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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013

'Print Art Triennale in Kyoto'

With the growing popularity of high-tech art, such as digital media and installations, engraving woodblock prints might seem primitive and old-fashioned. Many Japanese, in fact, associate woodblock printing with older-generation artisans, who they imagine slave fastidiously over works in the silence...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2013

'Kobayashi Naojiro Exhibition'

When Naojiro Kobayashi outlived a diagnosis that a lung disease he was suffering from would kill him by the age of 25, his favorite phrase became: "I'm so embarrassed I have lived this long." But he continued to defy the disease, finally living to the age of 93, keeping himself active throughout with...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 19, 2013

Sewing words for thought

Some words can evoke powerful images, values and stereotypes that have crept into our subconsciousness to sometimes dictate the way we think or behave. For Ruri Clarkson, this is something that needs to be challenged in Japan, and which she does herself with art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2013

'The Beauty in Everyday Life: Musée Hamaguchi Yozo — Spring Exhibition'

Printmaker Yozo Hamaguchi (1909-2000) is best known for his ground-breaking work in colored mezzotints. His predominant use of soft but dark coloring, which gave the mezzotints a peaceful and serene quality, differentiated his work from other print artists, and led to the global recognition of his aesthetic...
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 11, 2013

Brazil dams Amazon to feed energy-hungry economy

When it is completed in 2015, the Jirau hydroelectric dam will span the Madeira River, feature more giant turbines than any other dam in the world and hold as much concrete as 47 towers the size of New York's Empire State Building.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 10, 2013

Murakami ideal man for new U.N. goodwill ambassador role

Kudos to Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player in the major leagues, on his recent appointment as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. "Mashi" is highly qualified to take the leadership role in supporting charities and, having been acquainted with him for...
JAPAN / Media
Feb 10, 2013

2,160 Hours of Yasushi Akimoto; AKB48 dramas; CM of the week: U-Can

Some fans can't get enough of AKB48, and NHK understands this, so on Monday it is broadcasting "Mitchaku: Akimoto Yasushi 2,160-jikan" ("Intense Coverage: 2,160 Hours of Yasushi Akimoto"; BS Premium, 9 p.m.), a two-hour special (presumably just the highlights then) in which NHK's cameras follow AKB producer-Svengali...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013

'Land of Oblivion'

It's 1996. Anya (Olga Kurylenko) works as a guide on a tour bus that takes people through Pripyat, a town located just 3 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The tourists, all of varying ages and nationalities, listen somewhat bored to Anya's descriptions of April 26, 1986, a decade...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2013

Tadasu Takamine's not so 'Cool Japan'

In May 2011, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry promoted the idea of "Cool Japan," presenting Japanese culture as a product amid the confusing circumstances after the Great East Japan Earthquake. As Japan continues to suffer a declining population and weak economy, it was a government attempt...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2013

'Kabuki: Theaters during the Edo Period'

Since the Edo Period (1603-1867), kabuki has been an important source of national pride in Japan, and though it has undergone some key changes over the years, it remains a popular form of entertainment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 4, 2013

'Abenomics' missing the mark

The economic policies enunciated by the Abe government may have some beneficial effects, but seem inadequate in themselves to revive the Japanese economy in the long run.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2013

The DPJ's obligation

Members of the No. 1 opposition party, DPJ, have a duty to check the moves of the Abe administration with regard to economic and and defense policies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2013

'BLACKS: Louise Nevelson, Ad Reinhardt, Hiroshi Sugimoto'

Sculptor Louise Nevelson (1899-1988), painter Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto (1948-) are all known for the predominantly monochrome nature of their works. This exhibition explores the different approaches the artists have taken when experimenting with the use of black.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2013

Cabinet OKs record ¥92.6 trillion budget

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a record-high ¥92.6 trillion initial general-account budget for fiscal 2013, aiming to shore up the economy through large-scale public works projects.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 29, 2013

Policy speech by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the 183rd session of the Diet

Delivered Jan. 28, 2013
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jan 26, 2013

Mining gems in Okachimachi

On early maps of Edo, as Tokyo was known prior to 1868, Okachimachi is rendered as a town (machi) densely packed with the tiny dwellings of okachi — low-ranked, poorly paid samurai infantry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 25, 2013

I still haven't found what I'm looking for ...

Thinking about Google over the last week, I have fallen into the typically procrastinatory habit of every so often typing the words "what is" or "what" or "wha" into the Google search box at the top right of my computer screen. Those prompts are all the omnipotent engine needs to inform me of the current...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 23, 2013

'Coriolanus' comes home — to Kyoto

It's a fair bet that many people at the Globe Theatre in London last May expected the Kyoto-based Chiten (Point) Company to present a stereotypically Japanese, samurai-style "Coriolanus," complete with taiko drums and period armor.
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Japan searches for growth areas to drive economy

While the media have highlighted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's large-scale government spending on public works, and high expectations for his so-called Abenomics drove share prices up and weakened the yen, the important question is; what industries does Abe's administration want to promote as driving forces...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 19, 2013

Guardiola right not to join Chelsea

There is one reason why Pep Guardiola never seriously considered joining Chelsea: Roman Abramovich.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 19, 2013

Why spider's silk is becoming man's best friend

Up on the roof of professor Fritz Vollrath's lab in the zoology department at Oxford University, there is a makeshift greenhouse in which he nurtures his favorite golden orb web spiders. Walking into the greenhouse is a little like finding yourself inside one of those Damien Hirst vitrines that dramatize...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2013

"Portraits of Destroyed Cities"

The 20th century witnessed two world wars, during which many countries suffered what is known as "strategic bombing": major air raids on cities aimed at destroying the nation's economic ability and public spirit.
LIFE
Jan 13, 2013

What Japan needs to do

With its economy spluttering, large parts of its northeastern region still devastated by the effects of the mammoth Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 — and releases of radioactive materials that followed — its population shrinking and aging at unprecedented rates and its citizens despairing of...
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2013

Komeito as countervailing power

Since the formation of a coalition government on Dec. 26, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito have gotten into the full swing of governing. The parties jointly occupy more than two-thirds of the Lower House seats — enough to overturn Upper House decisions on legislative bills.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 6, 2013

Frederik Schodt: pop culture ambassador to the world

Quick quiz: Who was the first Japanese civilian to be issued a passport?
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2013

Abe hoopla aside, key economic challenges loom

Stocks are up, the yen is easing and there is a new prime minister pledging to splash trillions of yen to breathe life into the country's moribund economy: Last year ended on a high note for Japan Inc., and 2013 looks even more promising for some.

Longform

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