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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 23, 2015

Neither here nor there: the families torn between Nigeria and Japan

Caught between instability in Nigeria and isolation in Japan, African immigrants fear the loss of their children's love.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 25, 2015

The 'other' Jizo-dori: culture set in stone

Mention Jizo-dori in Tokyo and everyone will think you mean the street in Sugamo, Toshima Ward, where the silver set combines bargain hunting with visits to the famous stone jizō (bodhisattva statue) there. Walking near Edogawabashi Station on the Yurakucho Line, I pass a less well-known Jizo-dori,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2015

Rap gets a new delivery from a wave of female artists

Hip-hop is a major force on the American music charts, but its presence has been less prominent in Japan. Elements of the wider culture have found their way into teenage wardrobes and pop-video dance routines, but even Japanese rappers admit they have a hard time grabbing the attention of new fans.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2015

Google's project for 'smart clothes' gets it right

If Google Project Jacquard succeeds, we'll be able to wear touch-sensitive clothing that can control electronic devices.
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
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2015

Why does the surrealism in Ryan Gosling's 'Lost River' fail?

'They flooded a bunch of towns when they dammed the river. That's why they call this Lost River," says Rat (Saoirse Ronan), a character in actor Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, "Lost River."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
May 22, 2015

Matsumoto Eiraku's lunch course is a seasonal delight

The establishments around Matsumoto Eiraku in Osaka's Kitashinchi neighborhood have names like La Madonna, Salon de Miyu, Lady Hawk and Blanc de Blanc. This may suggest the restaurant keeps ostentatious company, but you should never judge a building by its marble colonnades; the aesthetic inside is austere...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2015

The Louvre's spin on art history

The futuristic-looking National Art Center Tokyo (NACT) seems like a rather unusual venue for an exhibition of mainly 17th- and 18th-century European art sourced from Paris's famous Louvre Museum. But while the Louvre's collections are very much rooted in the past, the French institution has also had...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 25, 2015

Top bunraku artist ensures his master's name lives on

Traditional Japanese puppetry, known as bunraku, has its roots in 17th-century Osaka, but in the following century a variant emerged in which, rather than a puppet being handled by just one person, three performers working together operated each puppet in a play's cast.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Mar 23, 2015

Poll finds fictional TV presidents are more popular than Obama

Whether it's the earnest Josiah Bartlet from "The West Wing" or the manipulative Frank Underwood in "House of Cards," Americans prefer television presidents to their real-life POTUS, President Barack "No Drama" Obama.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Feb 15, 2015

Mainstream Japanese society slowly working to accommodate sexual minorities

When she was in her teens, Yumiko Higuchi was suicidal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015

Ninagawa still exploring in eighth take on 'Hamlet'

Yukio Ninagawa's "cherry-blossom" staging of "Macbeth" at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985, with actors in that famously Scottish play sporting kimono rather than kilts, was a sensation due to its radical reimagining of so revered a work.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 23, 2015

Making babies makes a comeback in Japan

The slight rise in Japanese fertility since 2005 — despite the sharp recession and natural disasters that happened in the meantime — suggests there is hope that work-life balance will help to stabilize the populations of developed nations after all.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2015

Cat Town

Modernist 20th-century writer Sakutaro Hagiwara redefined Japanese poetry with his free-style verse and daringly common subject matter; he reached sublime heights by examining the mundane.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 13, 2014

Tokyo Station at 100: all change

“Tokyo Station is not just a station, it is a symbol of Japan. It has always been a part of progress in rail technology but it's much more important than that. It is a landmark that represents Japan.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2014

From a hostess club to a mountain village: Five notable Japanese photo books of 2014

While selecting some of the best photography books released in 2014, I was struck by the range of specific places that Japanese photographers captured — from a pleasure district to a mountain village and an old rooftop. Photo books with such a geographic focus might be a good way to store up energies...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 9, 2014

World Order says it wants us all to 'Have a Nice Day'

For someone who made a career out of pounding people as a kickboxer, Genki Sudo comes across as a courteous, peace-loving guy who doesn't take life too seriously.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 22, 2014

Hihōkan: Japan's vanishing sex museums

The real world ends beyond a thick, black curtain. On the other side is one of Japan's last remaining hihōkan (sex museum, literally "treasure palace") in the faded resort town of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture — a strange, dimly lit space of questionable morals and dated fantasies.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2014

Hideaki Anno: emotional deconstructionist

With dozens of the renowned filmmaker's works scheduled to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the next two weeks, we speak to the man behind the 'Evangelion' sci-fi franchise about his apocalyptic influences and prod him on the question that is on every fan's lips
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2014

tofubeats calls on pals for his 'First Album'

Yusuke Kawai tries to start a para para dance halfway through his Sept. 5 DJ set, but the inside of an Apple Store isn't an ideal space for this endeavor. Kawai, who records under the name tofubeats, is performing a special show at the recently opened Omotesando store. Half of the floor eagerly watches...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2014

Kibiji bike path: eating local in the slow lane

It doesn't take a great mind to read a map, and neither does it take one to get lost. I found myself doubting my direction three times as the Kibiji bike path — one of Japan's top 100 cycling roads — wound its way through pear- and grape-growing country, past a continuous patchwork of rice fields...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 13, 2014

A world of fear for Japan's shut-ins

Several years ago, a vogue of interest in shut-ins, or hikikomori, saw researchers from France touring Japan and meeting reclusive youths. Such was the prevalence of the disorder, said psychologist Nicolas Tajan, that "if you ask people in Japan about hikikomori, almost everyone will say, 'I know somebody...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2014

Little Forest: Natsu/Aki (Little Forest: Summer/Autumn)

Japanese food culture might be ancient, but Japan's obsession with food in pop culture is relatively recent. The "gourmet boom" of the bubble-era 1980s — when Japanese had more money and leisure to dine in style, rather than simply fill their stomachs — was a big spur. The accompanying proliferation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2014

Farewell to Taiwanese cinema, but not to love

If Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang threw a dinner party, it's easy to guess who would be invited. Tsai has staunchly and consistently worked with the same small cluster of actors from his 1992 debut film "Rebels of the Neon God" through to "Stray Dogs," which will open in Tokyo on Sept. 6, under the...
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2014

Ozawa sees risk of militarism with Abe

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe loosened the limits of the pacifist Constitution to drop a ban on the Self-Defense Forces fighting overseas, many experts said it was a step toward becoming a "normal country" able to do more in its own defense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014

Escape From Tomorrow

An audacious kick-in-the-ribs at the Disney kingdom, "Escape From Tomorrow" is cool, cool stuff — albeit in a clunky and kitsch Ed Wood kind of way.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 12, 2014

The world could be your oyster in Aichi

In Peru, the largest Incan festival, Inti Raymi (Festival of Sun), takes place on June 25 in honor of Inti, the sun god. In Japan, those in Aichi Prefecture on June 14 and 15 can celebrate, too, by enjoying performances by the Andean folk trio Ekekos, who will honor Inti by playing traditional panflutes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014

'The Grand Budapest Hotel'

Wes Anderson has always been a bit of a mystery to me. His films are remarkably consistent in their approach and stylistic idiosyncrasies, yet they seem equally capable of leaving me rapturous ("Moonrise Kingdom") or cold ("The Darjeeling Limited"). I'm not alone here: Check out any fan's list of Anderson...

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