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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 13, 2011

Will trickle-down class discrimination rob Britain of what's so great?

Britain may be broken, but London is hot. A recent trip to the city exhilarated me.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 13, 2011

Kyuyoh's monochrome masterpieces

The highly intricate ink flows that grace archaic clerical scripts and decorative art, the illuminated plates of medieval European manuscripts, may be aesthetically pleasing, but are essentially skillfully beautified elaborations of simplistic lettering.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2011

"Emerging Master 1: Makoto Aida "Be it Art or not Art"

Tokyo Wonder Site begins its "Emerging Master" series with Makoto Aida — the artist who famously goaded Disney lawyers with crazed and sexualized depictions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and who has garnered controversy as much as acclaim. But with his anti-establishment career and a number of challenges...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 11, 2011

'Sarariman Neo Gekijoban (Warai) (Japanese Salaryman Neo)'

These are hard, uncertain times, especially for young Japanese who have failed to get the right degree from a prestigious university and the right job with a big-name company. If they can find work at all, it is often well below expectations for the rising generation of that onetime economic powerhouse,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2011

"Exhibition as media 2011: Tetsuya Umeda"

"Exhibition as media" is a series of art projects planned and implemented by the Kobe Art Center in collaboration with Kansai-based artists.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Nov 11, 2011

Thanksgiving Day at Four Seasons

The Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi is celebrating Thanksgiving Day by offering special holiday menus at the hotel's international cuisine restaurant, ekki Bar & Grill, on Nov. 23 and 24.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 11, 2011

"Gustavo Isoe"

Osaka native Tsuyoshi Isoe (1954-2007) was a major influence on Japanese contemporary realism painting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2011

Looking information technology in the eye

In an era in which we have seen communication and human interaction revolutionized by new technology, it may well seem that the "medium really is the message." But just how far can this alliteratively attractive slogan really be stretched?
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Nov 9, 2011

Project from an iPhone and tell the time at the speed of light

Japanese company Thanko, the creator of an assortment of crazy — if not always practical — gadgets, has recently released an intriguing device targeting iPhone users. The iPhone Mini Projector is tiny, at 48 × 58 × 16 mm, and weighs only 32 grams. But once connected to an iPhone it projects the...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 6, 2011

Words for all seasons

THE UNDYING DAY: Poems by Hans Brinckmann. Trafford Publishing, 2011, 131pp., $14.50 (paperback) In person, Hans Brinckmann is a dapper European gent with the patrician manner of the well-practised host or master of ceremonies. Reading this book of time-seasoned verse, one suspects that he would be equally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 4, 2011

"Valerio Olgiati"

Swiss architect and designer Valerio Olgiati has an office in Zurich and another in the Swiss mountainside municipality of Flims. He also worked for a number of years in Los Angeles and has recently garnered international acclaim for his daring and yet simple designs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 4, 2011

'Suteki na Kanashibari (Once In a Blue Moon/A Ghost of a Chance)'

Koki Mitani is Japan's most successful comedy writer and director, with a long string of hit plays, TV dramas and films to his credit, most recently "The Uchoten Hoteru (Suite Dreams)" and "The Magic Hour."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 4, 2011

'Free Wheels East'

If you were a strapping, handsome, able-bodied youth just out of university, what would be your next step? Back in the late 20th century, young men chose professions such as investment banking or financial consultation, and diligently went about getting their MBAs. Remember those days of multiple degrees...
Reader Mail
Nov 3, 2011

Culture shift to make cycling safer

Regarding the Oct. 26 article "Reckless cyclists face crackdown," I don't see that stricter enforcement of existing bicycle safety laws, or levying fines, or even banning bicycles from sidewalks altogether necessarily effectively address the problem of accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2011

TPP bandwagons play tunes not all find pleasing to the ear

The question of whether Japan should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks has taken center stage in the Diet as the chasm grows between TPP advocates, mainly on the side of businesses, and opponents, representing long-protected farming and fishing constituencies.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 2, 2011

Shōgi showdown for supercomputer

Eiki Ito, 49, started programming a shōgi (Japanese chess) computer in 1998, because back then, he says, his job with an IT firm wasn't keeping him busy enough. Thirteen years later, his pet machine boasts a computing ability of 4 million moves per second. And it may well soon beat one of the strongest...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 31, 2011

Deciphering eurozone: financial stability quest a study in surrealism

EFSF stands for European Financial Stability Facility. Or so they say. I can only see it as standing for European Financial Science Fiction. How can it be anything else given the nature of the arrangement?
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 30, 2011

PS: 'I love Japan.' And Japan loves Paul Smith, it seems

"Hold on," says the British designer who launched a thousand stripes, reaching awkwardly into the back of the crisp white shirt he is wearing.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 30, 2011

Yea! As I walk through the valley of Todoroki . . .

Todoroki Valley Park, a protected green swath along Tokyo's only ravine, strikes me as an interesting and possibly quite sheltered destination on a brisk and breezy fall day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 30, 2011

Sheer delight of graceful Kurahara

There is a persistent hum of activity among small-press publications in Japan, much of it concerned with poetry and a good deal of it translation.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 29, 2011

A hippo goes under the drill

The meeting room was packed with dentists in white smocks — men and women, interns and doctors nearing retirement — about 30 of them sitting in front of a screen and another 20 standing along the sides of the room. The lights go out and on the screen appears an X-ray of hippopotamus teeth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 28, 2011

"The Lineage of Culture: The Hosokawa Family Eisei Bunko Collection"

The Eisei Bunko museum was established in 1950 in Mejiro, Tokyo, to preserve the collection of some 80,000 artworks owned by the Hosokawa family, the former domain lords of Kumamoto in Kyushu. Founded by the 16th lord, Moritatsu Hosokawa (1883-1970), an avid collector of artworks, Eisei Bunko is known...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 28, 2011

"DOMA, Akioka Yoshio Ten: Mono eno Shiso to Kankei no Dezain"

As Japan recovered from World War II, changes in economy and society accelerated. Mass-produced goods and mass-consumerism quickly became a norm.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 28, 2011

"Shoko Uemura"

Marking the 10th year since nihonga (Japanese-style painting) artist Shoko Uemura's death, this exhibition showcases representative works from the painter's later years, and includes a series featuring cranes — one of the artist's favorite motifs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 28, 2011

"Charlotte Perriand et le Japon"

In the early 1920s, Charlotte Perriand studied furniture design at the Ecole de l'Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. She was later invited by the great architect Le Corbusier to join his studio and design interiors.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 27, 2011

Artists who'll go bump in the night

If you catch sight of The Invisible Salaryman, or rather his bandages, dark glasses and business suit, as he loops Tokyo by rail on the Yamanote Line this coming Sunday, you may want to follow him to the "abandoned" hospital hosting the latest ArtGig Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Oct 25, 2011

Hiroshima-area family roots inspire Canadian film director

When Linda Ohama, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian, heard the news about the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11, she says she was "very shocked" and felt a strong urge to do something for the people there — especially the children.

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