Search - culture

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2017

France elects women to record 156 parliamentary seats, as gender balance policy pays off

France voted a record number of women into parliament on Sunday, thanks largely to President Emmanuel Macron's decision to field a gender-balanced candidate list for his victorious Republic on the Move (LREM) party.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 17, 2017

Sri Lanka's firebrand monk invokes Muslim menace

Galagoda Atte Gnanasara is Sri Lanka's notorious rabble-rousing monk — leader of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a radical nationalist religious organization.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 17, 2017

'Flowering of the Bamboo': Revisiting the mass poisoning of 1948

The acronym GUBU (grotesque, unusual, bizarre and unprecedented) fits the mass murder at the Teihoku Bank in Tokyo on Jan. 26, 1948. Sixteen people were deliberately poisoned, including an 8-year-old boy. More money was left behind than stolen.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 17, 2017

Tracing the decline of a beautiful Japan

Two irreconcilable views of patriotism were given their classic expressions by two Englishmen: Lord Byron, the poet (1788-1824), and Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer and jack-of-all-literary-trades (1709-84). Byron said, "He who loves not his country can love nothing." And Johnson: "Patriotism is the last...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2017

A new generation of jazz comes to the fore at Tokyo Lab

Pinning an exact birth date on any genre is a tricky business, but 2017 has been deemed the 100th anniversary of jazz, in recognition of the first recordings released back in 1917. A century after the earliest jazz, "jass" and "jazbo" groups entered the studios, though, where does the music stand today?...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2017

Tokyo's Filipino housekeepers arrive as part of program to bolster sagging labor numbers

Housekeeping operators are looking to increase more foreign maids in Tokyo, taking advantage of a special deregulation-zone system, as the need for such services is expected to grow.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2017

Uber leadership team at crossroads as director steps down for sexist comment

Uber Technologies Inc. director David Bonderman said on Tuesday that he has resigned from the company's board following a remark he made during a staff meeting that was widely seen as offensive to women.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / A MATTER OF HEALTH
Jun 14, 2017

Transplants using iPS cells put Riken specialist at forefront of regenerative medicine research

When she entered medicine in the mid-1980s, Masayo Takahashi chose ophthalmology as her specialty, she said, because she wanted to have a family and thought the discipline would spare her from sudden work calls in the middle of the night, helping her best balance work and life.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2017

Number of foreign students at public schools who lack Japanese language skills hits record high

Support system seen lacking as education ministry survey shows that 34,335 children needed remedial lessons as of May last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 13, 2017

Ryan Gander looks back with humor

British artist Ryan Gander does the spread of contemporary art polysemy through objects, installations, paintings, photography and video. All is brought under the rubric of "conceptual" art, for which the catalog of "These wings aren't for flying" at The National Museum of Art, Osaka, names him the new...
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jun 12, 2017

Social entrepreneur taps corporate millennials to engage in developing world

When Daichi Konuma was a Hitotsubashi University student, he and his friends used to talk passionately about a future of building a better world. Whether at an investment bank or at a trading company, they had resolved to help small businesses or to focus on projects to reduce poverty.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jun 12, 2017

Militant Philippine brothers highlight Southeast Asia's Islamist 'time bomb'

On his Facebook profile page Omarkhayam Romato Maute describes himself as a "Walking Time-Bomb."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 10, 2017

Collector Sofia Pichihua: 'Follow your dreams and do not fear failure'

'CardCaptor Sakura' fan on collecting memorabilia and visiting Akihabara.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jun 9, 2017

In case you missed them: a year of responses to Community stories, part 2

The second in a series of selections of unpublished letters about Community stories from the previous year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 9, 2017

SoftBank gains cutting-edge robotics with Boston Dynamics acquisition

The SoftBank Group invests in a robotic future by purchasing Boston Dynamics from Google parent Alphabet along with Japanese robot maker Schaft.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2017

Imprisoned Japanese Red Army founder Shigenobu holds out hope for revolution

The imprisoned founder of the Japanese Red Army admits her efforts to bring revolution to Japan in the 1970s and '80s ended in failure but she remains optimistic that public protest can check government moves to alter the pacifist Constitution.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / B. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 8, 2017

Takeno retires, stays with Storks as assistant coach

Injuries took their toll on Nishinomiya Storks co-captain Akitomo Takeno over the past several years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 7, 2017

Found in translation: At a Japanese hospital, life-saving cancer care and top-class staff

A foreign patient finds much to praise after her stint at a hospital in Japan, despite the language and cultural hiccups.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2017

'20th Century Women': Smoke signals from the late 1970s

American culture in the mid-20th century begs a multitude of descriptions, but if I had to sum it up in one word, it would probably be "smoking." People chain-smoked through the Vietnam protests, Watergate scandal, Stonewall riots and innumerable other events, both historic and mundane.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 6, 2017

'La Parisienne: Portraying Women in the Capital of Culture, 1715-1965 from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'

June 10-Oct. 15
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2017

Japan notches $18 billion in soured deals amid M&A boom

Japanese businesses that have been snapping up everything from drugmakers to beer brands in their biggest overseas acquisition spree on record are beginning to feel the pain from some of the soured deals of the past.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 5, 2017

Clutching pint amid mayhem, man becomes symbol of London's defiance

A man pictured calmly taking his pint of beer with him as other people fled past him during Saturday's deadly attack in London has been cast as an unlikely hero who encapsulates British humor and defiance.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2017

Tackling signs in Japan that you're not welcome

Some Japanese businesses post signs barring foreign people from entering. What can you do about it?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 3, 2017

Asia lags Taiwan in accepting LGBTQ equality

All across Asia, LGBTQ people remain marginalized and subject to discrimination, abuse and worse, surrounding the beacon of hope in Taiwan with an abiding darkness.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat