Once shunned as outdated and unproven, kanpō (Chinese herbal therapy) is currently making a vibrant comeback in Japan. The original aim of using Chinese herbal treatments, which arrived in Japan around the 5th or 6th century, was to strengthen the body’s defences against diseases. ...

Complex issues often become much easier to understand when they are approached with the benefit of a broader perspective. A new documentary film on U.S. military bases worldwide is a perfect example of this, as its global perspective helps shed particular light on the ...

Ever since his major debut in 2006, singer Kousuke Atari — known for his masterful fusion of shima-uta (folk songs native to Amami Oshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture) with J-pop — has done remarkably well outside Japan, particularly in mainland China and Taiwan. After ...

Born the grandson of a once-prosperous textile manufacturer in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, Naohiko Jinno says that when he was growing up he was told by his mother, over and over again, that money was not important. Now aged 66, and a professor emeritus of ...

One of the longtime complaints of English-speaking foreigners visiting restaurants in Japan is that few of them offer menus in English. Well, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is doing what it can to help eateries translate their menus into English and other languages, to help ...

Japan should adopt a two-pronged trade strategy — participate in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement and further deepen economic ties with the rest of Asia — to achieve economic growth, according to the top economist at the Asian Development Bank Institute. Masahiro Kawai, ...

The first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake is a time to commemorate the victims of that terrible tragedy. But it is also an opportunity to look to the future. How will the events of March 11, 2011 — and the subsequent ongoing ...

Isamu Hirabayashi is an incredibly versatile man. The 39-year-old Shizuoka native’s day job is to direct TV commercials, and he normally works on five or six projects at the same time. Since 2002, he has also been active as a filmmaker, with his short ...

Brazil, halfway across the globe from here, is known for its colorful Carnival, devotion to soccer, and increasing economic power. Its image, however, is sometimes marred by street violence, drug-trafficking and police corruption. Soraya Umewaka, a 28-year-old Japanese-Lebanese filmmaker based in Tokyo, has chosen ...

As a young documentary filmmaker, Ayako Imamura had been wrestling with feelings of emptiness. Deaf since birth, the 32-year-old Nagoya native has shot about 30 short films documenting the lives of deaf people in Japan since 2000. But at one point in her career, ...