Tag - era

 
 

ERA

People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024
Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan
"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
Customers make a toast at an eatery in Tokyo. Many view Japan’s economy as being on the rise, and that of regional powerhouse China as declining. But how accurate is this narrative?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2024
Japan is back, China is over. The trouble with narratives.
The idea that Japan and China's roles have flipped, with the former on the rise and the latter in decline, obfuscates important facts and trends.
Pedestrians in front of the Shinsei Bank headquarters in Tokyo in October 2021
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 8, 2023
SBI Shinsei Bank to go private to repay public funds
By going private, SBI Shinsei Bank will free itself from the shackles of stock prices and be able to pay back the public funds "at some point."
As China slips into deflation, one word is popping up more and more to describe the gloomy atmospherics: "Japanification."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 30, 2023
'Japanification' for China? It should be so lucky.
China is not on the path to global dominance nor set for collapse, and observers should consider the various shades of gray in analyzing these countries.
A new high-rise is erected in Beijing in October 2021. The same year, 41% of the assets in China’s banking system were accounted for by property-related loans and credit.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023
Is Japan’s economic past China’s future?
China is facing a long period of low growth similar to Japan’s experience since the 1990s.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 16, 2023
Japan’s Nero? The shogun who dabbled in art while Kyoto burned
As Kyoto tore itself apart, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa busied himself with art in his sanctuary. His indifference may have birthed today's Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2021
Who is afraid of bursting the bubble? Not Japan’s elite
We will never know whether the elite's proactive bursting of the bubble brought more or less pain and hardship on society than a laissez-faire approach would have.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2021
‘Heisei no Oto’: A sonic trip to the golden age of CDs
Osaka record store owners Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato have unearthed some musical treasures from 1989-96 for this bright and buoyant compilation.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 6, 2021
Dagashiya in decline: The slow fade of a traditional sweets institution
These classic shops, where you could buy sweets for u00a530, once held a key social role. A few still remain, peddling nostalgia to both kids and adults.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2020
Zombie companies feed off the living
Like their namesakes, zombies feed off the living. They are companies that should close their doors but don't, cannibalizing healthy businesses, depriving them of customers and income.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 25, 2020
The post-COVID-19 industrial revitalization
There's still no end in sight for the pandemic crisis, but as Japan's economy averts a worst-case scenario, how to revitalize its industries is becoming a major issue.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2019
Taboo family registry records from Meiji Era sold at auction in Japan again
Documents apparently showing family registry records from the Meiji Era called jinshin koseki, currently prohibited due to descriptions of social classes and criminal histories, have been auctioned online again, it has been learned.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 5, 2019
S&P warns it could be bubble time again for Japan's real estate companies as debts rise
Japan's real estate firms are entering dangerous territory. That's the assessment of S&P Global Ratings, which said in a report Friday that the sector's debt levels now eclipse that of the nation's bubble era.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 1, 2019
Pressing issues of the Reiwa Era
The nation cannot afford to postpone any longer discussion of how to ensure the stability of imperial succession amid a dearth of male heirs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 27, 2019
New era, new Self-Defense Forces
The Reiwa Era is one of great promise for the SDF but not without significant challenges.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 22, 2019
Japan's print media ponder wealth, poverty and pensions
One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled "Hokokuron" ("The Theory of National Wealth"). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era's most fervent cheerleaders.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 11, 2019
Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era
Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera's coverage of imperial events was fairly low key. A two-page article introduced newly enthroned Emperor Naruhito as a "scholar of history" who, unlike his other antecedents and younger brother, emphasized the study of the humanities as opposed to the natural sciences. The emperor has authored at least five scholarly papers on the subject of water as a means of transport, and expounded publicly on global water resources at several international forums.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
May 4, 2019
A new era of weather?
'Considering the weather over the past few days, it's less Reiwa and more 'Rain-wa.''
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 1, 2019
Eiichi Shibusawa was a man of his time and ours
Eiichi Shibusawa's message from over 100 years ago is sustainability — indeed, a very important message for the new Reiwa Era.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2019
Disco's not dead: Japan grooves to bubble beat for Heisei Era sayonara
Disco fans hit the dance floor and partied like it was 1989, reliving the glitz of the "bubble economy" heyday that defined the early years of the outgoing Heisei Era.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores