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Martin Webb
For Martin Webb's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 9, 2007
Yamamoto protege debuts stoic new line
While his daughter Limi prepares to present her Limi Feu line at the Paris collections for the first time in October, Yohji Yamamoto has selected another protege to take her place on the Tokyo runways.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 9, 2007
Tokyo revival
Taking on the task of reinvigorating Tokyo's beleaguered attempt at producing a world-class fashion week requires a good deal of gumption. In this regard, Nobuyuki Ota, CEO of leading fashion house Issey Miyake, is relishing the task and achieving a measure of success.
LIFE
Mar 25, 2007
Young Tokyo designers set to grace the world's runways
Last season's Japan Fashion Week (JFW) was held before the New York Fashion Week, which is traditionally the first event on the annual international catwalk circuit. But this time, Tokyo reverted to its regular slot after the Paris Collections that have since time immemorial wrapped up the industry's biannual seasons.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Mar 13, 2007
COSMIC WONDER, Shibusei and Monocle magazine
Cosmic reconceptualization
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 6, 2007
French luxury lobby captain mulls Japan's brand fixation
Japan is famous for its fondness of luxury brands, particularly those from France. In fact, when the money spent shopping on vacation is included, Japanese consumers may buy as much as 45 percent of all luxury goods sold worldwide, analysts at the HSBC Group in Paris recently estimated.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 28, 2007
From the truth comes some strange fiction
Homunculus by Hugh Paxton. Macmillan New Writing, 2005, 256 pp., £12.99 (paper). The grotesquely fanged monster armed with a spear and an assault rifle that comes hurtling out of a rising sun on the cover of "Homunculus" should be fair warning to readers that something a tad disturbing is to be found within this book's pages.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 16, 2007
Bathing Ape, rocking chairs and LeSportsac bags
Little monkeys
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Jan 12, 2007
No curtain call for this duo
The world of fashion is no stranger to an excess of marketing hype surrounding creations with a singular lack of substance, and Tokyo is no exception.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 31, 2006
Daunting challenges face fast-graying nation
Robert Feldman is chief economist at Morgan Stanley Japan Securities, where, as cohead of Japan Equity Research, he is responsible for forecasting the direction of the Japanese economy.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 17, 2006
High-end fashion on the (fairly) cheap
Japanese consumers are famous (or infamous) the world over for their obsession with luxury brands -- and as hard data demonstrates, this is definitely no globalized urban myth.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 12, 2006
BOEGE Polos, up-market UNIQLO, blood-free diamonds . . .
Polos reimagined
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Dec 8, 2006
Sitting on the dock of the bay
Occupying a space comparable to that of Tokyo Dome, the newly opened Urban Dock LaLaport Toyosu is officially Tokyo's largest shopping mall.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 19, 2006
Decorum drives 'disingenuous' bid to free streets of discarded butts
Tokyo is home to some of the world's more bizarre museums, including ones devoted to such odd subjects as washing machines, curry, kites and parasites. The latest addition to this outre melange is the Mobile Ashtray Museum.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 17, 2006
J-tech pioneer returns with album and tour
It's unusual for an exponent of techno music -- often decried as a somehow unartistic form of music -- to be enthusiastically embraced by the establishment, but DJ Ken Ishii has achieved exactly that.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 14, 2006
Van Cleef & Arpels' 'Treasures,' Kate Moss in Tokyo, Oakley on Cat Street . . .
Sleeping beauties When Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef opened their first boutique on Paris' hallowed Place Vendome in 1906, one of France's most revered jewelry maisons was born.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 12, 2006
Serious toys for serious fans
Ultraman is often cited as an example of just how different the Japanese outlook is from that of Westerners. While the bug-like eyes and clingy bodysuit of the hero himself may strike the uninitiated as ridiculous, it is the outlandish aspect of the monsters from whose wrath Ultraman is perpetually saving the world that really raises eyebrows.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Nov 10, 2006
Gucci hits Ginza
Gucci's new home in Tokyo is the first store built specifically to house the Italian superbrand. Last week, Gucci opened the doors of an eight-story glass-and-steel flagship store in Ginza.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 9, 2006
The art of the machine
The phenomenal success of MTV's "Pimp my Ride," a show in which everyday folk have their unglamorous vehicles jazzed up with chrome wheels, fancy paint jobs and state-of-the-art sound systems, has sparked huge interest in the art and practice of motor-vehicle customization. So it wasn't long before a show emerged that focused on two-wheeler makeovers. "Biker Build-Off" aired on the Discovery Channel and featured America's top custom-bike builders competing to create the most impressive ride. Among the contestants were two Japanese builders, Shinya Kimura and Chica.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Oct 13, 2006
Bringing it all back home
Meguro-dori, the street that runs west from Meguro Station, was once home to numerous imported-car showrooms, and not much else. Over the past few years though, it has gained fame as Tokyo's No. 1 interior shopping drag, lined with around 50 stores selling new and used furniture and assorted home wares catering to almost every imaginable taste.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 8, 2006
LONDON CALLING
Home to some 50,000 people born in Japan, London has been well served for some time with aspects of culture and lifestyle from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world