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 ...
As an expert dyer of Edo-komon-style kimonos whose repeated, especially intricate patterns are often so tiny as to be almost microscopic, Emika Iwashita is a mistress of subtlety and the tiniest detail. The independent Tokyo-based artist’s specialty is stencil-dyeing, which requires just the right ...
Can an artist justify her pursuit of extra-marital affairs for the sake of maintaining her artistic inspiration? Can a woman’s husband and her son nurture an amicable, trusting relationship with her young lover living in their house? Such questions — and many more — ...
Visitors to a photo exhibition would not typically be asked to open their bags or walk through a metal detector before entering the exhibition site. Nor would they expect to catch the inquisitive gazes of various plainclothes police officers lurking in the crowd once ...
Nominations are currently open for Britain’s first-ever international Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which has been created to honor individuals for groundbreaking innovation that benefits humanity — and which rewards the winner handsomely with a staggering ￡1 million (¥123 million). The prize, whose creation ...
“Functionality and aesthetics can co-exist.” That’s the idea Shunji Yamanaka is trying to express through his design of next-generation prosthetic limbs. Yamanaka, a product designer and professor of media studies at Keio University’s Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), became interested in prosthetics after seeing South ...
When Oscar Pistorius made his dramatic debut in the men’s 400-meter race in London last Saturday — becoming the first double amputee to compete alongside able-bodied athletes in Olympics history — some people might have wondered if the South African’s artificial legs gave him ...
Hello Kitty, the superstar feline character created by Sanrio Co. 38 years ago, has gained fans across generations, with products featuring her likeness selling in 109 countries. The Hello Kitty Art Exhibition, which started Thursday in Osaka, tries to explain the secret of its ...
The year was 1735, and on the plains of Menuma in present-day Saitama Prefecture, master builder Hayashi Masakiyo was going from village to village assembling a group of top-class carpenters, engravers, painters and other artisans. Having gathered his team together, 60-year-old Hayashi may well ...
David Atkinson was still in his 20s when he rose to fame as a Japan-based banking analyst with the U.S. investment bank Salomon Brothers, prior to him moving to Goldman Sachs. Having graduated from Oxford University with an M.A. in Japanese studies in 1987, ...
More than a century after her death, Austria’s Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) has built a big fan base in Japan. The tragic beauty with an unwavering quest for love and freedom, and her luxurious lifestyle, continue to resonate with many Japanese (mostly women) who are ...
