Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
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 ...
Yoshiko Wada, textile artist and scholar, believes the word “sustainable” in foods and fashion shares the same philosophical taste. “Both are a holistic approach, about health, environment, and the community that supports it. We must recapture and rethink how we are going to sustain ...
Japan had Taiwan under its rule from 1895 until 1945. Despite the history of colonial rule, Taiwanese today have largely favorable views of the Japanese. Japan is the third most popular destination for the Taiwanese, after South Korea and China. Taiwan is also a ...
Santa Claus, Moomin, contemporary design and saunas may be the things that come to mind when Japanese think of Finland. What may be less widely known is that the two countries have been strengthening cultural and educational ties in recent years. More and more ...
Rogier Uitenboogaart, who has been charmed by the world of washi (traditional Japanese paper) for the past three decades — especially its deep relationship with nature and people’s everyday lives — is trying to help preserve both nature and the traditional craft in this ...
Christmas is going to be different this year. Oh, you haven’t heard? Read on. Virtual Visits with Santa In respect for the non-believers who may be offended by his presence, this year Santa-san will not be seen in public areas. True believers can still ...
Do young Japanese people dream big? This was the question posed by Steven Kim recently on LinkedIn’s “InStyle Tokyo Premier Networking” group. When I taught at a Japanese women’s college in the late 1990s and early 2000s, one of the entrance exam questions was, ...
For Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, her sociopolitical outlook colors all aspects of her life, as a writer, educator or activist. “Activism runs through what I read and what I write and what I’m teaching; It’s all one big thing, as the same mindset invades all those ...
The term “man cave” has been added to the dictionary. At last. I’m referring to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but surely those other country clubs of words and wisdom will follow suit. For once you’ve been welcomed by the language Vanderbilts, everyone else soon yearns ...
Sitting at a wooden table in the glass-enclosed sun room of the miraculously preserved 95-year-old Yasuda House, Sumiko Enbutsu, a very youthful 78, radiates enthusiasm. The house, a superb example of Taisho Era architecture and construction techniques, is now owned by the Japan National ...
According to a recent article in The Japan Times, more and more women are taking to map-reading these days. One reason cited in the article is the influence of the new autumn TV drama called “Sosa Chizu no Onna” (“Woman of Investigative Maps”). The ...
Sitting at a wooden table in the glass-enclosed sun room of the miraculously preserved 95-year-old Yasuda House, Sumiko Enbutsu, a very youthful 78, radiates enthusiasm. The house, a superb example of Taisho Era architecture and construction techniques, is now owned by the Japan National ...
To serve as the United States ambassador to Japan is obviously not an easy task — not by any stretch of the imagination. That’s the position John Roos was assigned in August 2009 even though he didn’t have previous diplomatic experience or hold a ...
