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July 12, 2025
 

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Kris Kosaka

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Kris Kosaka
Kris Kosaka, a resident of Japan since 1996, contributes regularly to The Japan Times. She is a lecturer at Meiji Gakuin University in the Faculty of International Studies.
Seicho Matsumoto’s “Suspicion” is based on a true story known as “the Beppu 300 million yen insurance murder,” swapping the real-life husband with a former Tokyo hostess.
CULTURE / Books
May 25, 2025
Truth is slippery in ‘Suspicion,’ a detective story based on a true crime
Seicho Matsumoto’s mystery novella is based on 1974’s “Beppu 300 million yen insurance murder.”
On the surface, "Wildcat Dome" tells a personal story of damaged children — now adults — bound together by tragedy. Underneath, there’s a constant undercurrent of political consequence, invisible and pervasive like radioactive particles.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 26, 2025
‘Wildcat Dome’ challenges Japan's historical narratives
Prolific writer Yuko Tsushima explores themes of militarization, colonialism and occupation through the identities of mixed-race orphans in postwar Japan.
"Giselle” is a ballet telling the story of a peasant girl that dies from a broken heart and the supernatural revenge and haunting that follow.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 11, 2025
National Ballet of Japan takes its 'Giselle' to Royal Opera House in London
First staged in 2022 to celebrate the NBJ’s 25th anniversary season, Miyako Yoshida's production is revived for the first time with several Tokyo shows in April.
Yuki Tejima, who runs the Instagram account booknerdtokyo, hesitated to try her hand at literary translation until she won an award at the International Translation Contest.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 29, 2025
Yuki Tejima's metamorphosis from bookworm to literary translator
An Instagram “bookfluencer” and professional translator for over 10 years, Tejima’s love of books was, strangely enough, a hurdle to working in literary translation.
Novelist Genki Kawamura wrote in the dedication to his “One Hundred Flowers” novel that his grandmother’s memories “bloomed like a hundred flowers” at the close of her life.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 22, 2025
'One Hundred Flowers': A moving exploration of loss, love and living with dementia
Author Genki Kawamura drew inspiration from his grandmother's experiences to thoughtfully portray a woman suffering from dementia in his novel.
K-Ballet Tokyo celebrates its 25th anniversary with an extended lineup including a revival of the vibrant pirate-story ballet "Le Corsaire."
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 15, 2025
K-Ballet Tokyo marks 25 years of passion and perseverance
The dance company celebrates a milestone anniversary with an extended lineup including a revival of the vibrant pirate-story ballet "Le Corsaire."
Yamanote Jijosha has a long history of staging Shakespeare plays, and in celebration of its 40th anniversary, the company will present “Othello” and “Macbeth.” Previously, it toured productions like “Titus Andronicus,” which premiered in Tokyo in 1999, saw multiple revivals and had a homecoming in 2015.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 21, 2025
Directing is never a monologue at the experimental Yamanote Jijosha theater company
To mark its four decades of existence, the company stages two Shakespearean tragedies for a triumph.
Jay Rubin’s new translation of Haruki Murakami’s “End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland,” in part set in a walled city where inhabitants’ shadows are forcibly removed, speaks to the author’s quirky, exhaustive attention to detail when rendering his imaginative world on the page.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 16, 2024
Jay Rubin takes us back to Haruki Murakami's world
A new translation of “End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland” brings the fan favorite closer to the original Japanese text.
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 21, 2024
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
Ko Shinjo’s novel, a bold exploration of the twisted psyches of criminals, is best appreciated as a companion work to the recent Netflix series of the same title.
Suzumi Suzuki’s “Gifted,” translated by Allison Markin Powell, centers on a hostess working in Kabukicho. Rather than focusing on the protagonist’s occupation, the story plunges the reader into her strained relationship with her dying mother.  
CULTURE / Books
Nov 3, 2024
A nuanced glimpse into the cloistered world of Kabukicho
Drawing on her own experience working in adult entertainment, Suzumi Suzuki crafts a fresh, visceral work for her debut novel, "Gifted"
“The Secret Lives of Numbers” co-author Kate Kitagawa discovered the power of storytelling as a research assistant for a professor in Japanese history. Since then, Kitagawa has been dedicated to using storytelling to show that humans are able to unlock the greater secrets of the universe through collaboration, not competition.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 21, 2024
'The Secret Lives of Numbers' reveals the unsung figures of mathematics
The book’s core message of creative collaboration leading to great discoveries is the brainchild of co-author Kate Kitagawa, a leading expert on the history of math.
Set in a village in the Swiss Alps, Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “La Sonnambula” centers on an orphan named Amina who is unknowingly frightening the locals with her nightly sleepwalking, and they believe there is a ghost among them.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 26, 2024
'La Sonnambula' offers a modern take on a dubious happy ending
Director Barbara Lluch scrutinizes gender expectations and patriarchal societies that thrive on polarizing views in her production of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera.
The Tokyo Ballet’s 60th anniversary program includes Maurice Bejart’s famous shorts, such as “Bolero.”
