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Bob Sliwa
For Bob Sliwa's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Oct 19, 2008
Subaru continues to drive to a different beat
There is no brand in Japan with as much unused potential as Subaru. It is kind of like Apple Inc. was in the late 1990s before it came roaring back to prominence with the return of Steve Jobs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jul 20, 2008
Rethinking the tiniest class of car
They are Japanese cultural icons, easily recognizable by their diminutive size and yellow license plates. But unlike their even smaller anime cousins, such as Pokemon, kei-jidosha (subcompact cars) have remained a completely domestic phenomenon.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
May 11, 2008
Japan's gourmands should hit the highway
At the beginning of the postwar period of economic growth in Japan, highways were more for transporting parts and goods to jump-start the economy than for going on a Sunday drive. Even into the 1980s, pit stops in highway rest areas were still the stuff of nightmares. Surrounded by trucks belching acrid clouds of diesel smoke, motorists would find available food limited to soggy noodles and nefarious hot dogs, and worn-out, dirty squat toilets made for unpleasant experiences.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jan 13, 2008
Ranking Japan's most scenic skylines
Mountaintop vistas and an absence of patrol cars make for a slice of motoring heaven.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Oct 28, 2007
Design climbs into the driver's seat
Japanese automakers' attention to the style stakes is on display at the Tokyo Motor Show, but they still need to shift it up a gear.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores