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April 15, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2005

PIFF: Asia's magnet for movies

The Pusan International Film Festival, which took place Oct. 6-14, marked its 10th year with its biggest program ever -- 307 films from 73 countries. These numbers alone make PIFF the largest annual film-related event in Asia, and with the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) taking place in the Korean port city...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 25, 2005

Women of poetic substance

PATHWAYS, by Edith Shiffert, New York: White Pine Press, 2005, 115 pp., $14 (paper). A WOMAN'S LIFE, by Harue Aoki, Tokyo: Shichigatsudo, 2004, 120 pp., 1,200 yen (paper).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 27, 2005

Liberating Japan's world of ceramics

In the ceramic world of early 20th-century Kyoto, Chinese ceramics, not Kyo-yaki (Kyoto-style pottery) were the rage of the day, and any potter worth a spin on the wheel strove to emulate them. In form and color, the ability to perfectly copy an ancient Sung dynasty vase was held up as the highest peak...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 13, 2005

Sibling rivalry fans the creative flames

Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, the brother-sister duo known as Fiery Furnaces, have become the standard bearers of underground progressive rock by reviving the idea that albums can be complete, integrated pop works unto themselves. In this age of institutionalized short attention spans and the iPod...
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2004

METI considers hostile-takeover defenses

Fear over a swarm of hostile takeover attempts by foreign firms has prompted the government to examine whether Japanese companies can adopt U.S.-made defensive measures under the nation's legal framework.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 6, 2004

A voice like none other

Though many postmodern jazz musicians are tireless experimentalists, they often end up producing interesting concepts more than good music. Pianist, composer and band leader Hiroshi Minami, however, is that rare jazz musician who sets up intriguing musical challenges that feel natural. He plays an engaging...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2004

We just can't get enough

With Valentine's Day just past, let's pay tribute to one of the most enduring love affairs of our time -- that between Japan's gallery-going public and France's Impressionist artists. It's the Real Thing.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 5, 2003

Reviewing reviews of Richie

JAPANESE LITERATURE REVIEWED, by Donald Richie. ICG Muse Inc, 2003, 490 pp., 2,800 yen (cloth). Like photographers, writers who stick at their trade long enough may find themselves in possession, without having realized it, of a substantial body of work, one that has accumulated silently like a snowdrift....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Sep 7, 2003

Freedom at his fingertips

Yosuke Yamashita is one of the rare Japanese jazz musicians who is a household name in his native land. Despite his uncompromisingly avant-garde style, he is also one of the few to establish himself as a well-respected jazz pianist in Europe and the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 8, 2003

Butoh: Dance in a surreal realm

We are between sanity and insanity, beauty and ugliness. Good and evil don't matter; emotion lurches from serenity to rage without warning. East and West, too, have merged: Leering Japanese ghosts waltz to Edith Piaf; a forest hag dressed for a Versailles ball strikes wild kabuki poses. Fear turns frolicksome...
BUSINESS
May 10, 2003

Sorting out the recent fuss over pension funds, share prices

Thought Tokyo stock prices could fall no further? Think again. Corporate pension managers are poised to sell between 2 trillion yen and 3 trillion yen worth of stocks in the coming months -- and think tanks estimate that figure could double.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 29, 2003

Overstaying visas, noisy neighbors and DIY trading

Visa overstaying I'm a Ukranian Citizen now in Japan. I have overstayed my tourist three-month visa. If I would like to go back to my country, what should I do? Can I buy an air ticket without a visa? Do they have money or other kinds of penalties for this type of case? -- Tokyo Don
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 5, 2003

Essay collection by master haiku poet wins high praise

THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, by Paul O. Williams. Edited by Lee Gurga and Michael Dylan Welch. Foster City, CA: Press Here Books, 2001, 112 pp., paper ($12) What is a haiku, really? How do we know one when we see it? Are English-language haiku less authentic than Japanese haiku? And...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 20, 2002

The garden of heavenly tofu delights

Traditional cuisine intersects with a distinctive modern sensibility at Sorano-niwa. Newly opened on one of Ebisu's quieter back streets, this is an almost textbook example of how some of Japan's most representative foods are being updated and repackaged for the new millennium.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

Days of the dead: O-bon and the ghosts of Japan

It's that time of year again. The whole of Japan seems to be on the move as people head to their hometowns for the mid-August O-bon festival. And it's not just the living who make travel plans this month. O-bon is the Buddhist holiday when the spirits of the dead are believed to visit the homes of their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 10, 2002

