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A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Takashi Miike's blood-soaked vengeance tale, one of two Japanese films being shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, draws the biggest boos so far, with critics savaging it as overacted and cliched.
Have you ever given your best effort while striving to achieve something but felt like what you were doing was futile? That’s the feeling I’m getting about Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics. With just over three months to go until the IOC ...
How do you create an advantage out of adversity, an asset from a liability? This kind of questioning, which has informed everything about the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, one of the world’s largest contemporary art festivals held in one of Japan’s most inhospitable locales, is ...
100 YEARS AGOThursday, July 20, 1911 The Emperor’s labors Despite the excessive heat of these days, H.M. the Emperor is said to be enjoying excellent health and the best of spirits. His Majesty is assiduous in attending to State affairs demanding his attention, and ...
This year’s NHK Sunday evening drama has already entered the history books for one, perhaps inauspicious, reason. On March 12, a day after the Great East Japan Earthquake, NHK announced that the following day’s broadcast of “Go,” as the show is titled, would be ...
Following David Bintley through the corridors of the cavernous New National Theatre, Tokyo — where he is the artistic director of the National Ballet of Japan — is a bit like following Moses across the Red Sea. Dancers slouched here and there with their ...
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Saturday Night Live Japan! Say what? Saturday Night Live Japan? Yes, it’s true. As of last month, one of the longest running and most loved comedy programs in the United States — the live-to-air weekend institution that is “Saturday Night ...
If you’ve ever thought that the ¥1,500 admission ticket at the average touring exhibition in Tokyo is too expensive, consider this: The cost of insuring artworks for trips to Japan is around 0.2 percent of their appraised value. So, imagine a Vincent van Gogh ...
Considering the current state of Japan’s economy, it’s remarkable to recall that 60 years ago there were hundreds of companies both old and new jockeying restlessly to fill the vacuum left after almost all the nation’s cities were heavily bombed in World War II ...
Why isn’t Yukihiro Taguchi in jail? Don’t get me wrong. I don’t for a minute think the 31-year-old artist who hails from Osaka deserves to be thrown in the slammer. What he deserves is to be feted at many more exhibitions like the one ...
100 YEARS AGOSaturday, June 19, 1911 The national sport Today the summer wrestling season opens at the Kokugikan in Ryogoku, Tokyo. For 10 days, the capital will have the delight of seeing the national sport exhibited at its best by the country’s greatest champions. ...
“Come on up,” said a man wearing dark-blue overalls and a baseball cap. “Come up and see the view.” Anywhere else in Japan and it would have been a welcome invitation. In the tiny village of Unosumai in Iwate Prefecture, however, it was made ...
Hidden among giant cedar trees at the summit of a mountain in central Iwate Prefecture, Chusonji Temple, with its stunning golden hall dating from the 12th century, couldn’t feel farther from the distraught, tsunami-ravaged coast just 50 km away. But if things go its ...
When the March 11 tsunami hit the village of Yoshihama in Iwate Prefecture, the water overran a seawall, smashed through a coastal pine forest, poured over a large embankment and then surged up a long, low-lying valley. It was a scenario almost identical to ...