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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2011

Zen psychology: Daisetz Suzuki remembered

Despite the gloomy global economy, the field of positive psychology is booming. Often described simplistically by journalists as "the science of happiness," it's actually a broad focus on our strengths and talents, virtues and peak experiences in daily living. The name for this specialty originated with...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 1, 2011

Trendy Harajuku draws crowds

For several decades, the trendy Harajuku district in central Tokyo has been a magnet for young people seeking the latest fashion trends and also for those who want to express their own style.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2010

How Japan regains vitality

Japan's international rating has been declining lately. Heard overseas are suggestions that Japan is about to enter its third "lost decade," or that Japan has disappeared off the world's radar screen. Its share of global GDP, 14.3 percent in 1990, slipped to 8.9 percent in 2008 and is expected to sink...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2009

Don't pin the fall on globalization

Regarding Ramzy Baroud's Nov. 21 article, "Globalization: a culture killer": I completely disagree with the premise. In my opinion, globalization is the best thing that has happened in global politics and economics for a long time. The development of communications, transportation and information technology...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 8, 2009

Pop impresario turns Arab dance belly up

There surely aren't too many people out there who can talk about hanging out with The Sex Pistols in one breath and taking calls from then-United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the next. Miles Copeland, however, is one such person.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

New art council jumps right into the action

Two years: That's how long it took Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to set up a new "arts council," extract from it a range of new policy ideas and get his staff to start putting them into action. It's not rocket-paced, but in a country famous for the slowness of its bureaucracy, it passes for commendable....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2008

Where are world's 'targeted' tourists visiting in Japan?

As part of the Visit Japan Campaign, the central government identified 12 "target" countries and regions on which to concentrate marketing activities. Have their efforts paid off? We asked industry insiders from each of the selected countries how Japan was perceived as a tourist destination.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2008

Sri Lanka: isle of earthy delights

Although Sri Lanka has been long-renowned for its natural beauty, the art of the island seems to have been far less celebrated — or even studied — than that of other South Asian countries that share Theravada Buddhist culture, such as Burma or Cambodia. Though Sri Lanka was obviously greatly influenced...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2008

'Beni' maker aims to revive rare lipstick

It's a traditional lip paint made from 1 percent beauty painstakingly polished to an iridescent shine.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 24, 2008

Australian architect makes homes that coexist with their surroundings

In 2006 it was the Australia-Japan Year of Exchange. This year, it would seem, is the Australia-Roppongi Year of Exchange. Not only is a huge exhibition of the late Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye being held in Roppongi at the National Art Center until July 28, but Gallery Ma, the specialist...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 2, 2008

Shintaro Tsuji: 'Mr. Cute' shares his wisdoms and wit

Shintaro Tsuji isn't joking when he says he wants to make Hello Kitty, his company's best-selling character, into a brand name that rivals Gucci or Hermes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 25, 2007

Who? Me? Otaku?

"Otaku" culture is spreading over the globe. Perhaps we are all otaku now? My wife tells me I'm an otaku — should I be worried? If you haven't encountered the word, here is Wikipedia's definition: "a derisive Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly 'anime' and...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 29, 2007

Erring voyager roots for Japanese courtesy that can't be beat

Has anything like this ever happened to you?
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?
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 18, 2007

Thousands in grip of new exam fever

Whether because they are bored, driven to absorb as much of life's wonder as they can, or because they regard certificates as legups on the career pole, many Japanese of all ages are flocking to fonts of knowledge on everything from kanji (Chinese written characters), to shochu (low-class distilled spirits)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2006

Shibuya-kei leaves a warm afterglow

Although the artists once grouped under the Shibuya-kei umbrella -- Cornelius, Kahimi Karie and Fantastic Plastic Machine, to name a few -- have moved away from their old musical styles and want distance from the genre, Shibuya-kei remains a convenient expression to identify that loose assembly of 1990s...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 30, 2006

And in the Japanese corner is . . . Morita-san

Christina Morimoto is sitting in the office of the Tokyo modeling agency she works for, answering questions about her first acting job in the new movie "I Am Nipponjin."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 21, 2006

Will Japan's 'positive influence' persist as it didn't before?

Well, the news is out, and it's good news.
Japan Times
Features
Dec 18, 2005

New chief puts paradise on map

Many dream of traveling the world and setting themselves up in a tropical paradise, but very few people make it happen. Even fewer get themselves appointed village chief of a remote Melanesian island in the process. But that's exactly what has happened to entrepreneur and art collector Ofer Shagan.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2005

'Morality police' on a rampage in India

MADRAS, India -- When the mullahs in Iran curbed personal freedom, Indian political leaders cried out loudly and called them names. Yet, India is now witnessing the same frightening restrictions on individual rights.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 11, 2005

The eternal flamenco

The fiery folk art of flamenco is more than just a dance -- it's an entire culture. And that culture -- the dances, songs, guitar-playing and rhythms -- are all fueled by the mysterious spirit of duende.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 20, 2005

Sugar frosted, the Thai way

VERY THAI: Everyday Popular Culture, by Philip Cornwel-Smith, photographs by John Goss, preface by Alex Kerr. Bangkok: River Books, 2005, 257 pp., color illustrated, 995 baht (cloth). All countries have something of their own, something the dictionary calls "a kind or sort, especially in regard to appearance...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Iconoclasm

In many senses the Japanese people have been in denial since the end of World War II.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 24, 2004

The cat's whiskers of Kawaii

At 10 a.m. last Saturday, the moment the doors of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district were opened, a small scrum of people rushed in, headed straight to the escalators and then up to the fifth floor.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

A race against cultural oblivion

Like minority groups the world over, the hill tribes of Laos are facing unaccustomed pressures on their traditional way of life. The depletion of protective, life-giving forest and wilderness, the upward migration of more lowland Laotians, growing pressure on the hill tribes to settle closer to accessible...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

A race against cultural oblivion

Like minority groups the world over, the hill tribes of Laos are facing unaccustomed pressures on their traditional way of life. The depletion of protective, life-giving forest and wilderness, the upward migration of more lowland Laotians, growing pressure on the hill tribes to settle closer to accessible...

Longform

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