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July 23, 2025
 

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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 21, 2010

Kanji for ‘big' will expand your Japanese skills

Every year on Aug. 16, at exactly 8 p.m., the first in a series of five giant bonfires is lit on a mountainside overlooking the city of Kyoto, signaling the moment when ancestral ghosts return to the spirit world after visiting relatives on Earth during the three-day O-bon festival. The largest and most...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 11, 2010

Viewing dolphins as Taiji could show them

We're not the only mammals to notice the oil tanker entering the Gulf of Amvrakikos.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2010

Accepting Russia as it was

LONDON — The Georgians took down the last statue of Josef Stalin last week. There used to be thousands of such statues all across the old Soviet Union, but the Communists themselves tore almost all of them down after the great dictator and mass murderer died in 1953. They left the one in Gori, in northern...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 20, 2010

Grammar and sums have gone — all that's left is a je ne sais quoi

Hi Bris again tho this is the first time Im facing U my msg that Im prepared to rocket to Alaska so that Alaska can rejoin the USA and we can be 5×10 states again like in Barack's time So seriously Your Mal
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 13, 2010

Beneath the Battle of Okinawa

In 1966, Dave Davenport was a mystery to his fellow U.S. Air Force clerks on Okinawa. Whereas they would dress up in their finest threads and make for the clubs of Koza in their free time, Davenport would don the oldest clothes he owned and jump on a local bus heading into the middle of nowhere.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 13, 2010

Synthetic life zaps 'the soul'

I remember a couple of years ago the Vatican made a curious announcement about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Clearly,the Roman Catholic Church was getting worried that any discovery of evidence of life on other planets would undermine its authority on Earth. It wanted to head off the impact...
COMMENTARY
Jun 11, 2010

Who to credit for Asia's extraordinary rise?

LOS ANGELES — The extraordinary rise of Asia in recent decades cannot be understood or appreciated without some reference to outstanding leadership. Consider the experience of other regions of the world.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 9, 2010

Wooden leaves behind legion of true believers

NEW YORK — I've long envied the privileged legions that played for John Wooden and bonded with him for so long.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 5, 2010

No end to JBA's incompetence

Only the names change, but the story remains the same, someone wiser than I once said.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
May 19, 2010

Soak up a sprinkling of rain-component kanji

The kanji compound word for Japan's annual rainy season — set to commence in early June — is the poetic 梅雨 ("plum rain," baiu/tsuyu), but any resident of the archipelago whose closets have been invaded by noxious green mold during 梅雨 will appreciate why it was originally written 黴雨 ("moldy...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 9, 2010

Astronauts need company: Should we send a rover or a humanoid?

If you've heard the arguments about whether it's better to send robots or humans on space missions, get ready for them to intensify: There are whole varieties of subarguments.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 21, 2010

Move by Nets triggers flood of memories

NEW YORK — Play "Misty" for us — the Nets closed the coffin on the Izod Center last week with one more loss.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 18, 2010

Brace yourself — I did say 'cute'!

When did you last go out into the woods at night? In this age of media-induced fears, and with far more than half the world's population now being urban- dwellers, fewer of us brave the outdoors even during daylight hours, let alone at night.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 11, 2010

Italian toads fuel case for animals' seismic sense

Have you ever anticipated an earthquake? Some people report that they have "sensed" a temblor before it struck. They may claim to have felt a "foreboding" that something was going to happen. When an earthquake then strikes, it is easy to retrospectively join the dots and attribute that vague sense of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2010

Chronicling a collection

Last fall, Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT) quietly launched a series of exhibitions seeking new interpretive approaches to the institution's permanent collection of modern and contemporary art. Tucked away in a modest group of second-floor galleries, the first exhibition in the series, "Chronicle...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 17, 2010

You can count on the tales behind number-kanji

When giving talks on Japan in elementary school classrooms in the United States, I chalk the kanji 一, 二, and 三 on the blackboard and ask the children to guess their meanings. "One, two, three!" they shout, easily intuiting three kanji introduced to Japanese schoolchildren in the first grade. Japanese...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2010

Pens and pools: prisons for cetaceans

The death in February of a killer-whale trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, made headlines all over the world. As has been widely reported, Dawn Brancheau, an experienced orca trainer, was dragged by her hair into the whale's pool, where she died of traumatic injuries and drowning.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2010

Toyota secretive on 'black box' data

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Toyota has for years blocked access to data stored in devices similar to airliner black boxes that could explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended acceleration, according to an Associated Press review of lawsuits nationwide and interviews with auto crash experts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Feb 24, 2010

Pulse Rate: 社畜 (shachiku)

In our new series, Pulse Rate looks at why everyone seeking info on 'corporate cattle' and black-listed companies in Japan's search engines.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 20, 2010

Stuck in a not so hairy situation

One way I kill time on my monotonous commutes across municipal Tokyo is to scout out the hairpieces in the strap-hanger set.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 14, 2010

Could 'Godzilla cherry blossom' save Japanese culture?

Cherry blossom is as quintessentially Japanese as sushi and samurai.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 10, 2010

Knicks lose a legend with McGuire's passing

NEW YORK — The easiest columns to write are about people you love.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 24, 2010

Eschewing the cheerlessness of modern-market memoirs

Those who have read Donald Keene's 1996 memoir "On Familiar Terms" may wonder whether it was necessary for him to bring out another that covers much the same ground. One suspects that Keene published "Chronicles of My Life" simply because he had been asked to write a series of columns about his life...
Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2010

Grateful for right to proselytize

In his Jan. 17 article, "Will the Tiger find a way out of the Woods?," columnist Tom Plate finds commentator Brit Hume's statement on American television that Christianity might offer a public figure (such as golfer Tiger Woods) a greater opportunity for repentance to be not only virtually unconstitutional...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 17, 2010

Learning old ways to build for today

For lovers of traditional Japanese architecture, a visit to Akihisa Kitamori's laboratory at the Kyoto University Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH) would likely evoke similar emotions to those felt by an animal-rights activist in a cosmetics test lab full of tormented rabbits.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 10, 2010

Beware: Reading this may swamp your sea horses

Reading this column could be an unforgettable way to start the new year.
COMMENTARY
Dec 28, 2009

Star artists reveal the essence of a nation's bureaucratic ways

LOS ANGELES — In America, trying to understand what makes other complex countries and cultures tick is usually done in the university classroom, through travel abroad or by following the mass news media. But there's another option that sometimes produces gold: Peering into other cultures through the...
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2009

Wake up a friend about China at Christmas

LOS ANGELES — Attention last-minute holiday shoppers: We have an easy-to-purchase gift to recommend. And we guarantee that it will fit all sizes, shapes and tastes. This is assuming your intended recipients are intelligent, literate and eager to learn about the world.
Foreign residents closely follow Japan's election and party pledges
A police officer walks past posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates, as well as one showing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, outside the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. As Japan’s foreign population continues to rise, one of the talking points during Sunday’s election was how the country should deal with the increase of international residents.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
‘Noto Democracy’ and the slow work of civic change
Yukio Iokibe’s “Noto Democracy" centers on Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher who publishes a handwritten newspaper every month to encourage the residents of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to engage in local politics.
In microbes we trust: Embracing the nature of fermented food
You don't need an oven to make Kenji Morimoto's easy and delicious Miso Sticky Toffee Crepe Cake.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

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