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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
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2008
Looking for ways to lure more visitors to these shores
What are people who work in the domestic tourism industry — from tour operators to inn owners to regional tourism promotion offices — doing to attract foreign visitors? Here are the voices of marketers from across Japan:
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Nov 16, 2008
What do you know about Nippon?
These days, you have to accomplish a lot before calling yourself a Japan expert. Knowing the language, geography, history and customs of Japan is simply not enough.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 7, 2008
Sensoji fetes rebuilding of hall
Asakusa has long been a big tourist attraction for visitors from the world over, but its lure is now hitting a peak, with a series of events under way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of reconstruction of the main hall at Sensoji Temple.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 28, 2008
Foreign students to fill the halls
Rie Yoshinaga had a wide range of colleges to choose from.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Oct 21, 2008
Dining on the Web
Every day at around 4 p.m., as the air cools down, the sky takes on a purple hue and schoolchildren make their way home, hordes of people across Japan — predominantly female, predominantly in their 30s — start furiously typing on their PCs. They all have one burning question on their minds: "What...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Oct 19, 2008
Showa-ing it like it was
Most of us have things we were given years ago that we cannot simply throw away, even though they're of no use and are often simply gathering dust somewhere in the corner of a room.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2008
Tales of experience from foreign homeowners
The following are the experiences of four foreigners who have ventured into property purchase in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2008
A step-by-step guide to owning a home in Japan
So you are ready to be king of your own castle in Japan. Adios to the days when you, a mere rent-paying tenant of a grotty apartment, worried about landlords taking you to the cleaners for spilling tea on the carpet or making minuscule holes in the walls to pin up framed pics.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 26, 2008
Sounds of shakuhachi
A kikazu Nakamura, an award-winning shakuhachi flute player who has performed in more than 150 cities around the world, will hold a recital in Tokyo on Oct. 28.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 31, 2008
Is yours a sweet and eco-friendly home?
After hearing all the talk about climate change and global warming, many of us are now aware that we need to change our lifestyle in the battle to stop our planet from being a far less agreeable place to live.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 31, 2008
Why is Japan lagging in solar-energy field?
In the renewable energy industry, how does Japan compare with the rest of the world?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 31, 2008
Living a clean, green life
Sporting a smart, modern exterior, the home of Keiko and Yoshiyuki Shimizu and their children Ayano, 13, and Haruki, 11, in a residential area of Kawasaki, south of Tokyo in Kanagawa Prefecture, is full of fun features inside. The three- story house has a grassy garden on its flat roof, where you can...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 31, 2008
'Backyard naturalist' finds it fun to be green
Tadashi Nemoto's home in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, is proof that you don't need lots of expensive equipment to enjoy an ecological lifestyle.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2008
Temporary arrangements
Akio Watanabe knows what a dead end feels like.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 11, 2008
Classic songs for summer
Greg Irwin, one of very few foreign singer-songwriters of classic Japanese songs, particularly doyo (children's songs) in English, will perform two shows in Shibuya on July 18.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 8, 2008
How green are Japan's urbanites?
The Group of Eight summit began Monday at the Windsor Hotel Toya, an exquisite, maximum- security resort in Hokkaido. There, the world's top leaders are holed up in conference rooms, trying to strike last-minute deals on various global issues, the most disputed of all being climate change.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008
Foreigners flourish in the realm of Japanese arts
Japan has come a long way since the era of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), arguably the world's most famous and certainly the first Western Japanophile. Before Hearn, a Greek-Irishman who married the daughter of a local samurai in remote and rural Shimane Prefecture, and also took on Japanese citizenship,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 29, 2008
Thomas Charles Marshall: Irishman excels at age-old biwa
With his back straight and his head up, Thomas Charles Marshall sits down in an arbor overlooking a lotus-filled pond on the compact but verdant campus of the University of Creation; Art, Music & Social Work in Yoshii, Gunma Prefecture. He slowly reaches for his pear-shaped biwa, a century-old mulberry-wood...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008
Trio release music that's all bottled up
One recent night at Note Cafe, a small coffee shop tucked away on a side street off a shopping arcade in the Jujo district of northern Tokyo, two women and a man sat round a table together. They took out a dozen glass bottles of various sizes, shapes and colors, and placed them on the table.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 20, 2008
U.K. home-schoolers come to Tokyo for robot comp
Donning T-shirts of all colors and designs, some of the world's brightest science-minded boys and girls met in Tokyo in late April for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Open Asian Championship, an international robotics competition for children aged 9 to 15.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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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