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BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2015

Japan firms face hurdles as 'service' culture taken overseas

At Uniqlo stores worldwide, staff greet every customer with "Welcome to Uniqlo!"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 9, 2015

Drought-hit Thai farmers struggling as subsidies, like paddies, look to dry up amid water curbs

Rice farmer Boontham Chei-pa switches on a water pump in the evenings to irrigate his parched field from a canal in Thailand's central province of Suphanburi. The soil is hardly moistened before the motor is switched off.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 4, 2015

Female chefs give sushi a new lease on life

A chef dressed in white stands behind the immaculate counter of a sushi restaurant with a vast array of raw seafood spread out in front of her. It sounds like a typical scene you might find at any sushi restaurant in Japan ... except in this case the chef is female.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jun 5, 2015

The best places in Tokyo to taste Vietnam in a baguette

Remember that rumor about “Mama” Cass Elliot from the Mamas and Papas? The one about how she died in bed while munching on a sandwich? I heard that as a child and for years I took it as a cautionary tale about bedtime snacking, or else as evidence that fate has a rather whimsical sense of humor....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Jun 5, 2015

Zen and the delicate art of demitasse coffee

Shingo Naganuma isn't exaggerating when he compares the atmosphere of his coffee shop, Nejimakigumo, to a temple. Open the menu here and you'll find a list of rules, ranging from prohibitions (no smoking, no pets) to a requirement that laptop users buy extra drinks if they plan on occupying one of the...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2015

Director Kawase disregards criticism of her sentimental leprosy drama 'An'

When I first interviewed Naomi Kawase in 1998, after she won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or award for her first feature, "Moe no Suzaku" ("Suzaku"), I remarked on her "quietly stubborn determination" to persist in the face of various detractors. If anything, criticism has increased in the intervening...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 23, 2015

Change trays

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Rethinking, updating traditional crafts

Despite a decline in the handmade craft industry, especially with a lack of young people to pass the baton to in recent years, the Expo Milano 2015 that kicked off May 1 is a big chance for densan, or traditional Japanese handcrafted products, to promote their charm and elaborate workmanship to the world....
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Apr 4, 2015

Okinawa: In the crosshairs of war

"We always seem to be at the tail end of history, dragged along roads already ruined by others."
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 20, 2015

Man City, Arsenal faced with cold reality after CL exits

According to England manager Roy Hodgson, the exit of Premier League clubs from the Champions League is "just one of those things."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 20, 2015

Why Japan's factories, jobs aren't coming back despite the weak yen

Crows circle around the tract of cleared land that was once Hoya Corp.'s Pentax camera plant in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture. All that's left is a sign directing employees to a dormitory and gymnasium, both pulled down years ago when a strong yen was driving manufacturers abroad.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Mar 3, 2015

Switch Coffee keeps the neighbors happy

"Sometimes people say you shouldn't make your hobby into your job," says Masahiro Onishi, the 28-year-old owner of Meguro roastery and coffee stand Switch Coffee. "I was concerned about that."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 12, 2015

Mountain view dinner in Urawa; strawberry delights in Osaka; foreign currency option in Hokkaido

Mt. Fuji viewing dinner in Urawa
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 10, 2015

Danish cherry wine leaves no sour taste at Cella Masumi

It's difficult to leave Cella Masumi, the tasting room and specialty shop adjacent to Miyasaka Brewing Company in Nagano Prefecture, without a bag full of treats.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 2, 2015

Going the extra mile for fair-trade fashion

Tokyo fashion industry insiders push the message that what we choose to buy and wear has consequences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 1, 2015

Bringing a 'cesspool to sushiland' life to the stage

"Coming to Japan was the best decision I've ever made," says Stefhen Bryan, loud and enthusiastically, contrasting with the frown he was making a moment earlier at the miso-flavored ramen he'd ordered and just tasted. "Should've gotten the salt-flavored."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Back to the love hotel for ex-pink film director

Interviews with people you know well can turn awkward if you try to be the probing questioner instead of the coffee-shop companion. No such worries with 61-year-old Ryuichi Hiroki, the former pink film (i.e., soft pornography) director who made his commercial and critical breakthrough with the erotically...
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jan 27, 2015

Shiga's Woodbury embraces pursuit of excellence

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Terrance Woodbury of the Shiga Lakestars is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 27, 2015

Pommeke makes fries the main dish

Tokyo boasts plenty of Belgian culinary spots, from beer bars to chocolate shops. Chef Bart Sablon even points out that there is a Belgian waffle store right around the corner from Pommeke, a recently opened operation where the 39-year-old works as executive chef. "That's a total coincidence, though,"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2015

Crowdfunding helps revive quake-hit small businesses in Japan

When an 18-meter tsunami demolished his soy sauce factories in 2011 and killed an employee, Michihiro Kono despaired about the future of the company his family founded two centuries ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NATURE'S PANTRY
Dec 30, 2014

Niigata home brews enhance teatime

Goushi Iijima sits in front of the irori ( a traditional ash fireplace), his back ramrod straight yet somehow deeply relaxed. With measured, fluid movements, he pours cold-infused green tea into delicate clear glass cups set on lacquerware saucers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 29, 2014

To shine or to die: the messy world of romanized Japanese

One of the also-rans in the competition for the best buzzword of 2014 was the little word "shine." It stirred some discussion this summer when it appeared as a one-word heading in the blog of Prime Minister Abe's just-established Kagayaku Josei Ō en Kaigi (輝く女性応援会議, Council for Supporting...
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2014

Exploited working students starting to fight 'burakku arubaito' system

The 22-year-old university student was in his fifth day working part time at a Sukiya beef bowl outlet in Tokyo when his boss suddenly told him to run the shop from midnight to 9 a.m. all by himself.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Dec 12, 2014

Fashion goes festive for the holiday season

Erimaki Sox collars the market
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 12, 2014

Shonan complex offers a curated lifestyle

A discreet black sign, concrete floors, industrial-style ceilings, wooden shelves filled with design toys and gourmet treats. This may sound like the minimal interior of an urban lifestyle store in some hip corner of Tokyo, but the reality is more surprising. It is, in fact, a new branch of one of Japan's...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 11, 2014

Welfare cuts? Abe won't say it

Hiroko Shinohara frets about one issue Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has noticeably avoided on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's election: the need to cut the nation's generous social welfare program that supports millions of people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 9, 2014

Christmas in Tokyo is pretty sweet

Just before the Halloween decorations were taken down and packed up, the signs advertising Christmas cakes went up. Bakeries, department stores and convenience stores all seem to have a corner for small cakes topped with whipped cream and tiny Santa Claus figurines. A traditional Japanese holiday feast...

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?