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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 18, 2008

Japan affords translators an elevated status not found elsewhere

Here's a little quiz for you.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 2008

Brushwork ethereal as the London mists

YOSHIO MARKINO: A Japanese Artist in Edwardian London, revised edition, by Sammy I. Tsunematsu, preface by Ross S. Kilpatrick. London: The Soseki Museum, 2008, 208 pp. ¥1,850 (paper) Born in 1869, died in 1956, Yoshio Markino, an artist better remembered in England than in Japan, spent much of his life...
COMMENTARY
Apr 27, 2008

It doesn't take much imagination to guess the winner of an imaginary 'world primary'

LOS ANGELES — OK, so he did lose the Pennsylvania primary — but might Sen. Barack Obama be otherwise elected king of the world?
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2008

Japan to call on WTO to outlaw food-export curbs

As the world's biggest net food importer, Japan will ask the World Trade Organization as early as next week to introduce rules to prevent countries from restricting exports of wheat, rice and other grains, according to the agriculture ministry.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 20, 2008

The challenges of an aging society

POPULATION DECLINE AND AGEING IN JAPAN: THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES by Florian Coulmas. Routledge: London, 2007, 167 pp., $150 (cloth) Florian Coulmas, a longtime contributor to the Japan Times and director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, packs a lot of information and insights into...
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

What's in a name?

The April 9 article "NATO meeting sends dangerous signals" portrays Greece as the aggressor and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as the victim. The provisional name of FYROM was not selected by Greece, as the author states, but was part of an interim agreement suggested by others...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2008

Mishima's literary mistress

MISHIMA ON STAGE: The Black Lizard and Other Plays, edited and with an introduction by Laurence Kominz, foreword by Donald Keene. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2007, xii + 328 pp., with photographs, $70.00 (cloth), $26.00 (paper) Though most famous as a novelist, Mishima...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2008

'Atonement'

The hype on "Atonement" is that it's a story about guilt, passion and sex: a crowd-pleasing triumvirate. Though the story does bank on these factors, it's really an emotional experiment and a literary conceit designed to intrigue the intellect rather than titillate the senses. You shouldn't really expect...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 6, 2008

Tom Maschler: A storied life of luck and literary passions

Regardless of whether you take it with a pinch of salt or think this consummate professional is simply being modest, Tom Maschler says that throughout his celebrated publishing career, "luck" has often played a significant role.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2008

Army's role in Okinawa mass suicides

The Osaka District Court on March 28 rejected a damages suit against author Kenzaburo Oe and Iwanami Shoten Publishers that was filed by a former garrison commander on Zamami Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and a brother of another commander on Tokashiki Island, who said the Nobel-Prize winning author's...
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2008

Data seem to contradict argument

I read the March 30 letter "What soldiers' criminal acts convey" with great interest as it was from a Japanese Okinawan. This is what I retain from the statistics offered by the author:
CULTURE / Books
Mar 30, 2008

Hatching out some teaching blues

TONOHARU: Part One, by Lars Martinson. Minneapolis: Pliant Press, 2008, 128 pp., $19.95 (cloth) This account, in comic-book form, of an assistant English teacher's experiences working at a junior high school in the Japanese outback is not bad. Neither, however, is it as good as it might have been, or,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2008

Writer blogs her way to top literary prize

Mieko Kawakami, a former bar hostess and bookstore clerk, was just another obscure singer until she started a blog.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 24, 2008

Chinese frozen foodand frigid bilateral relations

Bilateral relations can be complicated by conflicting interests, which makes occasional problems inevitable. What's important, however, is whether the two countries can communicate frankly about the problems, find their causes and resolve them. This is one reason wh countries set up hot lines between...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 19, 2008

Egrets' epitome of elegance

Late afternoon sunlight was slanting low, glinting like liquid gold, reflecting in the narrow strip of water between broad expanses of snow.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 9, 2008

Picture-perfect sending off of a wartime Shanghai

FAREWELL, SHANGHAI, by Angel Wagenstein, translated by Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova. New York: Handsel Books, 384 pp., 2007, $24.95 (cloth) The adjective "cinematic," when applied to a novel, is usually meant to suggest that the book describes bounces from one action-crammed scene to the next...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 2, 2008

'Kusamakura': What's the story?

