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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2014

Especia takes a road less traveled by idol acts

The eldest member of six-member idol unit Especia was born in 1989, so when I ask them about life during Japan's early '90s bubble era they can only imagine what it was like.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jun 1, 2014

Accidental activist battles Japan's part-timer purgatory

Miho Marui isn't exactly sure how she wound up standing on top of a bus on a blustery Tokyo day in 2009, staring up at the 35-story headquarters of KDDI Corp.
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
May 31, 2014

People's republic of amnesia: exhuming China's Tiananmen trauma

"Lies written in ink can't hide truths written in blood." — Lu Xun, writer
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 30, 2014

Photo series charts the family unit in changing Japan

Family photos in Japan, especially ones taken for formal occasions such as shichi-go-san (seven-five-three) ceremonies, are often as stiffly posed as 19th-century tintypes, with Mom, Dad and Junior never cracking a smile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

Talking Pinter with Leveaux; an 'authorized' interaction

When we met last weekend, the world-renowned English theater director David Leveaux was relaxing with a cigarette "in the lovely sunshine" outside a rehearsal studio by Tokyo Bay. He was there for an intensive afternoon's work with the three Japanese actors who form the cast of his upcoming production...
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
May 4, 2014

Jewelry innovator Shiraki puts ethics at the heart of beauty

Natsuko Shiraki, a jewelry designer and CEO of Tokyo-based jeweler Hasuna Co., vividly remembers the shocking experience in southern India that changed her life.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014

India's status quo is riskier

The political party that proudly led India into independence has been reduced to a self-serving coterie of sycophants, courtiers and court jesters. Is the status quo more risky than the 'Modi alternative' in the current election?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2014

Dresden cashes in on German unification

American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, a prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, has a scene in "Slaughterhouse Five" where time-traveling hero Billy Pilgrim sees the city's firebombing in reverse, with phosphorous bombs sucked back into warplanes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 31, 2014

The Fukushima disaster: Three years on, who's fooling whom?

Japan's new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever 'base load' means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 23, 2014

Germans finally start poking fun at the Fuhrer

If Hitler were alive today, would he become a standup comic? Incredible though that may sound to anyone who lived through World War II, that is the scenario sketched out in "Look Who's Back," a satirical novel by Timur Vermes, which topped the best-seller lists in Germany after its publication in 2012...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 3, 2014

Loved abroad, hated at home: The art of Japanese tattooing

The perception gap between international views of irezumi and those of Japanese people dates back more than 150 years, to when foreigners first laid eyes on Japanese tattoos. Since that time, however, Japanese tattooists have influenced their foreign counterparts in remarkable ways — and sometimes vice-versa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Feb 11, 2014

Okudohan: Fresh ingredients would be on the menu if there was one

In the hierarchy of Kyo ryōri, or Kyoto cuisine, obansai is at the bottom. Essentially it is home cooking that has wound its way from the homestead to the restaurant. At Okudohan it remains uncomplicated and comforting — as it should be.
LIFE / Japan Showcase / GREAT TAMBA AREA
Jan 31, 2014

Sightseeing off the beaten track in rural Kyoto

Mere minutes after the Sagano Scenic Railway train leaves its terminus in the popular suburb of Arashiyama just outside Kyoto, civilization abruptly falls away. Behind us lies a metropolis of at least a million people; out the windows, the only signs of life are a few Japanese macaques cavorting among...
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 18, 2014

In Jomon and Heian, the times weren't a-changin'

"Man the change-maker." That is one definition of Homo sapiens. Other creatures are changed — by Nature, by evolution — over vast expanses of time measured in hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Humankind consciously generates change. We innovate, build, invent, destroy, build again. Even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2013

Kumakawa blends ballet and business — with panache

Being good at business may be "the most fascinating art," as Andy Warhol said — and few likely know that better than Tetsuya Kumakawa, dancer extraordinaire turned extraordinary businessman.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013

Director Cuaron examines all angles when shooting 'space'

Last month, we heard Paul Greengrass, director of "Captain Phillips," talk in detail about his choppy, handheld, visceral filming style. This month, we get to hear from Alfonso Cuarón, director of the massive hit "Gravity," whose style is about 180 degrees different.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 7, 2013

Fabled strand of 500 pines

Beautiful beaches, we've all seen our share, right? But a beautiful beach that's also historic and sacred? That sounds worth driving out of our way for — especially as the way takes us over a span I've long yearned to traverse: the Ondo Bridge, a delightful crimson structure over the Ondo Strait, a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2013

Bunraku storyteller speaks out

During the early part of the Edo Period, when Japan was ruled by Tokugawa shoguns from 1603-1867, Osaka — the main city in the Kansai region of western Honshu — thrived as the country's cultural and economic center. It was during those heady days around 400 years ago that a kind of puppetry called...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2013

Space industry faces choice for next direction

The air is so clear the mountains in the distance look almost fake, as if added digitally. The desert floor is runway-flat, with a few Joshua trees popping up randomly, like lost cowboys. The dominant feature is the sky, preposterously vast, beckoning test pilots, rocketeers and would-be space travelers....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 16, 2013

Amano: tracing Japan's arc through its ads

Though Yukichi Amano's field of expertise was advertising, he used his weekly newspaper columnsto comment on popular culture in general, and frequently provided other media outlets with his personal take on social trends.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2013

'Yosooi'

Covering the aesthetics of clothing, dress style and appearance, this show features black-and-white photographic prints from the gallery's collection of around 10,000 works. The exhibition focuses on the significance of the stylistic appearance of garments and the facial expressions of its wearers.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 26, 2013

Strolling old Fukagawa, where gardens and true glitterati mingle

I may be jumping the gun a bit on fall colors, but early October's glorious weather has got me craving some autumnal arboreality.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Oct 16, 2013

The wonderful world of Japanese law: Yōkoso to endless discovery

Having kindly published my intermittent ramblings on Japanese law and the occasional other subject over the years, The Japan Times has seen fit to give me a monthly column.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2013

'Documents from Medieval Japan: Functions and Styles'

This show of important early written documents helps shed light onto the life, politics and culture of medieval Japan. Beyond the messages of the words they convey, the materials used to create these documents, as well as the style of calligraphy, often reveal techniques that are unique to the era and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2013

Suede plays it anew with 'Bloodsports' album

Ten years ago, Suede was in the process of fizzling out to a backdrop of apathy. For a band whose initial brilliance inadvertently help kick-start Britpop in the 1990s, it all seemed unedifying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2013

'Jigoku de Naze Warui (Why Don't You Play in Hell?)'

Even great directors can make turkeys, sometimes without much obvious change in their style or obsessions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2013

Seiji Ozawa ends summer on high note

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe reportedly once said “God is in the details.” Conductor Seiji Ozawa would literally agree. He meets The Japan Times at a cafe he frequents in Tokyo's Seijo district.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 24, 2013

Pussy Riot member on hunger strike

In the Soviet era, female political prisoners who were sent to labor in Russia's Mordovia region described their privations in tiny words written on cigarette papers, which took months to reach the world. Today, an inmate can hand a real letter to a husband, and it is posted on a blog, emblazoned on...

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