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May 05, 2024
 

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Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson is the managing editor of The Japan Times, where he has worked since the birth of HTML. Once upon a time, he was on the features desk and wrote regularly about culture and technology. He can be found on way too many social platforms, including Mastodon, Post.news, Bluesky and Threads.
For Mark Thompson's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 3, 2018
Yayoi Kusama in Jakarta: She'll be your mirror
'Life is the Heart of a Rainbow,' the Yayoi Kusama exhibition now on at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jakarta, is the first retrospective of the artist Indonesia has ever hosted.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 27, 2017
The faces of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2017
The 30th Tokyo International Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday, is screening a variety of cinema from all over the world at various venues in Tokyo. The festival runs until Nov. 3, when the jury will announce the winning films from the competition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 26, 2017
Reconnecting with our nature: teamLab's digital revolution
An interactive art collective wants us all to connect and experience a world without boundaries.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Feb 2, 2017
Tributes to the 'father of Pac-Man'
Following the news that Masaya Nakamura, whose company created Pac-Man, had died at the age of 91, social media was filled with tributes to the 'father' of the beloved yellow gobbler.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2017
The new testament to Bowie's star power
"I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something," the younger Bowie once said about "a major hero" of his, Elvis Presley.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 8, 2016
'The Universe and Art: Princess Kaguya, Leonardo Da Vinci, teamLab': Art that moves beyond our world
In the beginning, long before Netflix and Google Maps, our ancestors had only the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars to guide, dazzle and humble them. Naturally, as religions began to form, the first place to look was up, because surely that's where the deities dwell, right? And that yearning to better understand the firmament begat a study of the celestial patterns and instruments to bring them closer into view.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 20, 2016
Japanese food samples: Look so good you could eat them
Last week, the Google Doodle paid tribute to Takizo Iwasaki (1895-1965), the inventor of shokuhin sampuru, the lifelike food models that appear in restaurant displays throughout Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jun 8, 2016
'Girls' just wanna have fun in Japan
"Girls," an Emmy award-winning HBO series, focuses on a quartet of women in their early 20s who are trying to — surprise, surprise — figure out what they want to do with their lives. Like its outspoken creator — the intellectual "It Girl" Lena Dunham — "Girls" is polarizing: You either get it or you don't. But rewards come to those who follow the messy emotional history — the stormy fights, the family problems, the endless search for the perfect career or partner. Ultimately it's Dunham's NYC-flavored humor — which mocks timeless issues of singledom and current-day first-world problems — that wins out over the Sturm und Drang.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Mar 3, 2016
Hot wheels at the 86th Geneva International Motor Show
Journalists pore over a cut-down Aston Martin on the second press day of the 86th International Auto Show in Geneva on Wednesday. The show opened to the public on Thursday and runs until March 13. It has more than 200 exhibitors, and more than 120 product launches are expected. | MARTIAL TREZZINI, KEYSTONE / AP
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / David Bowie in Japan
Jan 15, 2016
15 minutes more
One day in 1996, when I was working as an editor/writer on the features desk, I arrived at work and was told as I walked in the door that an unnamed person had called. They were looking for someone at The Japan Times to do a one-on-one interview with David Bowie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / David Bowie in Japan
Jan 14, 2016
Like some cat from Japan: A tribute to David Bowie
The late David Bowie's appreciation of Japan and its culture was strong. Following his recent death, The Japan Times asked five people who share that connection with the country, and who witnessed the decade-spanning trajectory of this starman, to recall what his sound and vision meant to them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2016
The difficulty of being Frank Gehry
The exhibition "Frank Gehry: I Have an Idea," currently at 21_21 Design Sight and curated by fellow architect Tsuyoshi Tane, crams in a lot, but it's not exactly a linear retrospective. Rather, it's an upward look at a man on a tightrope — a man who must balance form and function; rein in creativity with efficiency, precision and organization; square the client's objectives with his own desire to stretch the medium; and make magic on a large scale. Naturally, it's no cakewalk.
International Reports
Dec 31, 2015
Global Insight
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 16, 2015
Derrick Woollacott: Lost postwar memories find the light of day
In 1942, Derrick Woollacott entered the military and ended up kickstarting his career as a photographer at age 19. Lacking formal education after 14 and the financial means to own a camera, this was his best shot.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 26, 2015
This is Halloween, Japan-style
Stumped for a costume idea this year? This selection of outfits from pre-Halloween parades on Sunday, curated from social media and Japan Times's staff, might give you a few ideas for the big event this weekend.
Japan Times
Places
Oct 23, 2015
Halloween events in Japan 2015
Halloween in Japan ... can it get any bigger or crazier. Thanks to a perfect storm of cosplay and consumerism, Japan's major cities have embraced the Western holiday in a big way over the past five years. And this list of Halloween events in Tokyo and elsewhere is just the tip of the big orange iceberg.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2015
Scenes of flood damage from Typhoon Etau, as seen on social media
[View the story "Typhoon Etau's torrential rains flood Ibaraki, Miyagi prefectures" on Storify]
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 18, 2015
Erik Satie: A 'gymnopedist' ahead of his time
Erik Satie (1866-1925) said and did a lot of memorable things, many remarkably outlandish. Brilliant and bonkers, he composed works that range from cabaret ditties to a "symphonic drama," from light music for educating children to complex parodies of the masters. And who can forget such composition titles as "Desiccated Embryos," "Unpleasant Insights" or "Sketches and Provocations of a Big Wooden Fellow," hatched many decades before the Theater of the Absurd or Monty Python?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 9, 2015
'Beauty of the Spirits': What lurks behind masks of mankind
"Masks: Beauty of the Spirits" comes from the Musee du Quai Branly, an institution that former President Jacque Chirac spearheaded toward the end of his long reign. Opened in 2006 to both fanfare and controversy, the Paris museum's stated mission is to celebrate the masterpieces of non-European countries with the same reverence as as given to the Western works seen by millions at the Louvre and the Pompidou Center.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2015
Scenes from Tokyo Marathon 2015
On Feb. 22, thousands of marathon runners traversed 42 km of Tokyo, and a large number of them went the extra mile in the wardrobe department.
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.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
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.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
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.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

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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