KUSAMAKURA by Natsume Soseki, translated by Meredith McKinney. Penguin Classics, 2008, 152 pp., £9.99 (paper) In this early work (also known as "Grass Pillow") by one of Japan's best-known authors, the narrator is with a mysterious woman he meets at the hot spring. They are talking about reading, about...
BASEBALL
Jan 20, 2008

Whiting pays tribute to Boyer, Halberstam

In an exclusive piece, best-selling author Robert Whiting reminisces about two men, Clete Boyer and David Halberstam, both of whom died in 2007, who had a profound impact on his distinguished career.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 13, 2008

'The Third Party' is a charm

THE THIRD PARTY by Glenn Patterson, Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 2007, 169 pp., £7.99 (paper) An unnamed businessman and a well-known novelist, both from Belfast, meet while checking into a hotel in Hiroshima. The recognition of a shared home, so far away, is awkward and unwilling, but over the coming...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 30, 2007

Need something to read in the new year?

SHADOW OF THE SILK ROAD, by Colin Thubron (HarperCollins)
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 25, 2007

Muso Soseki's garden of Zen

A Zen Life in Nature: Muso Soseki in His Gardens by Keir Davidson. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2007, 298 pp. with 28 illustrations, $28.00 (paper) Muso Soseki (1275-1351), one of the most prominent Zen masters of the Muromachi Period, was also twice abbot of Nanzenji....
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2007

Nanjing survivor wins ¥4 million in libel suit

," the court said. Xia welcomed the ruling, telling reporters that Higashinakano "lied and spread wrongful information" in his publication. "Higashinakano is an insolent man," she said after the ruling.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 30, 2007

Textbook screening — not always on same page

The spotlight has fallen again on textbook screening as people in Okinawa denounce the government's March instruction that publishers delete descriptions about the role the Imperial army played in ordering mass civilian suicides during the Battle of Okinawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 21, 2007

A slow drink coming

At Takahata Wine Harvest Festival next month the quality of booze will not be a problem — and neither will your conscience as you nurse a hangover the next day.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 21, 2007

Don Quixote, Korean style

This "Man of La Mancha" has a lot to do with a man from South Korea: Cho Seung Woo, the film-star hero of such hits as "The Classic — Love Story" (2003) and "Marathon" (2005), and star of such musicals as "Rent" (2007), "Hedwig" (2006) and, most notably, "Jekyll and Hyde," whose massive success in...
Reader Mail
Sep 19, 2007

A bigger cost in the long run

I was a little taken aback by the simplistic view of Tom Plate's Sept. 5 article, "What's wrong with talking to save lives?" There is plenty wrong in the instances the author refers to. In the first place, while paying ransom to the Taliban may have saved the lives of those 19 naive and misguided South...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 9, 2007

Taking a good look at Tokyo's eclectic fashion

The Tokyo Look Book: Stylish To Spectacular, Goth To Gyaru, Sidewalk To Catwalk by Philomena Keet, photographs by Yuri Manabe. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2007, 224 pp., profusely illustrated, ¥3,000 (paper). It was the philosopher George Santayana who penned these wise words: "Fashion is something...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 4, 2007

Japan's Shinto-Buddhist religious medley

Most in Japan may know Buddhism has something to do with controlling lust and anger, and is associated with funerals and graves, while Shinto involves venerating nature, and weddings. But many people have trouble making theological distinctions between the two or even telling a Buddhist temple from a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 4, 2007

"The Devil's Breath," "Mr. Putter — Tabby Spin the Yarn"

"The Devil's Breath," David Gilman, Puffin Books; 2007; 377 pp. Close on the heels of Charlie Higson's highly successful Young Bond series comes another adrenalin-pumping adventure story that reads like a Robert Ludlum thriller tailor-made for teenagers.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 2, 2007

Transcending boundaries with writer Yoko Tawada

Facing the Bridge by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani. New York: New Directions, 2007, 186 pp., $14.95 (paper) WHERE EUROPE BEGINS by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky and Yumi Selden, preface by Wim Wenders. New York: New Directions, 2007, 208 pp., $14.95 (paper)

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake