President Barack Obama takes the most specific steps of his administration in an attempt to ensure the election of a Democratic-controlled Congress in two years.
It’s a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chugoku no gunkan (中国の軍艦, Chinese warships) in the Higashi Shina Kai (東シナ海, East China Sea) challenged Japan’s Kaijo Jieitai (海上自衛隊, Maritime Self Defense Forces, MSDF) patrols in a manner deemed kyōiteki (脅威的, threatening). And on Feb. ...
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 love of nishikigoi, an ornamental carp with characteristically red and black patterns, has recently spread worldwide, spawning a variety of koi (carp) clubs, associations and periodicals in various regions and languages. Anyone interested in taking a peek into this vibrant hobbyist culture of ...
Whether it's hobbyists making toys, designers prototyping products or a doctor creating artificial organs, the 3-D printing boom has clearly hit Japan.
Maki Sugimoto believes that 3-D printers can take medicine — and mankind — to the next level. Dr. Sugimoto, a surgeon and associate professor of gastroenterology at the Kobe University School of Medicine, is a pioneer in the field of research and development, as ...
Yoshio Otsuka’s years of striving to revive a near-extinct strain of turnip known to have been grown some 400 years ago in the Shinagawa district of today’s central Tokyo recently struck pay dirt in a most unexpected fashion. That’s because, via a little local ...
With its economy spluttering, large parts of its northeastern region still devastated by the effects of the mammoth Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 — and releases of radioactive materials that followed — its population shrinking and aging at unprecedented rates and its citizens ...
Some, though not all, of our travels change our lives; they cultivate sensibilities, shape values and alter our outlook on things. One such trip I experienced was a sixth-grade school excursion to Hiroshima when, at the Peace Memorial Museum, I saw photographs of people ...
A fun thing I like to do at New Year’s is to go on a walking tour of seven shrines and temples in Tokyo. The hike is called the shichifukujin meguri (pilgrimage to Seven Lucky Gods), and there are a number of such pilgrimage ...
Having performed all around the world, the taiko (drum) ensemble Kodo is back in Japan, ready to conclude its “One Earth Tour 2012: Legend” with a Christmas Eve show in Tokyo on Dec. 24. The big news for the Sado Island-based taiko group this ...
‘March 11, 2011 — We will never forget the day. The disaster … After the massive earthquake occurred, the huge tsunami destroyed this area. Many citizens were lost and the survived people also received the deep crack in their hearts. I had a narrow ...
A dizzying variety of ideas and solutions for a greener society are to converge this weekend at the Eco-Products 2012 exhibition in Tokyo. The annual show, now in its 13th year, is arguably the biggest environmental expo in Japan, drawing around 180,000 attendees every ...
