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Mai Iida
For Mai Iida's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
JAPAN / 3/11: Rebuilding Tohoku
Mar 9, 2018
Tohoku tech firm develops fashion niche to withstand disaster
For Akio Sato, whose electronic components company and home were decimated in the massive Tohoku tsunami seven years ago, starting a fashion business that would one day receive an Imperial endorsement was all but impossible to imagine.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 7, 2018
Edo-kiriko: A cut above the average glassware
For Ryuichi Kumakura, a 70-year-old cut-glass artisan, finding young workers eager to learn and preserve the traditional Japanese craft is the least of his troubles — showing them how to engrave exquisite pieces of glassware with precision is what matters most.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2017
Tsunami-hit Rikuzentakata turns to home-stay program to bolster tourism
Six years after tsunami ravaged Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, the coastal city is moving to rebuild tourism with a unique home-stay program.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 1, 2017
New digital exhibit on Japanese cuisine filling visitors' senses
An exhibition in downtown Tokyo is offering unique opportunities to experience washoku (Japanese cuisine) using the five senses in interactive digital displays that allow visitors to follow the scent of soup stock and actually taste traditional dishes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 8, 2017
Third-generation heir to kimono business finds success in recycling traditional garb
For Kenichi Nakamura, the third-generation heir of a nearly century-old kimono business, the market for the traditional Japanese garment, currently a sixth of its peak, is full of hidden potential.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2016
Documentary film on Tsukiji fish market released amid relocation row
The first documentary film about the famed Tsukiji fish market was released in Tokyo on Saturday, depicting the everyday lives of unsung seafood professionals, amidst an imbroglio over the site's planned relocation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2016
Tohoku team touts Robo-Dog technology in disaster rescues
Scientists are looking to put a new kind of dog into the fight to rescue survivors of future disasters: a canine strapped into a high-tech vest that will allow it to function somewhat like a robot.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 29, 2015
Yamagata biotech firm synthesizes spider silk to spin web of innovative products
After more than a decade developing what it considers the world's first synthetic spider thread, Japanese biomaterial company Spiber Inc. is close to going to market with its first product — a gold-colored outer jacket woven from the material.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2015
U.N. program gives Japanese students new worldview
For Japanese high school student Takumi Masaka, traveling to New York City to play the role of a Syrian diplomat at a simulation of a United Nations conference was a life-altering experience that opened his eyes to differing worldviews.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2015
Imperial Couple to charter plane, sleep on ship to visit Palau war dead
As this year marks 70 years since the end of World War II, Emperor Akihito plans to fulfill his long-held desire to visit Palau next week, a decade after infrastructure issues ruined his previous plans.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2014
Documentary aims to preserve sights, sounds of Tsukiji fish market before it closes
Shooting is underway on a major documentary film about one of the world's largest fish markets, Tsukiji in central Tokyo, before the facility closes and reopens at a new location.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2014
Motivated women in tsunami-hit Ishinomaki launch new businesses
Starting up a business never occurred to Sachiko Setsuda, a 50-year-old housewife, until her community in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, was devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2013
As medical tourism industry grows, clinics, travel agencies work together
A number of hospitals and travel agencies have started promoting medical tourism to cater to a growing demand overseas for the thorough physical examinations and advanced medical treatment perceived as available here.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 10, 2013
A-bombed cities don't buy Abe vow
Is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe truly willing to play an active role in ridding the world of nuclear arms?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2013
Film director Stone dismisses U.S. A-bomb claim as 'tremendous lie'
American film director Oliver Stone has challenged the commonly held U.S. perception that the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan ended World War II — saving a huge number of American lives in the process — as "a tremendous lie" during his visit to Hiroshima through Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2013
Scholars hunt for dispersed A-bomb health logs
Japanese scholars are trying to locate records of early research on the health impact of radiation from the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to create a digital archive accessible to anyone.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2013
Actor Hira recalls hibakusha mom, own twist of fate
Until not so long ago, renowned actor Mikijiro Hira had not talked much in public about his late mother, Hisayo, who barely survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 19, 2013
Robot niche expands in senior care
Given Japan's rapidly aging population, efforts are accelerating to devise more practical and affordable robots to help seniors handle daily tasks, as well as to cope with a projected shortage of caregivers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2013
Displaced brewer rebuilds sake biz
Daisuke Suzuki, a sake brewer, is hoping his product will help the people of his Fukushima Prefecture hometown, now uninhabitable due to the nuclear crisis, stay connected.
BUSINESS / ELECTION 2012
Dec 12, 2012
Major parties give themselves wiggle room on thorny TPP
More than a year after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared to the global community his interest in Japan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord, the nation remains unconvinced of the merits and major political parties are taking equivocal stances, turning it into a major election issue.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world