Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Tai Kawabata
For Tai Kawabata's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Events In Tokyo Jul 11, 2013
Avant-garde NHK film to get rare screening
In the early 1960s, Japan’s television industry harbored an experimental spirit that was free from restrictive institutional ideology. It was a time of hope according to Inuhiko Yomota, professor of film history at Meiji Gakuin University. An academic screening in Tokyo will offer a ...
Events Outside Tokyo Nov 9, 2012
Cultural institute hosts symposium, concert on postquake art scene
On Nov. 16, the Goethe-Institut Tokyo will host an event titled “Die Niemandsklänge” (“The Sounds of Nobody”), which will feature a symposium and a concert focusing on artistic expression in Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and the ensuing ...
Events Outside Tokyo Mar 23, 2012
Liszt masterpiece 'Christus' gets a rare showing in Tokyo
In 1873, to mark the 50th anniversary of his musical activities at a concert, Franz Liszt told people of the “Christus” oratorio: “This is my will.” The piece was one of his most important, and on March 31 an orchestra and three chorus groups ...
Events Outside Tokyo Feb 10, 2012
Dancer goes through time in new show
Inspiration from Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece “Slaughterhouse-Five” and stoic philosopher Seneca’s letters gives character to an upcoming performance in Tokyo by Izabela Chlewinska, a rising choreographer and dancer from Poland. Chlewinska was inspired by the novel’s protagonist, Billy Pilgrim — a time traveler who jumps ...
_unknown Aug 14, 2011
Film mines rich seams of history
Hiroko Kumagai will never forget the day in 1998 when she first stepped inside the red-brick building at the entrance to the closed and shuttered Miyahara shaft in the Miike coal mine in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture. “I felt I heard the voices of people ...
Art | STAGE Aug 4, 2011
'Tokyo Tango': A fairy tale to keep you on your toes
When the mayor of a village is told by a frog king, who is fascinated by the elegance of swans gliding in the lake, that his villagers should wear toe shoes (ballet pointe shoes) all the time, he instructs everyone between the age of ...
National Jun 26, 2011
Top scientist in academic row
An article that helped Tohoku University President Akihisa Inoue win the Japan Academy Award has been retracted from a leading U.S. scientific journal after the author violated protocol by reusing his own previously published material without acknowledging it. The incident, announced Friday, amounts to ...
National Mar 25, 2011
Reveal fallout data: ex-nuke chief
A former acting head of the Atomic Energy Commission called Thursday for the government to tell the public how radioactive emissions have spread from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the past and to predict future radiation exposure risks according to distance ...
National Dec 23, 2010
Think tank plugs Okinawa peace training center
A Tokyo-based think tank submitted a research report Wednesday to Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, calling on Japan to turn Okinawa into a training hub for peace operations, with participants including the United States, Australia, China, South Korea and Taiwan. The report calls for creation ...
Events Outside Tokyo Dec 17, 2010
Butoh legend dances to a different beat
Though much younger than the late Kazuo Ohno and the late Tatsumi Hijikata, two legends of butoh, Akira Kasai was also a pioneer of the art form in the 1960s and ’70s. He was even dubbed the “Nijinsky of butoh.” Now, a performance in ...
Events Outside Tokyo Sep 3, 2010
Photos, films depict Tokyo in turbulent times
The 10 years following the end of World War II in Tokyo are marked by two things — war-related devastation and the march toward reconstruction. The exhibition “Tokyo Fukko” (“Reconstruction of Tokyo”) at the Edo-Tokyo Museum captures this period of Tokyo’s history through color ...
Events Outside Tokyo Jul 9, 2010
Women feted through dance
In the Japanese dance scene, all-female performing companies are common. Mademoiselle Cinema, established in 1993, is one such group. The basic concept embraced by Naoko Ito, the group’s choreographer, is “Nostalgia oriented toward the future” and her approach is to create dance by visualizing ...