For Yuko Naito's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
According to Masataka Shiwaku of Victoria Wardrobe, a snow-wear retailer in Tokyo's Kanda Ogawa-cho district, this year "many people seem to be thinking of renewing their skiing or snowboarding wardrobes." Up to when the bubble burst in 1991, it wasn't uncommon for people to renew ...
What would you do if you were suddenly assaulted on the street? Could you defend yourself even if the attacker had a knife? Though Tetsundo Tanabe is a master of several kinds of martial arts and the president of a security company, he insists ...
Eleven years ago, Toshihito Takahashi was a high-flying advertising copywriter with a leading Tokyo agency, one of the select few whose work regularly appeared on the nation's TV screens. Big money, creative expression, success and still greater prospects in a notoriously high-pressure business, even a ...
Sitting in a tub of clear, near-scalding water up to your neck might not instantly appeal to those new to Japan who are used to stretching out in a warm sea of suds and playing with their plastic ducks. However, taking a bath that ...
For most men, the mere mention of going bald provokes a quickened pulse-rate and the onset of hyperventilation. To say the thought of hair loss scares most males is to dramatically understate the case. In Japan, an estimated 11.5 million adult males -- almost one ...
Think about how difficult it would be if all our lifelines -- water, gas and electricity -- were suddenly cut off. In the event of a major earthquake, we would have to do more than just ponder these hardships. And it would go on ...
As long as you are in Japan, which has about 1,500 active faults, you are at risk of experiencing a major earthquake at any moment. It could come while you're at home or at your workplace, at a movie theater or in a subway. ...
Be they fashion- or health-related, there are products galore to answer our every foot need. In Japan, many are wrapped up in trends, traditional culture and daily habits. Take, for example, the popularity of mules and sandals. Even though they are usually worn sockless, many ...
When 645 guests descended on Tokyo's New Takanawa Hotel last month to celebrate the marriage of 46-year-old former pop idol Hideki Saijo to Miki Makihara, a 28-year-old "office lady" he'd been dating since the fall, the starstruck media gushed at length over the "super ...
Imagine you are a bride. At your wedding reception, you visit each table for "candle service." Lighting one on each table you greet guests, all of whom congratulate you, clapping their hands. This would be a scene from an ordinary reception. But what if ...
