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CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2018

Mariya Takeuchi: The pop genius behind 2018's surprise online smash hit from Japan

On the 40th anniversary of singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi's debut, The Japan Times sits down with the musician responsible for such classics as 'Sutekina Holiday,' 'September' and the track that has taken the internet by storm, 'Plastic Love.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 24, 2018

Tourism boom highlights evolution of Japan guidebooks

The nation's continuing tourism boom has been accompanied by countless new guidebooks and websites on all things Japanese. Today, those who want to learn about Japan are spoiled for choice. But that was not always the case.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 28, 2016

Abe offers 'everlasting condolences' at Pearl Harbor as Obama praises partnership in peace

Abe's historic visit to Hawaii wraps up with addresses from himself and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 22, 2016

Get the latkes out for Hanukkah in Japan

When Binyomin Edery, the chief rabbi of Japan, was a child growing up in the farming village of Kfar Chabad in Israel, the nine-pronged menorah could be seen everywhere during the winter Hanukkah festival.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Dec 7, 2016

So you want to write about Japan?: the 10 essential tips

Having taken the daring — not reckless or avoidant — step of leaving your home country, you now have a million stories to tell.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 31, 2016

Ryuichi Sakamoto offers his thoughts on politics, Japan and how his music will change 'post-cancer'

"The Professor" is back in town. Last weekend, Ryuichi Sakamoto took the stage at Tokyo Opera City for the debut concert of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, a 105-strong ensemble of young musicians from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which counts him as its musical director.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 13, 2016

Give me chocolate: Japan's growing obsession with the 'food of the gods'

People with a sweet tooth can get a glimpse of how Charlie Bucket felt when he first stepped into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in Roald Dahl's popular 1964 tale by popping into Musee du Chocolat Theobroma in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 21, 2015

The wanderer, writer and suspected spy who embraced Japan

T.S. Eliot may have written that "April is the cruellest month," but for Roger Pulvers, this spring is an extraordinarily felicitous one. In March, an English translation of his novel "Starsand" was published and in April, translations will be released of both an anthology of tanka poetry by Takuboku...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Dec 21, 2014

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble: a gaijin's lot in Japan?

A selection of readers' responses to Debito Arudou's last column, 'Time to burst your bubble and face reality.'
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Dec 14, 2014

Readers' letters: Hague abduction pamphlets, East Asia ties, temping teachers and learning English

Some emails received in response to recent Community articles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 24, 2014

Long-term African expats and new migrants alike face growing 'integration gap' in Japan

With dysfunctional Japanese immigration policies having led to a sharp increase in incarceration rates among African immigrants, a growing number have given up on integration in favor of living a double life: married with children in both Japan and Africa.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Aug 18, 2014

Challenges can't compare to the rewards of cross-cultural adoption in Japan

Five years ago, my Japanese husband and I adopted a 3-year-old boy who had been placed in an orphanage when he was a month old. His birth mother, too young to care for him, had likely decided that giving him up was his only chance for a better life. After we first took him home, he would barely acknowledge...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 16, 2014

Japan's gambit in WWI set stage for a dark future

One hundred years ago, on June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. It was the spark that led, one month later, to the beginning of World War I, which originally was expected to be confined to Europe and end in weeks. By the time it ended on Nov. 11, 1918, an estimated...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jun 1, 2014

Accidental activist battles Japan's part-timer purgatory

Miho Marui isn't exactly sure how she wound up standing on top of a bus on a blustery Tokyo day in 2009, staring up at the 35-story headquarters of KDDI Corp.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2012

The Taisho Era: When modernity ruled Japan's masses

"Democracy is so popular these days!" — "The Democracy Song," 1919
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 7, 2012

Fighting the good fight for a healthy natural diet

Mamiko Matsuda, the best-selling author, translator and nutritional expert who divides her time between Japan and Houston, overcame an early struggle with poor health and disease to become an advocate for healthy diets and "natural hygiene."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 25, 2011

