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LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Mar 15, 2010

1000 Things About Japan/Japanese Snack Reviews

When Shari Custer arrived in Japan with her American husband, the original plan was to stay for "five years." That was 20 years ago. During her extended time in Japan, Custer wanted to chronicle some of the little things that many overlook, and her ongoing list comprises one of her blogs: 1000 Things...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 28, 2017

When too many things 'spark joy,' it's a Wonderwall life

Masamichi Katayama, founder of interior design firm Wonderwall, describes the importance of accumulating and keeping objects and artworks in life — even if you have more than 500 of them.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 16, 2022

Where the wild things grow — foraging in Japan

Winifred Bird is the author of 'Eating Wild Japan,' a book that goes deep into the foraging culture of Japan and contains essays on foraging, a selection of recipes and a guide to forageable plants.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Dec 19, 2022

Things to do before saying 'sayonara' to your life in Japan

Planning on leaving Japan? Think long-term with your plans. It will take a while to ship everything to a different country.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 24, 2019

Can Japan revive its electronics industry glory?

The revival of CEATEC as an exhibition will serve as an important barometer for the resurgence of Japan's consumer electronics industry.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Mar 6, 2012

A few of readers' favorite things; heated discussion on the burning issue of warmth

A selection of readers' responses to Debito Arudou's Feb. 7 Just Be Cause column, "These are a few of my favorite things about Japan":
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 8, 2010

A relationship with the city

I magine you live in a house that communicates with you through an interface resembling the futuristic info-graphics in the science-fiction movie "Minority Report" — where actor Tom Cruise interacted with icons on an holographic touch screen. For example, a kitchen appliance, such as your fridge, displays...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 24, 2019

The Japanese words 'mono' and 'koto' can make things tricky

Both 'mono' and 'koto' mean 'thing' in Japanese, but they're used in different ways. And the thing is, nuance matters.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 9, 2017

Thank you, Jean Pearce, for helping us get things done in Japan

If the U.S. had Ann Landers and Dear Abby, and Britain had Marge Proops, then Japan had Jean Pearce — someone who transcended the title of 'columnist' and became a media icon for generations of readers.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2001

Afghanistan and the gods of little things

God's preferences on dietary matters are well-known: no pork for Jews or Muslims, no beef for Hindus, and no saturated fats or refined sugar for the Western upper-middle class. But this is the first time he has taken such a strong line on haircuts.
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2014

The 'Internet of everything'

The advent of the 'Internet of things,' the ever-expanding array of connectedness between computer sensors and consumer devices, promises convenience as well as privacy and security concerns.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 3, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things — about the Japanese

Debito Arudou's Feb. 7 Just Be Cause column describing the 10 things he likes about Japan both inspired and depressed me. As a frequent critic of the country's legal system (among other things), his piece made me stop and think of some of the things I like about Japan that are all too easy to take for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 28, 2021

Jayne Nakata: 'In life the hard things are the things that give you the most chance to grow'

Finding herself in a part of Japan where there weren't so many foreign women, Jayne Nakata decided to reach out through podcasting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2021

‘Things Remembered and Things Forgotten’: History, memory and cultural identity

Kyoko Nakajima's latest collection of translated short stories explores the ties connecting Japan's past to its present. Ghosts are involved in more ways than one.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / A MATTER OF HEALTH
Feb 8, 2018

Japan doctors tap health-monitoring app to help diabetics keep dialysis at bay

In September 2016, freelance journalist Yutaka Hasegawa touched off a firestorm of criticism after writing in his blog that diabetes patients receiving dialysis should pay for the treatment themselves instead of using public health insurance. He argued that it was their "corrupt" lifestyles that spawned...
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 9, 2015

Chip firms ink $66 billion in mega mergers as Internet of Things connections spread

Chip companies are merging, signing $66 billion worth of deals this year alone in preparation for an explosion of demand from all walks of life as the next technological revolution takes hold: the Internet of Things.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 3, 2012

Free magazines zoom in on all things Japanese

While English-language magazines in Japan are fast becoming a species in danger of extinction, Europe is experiencing a renewed interest in this country thanks to a veteran French journalist who since 2010 has been publishing Zoom Japon (and its English version, Zoom Japan), a free monthly magazine about...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 30, 2008

The big mysteries behind small things

THE ART OF SMALL THINGS by John Mack. London: British Museum Press, 2007, 224 pp., with 200 color illustrations, £19.99 (cloth) Here is a splendid catalog of the world made small — miniature works in the collection of the British Museum: Elizabethan rings, Benin masks, Netherlandish rosary beads,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 31, 2002

These are a few of our favorite things

THINGS JAPANESE, by Nicholas Bornoff, with photos by Michael Freeman. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, Ltd. 2002. 144 pp., profusely illustrated with full-color plates, $24.95 (paper) In 1890, Tokyo University professor Basil Hall Chamberlain codified an entire generation's view of Japan in his "Things...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 28, 2015

Things that changed photography

In the late 1960s, the mono-ha (school of things) movement arose from the Japanese art-school scene, with the Korean-born artist Lee Ufan — who went from the philosophy department at Nihon University to teaching at Tama Art University — as its most renowned proponent. Using raw materials and with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 7, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things about Japan

The Just Be Cause column has been running now for four years (thanks for reading!), and I've noticed something peculiar: how commentators are pressured to say "nice" stuff about Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 8, 2010

' Where the Wild Things Are'

My parents bought me plenty of books as a child, and thinking back on it now, a lot of them — "Gerald McBoing Boing," "Harold and the Purple Crayon" or "A Wrinkle In Time" — were pretty strange. (That might explain a few things.) But one book I never got was Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
May 19, 2009

Veteran Tokyo journalist convinced some things just never change

Having lived in Japan for 45 years, 70-year-old British journalist Henry Scott Stokes has seen Japan go through more changes than virtually any other foreign resident has.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 3, 2002

Orix slugger Sheldon starting to make things happen

Scott Sheldon and his Orix BlueWave teammates may be in the same boat, but for the past month they've been rowing in opposite directions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 29, 2021

In a scarred Hong Kong, 'beautiful things are gone'

People who want a democratic future are regrouping behind an invisible front line: The memory of what happened in 2019.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Sep 21, 2016

'Stranger Things' happened in the 1980s

The streaming wars continue, and one advantage Netflix has over its rivals is that it releases its original content in Japan without much annoying time lag. That's true of their new paranormal series "Stranger Things," which came out in the dog days of summer but is still building buzz.
Attendees at the Leap technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 6, 202. The oil-rich country is plowing money into glitzy events, computing power and artificial intelligence research, putting it in the middle of an escalating U.S.-China struggle for technological influence.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

‘To the future’: Saudi Arabia spends big to become an AI superpower

Saudi Arabia was long a financial spigot for tech, but is now building its own industry.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on as President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the White House in Washington on March 21.
WORLD / Politics
May 7, 2025

Hegseth's order to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard

The story of how the flights were canceled points to an at-times haphazard policymaking process within the Trump administration.
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 2, 2025

How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic

Labor shortages and shifting mindsets are driving younger Japanese workers to challenge the country’s traditional office culture.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan