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June 08, 2025
 

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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 20, 2015
Temporary housing; famous siblings; CM of the week: Meiji
The temporary housing built for the survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami is usually depicted as being dark and cold, inhabited by sad people. But according to the NHK regional documentary, "Egao no Kasetsu Jutaku" ("Temporary Housing of Smiling Faces"; NHK-G, Mon., 12:40 a.m.), at least one community...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Feb 15, 2015
Native Americans move into pot business
What is now a damp plot of bright green grass next to a Native American greenhouse in Northern California could soon set the burgeoning marijuana industry on fire.
Reader Mail
Feb 14, 2015
Need to challenge established truths
Regarding Michael Hoffman's Jan. 25 article, "Amid French crisis, Japan frets over virgins": Hoffman seems to make the usual post-modern mistake of turning an idea into an identity.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 13, 2015
Sights from the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival
The 18th Japan Media Arts Festival presented prizewinning art in various categories but also plenty of food for thought regarding technology's role in today's art and society.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 13, 2015
Saitama Gold Theater Company; Aum Shinrikyo sarin attack anniversary; CM of the week: Takarakuji
The Saitama Gold Theater Company, supervised by Japan's most famous theater director, Yukio Ninagawa, is made up of seniors — average age 75 — who were stage amateurs before they auditioned for the troupe. Now they play to thousands of paying customers every year, even overseas.
Reader Mail
Feb 7, 2015
Japan has enough to do in East Asia
I am merely adding my voice to those abundantly heard elsewhere, but I feel that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should not get involved with the Islamic State group at all. Let those people sort out their own destiny.
Reader Mail
Feb 7, 2015
Abe's wrong to dis need for modesty
Regarding Mizuho Aoki's Jan. 29 article, "Abe pledges to 'correct' the record on wartime sex slaves": Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making a grave error when he says "being modest does not receive recognition in the international community."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 6, 2015
Sumo tournament; "The Eternal Zero"; CM of the week: GlaxoSmithKline
If you like sumo but think the two-week basho schedule is too much, then check out "Nihon Ozumo Tournament Dai-Sanjukyu-kai Taikai" ("39th Japan Grand Sumo Tournament"; Fuji TV, Sun., 4:05 p.m.), which compresses the whole thing into a 90-minute event.
Reader Mail
Jan 24, 2015
Ties with West to be renewed
Regarding Harsh V. Pant's Jan. 19 article, "Even with a change of regime in Colombo, China's sway will continue to grow in Sri Lanka": Pant is vaguely accurate in most of his analysis of Sri Lanka's recent history, but his description of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's 2010 post-civil war election...
Reader Mail
Jan 14, 2015
Politics and women overseas
The Dec. 14 national election was personally significant for me because, for the first time in my life, I voted. A bittersweet experience it was. I happened to be on a short-term sabbatical in Japan when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for the snap election. During the weeks leading up to it, I collected...
Reader Mail
Jan 14, 2015
TV talents' gross dining habits
I love cooking and eating and am a big fan of television shows featuring these "skills." But I think I've discovered at least a partial explanation for my son's and his friends' abhorrent lack of table manners that seem immune to parental correction: chewing loudly with an open mouth; talking with a...
Reader Mail
Jan 14, 2015
Power to France's constitution
The terrorist attacks in France remind us how difficult it is for different cultures to live together in one society. Media reports have made much of the fact that not a few Muslims have been frustrated with measures implemented by the French government. As France has adopted a secular constitution,...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 10, 2015
French police kill Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects; four hostages die in separate siege
Two brothers wanted for a bloody attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were killed on Friday when anti-terrorist police stormed their hideout, while a second siege ended with the deaths of four hostages.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 8, 2015
#JeSuisCharlie — messages of solidarity following tragedy in Paris
Reader Mail
Jan 7, 2015
Wanted: energy-cost perspective
I read with increasing frustration Eric Johnston's Jan. 2 article, "Nuclear motive suspected in feed-in tariff reforms," which is a bleat on behalf of the solar power industry. Perhaps Johnston should take a trip into the countryside and see what passes for green power in action. On Jan. 3, for example,...
Reader Mail
Jan 7, 2015
Making the homeless invisible
Regarding Tomohiro Osaki's Dec. 30 article, "Shibuya shuts parks, thwarting soup runs": For the past 22 years, I have been delivering rice balls to the homeless in the Shibuya Station area through the Tokyo Union Church.
Reader Mail
Jan 7, 2015
An 'addiction' worth keeping
I wish to express concern regarding Tomohiro Osaki's Jan. 5 front-page article, "Patriotic few battle addiction to peace." Already the headline is problematic. Using the term "addiction" to describe Japan's pacifism implies that it is somehow a harmful thing that must be eradicated.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2015
Staying up all night to get lucky (bags)
New Year's in Japan means fukubukuro (literally, 'lucky bags'). In a tradition kickstarted by the Matsuya Department Store almost 100 years ago, retail outlets offer mystery grab bags to the shoppers who are willing to buy blindly in hopes of scoring a bargain.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 1, 2015
Most read Life stories of 2014
From cannabis growers to tips on learning Japanese, these were some of the most read Life section articles of 2014.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 1, 2015
Most read Culture stories of 2014
OK Go's Japanese-inspired music video and Sailor Moon's special birthday were some of the most read and shared Culture articles of 2014.
Foreign tourists with unpaid medical bills in Japan to be denied entry
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during ministerial meeting meeting on foreign residents in Japan on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office.
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.
Japan won’t wait for G7 summit for possible U.S. trade deal
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the U.S. speaks to reporters at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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