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Alexander Jacoby
For Alexander Jacoby's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
JAPAN / Media
May 31, 2009
Pigs, pimps, prostitutes and other things — Japan's New Age
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 to the French Nouvelle Vague, several of whose practitioners are alive and working, the Japanese Nuberu Bagu (a katakana reading) looks, at first sight, like a thing of the past.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2008
Tora-san in English
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.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 28, 2006
A lifetime's observations
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.
LIFE / Language
Nov 21, 2006
Net resources make light work of Japanese study
'When the tunnel where the border is long is passed through there was snow country."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 17, 2006
Why is Japan kept in dark?
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, even turning the night to a purplish haze.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 29, 2006
The past comes alive in Izu
Japanese and foreign residents of the Kanto region head for Izu to seek that elusive thing, "the real Japan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 7, 2006
Web gives niche interests a chance in the free market
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 an extension of personal autonomy. But the association operated almost in reverse by the end of the 20th century: With the rise of branding, people seemed to define their identity through what they chose to buy. Lifestyle decisions, political principles and ethical positions all become consumer choices.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 31, 2006
The subversive soul of 'The Wizard of Oz'
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 and lesbian audiences, for whom Judy Garland's Dorothy has become a mascot, may seem perverse to conservative viewers, but it derives from an awareness that "The Wizard of Oz" is, in fact, a subversive film which challenges American sacred cows.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2005
More travel information
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.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2005
Eastern Europe in the Far East
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.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on