Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
THE HAIKU HANDBOOK: How to Write, Teach and Appreciate Haiku, by William J. Higginson and Penny Harter. 25th Anniversary Edition. Kodansha International, 2010, 331 pp., ¥1,800 (paper) HAIKU: An Anthology of Japanese Poems, by Stephen Addiss, Fumiko Yamamoto and Akira Yamamoto. Shambhala, 2009, 186 ...
WARTIME IN BURMA: A Diary, January to June 1942, by Theippan Maung Wa (U Sein Tein). Translated by L.E. Bagshawe and Anna J. Allott. Ohio University Press, 2009, 216 pp., $24 (paper) “Theippan Maung Wa” is the pen name under which a Burmese member ...
CHU-I/MESSAGE FROM BUTTERFLY, by Michio Nakahara. Translated by James Kirkup and Makoto Tamaki. Yuushorin, 2009, 250 pp., ¥3,000 (hardcover) THE LAST BUTTERFLY, by James Kirkup. Red Moon Press, 2009, 20 pp., $7 (paper) The coincidence between the titles of these two volumes is accidental, ...
THE LURE OF CHINA: Writers From Marco Polo to J.G. Ballard, by Frances Wood. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009, 283 pp., £19.99 (hardcover) Not many readers follow the adventures of Robinson Crusoe as far as China, or even realize he went ...
THE EDO INHERITANCE, by Tokugawa Tsunenari. I-House Press, 2009, 200 pp., ¥2,500 (hardcover) The Edo Period (1603-1868) is frequently regarded as a dark, repressive age, when Japan was held in an iron grip by a military government that had closed its borders to the ...
HYAKUNIN ISSHU, introduced by Mutsuo Takahashi, translated by Emiko Miyashita and Michael Dylan Welch. PIE Books, 2008, 420 pp., ¥3,800 (paper) WHITE PETALS by Harue Aoki. Shichigatsudo, 2008, 126 pp., ¥1,500 (paper) The hefty bilingual edition of the classic poetry collection “Hyakunin Isshu” has ...
HAIKU MIND: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart, by Patricia Donegan. Boston & London: Shambhala, 2008, 231 pp., $18 (cloth) 21-SEIKI HAIKU NO JIKUU / THE HAIKU UNIVERSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: Japanese Haiku 2008, edited by Modern Haiku Association. Nagata-shobo, ...
HAIKU MIND: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart, by Patricia Donegan. Boston & London: Shambhala, 2008, 231 pp., $18 (cloth) 21-SEIKI HAIKU NO JIKUU / THE HAIKU UNIVERSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: Japanese Haiku 2008, edited by Modern Haiku Association. Nagata-shobo, ...
WABI-SABI: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, by Leonard Koren. California: Imperfect Publishing, 2008, 95 pp., $16 (paper) WABI SABI by Mark Reibstein, art by Ed Young. Little, Brown and Company, Books for Young Readers, 2008, 40 pp., $16.99 (cloth) “Wabi-sabi,” which is two ...
SAKHALIN ISLAND by Anton Chekhov, translated by Brian Reeve (Oneworld Classics) “The Japanese were the first to begin exploring Sakhalin, starting in 1613,” says Anton Chekhov in his detailed 1890 account of conditions on the northern island. I picked up this book after visiting ...
