It's been said time and again: 日本人は英語がダメ (Nihonjin wa Eigo ga dame, The Japanese are terrible at English). In spite of the strong emphasis on 英語教育 (Eigo kyōiku, English education) instilled in a rigorous school system and the numerous 英会話学校 (Eikaiwa gakkō, English conversation schools) ...
Food in Japan is hardwired to emotion, personal identity and memory in a way that is often baffling to Westerners.
Speaking as a Japanese person, it's a bit disheartening to see the words "samurai" and "idiot" in the same sentence. Filmmaker Hyoe Yamamoto's documentary "Samurai and Idiots: The Olympus Affair" not only pairs the two, it shows the lack of logic and wisdom behind ...
Director/scriptwriter Atsuko Hirayanagi's film "Oh Lucy!" reflects some of her own opinions on cultural divide.
It was in 2001 when my friend, Chikako Sakamoto, paid ¥9.8 million for a six-tatami-mat apartment in Tokyo's central Minato Ward. The apartment was inside a 長期滞在者用 (chōki taizaisha-yō, long term resident's) wing of an old hotel in Roppongi, with a very low ceiling ...
When it comes to child care in Japan, women typically take on the lion’s share of the workload. Men, by comparison, are generally too exhausted after work to help out in any way. According to the Asahi Shimbun, however, more men are looking to take ...
The Me Too movement has arrived in Japan at last, and more Japanese women are opening up about issues surrounding sexual harassment.
Filmmaker Aisling Walsh is not a native Canadian — she's a Dubliner who has pursued most of her career in England. But Walsh fell in love with Nova Scotia after learning about Maud Lewis (1903-70), the beloved folk artist who spent her life in ...
Sixty years since its introduction to the country, Japan will host the world's first Olympic surfing competion. But where did Japan's surf scene begin?
In late 1992, Kazuhiro Soda was attending a "company information session" in Tokyo, where young students about to graduate from university were introduced to various companies as prospective recruits. "I looked around and saw of a sea of young Japanese, all wearing the same black ...
