Tomoko Otake - The Japan Times

September 04, 2025

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Tomoko Otake

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Tomoko Otake

Tomoko Otake is a senior writer with a strong interest in health, medical and social issues. A native of Nara Prefecture, she obtained an M.A. in journalism from The University of Montana.

Japan Times

Events / Events Outside Tokyo

May 3, 2013

It's not too late for hanami

This year's sakura (cherry blossoms) took many people by surprise — especially in the Kanto region. Unusually warm weather in March hastened the peak of the blossoms by a couple of weeks, and by early April, when all the parties by and under the sakura trees were to take place, the beautiful pink petals...

Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink

Apr 26, 2013

Sample a sweet Golden Week experience at the National Confectionary Expo

Sweets mean different things to different people. Some say such treats are their perfect stress release, while others say they bring back childhood memories.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET

Apr 23, 2013

Hiroshima: What sweets tickled your taste buds at the National Confectionery Exposition?

'A bag of cheap sweets and snacks from Osaka, as well as candies using tangerines from Sakurajima, Kagoshima Prefecture. I buy sweets mostly to give away to my kids and their friends.'

Japan Times

Events / Events In Tokyo

Apr 19, 2013

Buddhist bash offers up some spiritual relief

Most Japanese people come in contact with Buddhist priests on formal occasions, such as when a family member passes away. But a cross-denominational group of young Buddhist monks is trying to change that — by putting together a unique cultural event involving three Buddhist temples, a Shinto shrine,...

JAPAN

Apr 18, 2013

Pulvers wins Noma translation prize

Roger Pulvers, a noted writer and veteran contributor to The Japan Times, has won the 19th Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature, major publishing house Kodansha Ltd. said.

CULTURE / Stage

Mar 29, 2013

Revamped Kabukiza theater aims to charm a new audience

The Kabukiza is back — with big ambitions and aspirations to make the nation's classical theatrical entertainment more attractive to a 21st-century audience.

CULTURE / Music

Mar 14, 2013

Miyabi Matsuoka takes an enlightened approach to teaching the harp

To Miyabi Matsuoka, the harp is a mirror that reveals who you really are. She says she can tell the personality of a harp player by the way he or she manipulates the instrument, which affects the sound they create.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 10, 2013

Filmmaker captures the 3/11 stress of Tohoku's deaf

Nobuko Kikuchi, a 72-year-old resident of Iwanuma, Miyagi Prefecture, couldn't hear the emergency sirens that followed the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 11, 2011.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Mar 3, 2013

Japanese women strive to empower themselves

When it comes to gender equality, Japan has never failed to disappoint.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Mar 3, 2013

Yukari Horie: Making life easier for working moms

Yukari Horie, 30, is managing director of Arrow Arrow, a Tokyo-based NPO that offers consulting to companies with female workers who are in the later stages of their pregnancy or who have just become moms and are wondering how to adjust their work styles to accommodate their life needs. Horie's group,...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Mar 3, 2013

Maco Yoshioka: Battling the postpartum blues

Maco Yoshioka is the founder of Madre Bonita, a nonprofit group that offers postpartum fitness programs for women using elastic exercise balls. Yoshioka, 40, who studied sports physiology at the University of Tokyo, says she became aware of physical and mental difficulties for new mothers when, in the...

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Mar 3, 2013

A visit to Usa, the Japanese city that knows how to win

It is the time of the year when many people get nervous about winning and losing. Students are cramming hard to pass entrance exams to get into the high schools and colleges of their dreams.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Mar 3, 2013

Yu Negoro: Documenting the gender imbalance

Yu Negoro, 40, is a documentary filmmaker who has delved deep into the issues of gender and sexuality in Japanese society. Her first project was a series of three short films dealing with women suffering from eating disorders, a condition Neguro suffered in her 20s. Attributing her problems partly to...

Events / Events Outside Tokyo

Mar 1, 2013

Sample Okinawan flavors on Yokohama walk

In order to escape the current harsh winter weather, some of us might be planning a getaway to somewhere nice and warm, such as Okinawa. But for the rest of us who can't actually make the trip to Japan's delightful subtropical region and lie on a beach, there's "Little Okinawa" in Yokohama.

LIFE / Lifestyle

Feb 19, 2013

Sewing words for thought

Some words can evoke powerful images, values and stereotypes that have crept into our subconsciousness to sometimes dictate the way we think or behave. For Ruri Clarkson, this is something that needs to be challenged in Japan, and which she does herself with art.

Japan Times

LIFE / WEEK 3

Feb 17, 2013

Tracing time's passing through faces of Tokyo

Petri Artturi Asikainen would regularly accost strangers in Tokyo, on the streets, in parks or bars and on trains. With a high-end Nikon D3 digital SLR in his hands, the lanky and bespectacled Finn would ask — somewhat timidly summoning one of the few Japanese phrases he had memorized: "Can I take...

Japan Times

Events / Events Outside Tokyo

Feb 15, 2013

Skiers, head toward the lights

Skiers and snowboarders who pass through JR Nagano Station should make the effort to take a short side trip to nearby Zenkoji Temple during the week starting Saturday. Wooden buildings that line the street approaching the popular temple will be lit up in five colors for the annual Nagano Tomyo Festival....

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Feb 3, 2013

Hidetoshi Masunaga: making revolution through the Constitution

On Dec. 14, 2012, two days before the Lower House election in which the Democratic Party of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was eclipsed as the conservative Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in a landslide, a one-page advert with a huge banner headline appeared in a vernacular...

Japan Times

Events / Events In Tokyo

Feb 1, 2013

Carp expo hopes to make waves with enthusiasts

The love of nishikigoi, an ornamental carp with characteristically red and black patterns, has recently spread worldwide, spawning a variety of koi (carp) clubs, associations and periodicals in various regions and languages. Anyone interested in taking a peek into this vibrant hobbyist culture of keeping,...

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Jan 30, 2013

Local 3-D printing pioneers make it easy for all to join in

Whether it's hobbyists making toys, designers prototyping products or a doctor creating artificial organs, the 3-D printing boom has clearly hit Japan.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

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