Search - life-style

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 30, 2010

Hikari Mitsushima: from pop idol to screen diva?

Up until last year, 24-year-old Hikari Mitsushima was best known as a former member of the Okinawan idol group Folder 5.
COMMENTARY
Apr 28, 2010

U.K. overdoses on change

British politics has been turned upside down by recent events. The traditional two-party battle between Labour and Conservatives has been thrown into confusion by a big surge in support for a third party, the Liberal Democrats. The likely result could be a "hung parliament," with the Conservatives being...
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2010

Japan needs green tech investment

The government should focus more on promoting innovations and utilizing energy-efficient technologies of Japanese companies in the nation's efforts to combat global warming, officials of industry groups said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 25, 2010

Slow 'n' easy

This year is the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of Japan's first major capital, named Heijokyo, and its present-day home prefecture of Nara is basking in that ancient spotlight.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2010

'Bushido Sixteen'

Women warriors have been a feature of Japanese films for decades, from Meiko Kaji's revenge-bent heroine in "Shurayuki Hime" (Lady Snowblood, 1973) — a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" — to Haruka Ayase's sword-wielding shamisen player in "Ichi" (2008).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 9, 2010

The blond ambition of Tamara de Lempicka

I'm not sure what Lady Gaga — who arrives in Japan shortly — has in her art collection, but given time (and the millions produced by her phenomenal success) I think it is highly likely that a lady of her strong aesthetic drives will get round to emulating her model Madonna by acquiring paintings...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 4, 2010

Corey out to make most of second chance in Japan

Chiba Lotte Marines right-hander Bryan Corey is back in Japan for a second chance, following a turbulent half-season in 2004 with the Yomiuri Giants, and he is determined to make the most of this opportunity.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 21, 2010

Moves afoot to make Japanese holidays a pleasure not a pain

It's a seasonal phenomenon in Japan: lines of cars 40-km long and more clogging expressways; super- jammed shinkansen terminals and airports; and hot-spring resorts besieged by visitors crammed cheek to cheek in the steaming baths, imo-arai-style (literally, "washing potatoes in a bucket").
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 14, 2010

Patient's tale casts a sublime lightness on some awful scars of war

"Elephant," by Minoru Betsuyaku, is a postwar classic of Japanese drama.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Mar 11, 2010

Revamps, re-openings, relocations and the return of Fashion Week

MISHA JANETTE Get ready for Fashion Week
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 10, 2010

Wait long enough and daikon legs get fashionable

Bridget Jones said a woman starts to feel her age when the fashion of the times comes full circle and she witnesses the ghostly resurrection of all the stuff she wore in her youth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2010

Visions of art in an alternative key

In its own quiet way, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions was one of the standout art events of 2009.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 2, 2010

Non-Japanese suffrage and the racist element

On Jan. 17, Takeo Hiranuma made this statement about fellow Diet member Renho:
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2010

Love in the age of governmental say so

First comes "Eat, Pray, Love," then comes marriage for best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert, whose latest travel memoir describes her fitful and resistant journey back into matrimony.
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

Secrets and lies

Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 14, 2010

"Ryomaden" romanticizes (and monetizes) history

It's official. Japan is in the throes of what's bound to be a long-term romance with a certain rebel samurai named Ryoma Sakamoto.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 10, 2010

Fast fashion is not what's ailing Japan's economy

Last fall outspoken economist Noriko Hama caused a fuss with an essay about deflation in the magazine Bungei Shunju. She said that the trend of yasuuri kyoso (low price competition) was "destroying society," and not just in Japan. However, in Japan she singled out the clothing retailer Uniqlo as the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 8, 2010

Ghent's Das Pop goes overground

His upbringing pretty much ensured that the thought of being in a band was the farthest thing from Bent Van Looy's young mind.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 30, 2009

Need to know those buzzwords to follow Japan's big hit products

Of all the jobs I've held in Japan, by far the most challenging was the four years I spent during the baburu keizai (バブル経済, bubble economy) as a trend watcher for a market-research company.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 30, 2009

CJK recruits Android for new Camangi Webstation tablet

Going tablet: Android is Google's shot at hitting Microsoft where it hurts — mobile devices. Windows might still dominate PC operating systems, but it has never duplicated this overwhelming presence on the small screens of mobile phones, PDAs and the like. So far, Android has shaken things up by becoming...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 24, 2009

Web designer Peter Brune

Peter Brune, 45, is a Web designer and photographer who has been a Japanese resident for 10 years. Born and raised in East Berlin, Brune was a world traveler even before he set foot outside the walls of his home: Absorbed in books and glued to the television and radio, he was constantly crossing borders...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 20, 2009

Stunning book speaks volumes about the ravages visited on Tibet

Ten years ago, near the end of 1999, the Chinese author Wang Lixiong received a package from a young woman of Tibetan origin named Tsering Woeser. It contained several hundred black-and-white negatives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

A decade when Japan's cinema stood up to Hollywood menace

When I started reviewing Japanese films for The Japan Times in 1989, many of the people making and distributing them were convinced that the Hollywood juggernaut was slowly crushing them. How could they hope to compete against superior Hollywood technology and vastly larger Hollywood budgets?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

And the best Japanese films of 2009 were . . .

1. "Fish Story":
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 4, 2009

Edo Period puppet troupe opens 'behind-the-strings' exhibition

The Edo Marionette Theater Youkiza, a traditional Japanese marionette theater, sprung to life this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009

Beyond the cliches you will find Lautrec

The most noticeable thing about the paintings of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is not their often lurid colors or the ukiyo-e-influenced compositions. Nor is it their renowned subject matter: the lively, sordid, effervescent world of fin-de-siecle Paris.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 29, 2009

Kichijoji captivations

Kichijoji has shopping covered, literally and figuratively. The roofed malls at this popular stop on the Chuo Line 15 minutes west of Shinjuku sport prices markedly lower than those of central Tokyo, and the lure of its bargains is easily as strong as its famed live jazz and blues scene.

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