author

 
Menu
Search
 
May 17, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Mark Schreiber

Meta

Mark Schreiber
Mark Schreiber worked as a salaryman in travel, consumer electronics, computer software, advertising and market research before turning to translation and writing full time. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has lived in Tokyo since 1966.
For Mark Schreiber's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 16, 2005
Unconventional and unorthodox, but still fun to read
LAST SEEN IN SHANGHAI, by Howard Turk. Hong Kong: Asia 2000 Ltd., 1998, 286 pp., $18 (paper). INSPECTOR MORIMOTO AND THE SUSHI CHEF, by Timothy Hemion. Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, Inc., 2005, 222 pp., $25.95 (cloth). THE TIGER'S GOLD by Donald G. Moore. Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, Inc., 2005, 214...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 25, 2005
Corruption and intrigue in high places
THE ASSASSIN'S TOUCH, by Laura Joh Rowland. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2005, 312 pp., $24.95 (cloth). BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS, by Eliot Pattison. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 360 pp., 2004, $24.95 (cloth). A day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast, I fired off an e-mail message...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 21, 2005
It's the eccentrics whose appeal endures
KILLING RAIN, by Barry Eisler. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2005, 337 pp., $24.95 (cloth). BANGKOK TATTOO, by John Burdett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, 304 pp., $24 (cloth). While perhaps not as well known as Sherlock Holmes or Agent 007, pulp magazines and later paperback books featuring the intrepid...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005
Is it a crime to want realism?
DRAGON'S EYE, by Andy Oakes. Overlook TP, 2005, 460 pp., $14.95 (paper). Eight horribly mutilated bodies are found chained together in Shanghai's Huangpu River. Four of the corpses, the autopsies reveal, turn out to be recently executed criminals; two others are European males; one appears to be an overseas...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 19, 2005
Life and times of a Heian-Period crime sleuth
Scrolling back in history THE DRAGON SCROLL, by I.J. Parker. New York: Penguin, 2005, 432 pp., $13.00 (paper). Now beginning a new series with Penguin, Parker has just released "The Dragon Scroll." While the third full-length novel to be published, it is the first, chronologically, in her series and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 22, 2005
Rambo comes marching home
"I broke down on the flight back from Vietnam, went crazy, shouting, screaming. It took several men to restrain me. . . . For years it was all I could think about, going home. Then when it finally happened, I snapped."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 24, 2005
Time for some Showa trivia and Heisei melodrama
GEISHA -- HARLOT -- STRANGLER -- STAR: A Woman, Sex & Morality in Modern Japan, by William Johnston. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 245 pp., $29.50, (cloth). ISOLATION, by Christopher Belton. New York: Leisure Fiction, 2003, $6.99, 372 pp., (paper). To be honest, I've never really understood...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2005
'Man Friday' recalls time in line at Japan's first record expo
With the 2005 World Expo Aichi in full swing until September in Nagoya, it may come as a surprise to some that Japan's first world exposition was to have taken place as long ago as in 1912. But that was cancelled due to the death of Emperor Meiji. Another one, to have run in conjunction with Tokyo's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2005
A fully not-boring Indian adventure
SHANTARAM, by Gregory David Roberts. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004, 936 pp., $24.95 (cloth). The lives that some people lead can put fiction to shame. One such example would be Australian novelist Gregory David Roberts, a former heroin addict who held up banks with a toy pistol. Apprehended and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 20, 2005
Gumshoes who pass in the night
THE RED EARTH OF ALABAMA, by Michiro Naito. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse, 2005, 188 pp., $23.95 (cloth). KINKI LULLABY, by Issac Adamson. New York: Dark Alley, 2004, 358 pp., $13.95, (paper). Even in this age of political correctness, it's proving difficult for popular fiction to wean itself from...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2005
When details of war stories metamorphose into tall tales
ZERO OVER BERLIN, by Joh Sasaki (translated by Hiroko Yoda with Matt Alt), New York: Vertical, 2004, 346 pp., $22.95 (cloth). BLACK WIND, by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. New York: Putnam, 2004, 532 pp., $27.95 (cloth). "Zero over Berlin," translated from Joh Sasaki's 1988 novel, is based on the premise...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 12, 2004
Wrapping things up in time for Christmas
Tokyo bibliophiles will no doubt look back at 2004 as the year in which a revered Tokyo institution -- the Maruzen book store -- moved from its original location in Nihombashi, where it had operated since 1870, to a new home on the first through fourth floors of the OAZO Building in Marunouchi. While...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 21, 2004
A boy detective of Old Edo
THE GHOST IN THE TOKAIDO INN, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. New York: Puffin Books, 2001, 214 pp., $6.99 (paper). Other books by same authors:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 17, 2004
Revealing true colors of Chinese justice
WHEN RED IS BLACK, by Qiu Xiaolong. Soho Press Inc., 2004, 309 pp., $25 (cloth). Like so many other inventions and contraptions that have filtered down throughout history, fictionalized stories of crime and detection are believed to have originated in China. Whodunits set in the Middle Kingdom have been...
Features
Oct 17, 2004
In another language of crime and detection
Qiu Xiaolong, 51, says his first encounter with mystery fiction occurred around age 14 or 15, when he read Sherlock Holmes stories during the Cultural Revolution. "Of course I read the book by stealth at the time," he recalls. Japanese mystery films shown in China years later provided another source...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004
In search of an elusive identity
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, by Don Lee. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, 318 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE PEARL DIVER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2004, 335 pp., $23.95 (cloth). One formula frequently applied to the mystery novel involves adoptees who reach adulthood and seek to track down...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 19, 2004
Just picture that!
The overthrow of the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate in 1867 and the restoration of imperial rule in 1868 was preceded by 15 years of intense change in news reporting.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 15, 2004
A pair of terrifying glances back in time
THE TOKYO ZODIAC MURDERS, by Soji Shimada, translated by Ross and Shika Mackenzie. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2004, 252 pp., 2,400 yen (cloth). THE SPECIAL PRISONER, by Jim Lehrer. New York: Random House, 2000, 230 pp., $23.95 (cloth).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 18, 2004
Hard-boiled and stuck to Thai ways
"When I finish a book I collapse and say, 'That's it. Never again,' " sighs Bangkok-based author Christopher G. Moore. "About three, four months later the demons pull me back, and the whole mad process starts over."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 20, 2004
Esoteric ways of the samurai
THE PERFUMED SLEEVE, by Laura Joh Rowland. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 326 pp., 2004, $24.95 (cloth). SENSEI, by John Donohue. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 258 pp., 2004, $23.95 (cloth). For the ninth time since his 1994 debut in "Shinju," Sano Ichiro ("the shogun's most honorable investigator...
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Human bone-like objects found at Nippon Steel plant’s molten iron pot, with one worker missing
Police believe it’s highly possible that human bones found in a molten iron pot at Nippon Steel's Oita factory belong to a missing male employee.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Man suspected of using smart glasses to cheat on Waseda University exams
The Waseda University campus in Tokyo. An 18-year-old male test-taker is suspected of using smart glasses to cheat during the university's entrance exam.
Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound.
Who’s toughest on China? Biden’s tariff tactic ups ante as election looms.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about new actions to protect American workers and businesses from China's "unfair" trade practices, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.

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

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER