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May 14, 2025
 

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COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 21, 2000

Dreams come true

Today I am happy to tell you about one of this column's most successful accomplishments. It began last October when I received a heartfelt letter from Chip Bozek, a teacher in Hokkaido. He wanted to find someone who could give him a "chonmage" haircut like the old-time samurai wore. He had asked his...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 28, 1999

Flying first class around the globe

Since this is my last column of the year, I'll look back instead of forward.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 3, 2022

They fell deeply in love in Bucha. One Russian bullet ended it all.

Iryna Abramova has lost almost everything: her husband, her home, three of her four pets; her life savings, in cash, turned to ash.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 18, 2019

Aging population spurs drive to tidy nation's cluttered homes

KonMari? Let's, by all means.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Dec 19, 2018

For me, 2018 was the year Japan began to listen

One day next year, and the year after that, someone will ask me in the course of a conversation why I decided to stay in Japan. I know this because it ranks among the top questions I'm asked — by Japanese and non-Japanese alike — since I arrived here back in 2004. And on the day I'm asked, my answer...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 13, 2016

One slip can sink a salaryman's career

'I've always been shy," says Kazuo. "Face-to-face communication never came easily to me." At 48, he's been out of work five years. He lives with his mother, who's close to 80 — mostly off her pension. A typical day — typical not only of him, says the weekly Spa!, but of an increasing number of middle-aged...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Oct 22, 2014

Another island nation, idolized and imitated: Jamaica and I

Only in my 30s did I learn that I, too, had roots, or at least branches aside from my mother's, which only extended to some cotton plantation south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2013

Interviews with 'evil personified' reveal very different men

He shuffled into the room and stopped, plexiglass and cinderblocks framing his slight figure. He looked much as I remembered him from nearly a decade earlier: big eyes in a boyish face, a thin build, long fingers, waist chains. But his eyes, once cold and flat, had mellowed into something resembling...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 9, 2013

Taro Aso may, for once, have a point

Ever since the Liberal Democratic Party regained power last year, standard-bearer Shinzo Abe has been conspicuously cautious with his public pronouncements, cooling it on the nationalist rhetoric and keeping the bravado to a minimum. Deprived of excitement, the media was delighted by Vice Prime Minister...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 3, 2012

Koki Mitani: Japan's Mr. Comedy

Koki Mitani is far and away the nation's best-known dramatist. Although theater is quite a niche medium here, most people in Japan — whether male or female, young or not so young, Japanese or not — recognize his face, even if they couldn't name many of his works. Recently, indeed, I was amazed when...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 10, 2010

First Snow

"Tamaki-kun! It's you, isn't it?" Startled, the man looked up from the book he'd been perusing. He stared at the woman in bewilderment. "Yes, my name is Tamaki . . . "
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 17, 2006

Mud, mud, glorious mud

Loss: That sense of deep detachment when a loved one has departed; the bewilderment and displacement at finding something or somewhere treasured to have gone; the confusion of returning to one's childhood haunts only to find them changed beyond recognition. We have, no doubt, all felt these loses, but...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 18, 2021

A look at the state of our intestinal health delivers a real gut punch

The perfect body — you can't escape it in the media. Some articles on the body's imperfections, particularly of the digestive sort, point out what we should be talking about more.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 3, 2020

Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it needs to be done

Amy Chavez came to Japan in 1993 and, four years later, met her best friend. From there, things were a roller coaster.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Mar 14, 2020

Finding new beginnings in the United States

Sachi Asato, a young man on the autistic spectrum, started life with the odds stacked against him. Mother Sheila and father Satoru talk about their family's move to the U.S. to aid his remarkable progress.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 11, 2020

Keeping one eye open on Japan's attempts to sleep

Sleep.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2019

How Iacocca created the celebrity CEO, for better or worse

Saving Chrysler was a big accomplishment, but Iacocca's legacy is more about making the covers of Time and Newsweek.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 3, 2016

Working harder to end death by overwork

"When you're in the office 20 hours a day, you don't understand what life you're living for anymore. (It's so pathetic) you come to laugh." — Twitter post by Matsuri Takahashi, as reported in the Mainichi Shimbun
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 31, 2016

Difficult questions for Japan's animal-loving city dwellers

This week's column deals with two queries that highlight cultural differences in attitudes to animal welfare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2016

