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May 05, 2024
 

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Anthony Fensom
For Anthony Fensom's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009
Final word on the year's best reading
Our reviewers were caught out when asked to come up with their short-lists for the best books of 2009. A list? No problem. A catalog, even, if you please. But a limit of just three recommendations each was tantamount to censorship. From Jake Adelstein's blockbuster underworld expose, "Tokyo Vice," to long awaited translations of noir master Edogawa Rampo and lyrical mythologist Mieko Kanai, dazzling new fiction, and on through a fascinating glut of cultural and historical investigations, the year gave bookworms plenty of fertile ground to burrow into. So, which ones made the cut?
CULTURE / Books
Jul 26, 2009
A peaceful challenge against globalization
London's famous Ritz Hotel boarded its windows, construction sites were cleared of rubble and bankers were warned to stay home. The event was the April 2009 meeting of the Group of 20, and no effort was spared to protect the visiting dignitaries — and financial district — from demonstrations by anti- globalization protesters determined to get their message across to a global audience.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 1, 2009
Importance of being a top middleweight
Reviewed by Anthony Fensom Striking with a magnitude of 6.8, the severe earthquake that struck Niigata Prefecture and its surrounds on July 16, 2007, left a trail of destruction in its wake, killing seven people, injuring over 830 and destroying 500 homes.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 24, 2008
Some lessons from Japan's burst bubble
HOLY GRAIL OF MACROECONOMICS: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession, by Richard C. Koo. John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd., 2008, 296 pp., $34.95 (cloth) Hit by a devastating housing slump, billions of dollars of subprime losses and rising oil prices, the U.S. economy appears headed for recession, taking Japan down with it. It's a situation tailor-made for economists to prove their mettle, but will they rise to the challenge?
CULTURE / Books
Mar 18, 2007
Joking aside, the recovery offers a lifetime opportunity
The Japanese Money Tree: How Investors Can Prosper from Japan's Economic Rebirth, by Andrew Shipley. Pearson Education, 2006, 245 pp., $24.99 (cloth) Derided during the 1990s by foreign fund managers as "the sick man of Asia," Japan's weak growth performance after the economic bubble burst made it the butt of jokes for over a decade.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 21, 2007
An old way for modern business
Japan's Business Renaissance: How the World's Greatest Economy Revived, Renewed, and Reinvented Itself, by John C. Beck and Mark B. Fuller. McGraw-Hill, 2006, 226 pp., $27.95 (cloth) There was a time when you couldn't walk past a bookstore without seeing scores of books preaching Japanese business knowhow. Ezra Vogel's "Japan as No. 1" may have been the most famous of the boom years, but a multitude of others were rolled out as authors and publishers tried to cash in on what was the hottest market on the planet.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 18, 2006
Roles that lead a company to success
THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION by Tom Kelley and Jonathon Littman. Doubleday, 276 pp., 2005, $29.95 (cloth). "It's the smile, stupid."
CULTURE / Books
May 14, 2006
Asia needs to fill its brand deficit
ASIAN BRAND STRATEGY by Martin Roll, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 272 pp., $42.50 (cloth). Shizuka Arakawa's graceful spins and spirals enthralled a nation as she won Japan the gold medal in women's figure skating at the Winter Olympics. But few would have cheered more loudly than Tokyo rice producer Toyorice Co., which became flooded with orders thanks to Arakawa's appearances in TV commercials for its Kinmemai golden sprouted rice.
Japan says Biden's description of nation as xenophobic is 'unfortunate'
The National Diet building in Tokyo
G7 eyes plan on U.S.-led $50 billion aid package for Ukraine
A local resident visits the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on Thursday. The U.S. is in talks with close partners to lead a group of allies that would give as much as $50 billion in aid to Ukraine.
With eye on China, defense chiefs agree to bolster interoperability
From left: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian defense chief Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro hold a joint news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
Japan drops to 70th in press freedom rankings
A businessman reads a newspaper outside a train station in Tokyo.
'Monster' Inoue ready to tear down Luis Nery in title defense at Tokyo Dome
Naoya Inoue (left) and Luis Nery following a pre-fight news conference in Yokohama on Saturday, two days ahead of their super bantamweight title fight.
Debate on constitutional revision at a standstill despite Kishida's pledges
With less than two months left before the conclusion of the current session of parliament, any possibility that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida can deliver constitutional reform before the end of his term as Liberal Democratic Party president in late September, as he has promised, appears remote.
Sapporo court ruling on Ainu fishing rights presents tough questions
A traditional Ainu preserved food called <i>satchep</i> (dried fish) being made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Dec. 25. The Sapporo District Court ruled last month that the Raporo Ainu Nation's rights as an Indigenous people did not extend to having an inherent right to fish for commercial reasons.
With eye on China, defense chiefs agree to bolster interoperability
From left: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian defense chief Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro hold a joint news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.

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Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
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