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Yoko Hani
For Yoko Hani's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
LIFE
Jan 11, 2009
A meeting of minds
OXFORD ENGLAND — The last leaves were falling and the world was plunging into an economic crisis as journalists from around the world gathered for a meeting in England. The venue, though, was not a conference room in the financial hub of the City of London, but the ancient university city of Oxford, some 80 km to the west.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 8, 2008
Dutch women bid for techno parity
AMSTERDAM — Seen from Japan, a country known for dragging its feet in terms of gender equality, the Netherlands is often regarded as a model of social enlightenment.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008
Soccer that's played the wheely way
I like soccer. I like to watch it. I even tried to play it a few times when I was a kid, though I was not good at sports that didn't require me to use my hands, so I switched to tennis and basketball. But I can imagine how skillful you have to be to play football well, and how much fun and how exciting all that passing and dribbling and tackling and shooting must be if you are good at it.
LIFE
Apr 13, 2008
Art and life in a grain of rice
Artist Mitsuaki Tanabe is stubborn.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 6, 2008
Tom Maschler: A storied life of luck and literary passions
Regardless of whether you take it with a pinch of salt or think this consummate professional is simply being modest, Tom Maschler says that throughout his celebrated publishing career, "luck" has often played a significant role.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 7, 2008
Booker pioneer Maschler to share publishing passions
Tom Maschler, a legendary British editor who put 13 Nobel Prize-winning authors into print, will address audiences at two events set for March 18 and 20 in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 29, 2008
Slow-food movement creeps to Japan
Enjoying good food is a fundamental pleasure. But the slow-food movement asks whether "good food" can mean more than simply the flavor and presentation of a meal.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 29, 2008
Animate yourself a la UrumaDelvi
A n exhibition of works by UrumaDelvi, who created the popular TV character "Oshirikajiri-mushi," will be held March 1 to 16 at Parco Factory in Tokyo's Shibuya.
Japan Times
LIFE / THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
Feb 24, 2008
Polar pioneer sets her sights high
For her doctoral thesis, Kazuyo Sakanoi studied the mechanisms of flickering auroras — those luminous phenomena in the atmosphere that appear like curtains of light.
Japan Times
LIFE / THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
Feb 24, 2008
Top techie programs change
When Kayoko Sugahara started working as a systems engineer 25 years ago, she sometimes stayed in her office late into the night running performance tests on computers, and often went there on weekends to use the computers there.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 22, 2008
Get cultured in 'Little Edo'
Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture invites you to its unique cultural events on Feb. 28 in conjunction with the famous monthly antique market held at Naritasan Betsuin temple in the city.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 17, 2008
Up and away on a latte flight of fancy
It's a clear Wednesday morning and I have a very good view through the windows of my Cessna 172. We took off from Chofu Airport in the western suburbs of Tokyo a few minutes ago. I am already 4,000 feet up in the sky over Tokyo, flying stably north at about 185 kph. I am keeping my hands rigidly on the joystick and my eyes on the cockpit instruments and the view outside.
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008
Fighting the flab and shaping up can also be a lot of fun
New Year's resolution? "Doing more exercise," you may say.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008
Soybean farming's rich harvest of exercise
Called hatake no gyuniku (beef from the fields), soybeans are known for the healthy, high-protein punch they pack and their contribution to lowering cholesterol. In Japan, consumers are lucky enough to receive their benefits in many forms, including tofu, miso and natto.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 16, 2007
Tokyo's real floating world
One interesting phenomenon this year has been the growing popularity of tours to such unlikely places as factories and old bridges, where grimy stone walls, rusting mazes of pipes and crumbling concrete constructions have become a lure for worshippers at the altar of brutalism. In many ways, these tours resemble school excursions designed to broaden students' social horizons through visits to companies or factories — except that the participants are adults.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 25, 2007
Jobs journal reflects social change
Back in 1980 when the weekly job-seekers' magazine Travail was launched, it was a social phenomenon that gave women the information they needed to independently switch jobs and build their careers. People even adopted the magazine's title (which means "work" in French, and is written in hiragana as torabayu) into conversations in phrases such as torabayu suru (do travail) when they were talking about changing jobs.
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Nov 18, 2007
Cup-and-ball master turns his 'toy' into an art form
Do you play kendama? Probably not, on an everyday basis at least, though you may well have tried it a few times if you live in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 21, 2007
The not-so-secret market potential of bubble-wrap bubbles
Ask your friends what handy fun items they carry around and most of them will mention their Nintendo DS or their mobile phone, on which they can watch TV, play games and read a novel. But more and more these days, they may also grin and say, "puchipuchi" — referring to the pleasure — and the sound in Japanese — of bursting plastic bubble wrap.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2007
In hot water at the seaside
I'd heard about the "bath in the sea" in Aomori Prefecture, Honshu's northernmost prefecture and a mere 600 km north of Tokyo. But this kaichuburo, as they call it in Japanese, isn't about splashing in the waves; it's a hot spring, and it's named Furo Fushi Onsen (hot spring of eternal youth and eternal life). As I'm not getting any younger, how can I not go there?
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007
Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists
Like many other young Japanese, Rin, 21, punches her mobile phone keys very quickly. Holding her phone with two hands, and moving her thumbs deftly and smoothly, she quickly generates sentences on the small screen.

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