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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 16, 2012

Single vs. married TV personalities; "The Apply Yourself Cookbook"; CM of the week: Lixil

On Friday, TV Asahi devotes almost three full hours to the variety special "Kekkon Dekinai Shikaisha to Nijusan-nin Yomeiru Geinintachi" (7 p.m.), whose entire premise is described in the title: "Presenters Who Can't Get Married and 23 Comedians With Brides."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 9, 2012

Sail through time with hobikisen on Lake Kasumigaura

It's difficult to imagine what Lake Kasumigaura in Ibaraki Prefecture would have looked like a century ago. Most of its surrounding areas have now become dormitory towns for Tokyo, just 50 km to the southwest. These days, too, where the traditional old lotus paddies do remain, they tend to be covered...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2012

'Yume Uru Futari (Dreams for Sale)'

Ever since her 2003 directorial debut "Hebi Ichigo (Wild Berries)," a black comedy about a dysfunctional family, Miwa Nishikawa has been exploring the infinite human capacity for duplicity and the elusiveness of truth.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 6, 2012

Hammer-Head studio to support young artists in Yokohama

Ever since 2002, when then-Yokohama mayor Hiroshi Nakada lit the fuse on his Creative City plan, Tokyo's southern neighbor has hosted a more-or-less unbroken series of cultural events that have leaped, Chinese firework-style, back and forth between the city's many hitherto-underutilized publicly owned...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 4, 2012

With Berlitz beaten but not bowed, union fights on

Before instructors became embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Berlitz Japan, there was a time when the English language school chain's robust image made it a top choice among foreign job-seekers.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Aug 30, 2012

The customer is always right, but that's what's wrong in Japan's live-house scene

The roundly despised pay-to-play system in place throughout most of Tokyo's live-music scene, and to a slightly lesser extent in many other cities, is something I've written about in this column before.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2012

"Sukiya Carpenter: The Creator of Beauty"

Despite the recently rekindled popularity of traditional Japanese architecture, many admirers are not fully aware of the wa, the key to harmonious Japanese design, behind their structures. Sukiya is a residential architecture style that incorporates the refined aesthetics of the Japanese tea house and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2012

Art director Hideki Nakajima throws down the gauntlet of design

In Hiroshima the sun is setting on a large retrospective exhibition by one of Japan's leading graphic designers, who for the past 20 years has been working at the edge of his discipline, carving out a unique niche for himself within a very prescribed industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 21, 2012

Do your research to avoid medical surprises in Japan

Understanding how Japanese medical practice differs from that in your home country can be crucial to avoiding unwelcome surprises next time you or a loved one find yourselves in need of treatment at a local clinic or hospital.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 17, 2012

'Shokuzai (Penance)'

How much will they miss you when you're gone? Directors typically keep putting off the answer to that question as long as possible, working until they drop. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose 2008 dysfunctional family drama "Tokyo Sonata" won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 12, 2012

New breed of single fathers should be a model for men across Japan

He is a much maligned creature at home and abroad. Some call him good for nothing; others say he is good for only one thing: bringing home the bacon ... and, in recent years, a most lean bacon it has become. On the weekends his primary pastime is gorone, to wit, snoozing in his clothes during daytime...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 11, 2012

Import club caters to need for home comfort

The blonde man in shorts and a baseball cap, sporting a lopsided grin and a dangling backpack and parking a rusty bicycle, looked less like a captain of industry than a superannuated college student. Yet American Chuck Grafft, 50, is founder and CEO of Foreign Buyers Club, one of the largest importers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2012

"Junkichi Mukai: The Time for Conversation"

When Junkichi Mukai (1901-1995) was young, he visited France and saw classic masterpieces at the Louvre Museum in Paris. That Western inspiration greatly contributed to the development of his realistic painting style, which he used to depict traditional Japanese houses.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCKERS
Aug 2, 2012

Mono wants you to give your parents a hug

Great gig!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2012

'Kazoku no Kuni (Our Homeland)'

Many Japanese directors make family dramas — it's the default setting for serious filmmakers here — but they are usually not telling their own family stories, however fictionalized.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 26, 2012

