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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 10, 2000

Japan's new goodwill ambassador to the UNEP

Tokiko Kato Tokiko Kato is every bit as energetic and candid in person as she appears on stage. Best known as a singer and musician, Kato is also a poet and painter, and serves on the board of the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan. Though her schedule is hectic, it is by choice, and she has energy to...
COMMUNITY
Nov 23, 2000

What's so great about the mod cons?

About two years ago, Hiroko Nakamura, a 40-year-old Tokyo housewife, decided she wanted only truly essential items in her home.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 21, 2000

Japan insurance market just a phone call away

For the past several years, the insurance industry has been battered on two fronts by bad publicity. On the one hand, the collapse of almost all the major life insurance companies has been blamed on poor investment choices and even poorer management, while on the other, the spate of recent murder-for-insurance...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 20, 2000

The mysterious power of the moon

Each northern autumn, the days shorten and the nights lengthen until they reach a point of balance at the autumnal equinox in late September. The full moon at this time of the year is known as the harvest moon. During these evenly matched days and nights of fall, as the sun sinks beneath the western...
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2000

Sumitomo insurers eye policy sales cooperation

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. and casualty insurer Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. are considering selling each other's policies and jointly developing insurance products, officials of the two firms said Friday.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Sep 7, 2000

Seeding philosophy in the rice paddies

The zapping racket of cicadas rising and falling, undulating in and out of sync wakes me up soon after sunrise. Although it's not yet 7 a.m., the thick, steamy heat pours in through the open window in waves, and seems fused into one substance with the yazz and clatter of the insects.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 18, 2000

Japan's premier graphic designer revisited

One of the most striking aspects of city life in Japan is the bold use of graphics: Posters and magazines continually shout for our attention on busy trains and streets. Artistically, we see the good, the bad and the ugly, but the work of Japan's first great graphic designer was consistently impressive....
CULTURE / Art
May 27, 2000

Issey Miyake: artist, sculptor or fashion designer?

"Issey Miyake Making Things," Miyake's current offering, presents the master in three different aspects. Broadly speaking, of course, sculpture, painting and fashion design are related, but no one else has such ability to convince us that these three arts can be made one.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 2, 2000

Natural genki drink fuels aerial pollinators

For most of our planet's mind-numbingly long history of around 4.6 billion years, the most complex life form on Earth was the prokaryotic cell. The ghostly signatures of these simple cells without nuclei first appear in rocks dated to about 3.75 billion years ago. The length of their nearly 2-billion-year...
COMMUNITY
Apr 20, 2000

Calligraphy with a global message

Tim Jensen confesses that the first time he saw Mitsuo Aida's calligraphy poems his immediate reaction was "I could do that!" Now Aida's greatest fan and translator of three volumes of his work into English, Jensen is not alone in his initial reaction. According to Aida's son Kazuhito, director of the...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2000

Marubeni Collection not to be blinked at

Department store exhibitions are the butterflies of the art scene: blink and they're gone!
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2000

Lafcadio Hearn: interpreter of two disparate worlds

He created an illusion and lived his days and nights within its confines. That illusion was his Japan. He found in Japan the ideal coupling of the cerebral and the sensual, mingled and indistinguishable, the one constantly recharging the other and affording him the inspiration to write.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Public funds mulled for insurance-sector bailout

The Life Insurance Policyholders Protection Corp., an insurance industry safety net, formally asked the government Friday to take "necessary measures" to beef up the safety net in case more life insurers go bankrupt. The corporation, set up a year ago with funding from the nation's 47 life insurers,...
CULTURE / Art
Aug 5, 1999

Thatched huts for the 21st century

TSURUI VILLAGE, Tokushima Pref. -- Still hidden away in Shikoku's remote Iya Valley, the thatch-roofed home made famous in Alex Kerr's "Lost Japan" is taking out a new lease on life -- one that may alter this country's approach to conservation and development.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 1999

Death and the maiden filmmaker

Death can do wonders for one's reputation. James Dean was a hot young actor with one hit -- "East of Eden" -- when he crashed his Porsche on a California back road and became an instant legend.Would his admirers have become so devoted -- and in some unfortunate cases, suicidally deranged -- if he had...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 1999

Frustration and anger produce great Korean fiction

A READY-MADE LIFE: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction, selected and translated by Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998, 191 pp., $38 (cloth), $15.95 (paper). "What's driving me to drink isn't anger and isn't the dandies. It's this society -- our Korean society...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1998

Bilateral insurance talks heat up

Disagreements flared Wednesday as Japanese and U.S. officials entered their second day of talks to discuss the progress of bilateral insurance agreements.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 1997

Nissan Mutual's liquidation contested

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 20, 1997

Insurers finalize Nissan Mutual liquidation scheme

The Life Insurance Association of Japan endorsed a liquidation scheme June 20 for Nissan Mutual Life Insurance Co. that will create a new entity to manage its policies and write off an estimated 100 billion yen worth of the failed insurer's debts over a period of five years.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 18, 2023

Artistic beauty in the eye of a Neolithic beholder

From Neanderthal funeral rites to the temples of the Nara Era, art has been a part of our lives. At what point was beauty considered for its own sake, though?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2023

The quotidian madness of Mieko Kanai’s 'Mild Vertigo'

Originally published in 1997, “Mild Vertigo” is just as relevant today in its unpacking of meaning within the ennui of our often stultifying, consumer-driven modern age.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 14, 2023

How the climate crisis is supercharging Japan’s rainy season

When you think of natural disasters do you think of guerrilla rainstorms, landslides and heatwaves? You should, since that’s in the forecast for Japan’s climate-crisis-charged rainy seasons.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2023

The Japanese firms and megabanks funding rainforest destruction

Comprehensive datasets reveal thousands of investments and loans made by Japan’s top lenders and investment funds that are impacting rainforests around the world.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2023

Will the Catholic Church rethink contraception?

A break with a view of sex and procreation rooted in medieval ideas of natural law is long overdue for the Catholic Church.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2023

A sick America can’t compete with global powers

Poor health is not just a tragedy for individuals. It is a constraint on the U.S.’s productivity and its ability to defend itself.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2023

In Tokyo, a more natural vision for an unnatural waterfront

Against a history of development and environmental issues, a plan by the Tokyo government conjures up images of lush parks and biodiverse shores. Bringing it to fruition won't be easy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / New Year Special 2023
Jan 3, 2023

Tracing the history of Mio, a rural Wakayama community with deep ties to Canada

Efforts to preserve Mio's cultural heritage, including memories of the longstanding connections with Canada, have gained momentum in recent years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 20, 2022

Overseas credit attracts Japanese investors weary of low yields

The renewed interest comes after crippling losses on fixed income globally coupled with a surge in the cost of currency protection had Japanese investors offloading overseas debt in 2022.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 8, 2022

Now arriving: Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith’s Grand Central Madison mosaics

Beach scenes, wild turkeys and fantastic abstract forms in glass grace the M.T.A.'s new Long Island Rail Road terminal, with works by other artists.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan