. Among a familiar lineup of standards,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 2007

Not an every day script

Enter a male student bedsit in Britain in the late 1990s and you'd likely be confronted by a copy of the Alex Garland novel "The Beach," posters of the movie "Trainspotting" on the wall and a bunch of albums from independent dance-music record labels like Skint, Wall of Sound and Ninja Tunes spread around...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 17, 2007

Changes of note

She has quietly become one of the decade's best-selling artists, has a third No.1 album in the charts — and debuts as an actor in the film opening this week's Cannes Film Festival
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2007

Cherry-picking an identity

LONDON — Political leaders nowadays are fond of talking about national identity and culture, but do we know what they mean by either identity or culture, and do they know themselves what they mean?
Reader Mail
May 13, 2007

Obara ruling disgraceful

I was astonished and outraged at the acquittal of Joji Obara in the Lucy Blackman rape and murder case. If Blackman did not get the justice that she deserved, at least her case will open eyes and make people question the quality of police forensic work and, above all, the credibility of the entire judiciary...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2007

'Just for Kicks'

It's funny how sometimes a film will think it's one thing when actually it's something else entirely. Take, for example, "Just For Kicks." This MTV-affiliated documentary directed by Thibaut de Longeville is under the impression that it's about sneakers, sneaker mania and hip-hop. But anyone who watches...

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.