Time for Japan to realize it really is the canary in the mine

This Christmas Day column is a book review, but it is also a wish and a prayer.
LIFE
Jul 31, 2011

Most unlikely bedfellows

"How wonderful! How marvelous! From here to the southeast is what the Westerners call the Pacific Ocean and the American states! They must be very close!" — Watanabe Kazan, artist and samurai, in a diary recording a sojourn in Enoshima, an island off Kamakura in present-day Kanagawa Prefecture,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 6, 2010

Dancing for joy in Japan

As I sipped my vin rouge last week during an interval in "The Sleeping Beauty," K-Ballet's latest Tokyo production, a woman at the next table said to her companion: "I can't believe that evil fairy was a man! I just naturally thought it was a woman dancing that role."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Oct 6, 2009

'Outsider' shares unique take on life, prejudices in the 'real' Japan

As a "blonde-haired, blue-eyed" American woman living in the rural farmlands of Tokushima Prefecture with a Japanese husband and their twin children, one with hearing disabilities, author and novelist Suzanne Kamata has gained a unique perspective on life in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 6, 2009

Japan's own Onion

"America's finest news source" is the slogan of The Onion, a satirical newspaper in the U.S that pokes fun at current events. I think a newspaper like this would go over well in Japan too. Here are some top stories I could imagine:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2009

Mexico and Japan make beautiful music together

I n September 1609, when a Mexican sailboat ran ashore in a typhoon near the village of Onjuku in today's Chiba Prefecture, local fishermen and ama (female divers) rescued 317 souls from the angry ocean. That was Japan's first contact with Mexican people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2008

Rocking around the Hanukkah menorah

What is the most popular Hanukkah song? It's probably "I Have a Little Dreidel," which even a lot of gentiles learn as children. It tends to be the token Jewish song sung in elementary schools during the holiday season, which, of course, is dominated by Christian themes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 29, 2011

What do you do when the kids think Colonel Sanders is Santa?

Foreign parents in Japan are faced with the task of trying to reconcile their own childhood memories of Christmas with the different take that Japan has on the holiday season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 29, 2011

Make it home for the holidays ... or at least as close as possible

Yes, the Christmas season is supposed to be about intangibles like gratitude, giving, and joyful time shared with family and friends. But one must eat, too. Foreigners in Japan who aren't used to feasting on fast-food fried chicken and fancy cakes as key parts of the holiday might find themselves craving...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Dec 11, 2009

Make merry with top festive wines

In case you haven't noticed, it's the season to be jolly. If you aren't yet decking the halls with sprigs of holly here's just the thing to get you in the spirit: a Christmas wine guide, which will take you from pre-Christmas party to post-Christmas stupor in four easy stages.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 27, 2008

Who said no man is an island?

I saw 81-year-old Man-chan, along with the plumber, putting up Christmas decorations in the park next to the ferry port. This is the third year Man-chan has headed up this Christmas illumination project with the help of the plumber who puts up the Christmas lights. Each year the display expands — an...
LIFE / Language
Dec 25, 2007

'A Happy Winter Holiday' to you one and all

In many places, celebrations will be getting into full swing. But if you're in Japan, by the time you read this, Christmas (kurisumasu) will have already been forgotten. Like everywhere else, in the runup before, there have been carols sung and trees and lights and images of Santa hung up, especially...
Holiday classic "Tokyo Godfathers" centers on three homeless people who have formed a makeshift family.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 23, 2023

Satoshi Kon’s unexpected anime classic for the holidays

The late director and animator's "Tokyo Godfathers" celebrates 20 years with new screenings.
Heidrun Holzfeind documents urban and rural scenes, such as two policemen on bicycles nonchalantly rolling down a street, in her video piece "The 49th Year." The footage is presented alongside incarcerated New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata’s writings about Japan’s highly supervised society in the exhibition "News from K."
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2023

'News From K' captures the oppression of landscape

Letters from prison by New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata reveal a sense of limbo in Heidrun Holzfeind’s new work.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji