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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 5, 2017

Fukuoka bar is a veritable temple of whiskey with over 3,000 bottles

If not for a long-lost article extolling the virtues of Wild Turkey in the late 1980s, Yu Sumiyoshi might never have discovered whiskey. But a well-placed feature caught the 19-year-old Yu's attention and, after receiving his monthly salary, he headed to the city of Fukuoka's notorious Oyafukodori to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2017

'Great Collectors: Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'

July 20-Oct. 9
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 15, 2017

Kamiko: Growing paper clothes in rural Japan

A small community in Miyagi Prefecture is struggling to continue making one of its most-famous craft exports — Shiroishi handmade paper and paper clothes
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 8, 2017

Living doll: Licca-chan's legacy lives on

As Takaratomy's popular toy celebrates its 50th birthday, we examine how it has evolved over the past five decades to reflect the times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2017

'A Samurai's Pink House': A complicated stew of poetry

There's a lot of pink in Sonia Saikaley's latest collection of poetry. Given the fairy tale-like title, the deluge of sakura-related imagery was expected. The blood from rape instead of battle, was not.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Tools of the Japanese Kitchen
Jun 24, 2017

Getting in the groove with 'suribachi' and 'surikogi,' the Japanese mortar and pestle

A home kitchen in Japan is typically filled with all kinds of electronic gadgets. Yet there are some food preparation tools that are so useful that they have remained the same, and in steady use, for hundreds of years.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 10, 2017

NSA backtracks on disclosing how many Americans are caught up in warrantless spying

For more than a year, U.S. intelligence officials reassured lawmakers they were working to calculate and reveal roughly how many Americans have their digital communications vacuumed up under a warrantless surveillance law that was intended to target foreigners overseas.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 5, 2017

Japan copyright body courts anger by casting a wider net

The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) sparked a public uproar in February when it announced it will start demanding that private music schools pay copyright fees.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2017

'In Praise of Swords: Masterpieces of Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures'

June 1-Aug. 4
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 29, 2017

'The Grain of the Clay: Reflections on Ceramics and the Art of Collecting': Deep thoughts on the urge to gather

The book for someone who has everything.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 21, 2017

Home of the cultured pearl, Toba in Ise-Shima has both history and living tradition

"To Bond," Ian Fleming wrote in his 1964 novel, "You Only Live Twice," "they all seemed beautiful in the soft evening light ... the gleaming, muscled buttocks, cleft by the black cord, the powerful thong round the waist with its string of oval lead weights."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2017

'Vagina artist' Megumi Igarashi continues her battle with Japan's definition of obscenity

Artist Megumi Igarashi had never imagined battling investigative authorities over freedom of expression until they claimed she had committed crimes with her works of art.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2017

Tech underestimates demand for privacy

The more intrusive the tech industry becomes, the less users want to be the commodity sold by tech companies to advertisers or other exploiters of behavioral data and the more demand there will be for means of resistance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Mar 6, 2017

Brussels' Manneken Pis gets his own museum

Sample newspaper article
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 28, 2017

Coutelas: Outside the outsiders

Robert Coutelas (1930-85) was born into a poor French family who lived in a single room, and he died in a similar, pathetically impoverished, way. Nearly every opportunity life afforded he either abandoned or would broker no compromise for the sake of art. Now, 160 small works pay tribute to his vision...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 18, 2017

Wasteland: Tokyo grows on its own trash

Waste management authorities are working constantly to ensure that garbage in the metropolis is put to better use.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2017

Sharpen your knowledge of Japanese swords

If you've ever wanted to learn about Japanese swords, now's the time, as an unusually large number of top-quality blades are currently on view at two Tokyo museums. Either exhibition is well worth a visit but together they're dynamite.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 11, 2017

'Something Other Than Other': The poetry of Philip Rowland captures quotidian Tokyo life

Tokyo poet Philip Rowland's third full-length collection of verse, "Something Other Than Other," quietly resonates with profound images of the quotidian humanity he finds around him.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Jan 16, 2017

Nintendo takes big gamble with Switch's split personality

Nintendo Co.'s new Switch gaming console won't be in stores until March 3, but the machine is fully baked and ready to play. The press got a chance to try out the new machine at an event in Tokyo last week, and events will be held in Japan and North America to let people experience the product before...
Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jan 14, 2017

Kansai sizes up ways to work with a Trump administration

In 3½ weeks, Kansai's business leaders will gather in Kyoto for their annual summit. Some of the world's most recognizable firms will send their top executives to the two-day retreat. There, they will rub shoulders with local politicians, academics, and "business consultant" types who, like fortune...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 6, 2017

Richie Hawtin: Pairing Japan's best sake with techno

Richie Hawtin needs no introduction to anyone familiar with electronic music. For 25 years, this Berlin-based, English-Canadian DJ has been at the forefront of techno and he continues to play at major music and art events around the planet.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 1, 2016

Centenarian calligrapher continues innovation

It is a remarkable sight to see artist Toko Shinoda in her studio, wielding her calligraphy brush, one out of hundreds surrounding her, with nothing short of indefatigable self-assuredness. And even more remarkable is that Shinoda is on the verge of turning 104 years old. A collection of Shinoda's works,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 19, 2016

The shifting sexual norms in Japan's literary history

More than 3,000 women and almost 900 men — that's the number of lovers the main protagonist in Ihara Saikaku's 1682 novel "Koshoku Ichidai Otoko" ("The Life of an Amorous Man") tallies up as he reminisces. Saikaku, born in Osaka in 1642, became a renowned poet who wrote about the fluid, open sexuality...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 12, 2016

Tokyo fashion show takes a modest approach to style

Modesty takes center stage
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 5, 2016

Defining J-horror: Early encounters with the unhuman

The scene: It's night; someone is alone in a dimly lit room. There's an eerie stillness, a creeping anxiety. Then, behind them, you notice a strange shape: a hunched-over figure, lurking in a corner. It is standing deathly still. The head is obscured by what looks like tendrils of jet-black hair. A chill...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it