Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
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 ...
People | CLOSE-UP Aug 5, 2012
David Atkinson: Ancient Japan captures money man's interest
by Tomoko Otake
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, ...
People | WORDS TO LIVE BY Jul 24, 2012
Noriko Hama, Japanese economist and Dean of Doshisha Business School
by Judit Kawaguchi
Noriko Hama, is a Japanese economist, the Dean of Doshisha Business School in Kyoto and a contributor to The Japan Times. Well known for her candid television commentaries, popular columns, she is completely absorbed in the world of economics, and utterly unfazed by its ...
People | CLOSE-UP Jul 1, 2012
Author Lesley Downer's romance with Japan is no fleeting affair
by Victoria James
British writer, historian and journalist Lesley Downer has been visiting Japan and writing about it for nearly 35 years — beginning in 1978, when she was part of the first-ever intake of the English Teaching Recruitment Program, which evolved into the famous JET (Japan ...