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2024
The Tokyo Ballet marks year of rebirth with tributes to history and innovation
Long-time collaborator Bejart Ballet Lausanne brings masterworks to Japan for The Tokyo Ballet's 60th anniversary celebrations.
In Hiromi Kawakami’s novel “The Third Love,” modern-day Tokyoite Riko travels between life in 19th-century Edo (old Tokyo) and the courts of the Heian Period, examining her relationship with her husband in the process.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2024
'The Third Love' is a time-bending meditation on romantic love
Hiromi Kawakami's novel draws from “The Tales of Ise" and “Takaoka’s Travels” to immerse readers in an intertextual exploration of who we are in and out of love.
Apple TV+ series “Pachinko” follows four generations of a Korean immigrant family as they move through the 20th century.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Aug 26, 2024
Masterful and stirring, ‘Pachinko’ returns with more depth
The immersive historical drama is collaborative art at its very best — instead of offering tidy answers, it asks the most profound questions of our times.
A glittering cast of Tokyoites comes together in a collection of dreamlike vignettes in Atsuhiro Yoshida’s novella “Goodnight Tokyo.”
CULTURE / Books
Aug 21, 2024
'Goodnight Tokyo': Late-night search for meaning become magical in the big city
Atsuhiro Yoshida's novella, composed of intersecting vignettes, is a fitting introduction to an atmospheric, visually adept writer known for his quirky worldbuilding.
Akira Otani's "The Night of Baba Yaga” explores the boundaries of finding one's place in society as it questions ideas of violence, love, family and honor.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2024
‘The Night of Baba Yaga’ weaves a yakuza thriller into a meditation on queerness
Translator Sam Bett gravitated to the Akira Otani novel for its refusal to adhere to established genre conventions.
A young woman who has just turned 20 moves in with an eccentric distant cousin in Tokyo after her mother moves to China in Nanae Aoyama's “A Perfect Day to Be Alone.”
CULTURE / Books
May 21, 2024
'A Perfect Day to Be Alone': A touching and relatable examination of growing up
Nanae Aoyama’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novella captures the lonely juncture between adolescence and adulthood.
“Butter” author Asako Yuzuki was inspired by the real-life story of Kanae Kijima, who was nicknamed the “Black Widow” and the “Konkatsu Killer” by the media for killing three men she dated to maintain her luxurious lifestyle of gourmet meals and a high-end cooking school.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2024
Asako Yuzuki's 'Butter' is a heady serving of food culture and feminism
The author's foodie femme fatale character was inspired by a real-life "black widow" case that caught the public's attention in 2009.
In Hideo Yokoyama’s “The North Light,” an architect sets out to solve a mystery when he finds out the family he built a prizewinning house for has vanished.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 23, 2024
'The North Light': One man's psychological journey subverts the crime genre
Hideo Yokoyama's novel centered on a man confronting the shattered pieces of his life offers a look into post-bubble Japan's architectural world.
Tokyo hit by torrential rainfall at rush hour
People line up at Shibuya Station in Tokyo as they try to avoid the heavy rain on Thursday.
Foreign drivers in Japan to face tougher license conversion rules from October
According to the National Police Agency, there were 75,905 people who converted their foreign driver’s license to a Japanese one in 2024, up from 48,885 in 2019.
Chinese fighters came within 30 meters of Japanese spy aircraft, Tokyo says
A Chinese JH-7 fighter jet makes an near an Air Self-Defense Force YS-11EB surveillance aircraft over the East China Sea this week in this image released Thursday.
Air India crash report to offer peek into last seconds
Members of the Indian Army's engineering arm prepare to remove the wreckage of an Air India aircraft in Ahmedabad on June 14.
What Japanese politics could look like after Upper House election
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (center) waves to attendees as he departs after delivering a campaign speech in Yokohama on Sunday.
New IG Arena set to dial down temperature at Nagoya Basho, in a good way
With IG Arena getting glowing early reviews as the Nagoya Basho’s replacement venue, it may be a while before fans wax nostalgic about the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.
Once a niche, anime is now mainstream content for Netflix and other streaming services
Though Netflix remains the dominant choice globally for anime viewers, Amazon Prime Video has also invested heavily in anime, steadily adding titles to their catalogue.
NGOs condemn rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of Upper House vote
Sanseito head Sohei Kamiya holds a board that reads "Japanese First" in Tokyo on July 2. In a joint statement on Tuesday, eight human rights nongovernmental organizations described the far-right party's stance as "hate speech."
Japanese dancers find a home abroad at Houston Ballet
“Giselle” lead Yuriko Kajiya (center), performing with Connor Walsh as Albrecht, is one of six Japanese dancers at Houston Ballet.
From the Abes to the Ohtanis: How siblings shape athletic development
Olympic judoka Uta Abe (second from left) and Hifumi Abe (second from right) with their brother Yuichiro (center) and their parents. “I’m always consciously trying to be a good older brother,” Yuichiro said.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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