Nagisa Oshima: 'You have to tell the truth about your country, whatever it is'

Jan. 15 marks the third anniversary of the renowned film director's death. Roger Pulvers, who knew him for more than 30 years and was his assistant on “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” discusses the man and his work
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 23, 2015

Spare a thought for the Western men trapped in Japan

Japan can be the best place in the world for some, but for others it can be a trap — especially for Western men.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jan 14, 2015

African-American community gets a voice in Tokyo

The African American Youth Travel Program NPO, which organized a recent demonstration in Tokyo in response to the Ferguson case, brings black U.S. youths to Japan to broaden their horizons.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Dec 29, 2014

Discussing sex crimes and Japan's 'safety myth'

A selection of responses to Rachel Halle's recent column, 'Foreign student's account of treatment in rape case points to gaps in Japan's safety myth.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 3, 2014

Time to burst your bubble and face reality

Facing the reality of their perpetual second-class caste status would force non-Japanese residents to admit that they traded their entire life for something that they ultimately found no stake in.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 28, 2013

Biography of Masaoka Shiki excels in the expanded details

Haiku, the short Japanese poem now proliferating overseas, scarcely needs an introduction anymore. Its three great pillars, widely read even in translation, are the poets Matsuo Basho (1641-1694), its first creator, then Yosa Buson (1716-1784) and Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), who renewed it.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 19, 2007

New translations reveal new depths of classic works

Mandarins: Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Translated by Charles De Wolf. New York: Archipelago Books, 2007, 255 pp., $16.00 (paper) Good, new and much needed translations of the stories of Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) have recently begun to appear. Last year there was the Penguin edition of 18 stories,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 6, 2007

Karel Van Wolferen: Insights into the new world disorder

When Karel Van Wolferen released his seminal book "The Enigma of Japanese Power" in the dying months of the bubble economy, the normally staid monthly magazine Chuo Koron described its impact as akin to being struck by a bolt of lightning. For once, the hype was merited. Little before had matched the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 1, 2006

'Twin' trip full of pleasant surprises

First of all, let me wish you a very happy new Year of the Dog, which Chinese people all over the world welcomed in last weekend.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 20, 2022

A narrative forms around the 'divine country'

The seeds of modern Japanese nationalism were sown by nativist scholar Motoori Norinaga, who lauded the concept of 'mono no aware.'
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 24, 2021

Yes, this tiny water cooler capsule toy is 'ridiculous.' Perfect.

Yoshiaki Yamanishi set out to create the most boring toy imaginable.
Transport ministry issues warning to Haneda Airport operator
The operator of Tokyo's Haneda Airport has been warned by the government over its inappropriate transactions.
Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
Then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visits a school in South Gate, California, in February 2012. Experts say Xi won big in his standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Nissan shares surge as carmaker set to cut 20,000 jobs in huge overhaul
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars and car parts imported to the U.S. have been painful to most global brands, but crippling in Nissan’s case.
Japan might be playing long game in U.S. tariff talks
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House earlier this year. Ishiba said Monday that farmers won't be sacrificed for automakers in Japan's tariff negotiations with the U.S.
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
Japan set for bigger role in Philippines after SDF’s debut in key drills
Philippine Army Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, who was involved in managing the latest iteration of the Balikatan U.S.-Philippine drills, told The Japan Times that he expects military ties with Japan to surge even further once Tokyo ratifies a key visiting-forces agreement with Manila.
In China’s ‘Michelin Guide,’ Tokyo leads overseas listings with 30 entries
China's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its award ceremony overseas for the first time, picking the dining capital of Singapore to promote its brand to an international audience.
Who could become Japan's next prime minister?
Clockwise from top left: Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi
With a new Shibuya studio, Apple Music bets big on Japan
Apple Music personalities (from left) Ebro Darden, Kentaro Ochiai, Zane Lowe and Mino came together for a special recording in late April to discuss music and celebrate the newly opened Apple Music studio in Tokyo.
Escalation fears rise in Japan following Chinese moves near Senkakus
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of the Uotsuri islet, one of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. Concerns are growing in Tokyo after a Chinese government helicopter violated Japan's airspace around the uninhabited islets.

Podcast

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

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

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