Tag - big-in-japan

 
 

BIG IN JAPAN

Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 7, 2019
Speed bumps and potholes on the road to 2020 Tokyo Olympics
When planners proposed the opening date of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, they pored over historical weather data in search of the day with the lowest statistical likelihood of rain. It turned out to be Oct. 10. Happily that day, a Saturday, was fine. As the national teams marched onto the track of Yoyogi...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 31, 2019
Aspiring to achieve forgiveness in the most difficult times
"To be wronged is nothing," said Confucius — "unless you continue to remember it."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 24, 2019
Double bubble, tapioca tea and garbage trouble
Food and beverage fads come and go. On frequent occasions, "Gatten," NHK's health-oriented Wednesday evening program, used to present evidence that eating this food or drinking that beverage achieved seemingly miraculous results, including weight loss, lower blood pressure or relief from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 17, 2019
Dissecting the benefits of medical intervention in Japan
"Lies!" "Nonsense!"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 10, 2019
Spooky tales from the dead abound over Bon season
"Actually I was wavering over whether or not to publish this story," writes Kyoto-based compiler Nobuo Yuki in "Wailing of a Restless Ghost." It's one of a series of five books from publisher Bunko Ginga-Do under the title "Exceptionally Scary True Ghost Stories" — which many in Japan like to read...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 3, 2019
Low voter turnout in Upper House election may reflect an indifference to democracy
In May 1993, general elections were held in Cambodia. Voter turnout was 89.56 percent.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 27, 2019
Tracing the fluctuations in moral standards
"More than 16,500 women and men were sterilized against their will," reads a newsletter published in 1997 by the Network on Ethics and Intellectual Disability.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 20, 2019
New era aside, Showa nostalgia continues to keep rolling along
The new Reiwa Era is now into its third month and histories are starting to appear about the Heisei Era that preceded it. In late June, the publishing arm of the Mainichi Shimbun released a 384-page softcover book titled "Heisei-shi Zenkiroku" ("Chronicle 1989-2019"). The same week, the Nikkei Shimbun...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 13, 2019
Working harder in a bid to save labor is proving exhausting
The utopia of utopias is "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). Its best feature is leisure. There are no idle nobles; everyone works. A burden shared is a burden lightened. Utopians "do not wear themselves out with perpetual toil from morning to night, as if they were beasts of burden." They work...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 6, 2019
Friction growing in Osaka over rising foreign population
The guests from the gala Group of 20 conference may be gone, but Osaka continues to garner attention in the media.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 29, 2019
As dementia cases rise, so a nation's character changes
"Your mother is senile, senile, senile!"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 22, 2019
Japan's print media ponder wealth, poverty and pensions
One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled "Hokokuron" ("The Theory of National Wealth"). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era's most fervent cheerleaders.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 15, 2019
'Lawyerlessness' is a luxury Japan can no longer afford
In 1983, Time magazine looked at Japan and saw, to its astonishment, a "land without lawyers." "Most Japanese," said its report, "live — and die — without ever having seen a lawyer." Was this a country, or a mystic brotherhood? In the U.S. there was one lawyer for every 400 citizens; in Japan,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 8, 2019
Japan's convenience stores work hard to stay relevant
Ride the Seibu Shinjuku Line to Iriso Station in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, and you can enjoy shopping at Japan's oldest franchise convenience store, a Family Mart that opened in September 1973. The following May, the nation's first 7-Eleven outlet was opened in Toyosu, Koto Ward — not...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 1, 2019
Is disgust with the status quo now feeding nostalgia for the past?
Bulgarian scholar Ivan Krastev, in an interview with the Asahi Shimbun published in March, compared the restless discontent of the 1960s with that of today. Fifty years ago, he said, disgust with the status quo fed hope for the future. Today it feeds nostalgia for the past.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 25, 2019
Fatal traffic mishaps put drivers in the media spotlight
"Heartbreaking accidents have continued to occur although measures have been taken," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ruefully at a meeting of government officials on May 21.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 18, 2019
Aging population spurs drive to tidy nation's cluttered homes
KonMari? Let's, by all means.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 11, 2019
Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era
Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera's coverage of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 4, 2019
Deciphering the curious act of talking to oneself
Talking to oneself is not respectable. It suggests many things, none of them good: abysmal loneliness, a mental screw loose, a social wire frayed, insanity, dementia. Shukan Post magazine this month cites experts in dementia who see solitary dialogue as a potential premonitory sign — not a conclusive...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 27, 2019
Trains, planes and automobiles to celebrate Golden Week
If you're looking for some mundane distractions to get you through the holiday period, Shukan Taishu (May 6-13) has got just the thing. Its "Reiwa Commemorative Edition" introduces unusual rides. Okinawa, for example, sports an "Ostrich Land," where you can hop a ride on the back of one of its giant...

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