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July 15, 2025
 

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Ken Kawashima
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 19, 2013
Fukushima photos focus on what can't be seen
Photographer Tomoki Imai has been a blur of activity since we reached the lookout point halfway up 601-meter Mount Higakure in the Futaba district of Fukushima Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012
The photographic cartographer
Tomoki Imai remembers well the turning point in his life when he decided to become a professional photographer. Already an aspiring film director at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the Hiroshima-native was turned onto the raw and trigger-happy cityscape and portrait snapshots of self-styled photo "genius"...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012
The photographic cartographer
Tomoki Imai remembers well the turning point in his life when he decided to become a professional photographer. Already an aspiring film director at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the Hiroshima-native was turned onto the raw and trigger-happy cityscape and portrait snapshots of self-styled photo "genius"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 5, 2005
Momix: taking it to the top
Moses Pendleton remembers well his first taste of live performance. He was an elementary school kid when his father -- a dairy farmer in northern Vermont -- hired his young son to show off his prized Holstein cows at the county fair. "My job was to walk the animals around and make them look good in order...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2005
Painting over old Edo
As a child, Akira Yamaguchi spent countless hours hunched over his desk, doodling the many space-age rocket ships and humanoids he encountered in his bedroom anime collection. The young artist, however, also remembers feeling a sense of guilt whenever he attempted to mimic more traditional Japanese art...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Dec 19, 2004
Dixieland duo's Wonderful World
Take a stroll down Royal Street in the Adventureland area of Tokyo Disneyland any weekend and you'll likely hear the heart-tugging sounds of Dixieland jazz. What's most surprising, perhaps, is the sheer authenticity of the New Orleanian music re-created by 62-year-old trumpet player Yoshio Toyama and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2004
Manga animates new millennium
Manga took a giant leap into its future on New Year's Day 1963, when space-age cartoon images from Osamu Tezuka's famed comic book "Tetsuwa Atomu (Astro Boy)" came to life in Japan's first original animated TV series. This was the birth of anime, which has now mushroomed into a multi-billion-dollar global...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2004
Cubist on the turntables
A cacophony of electronic bleeps and disjointed drum rolls kick off the second and latest CD "Sensation" by Ryo Kato, aka DJ Klock. What follows is a series of drill-like drum riffs that start, stop then start again several times before settling into a jerky hip-hop-like beat. Later, this transient groove...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2004
Shiroyama bravely battles on
In matters of war, history is most often recounted from the perspective of the conqueror and rarely, if ever, passed down from the point of view of the defeated. So it's not surprising that the historical significance of the remnants of 16th-century Hachioji Castle on western Tokyo's Mount Fukazawa --...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 29, 2004
Who prefers concrete and cars to Tokyo's natural gem?
With its oddly ear-shaped black-and-white striped body, the hammer-size mimigata tennannsho, a grass that grows in the depths of Mount Takao's forests, has long been an object of fascination and loathing to hikers in the western Tokyo quasi-national park, where it's not just its grotesque shape that...
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 20, 2004
Guys en pointe frolic in frocks in grand diva style
Watching a bunch of grown men wearing tutus and pancake makeup parodying some of ballet's most cherished classics, such as "The Dying Swan" and "The Nutcracker Suite," may not sound like everybody's bag. But the wildly hilarious Les Ballets Grandiva, an all-male comedy ballet troupe based in New York,...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2004
A spiritual journey that begins within
What is the sound of the universe? What does one hear? These are questions that crossed David Sylvian's mind prior to the making of his most recent album "Blemish," the debut release of his Samadhi Sound label last year. Talking over the phone from London last week, the singer/songwriter and frontman...
Japan Times
Features
Mar 28, 2004
Barenboim Project to 'strip' Beethoven
The 32 piano sonatas that Beethoven composed between 1799 and 1824, including some of his most recognized works like the "Moonlight" and "Appassionata" sonatas, are often considered among the German composer's finest and most personal musical achievements.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Tropical Storm Nari moves northward, with possible landfall Tuesday
Tropical Storm Nari's forecast path as of Monday morning
Nissan clinches $4.5 billion bond deal after orders soar
Nissan Motor has raised $4.5 billion through a junk bond sale in U.S. dollars and euros, part of which carries a record-high coupon rate.
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Is Japanese skin really ‘too smooth’ for Hideo Kojima’s games?
Hideo Kojima, the leading auteur in Japanese video games, has skirted controversy in the wake of the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
An emoji used to say it all. Now it might say too much.
Apple’s Craig Federighi shows off a set of emoji at a conference on June 13, 2016. While the small pictures have proved helpful in conveying nuance in our texts, younger people are using them less often.
‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.

Podcast

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Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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