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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 15, 2016

'Kuniyoshi & Kunisada: From the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'

Ukiyo-e prints were once the equivalent of today's TV shows and magazines. During the Edo Period (1603- 1868), they often illustrated kabuki theater stars and portrayed the latest fashion trends, even at times serving as cosmetics catalogs or tourist guidebooks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 15, 2016

'Yasuda Yukihiko: A Retrospective'

A leading artist of the Nihon Bijutsuin (Japan Art Institute) revival, Yukihiko Yasuda (1884-1978) brought elegant lines, clear tones and minimal structure to nihonga (Japanese-style) paintings.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 14, 2016

Smartphone gamers blow small fortune on their obsession

Just before the New Year holiday in Japan, ads for a smartphone game called Granblue Fantasy began appearing on television and in magazines.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Mar 13, 2016

Making an impression in Japan: a hanko primer

Everything you wanted to know about chops, from cheapo ¥100-shop seals to the Privy Seal of Japan, which is wielded by the Emperor and hewn from pure gold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2016

Needs of post-3/11 Tohoku stay in focus for filmmakers

The dramatic imagery that emerged from the disasters of the March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, documented so extensively by mainstream and social media, is hard to forget. However, there were and still are many stories to be told about the people who were left to pick up the pieces of their lives...
Japan Times
JAPAN / REVISITING 3/11
Mar 10, 2016

Radiation woes dog Tepco's efforts to decommission Fukushima No. 1

It's hard to forget the shocking TV footage of hydrogen explosions at three reactor buildings days after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March 2011, resulting in a triple core meltdown and the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 10, 2016

Myanmar presidency beckons for Suu Kyi confidant Htin Kyaw

Until two months ago, Htin Kyaw was not even a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD). Now he is the favored presidential candidate of Myanmar's ruling party, on course to become the country's first head of state since the 1960s who is not a former top-ranking member of the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2016

Norwegian woman picked to lead cherry blossom festival featuring Edo Period costumes

A 27-year-old Norwegian national has become the first Western female ever to be chosen to play a leading role at a cherry blossom festival in the city of Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, which features women dressed as high-class Edo Period (1603-1868) courtesans.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Mar 9, 2016

Japan detention center deaths cast doubt on 'appropriate medical steps'

Niculas Fernando died at a Tokyo immigration detention center sometime between 9:33 a.m. and 10:44 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2014, according to the coroner.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2016

Fujiwara wants the dirt to stick

White often seems to be used in contemporary art in Japan as a kind of short cut to signify "beauty," "purity" or "spirituality." Simon Fujiwara's show "White Day" at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is, as the title suggests, overwhelmingly white, but it's designed not to stay that way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2016

A round trip to Takeoka's world

"From a Pedestal into Space," at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO), is Yuji Takeoka's first major retrospective in Japan, featuring works from the 1980s to today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2016

'Tomioka Tessai Retrospective'

March 12-May 8
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 7, 2016

To furu or furareru: In Japanese or any language, breaking up is hard to do

The girl who dumped me wasn't Japanese, so I was surprised to get a Japanese language lesson out of the ordeal.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 7, 2016

BOJ's Kuroda says impact of next sales tax hike to be less than in 2014

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Monday that the impact of a sales tax increase scheduled for April 2017 would be much less than that which resulted from the hike in 2014 — sending Japan into a recession.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2016

Drugmaker wins big in Japan as its gamble leads to landmark cancer drug

Ten years ago, representatives from Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical Co. went from hospital to hospital, attempting to convince doctors to test a new product under development: drugs that helped the body's immune system fight cancer. But nobody would listen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Mar 5, 2016

For fine dining a la mode, Issey Miyake and kilns in Arita are putting Japanese aesthetics on the menu.

For fine dining a la mode, Issey Miyake and kilns in Arita are putting Japanese aesthetics on the menu.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 5, 2016

Ryu Murakami turns on another light in Tokyo's lurid basement

This collection of short stories arrived with a warning from the publisher: "Graphic sexual content." Perhaps it was worried that reviewers would blush to the tips of their toes upon reading it. However, anyone who has encountered Murakami's excruciating 1992 sadomasochistic film "Topazu" ("Tokyo Decadence")...
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 4, 2016

Clinton tech aide no longer at State Department; report says he's cooperating in FBI email probe

The employee who helped set up and manage Hillary Clinton's private email server for her work as secretary of state no longer works at the State Department, a department spokesman said on Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Feb 29, 2016

'Landmark' ruling sent Japan's foreign residents back to welfare limbo

Widely misunderstood 2014 case reaffirmed the decades-old stopgap that means noncitizens can receive support but can't appeal if their application is rejected.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 28, 2016

Icy Kanazawa, sunny Naha: A tale of two live scenes

I have been traveling around the country since September meeting people involved in different independent music scenes in such places as Hokkaido, and Iwate and Saitama prefectures. After taking a break over winter, I resumed my travels this month and headed to the contrasting environments of icy Ishikawa...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 27, 2016

Rocket tests have Japanese media wondering: How do you solve a problem like (North) Korea?

North Korea — what to make of it? Nobody knows. In an age of secrecy stripped bare, it has succeeded in being unfathomable. It's horrible — on that most observers agree; but how horrible? To what purpose? In spite of, or because of, what obstacles to its survival?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2016

Tokyo's literature festival resurfaces

The Tokyo International Literary Festival got off to a good start. Both the inaugural 2013 event and the 2014 edition were successful, an auspicious beginning to forging cultural and artistic connections between Eastern and Western writers on a global stage. But since the festival's forced hiatus in...
Japan Times
Rugby
Feb 27, 2016

Fans enjoy experience of Sunwolves' Super Rugby debut

The end result wasn't what they had hoped for, but the Sunwolves' Super Rugby debut drew a large throng of fans, both Japanese and foreign, and it gave them a lot of excitement at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 27, 2016

Syrian fighting largely ends after landmark ceasefire comes into effect

Fighting appeared to stop across most areas of western Syria on Saturday after a landmark "cessation of hostilities" came into effect under a U.S.-Russian plan that warring sides in the five-year conflict have accepted.

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