Summer sees ceramic talents in full bloom

Crunchy powerhouses of protein and vitamin E, sunflower seeds are much consumed in the West though their health benefits have never really been appreciated here in Japan. When it comes to pottery, we sometimes see himawari (sunflowers) painted on porcelains, but I've never come across a ceramic one complete...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Apr 22, 2002

Gerontocracy and its perks sap resources

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In 1999 I was invited to participate at a conference held in Tokyo under the title of "Management Challenges for the 21st Century." The first and keynote speaker was Jack Welch, former chief executive officer of General Electric, followed by about a dozen CEOs of major Japanese...
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2002

Speaking in tongues with many a twist

A long time ago, in a university far, far away, I began studying Japanese with a text that our well-meaning instructors told us was standard Japanese, the kind of Japanese that could be used anywhere in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 3, 2002

Why do birds of a feather tend to flock together?

"Flocks" read the sign outside the onsen, or so I thought. My bird brain immediately clicked into "Hey, an onsen for birders." But why in remote Higashi Mokoto, Hokkaido? Surely it wasn't "Frocks?" A women-only onsen? But no, men were most definitely welcome. So what, I asked, did "flocks" mean?
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001

In search of simplicity

In turbulent times, we turn to the simple things of life with relief. But in fine art, simplicity is not easy, and it is a brave painter who spends his life depicting pots and pans, apples and pears.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jun 13, 2001

Lightning strikes in Isezaki's Bizen

I once asked the veteran Bizen potter Jun Isezaki why he makes certain shapes exactly the same as they were centuries ago. His reply was simple: "What works well need not be changed."
CULTURE / Art
Jun 13, 2001

Sculpture for speed freaks

A scant six months since it opened and Tokyo's Rice Gallery is looking less like a contemporary art space and more like a fantasy car showroom.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jun 5, 2001

Suzuki, Ono, Kawaguchi looking good

KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. -- When you have success in a soccer tournament, you often have a player or two who shine on your side.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 5, 2000

Diagnosis is key to curing the English patient

My English writing students always say they want me to correct them. But, I've decided to stop giving out correct answers. Instead, I'm going to give out prescriptions. The ESL doctor is IN.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Sep 1, 2000

Play that funky Okinawan music

Asian folk music has become a rich source for progressive club music. Hang out in one of Tokyo's happening nightspots and one is apt to hear break beats ping-ponging past Indian sitars or fluttering around Balinese gamelan. But when it comes to Okinawan min'yo or traditional music, there hasn't been...
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2000

Between a rock and a riptide

Where culture and technology are concerned, the news isn't just news any more; it's a chronicle of emblems. Barely a week passes without some fresh development highlighting the fact that everyday life is caught up in a riptide of change. Even those still standing timidly on the shore can see the way...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 18, 2000

Reflective poems from well-lived lives

IN THE NINTH DECADE, by Edith Shiffert, distributed by Katsura Press, P.O. Box 275, Lake Oswego, OR 97034, USA, 1999; 78 pp., $14.95. KOMAGANE POEMS, by David Mayer, SVD, Techny Mission Books, Divine Word Missionaries, The Mission Center, Techny, Illinois, 1999; 93 pages, unpriced. "In the Ninth Decade"...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 2, 1999

And a drum shall lead them

THE ROUSING DRUM: Ritual Practice in a Japanese Community, by Scott Schnell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.364 with b/w photos xxvi and maps. $59.00 (cloth); $33.95 (paper). Interpretations of that folk festival, the "matsuri," vary. Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore studies in Japan,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 1999

'Advance Australia fair' takes on a whole new meaning

"There goes another shiftless Aboriginal," said the Pioneer bus driver to those of us taking the half-day tour of Alice Springs. "We give them cars, they drive them till they're out of petrol, then, bloody hell, they just leave the bloody things by the side of the road."
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
Japan doesn’t plan to use U.S. Treasurys as tariff talk leverage
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera speaks at LDP headquarters in Tokyo last October.
Osaka Expo throws open its doors as mega-event kicks off
People visit the Osaka Expo on the first day it opened to the public, in the city of Osaka on Sunday.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
Two-thirds of fourth to sixth graders in Japan use social media, survey finds
The survey showed that more children are starting to use social media at an earlier age.
Osaka Expo-bound? Take your pick of the city’s new luxury hotels.
The Four Seasons Hotel Osaka opened in 2024, just one of many new luxury accommodations the city boasts ahead of the 2025 World Expo.
Heaven from hells: The sulfuric pleasure of Unzen Onsen
While Unzen Onsen's "hells" can be visually striking, locals describe them and their effects as "a source of emotional healing."
Osaka Expo throws open its doors as mega-event kicks off
People visit the Osaka Expo on the first day it opened to the public, in the city of Osaka on Sunday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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.
By Tomoko Otake

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