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EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2013

Abe's stimulus only a short-term fix

The Abe administration's latest stimulus package has the central government spending more than it is due to receive in revenue from the fiscal 2014 tax hike, showing that the Japanese economy has yet to enter a self-sustaining cycle built on private-sector demand and investment.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 9, 2013

Otaku culture gets under the skin

Tattoos in Japan have long moved on from the kind often romanticized by the West — that imagery of flamboyant yakuza that so many seem reluctant to relinquish. But a brief glance at the policies of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto reveals a nation still unwilling to allow tattoos into mainstream society...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2013

'Second Steps' marks a great leap forward for dancers

From The Royal Ballet's innovative 2011 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" at Covent Garden to Paris Opera Ballet's devotion to contemporary choreographers such as Mats Ek, Wayne McGregor and Pina Bausch, national dance companies across the globe are taking steps to ensure ballet transforms into a modern...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2013

'The 150th Anniversary: The Prints of Edvard Munch from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo'

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of symbolist painter Edvard Munch's birth, this exhibition showcases 34 of the artist's prints, mostly early works focusing on life, death and love — themes that he became particularly known for.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 23, 2013

Season's greetings garnered in Tokyo's Yanaka Ginza

On only a budget of u00a520,000, you can generate a lot of warmth with gifts from Ginza — Yanaka Ginza, that is.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 23, 2013

Ozeki's work reflects her complex identity

Ruth Ozeki's recent novel, the 2013 Man Booker-shortlisted "A Tale For the Time Being," is best described as a hybrid: a fictional masterpiece with footnotes and appendices like a research paper; a colorful scrawl of inventive creativity marked by scientific asides ranging from ocean gyres to quantum...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Nov 11, 2013

Huge headwear, film shorts and the fashion in between

Uniqlo gives the fleece a makeover
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2013

Divided opinions on Divisionism

By the time you get to the end of the Divisionism exhibition, now showing at the National Art Center Tokyo, you realize that this strand in the history of art is more about the journey than the destination. It's like traveling through a world that becomes increasingly less realistic but nevertheless...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2013

'Total abandon' for two landmark duos

Ballet audiences in Japan are widely acknowledged to be among the best in the world, but there's still a lot to be learned here about contemporary dance. However, those seeing a show in a short tour of works by French choreographers Mathilde Monnier and Jean-Francois Duroure can be sure of enjoying a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 26, 2013

Manga: Gekiga capture the underbelly of ’70s Japan

'I don't know much about manga but I know what I like' could well be the title of this review. Despite the urgings of enthusiastic friends ever since the 1970s, I sedulously avoided reading works in this genre.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 16, 2013

'Edward II': The director's take

Two years ago, Shintaro Mori made his directorial debut at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, with a minimalist production of Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece "Waiting for Godot." Now, at age 37, he's back there at the helm of probably one of the West's first-ever plays with an openly gay theme —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 13, 2013

What we talk about when we talk about the Olympics

If you're lamenting the number of kōji (工事, construction works) clogging Tokyo streets and coating your lungs with toxic fumes, you can lump at least part of the blame on the Olympics, slated to happen in the summer of 2020. And take comfort in the fact that in the years leading up to the last time...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 11, 2013

Camera Grandma's photos document Gifu village's demise

Izu Photo Museum in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, is exhibiting the work of late amateur photographer Tazuko Masuyama on the Tokuyama Dam in Gifu Prefecture, where a small village vanished under the waters of a reservoir decades ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2013

'Captivating Qing-dynasty Ceramics'

Chinese ceramics made during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) are considered some of the finest in the world. Their delicate aesthetics and attention to elaborate detail, made such works particularly popular with the European nobility of that time. As their popularity and value increased overseas, more works...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2013

Ginsburg's tough decision: to stay or go?

Who dreamed up this bit of kismet? How did the stars align to make this spot of New Mexico desert the best place in the world on a late summer evening to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Sep 29, 2013

Nontraditional college students juggle work, kids, bills with coursework

When President Barack Obama talks about the cost of higher education, his mentions of "college students" might often evoke images of teenagers who spent their senior years of high school searching for the four-year institution that best matched their personalities, then enrolled and moved into the dorms...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2013

Liberating people to control their eating habits

When it comes to weight-loss programs, give people rules of thumb — not product manuals. Let them see how the media manipulates them already to consume more.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 28, 2013

New survey of art fosters discussion

It goes without saying that giving a book the title "100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age" is a hostage to fortune. We lack the necessary perspective when it comes to judging what it is about our time that is most important or representative culture-wise, for which reason the work of drawing up...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 18, 2013

Nihonga: without the hand over the eye

At its essential level, art is a battle between the eye and the hand; the first representing sensory input, the second artistic habit and convention. When the hand outweighs the eye, art can become over-stylized, clichéd, and eventually dead. Asian art has been particularly prone to this; with young...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 11, 2013

Real-world validations of our digital realm

"We are now living in a super, hyper-extended information society," says curator Masafumi Fukugawa, "and that idea was the starting point for our new exhibition."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2013

Animation master Miyazaki to retire; fans in disbelief

The abrupt announcement about film director Hayao Miyazaki's decision to retire triggers tributes and disbelief.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 24, 2013

Long-gone writer tells it how it is

When Kenji Miyazawa was writing his stories and poems nearly a century ago, Japan was a country with a two-pronged mission: To become the first non-white, non-Christian nation to create a modern prosperous state — and to be the leader of an Asian revival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 2013

Britain's 'YBA' have moved on, but they still inspire

In Ben Wheatley's recent film "A Field in England," a group of deserting soldiers fleeing the 17th-century English Civil War escape through a field of mushrooms, only to be captured by an alchemist and descend into a nightmare of both body and mind — all against the backdrop of the English countryside....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2013

Yuri Nonaka takes viewers on a trip through the imagination

All things weird and wonderful were loved by the Surrealists and there is plenty of the weird and wonderful in the world of their fellow traveler Yuri Nonaka. The Kamakura Annex of the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama, is currently holding an exhibition showcasing works that were donated to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2013

Understanding the fun side of Surrealism

Part of the reason for the success of Surrealism in the 1920s and '30s was its sexual dimension. This element, covered over by a veneer of respectable intellectualism, had a powerful attraction at a time when sexuality was much more circumscribed by social morality than it is today. Although many Surrealist...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 20, 2013

Abe-power: Can premier deliver on promises and growth strategy?

Once the dust settles tonight, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party/New Komeito coalition will be in control of both houses of the Diet, promising an end to political gridlock.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2013

Vampire Weekend to go 'Modern' at Fuji Rock

Over the course of three albums, Vampire Weekend has cultivated a unique sound from a wide spectrum of influences, including experimental rock musician Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius). Vampire Weekend lead singer and songwriter Ezra Koenig has a fond memory of the musician, often described as Japan's counterpart...

Longform

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