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.
For Kris Kosaka's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
The Works by Japanese Women series wraps up by examining the various English translations of two of Japan's greatest works of literature, both penned by women: "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon and "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu.
"Zen: The Art of Simple Living" is a profoundly beautiful work, easy to read, encouraging deep thought and reflection, but most importantly, acting as a practical guide to Zen action.
The closure of 51 Coco Juku eikaiwa (English conversation) schools in Japan last week, with more to come in June, illustrates just how unstable the English teaching market can be. Companies that used to provide fairly well-paying jobs are now, in many cases, restructuring ...
Dennis Tesolat is chair of the General Union based in Osaka. Founded in 1991, the organization is part of a national private sector trade union known as Zenkoku-Ippan (the National Union of General Workers), which belongs to a confederation known as Zenrokyo (National Trade ...
Picture the scene: The Black Swan seduces the Prince away from the White Swan princess for one of the most timeless love triangles ever enacted on stage. Even those who aren't fans of dance are familiar with "Swan Lake." As Yukari Saito, artistic director ...
Soviet spy Richard Sorge's story remains largely unknown to the Western world, but that's about to change with the publication of a remarkable new biography, "An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin's Master Agent," by Owen Matthews.
Prize-winning author Yoko Tawada tethers her playful prose to realistic social issues: gender roles, immigration, aging societies. Writing in both Japanese and German, her novels have crossed multiple cultural boundaries.
When Angela Ortiz describes what it felt like to return to Aomori Prefecture five days after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, she uses words like "horror," "incredulous disbelief" and "intense curiosity." The 36-year-old American lived in Aomori between the ages of ...
Earthquakes are an ever-present danger in Japan so it is important to be thoroughly prepared in the eventuality that one strikes. Although many areas in Japan publish comprehensive guides in English and other languages — see "Tokyo Bousai" ("Disaster Preparedness Tokyo") published by the ...
A chance encounter with Shuntaro Tanikawa's poem, "Humanism," set William I. Elliott on the path to make modern Japanese poetry accessible to all.
