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May 02, 2024
 

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Mark Schreiber

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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:
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 28, 2020
Let's roll up our sleeves and get in the data
Once you know the vocabulary used in a Japanese survey, you'll be able to give your opinion on a range of issues.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2020
‘A Man’ looks beyond a stolen name and identity
An attorney turned amateur detective becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind a stolen identity in this Yomiuri Prize-winning thriller.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 18, 2020
Overindulging at home and playing the online ratings game amid a pandemic
One man reportedly left as many as 18 empty wine bottles and four large empty sake bottles out to be recycled each week during the pandemic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 4, 2020
Pandemic pours cold water on Japan's celebrated nightlife
Residents ponder whether or not it's safe to patronize their regular drinking spots.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 20, 2020
An aging sumo wrestler, food poisoning risks and safeguarding pets from COVID-19
Warning: A portion of this contribution deals with suicide, which some readers may find distressing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 6, 2020
Olympics and UFOs can't shift COVID-19 from the spotlight
First, some glum news: John Coates, head of the International Olympic Committee’s coordination commission, was quoted in The Australian on May 21 as expressing doubt over prospects for the Tokyo Olympics to be held in summer next year. Coates went on record as saying the decision on whether or not to proceed with the games in 2021 was likely to be made by October.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 30, 2020
‘Hold Your Breath, China’ review: China is once again the center of mystery and intrigue
“Hold Your Breath, China,” is the 10th detective novel in the saga of Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 23, 2020
Rats, bugs, crooks and trucks share media spotlight amid pandemic
With city dwellers around the world in lockdown, increasing reports have surfaced about wild animals infiltrating urban areas.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 9, 2020
A pandemic potpourri of Golden Week news gems
As if the COVID-19 pandemic didn't give Japan enough things to worry about, the unseasonably warm winter and resulting lack of snow may spell severe shortages of water by this summer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 25, 2020
Pundits pore over pandemic's impact on employment
Asahi Geino warns warns that economic calamities from the COVID-19 outbreak are likely to arrive in the form of three successive waves. The third wave, if it comes, will make the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987 seem like a picnic.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 21, 2020
Exploring the origins of kanji is a fine science
Many of us learn kanji by associating them with the pictographs on which they were originally based. What happens when scholars dispute those commonly held associations?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 11, 2020
Counting the cost of postponing the Tokyo Olympics
Nearly a month before the decision was announced to postpone the 2020 Olympics, the media was already speculating over their fate. On Feb. 24, the headline in Nikkan Gendai read, “Relinquishing of the Tokyo Olympics would mean ¥20 trillion in economic losses.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 21, 2020
Why are Japan’s millennials shunning alcohol?
Some time before the coronavirus outbreak put a damper on this year’s hanami (blossom viewing) parties and other social activities, the media had already noted that the decline in alcohol consumption by younger Japanese has been accelerating. This phenomenon even made the front page of the Nikkei Marketing Journal (Feb. 21).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 14, 2020
The panic buying of toiletries: It's like 1973 all over again
Where are all the masks? And where's the toilet paper? Nikkei Business (Feb. 28) suggested that panic buying in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which also occurred in eastern Japan following the catastrophic earthquake of March 2011, may be influenced in part by people's collective memory — particularly among older generations who experienced shortages of household goods following the "oil shock" that occurred after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 29, 2020
Kansai businesses suffer as COVID-19 alarm hurts tourism
The Japanese expression "kankodori ga naku" (literally, "the cuckoo sings") is frequently used to describe a business slump.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 18, 2020
Good enough: The different ways to use ii in Japanese
The discovery of an 18th-century book titled 'The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes' leads our writer on a journey into the Japanese terms used for apple-polishers and bootlickers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2020
News outlets weigh whether new virus will affect Olympics
Since mid-January, the name on the lips of increasing numbers of TV news announcers and commentators has been "Bukan," which is how the Chinese city of Wuhan is pronounced in Japanese.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 1, 2020
Dispatches from the front line of Japan's retail sector
Since October, business media have focused on two topics at the near-exclusion of numerous others: the economic repercussions of the consumption tax hike and how that increase has influenced, or accelerated, a shift from cash to electronic payments.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 18, 2020
Japan's news outlets take one step backward before moving forward
Before going forward into the new year, an extra edition of Shukan Shincho (with a Jan. 27 publication date) flashed back in time to track down author Ben Goto. Now a spry 89 years old, Goto achieved instant fame with a 1973 publication titled "Great Prophecies of Nostradamus." His book initially sold 2.5 million copies and, with sequels, total sales reached 6 million.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 4, 2020
From hangover cures to prairie dogs, tabloids end 2019 with a bang
For their final issues of December, the weeklies — their covers trimmed in gold color (except for the Sunday Mainichi, which came out in yellow-orange) — typically publish two-week bumper issues with extra pages. This gives many of them leeway to write about lots of timely topics. For instance, journalist Akiko Takata contributes a piece on prevention and remedies for hangovers in the Sunday Mainichi (Jan. 5-12).
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
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.

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