Rembrandt still outshines Vermeer

The first exhibition at the newly renovated Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art (TMMA) was always going to be an important one. After a two-year closure to let the builders in, it wouldn't have sufficed to just have a run-of-the-mill exhibition. Something special was required, and with "Masterpieces from...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2012

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto: 'What Japan needs now is dictatorship'

Confrontational, outspoken, feisty and highly focused, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is a self-made man determined to redraw the loci of power in Japan. He is clearly using the local platform from which to spring into the national arena. The question on everyone's mind is: Will Hashimoto ever be the prime...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 17, 2012

Suteteko: Hanging out in underwear is a cool way to survive the summer heat

Picture this: A man comes home from work on a summer evening. The intense heat of the day has abated and he goes into another room to change out of his suit. He emerges wearing a simple ensemble of underwear consisting of an undershirt (sleeveless or not) and a pair of suteteko — which can best be...
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2012

Yukio Mishima's bizarre views

Regarding Hiroaki Sato's June 25 article, "Irony of being in the company of '12-year-olds": Although far from novel, a conversation about the extent to which the Japanese World War II government and military were no worse than Western governments and militaries could be illuminating.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2012

What is iconic photography?

Osamu Wataya is a photographer, but only in the dictionary sense of the word. Most artistic photographers use their subjects to make a work of art, "I want to be able to serve my subjects," he says, "I want my subjects to be able to use me." When the shutter snaps, he isn't so much freezing a moment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 5, 2012

Big theater names and 'Super Kabuki'

At the start of the performances at Tokyo's Shimbashi Embujo Ichikawa theater in June this year, Kamejiro II (born Takahiko Kinoshi), 36, took the name Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, while his uncle Ichikawa Ennosuke III, famously known as the founder of "Super Kabuki," took the name Ichikawa En'o II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2012

'Crazy Horse' / 'This Must Be the Place'

I knew a dancer back in the States who worked with the Washington Ballet ... by day. Some nights, under a different name, she performed as a stripper in a seedier part of town. While recognizing the need for secrecy, she herself had no problem with moonlighting as a peeler, and in fact enjoyed it. I...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 24, 2012

The doomsday cult of 9-to-5 depression

One of the enduring mysteries of the Aum Shinrikyo atrocities of the 1990s is the ease with which the cult attracted members. The arrest this month of the last two fugitives allegedly involved in Aum's fatal 1995 sarin gas assault on the Tokyo subway system recalls the whole ghastly episode, together...
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2012

Exporting 'Japanland'

The government's Cool Japan strategy of promoting the country abroad has taken another step as the trade ministry plans to recreate trendy districts of Tokyo in cities across the globe. The plan is aimed at promoting Japan and encouraging exports by organizing areas for Japan-style shops, restaurants...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 6, 2012

Durant, Green show class of West's best organizations

Kevin Durant cannot possibly be, as commonly portrayed, as great a guy as he is a player, right?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 29, 2012

Japan's house of the rising sun

What will our lifestyles be like in the future? An international group of students at Chiba University plan to explore the possibilities with their proposal for a next-generation solar house, a futuristic mix of new technology and traditional ways of life in Japan.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2012

Convenience store chains go with flow, grow

The nation's top three convenience store chains last month posted record annual operating profits for the 2011 business year despite the sluggish, disaster-stricken domestic economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2012

Signed, sealed and delivered: Paul Smith's stamp collection

His creations are more commonly found paraded on fashion catwalks or on hangers in boutiques around the world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
May 1, 2012

Blood, beatings and the cage: the bouncer

Before The Japan Times was invited inside Nagoya's iD Cafe to speak to Thomas, the nightclub's security manager, we stopped to chat to a uniformed policeman near the club. He told us there were as many as 50 fights in a nearby park on Friday and Saturday nights. This busy area of the city, Sakae, known...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 29, 2012

Erika Sawajiri is an "Evil Woman"; controversial DaVinci paintings; CM of the week: Lotte Ghana

She's back, and badder than ever! Actually, before her monumental fall from grace, actress Erika Sawajiri rose to fame on her innocent image and ability to weep on cue. But after dissing her own film at a press conference she became poison.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building