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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 12, 2015

Trippy graphics and Hello Kitty: My journey into Japanese music videos

I'm a journalist from New York visiting The Japan Times this summer and for my first assignment my editor asked me to find five music videos to share with you. I fully admit, this is my first time encountering the world of Japanese music, but research has never been this fun.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2015

'Mockingjay' rises toward a revolution

Today's Hollywood is great at catering to the superfan. Whether it's the dedicated following that supports (or argues over) TV shows like "Game of Thrones," "True Blood" or "The Walking Dead," or the comic-book enthusiasts that salivate over every detail of a superhero flick like "Avengers: Age of Ultron,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 10, 2015

Surviving flamboyantly in a super-aged society

The older you get, the more you need to live in the city. Simone de Beauvoir once said that to her biographer, and it's probably true. As an iconic presence on the streets of Paris until her death in 1986, de Beauvoir showed that city living was one of the secrets to aging well and living life to the...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 10, 2015

China's big biotech bet starts to pay off

Years of pouring money into its laboratories, wooing scientists home from overseas and urging researchers to publish and patent is starting to give China a competitive edge in biotechnology, a strategic field it sees as ripe for "indigenous innovation."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 6, 2015

Watch out — there's owls about

The hoot of Japan's most common owl is soft and sonorous, but it can be heard up to 2 km away. When I stay out in the woods at night, with a small campfire and something to sip on, I love to hear the owls calling ... "Ooooo-hoo-hoo." They don't make a lot of noise but when they do give voice, you know...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2015

Director Naomi Kawase has finally made a 'real Japanese film'

Sooner or later, many Japanese directors — be they internationally acclaimed auteurs or industry outsiders — end up making what Sion Sono (a noted auteur/outsider himself) once described to me as "a real Japanese film." To put it simply, this sort of film is aimed squarely at the domestic audience,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 2, 2015

Painting women of Japan

Ask an art lover to name Japanese women artists active before the 20th century, and chances are they'll draw a blank, despite the fact that many highly accomplished women were painting in far-earlier times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2015

Capturing the grief and confusion of an immigrant Asian mother

Asian mothers always seem to overdo it — both in real life and in cinema.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2015

Widower haunted by his burger-eating comedian wife in 'Till Death Do Us Part?'

Japanese audiences love to cry — hence the decades-long stream of films featuring the terminally ill. The current outpouring, however, seems to be a byproduct of Japan's aging society and improved standards of medical care.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 26, 2015

'Newcomer,' 56, wins Kishida

Named after a prominent early 20th-century playwright, author and translator, and presented annually by the Hakusuisha publishing house since 1955, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award is indisputably Japan's top honor for writers of plays premiered the year before.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 24, 2015

Fostering entrepreneurship beyond the foreign community

Some people say that as long as you have blond hair, blue eyes and white skin, you can get a job, succeed and even become a celebrity in Japan. So imagine what would happen if there were two such people, married to each other!
COMMUNITY / Issues
May 24, 2015

Society helps sustain Japan's sordid sexual trade in schoolgirls

When you hear the expression "JK business," do you have any idea what kind of work this refers to? JK stands for joshi kōsei (high school girls). In Japan, JK is a very powerful brand — and high school girls are a highly valued commodity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 23, 2015

Ahmed Mohamed Elmardi: 'Today is today, but work for tomorrow'

Sudanese artist on patience, determination and depicting Ray Charles on TV.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 19, 2015

Experience was not the mother of wisdom

It's something of a truism that the life of an artist heavily influences his or her work. No exhibition makes this clearer than "Utrillo & Valadon" at the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art, which pairs the art of Maurice Utrillo, the famous painter of Parisian cityscapes, and his...
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2015

Uber will spell the end of London's black cabs

While there are sentimental reasons to lament the demise of black cabs, Londoners should treat it as a sign of progress.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2015

Terry Gilliam back on form with 'The Zero Theorem'

Terry Gilliam's "The Zero Theorem," like most of his films, focuses on the all-too-thin line between sanity and insanity, reality and delusion. Its steampunk-meets-cyberpunk visual style is a wonderful jumble that's reminiscent of his much loved "Brazil," with touches like a computer mainframe that looks...
Japan Times
JAPAN / TELLING LIVES
May 13, 2015

Nagoya DJ brings Japanese history to life

Chris Glenn's participation in relief efforts in the disaster-hit Tohoku region made the news in 2011, when as a member of a group of pilots he flew a helicopter to deliver food, water and medicines for evacuees.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 9, 2015

Dancing on the waves at Miyajima

"The mystery of the Orient is legendary . . . it was in the air the moment we stepped ashore in Kyoto, and now in Tokyo it began to envelop us." That's how Charlie Chaplin described his arrival in Japan. I'm not sure if the "Little Tramp" ever visited the island of Miyajima on any of his four trips to...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
May 5, 2015

Ichiro stays ready as he learns National League game

It is pregame batting practice and new Miami Marlin Ichiro Suzuki is frolicking about the outfield pasture like a frisky colt.
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2015

'Feast of Beauty: 300 Years of Western Painting'

April 29-June 21
Japan Times
WORLD / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Expo Milano 2015 open to the global community

Expo Milano 2015 is a universal exhibition that will be held from May1 to Oct. 31 in the northern Italian city of Milan. More than 140 countries will participate in the expo, which is a global showcase of their technology offering a concrete answer to a vital need; being able to guarantee healthy, safe...
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
CULTURE / Art / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Landscape artisans spread beauty of Japanese gardens

Kosugi Zohen Co. Ltd. is a landscaping company in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. Starting as family owned farming and nursery business, Kosugi's history goes back more than 300 years. Now focusing on the design, construction and maintenance of gardens for homes, condominiums and commercial properties, Kosugi...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 2, 2015

The alluring lofty peaks of Iya Valley

It's late afternoon as my family and I motor into the Iya Valley, a remote region of western Tokushima Prefecture. Billed as many things — a lost paradise, a secret hideaway, a rural escape — by the area's tourism brochures, I find that no adjectives can accurately capture the interplay of light...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2015

Sexual obsession stimulated Junichiro Tanizaki's writing

A 55-year-old science lecturer is found naked on a university campus. His student lover has made him strip as a show of devotion — "Get naked to show me your love," she reportedly demanded — and then scampered off with his clothes. The lecturer resigns, apologizes for "causing considerable trouble,"...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’