For Alexander Jacoby's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Fifty years is a long time, especially in film history. The iconoclastic Japanese New Wave, born with the release in 1959 of Nagisa Oshima's debut feature, "A Town of Love and Hope," is now an established part of Japan's cinematic canon. And in contrast ...
This year marks the 40th birthday of arguably the most popular character in Japanese cinema — Tora-san. To celebrate the occasion, Shochiku is releasing the complete set of its Tora-san films, remastered and subtitled in English. Released under the umbrella title of "Otoko wa tsurai ...
He saw Ginza when it was a blackened plain but for the bombed-out Mitsukoshi department store, the Hattori Building and a handful of other structures left standing. He observed the city as it was rebuilt, and its people. He observed, and then he wrote. New ...
'When the tunnel where the border is long is passed through there was snow country." So starts Yasunari Kawabata's classic novel "Snow Country," as garbled by online translation service Alta Vista Babel Fish. It's no surprise that learners of Japanese, from humble beginners to professional translators, ...
For tourists and residents alike, the quintessential image of Tokyo is of a city lit by artificial light. As soon as twilight gathers, the central shopping and entertainment districts of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Roppongi are awash with neon, shining from each shop and office, ...
Japanese and foreign residents of the Kanto region head for Izu to seek that elusive thing, "the real Japan." Only two hours southwest of Tokyo, this slender peninsula seems a world away from the modernized, Westernized environment of the capital. It is a region of ...
Economists right back to Adam Smith in the 18th century have exalted the concept of the free market, where all commodities can be bought and sold without tariffs or subsidies. In Western neoliberal political thought, market freedom had become viewed by the 1980s as ...
T he combination of Irvine Welsh, author of "Trainspotting," and "The Wizard of Oz," Hollywood's quintessential family film, in the stage play "Babylon Heights" may raise some eyebrows. But "The Wizard of Oz" is not innocent entertainment. The significance of the film to gay ...
Vladivostok is most easily accessible by plane from Niigata, which is served two or three times weekly by Air Vladivostok. Flights also depart twice a week from Toyama and Kansai International. Tickets prices vary depending on the season, but as a rule are fairly expensive. ...
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia For generations of expatri ates in the days before jet travel, the first stop on the journey back to Europe from Japan was Vladivostok, Russia's easternmost city and the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Here, ferries from Niigata docked, and travelers boarded trains ...
