Politics & Diplomacy
Hashimoto to retract sex suggestion for U.S. military
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto aims to retract his remark that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa should use the local adult entertainment industry to avoid committing sex crimes.
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Feb 26, 2013
Carpenter Eiichiro Amakasu
by Judit Kawaguchi
Eiichiro Amakasu, 70, is a carpenter who designs and builds traditional Japanese homes and their surrounding gardens. He is an expert of sukiya, a residential architectural style that is typically associated with Japanese tea houses.
People | CLOSE-UP Feb 3, 2013
Hidetoshi Masunaga: making revolution through the Constitution
by Tomoko Otake
On Dec. 14, 2012, two days before the Lower House election in which the Democratic Party of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was eclipsed as the conservative Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in a landslide, a one-page advert with a ...
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Jan 22, 2013
Rag-and-bone man Kei Ochiai
by Judit Kawaguchi
Kei Ochiai is a rag-and-bone man for the Kanto region. He drives his small truck through neighborhoods in Tokyo and Yokohama, circling the areas while sounding his pitch with a loudspeaker: “Furniture, bikes, fridges, anything big and heavy, I’ll take it.” His jovial demeanor ...
People | CLOSE-UP Jan 6, 2013
Frederik Schodt: pop culture ambassador to the world
by Edan Corkill
Quick quiz: Who was the first Japanese civilian to be issued a passport? If your mind is drifting in the direction of a businessman who might have availed himself of an early opportunity to travel abroad in the mid-1860s, when the government first permitted ...
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Dec 25, 2012
Benshi Midori Sawato
by Judit Kawaguchi
Midori Sawato is a benshi, a unique kind of performer who provides live narration to silent films at the movie theater. The benshi brings the characters in films alive using different voices and vocal expressions. They sit to the side of the screen, watching ...
People | CLOSE-UP Dec 2, 2012
Michael Woodford: Japan's whistle-blower supreme speaks out
by David Hickey
Michael Woodford glances out of the floor-to-ceiling window of his multimillion-pound loft apartment, which looks out across the River Thames toward the City of London, the so-called Square Mile that is among the world’s leading financial and commercial centers. The 52-year-old Briton has effectively ...
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Nov 27, 2012
Bar Aoyagi owner Reiko Yoshimura
by Judit Kawaguchi
Reiko Yoshimura is the owner of Aoyagi, a tiny bar in the basement of Tokyo’s Shimbashi station. Built in 1966, the retro Shimbashi Ekimae Biru Ichigokan (Shimbashi Station Building No.1) is home to dozens of inexpensive drinking establishments that cater to salarymen and the ...
People | CLOSE-UP Nov 4, 2012
Yoshiko Tatsumi: Cookery guru serves wisdom with her soups
by Tomoko Otake
“Never fight a war with Chinese people, because we would lose,” Yoshiko Tatsumi sternly warned, “with absolute certainty,” a 40-strong group of mostly middle-aged women gathered recently in her spacious three-story residence set in gardens in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. “What we eat today is ...
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Oct 23, 2012
Samurai-armor restorers Chizuru and Fumio Nishioka
by Judit Kawaguchi
Chizuru, 58, and Fumio Nishioka, 59, are samurai-armor restorers. Among the handful of such specialists in Japan, they are the only ones who use the same techniques as artisans historically did in the past. Whether 900 or 150 years old, a samurai’s armor reveals ...
People | CLOSE-UP Oct 7, 2012
Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'
by Setsuko Kamiya
Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask. To some, the 63-year-old is one of the most acclaimed advertising copywriters, who created an astonishing body of honed and ...
People | CLOSE-UP Sep 2, 2012
Film star Satoshi Tsumabuki moves up to a new stage
by Nobuko Tanaka
Wearing a headband and tracksuit, Satoshi Tsumabuki — the 31-year-old darling of the Japanese entertainment world — was easy to spot among a crowd of actors in a rehearsal studio in downtown Tokyo recently. He was there preparing for “Egg,” Hideki Noda’s new play, ...
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Aug 28, 2012
Hunter Shoji Kuramochi
by Judit Kawaguchi
Shoji Kuramochi, 73, is one of Japan’s few surviving hunters, and he may be the only one with 100 trained hunting dogs. Besides being a hunter of wild boars and deer, he’s also an expert at the traditional Japanese art forms of bonsai cultivation ...