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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 26, 2007

The biggest Internet-related stories of 2007

As we wind down on 2007, it's a good time to look back and see how much the Internet landscape has changed in the last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 18, 2007

A film director in the theater

Daisuke Tengan is an acclaimed filmmaker, but search for him on the Internet and the first thing you'll discover is that he's the son of director Shohei Imamura, who won the Palme d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival for "Narayamabushiko" in 1983 and "Unagi" in 1997.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 13, 2007

Sentinels of the streets

Three years ago my family moved from within Tokyo to just across the border in Saitama. So close to that border, in fact, that I can open a window and almost spit across the line.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 26, 2007

Back-chatting TVs and translating photocopiers

Bridging the gaps between the multiple towers of Babel that are modern languages has traditionally relied on software. Whether this be organic software, as in humans and their linguistic skills, or computers with their still relatively primitive ability to translate from one language to another. Fuji...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 5, 2007

Keeping the horror of Hiroshima alive

Masako's Story: Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, by Kikuko Otake, edited by Dr. Jesse Glass. Tokyo/Toronto: Ahadada Books, 2007, 94 pp. with photos and maps, $15 (paper) The cenotaph for the Hiroshima victims reads "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil," but...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2007

Simpler treaty for EU's silent majority

LUXEMBOURG — At the European Union's summit this week, debate will center on whether to go forward with a "mini" EU Constitutional Treaty. That debate is the result of the rejection of the draft treaty by French and Dutch voters in 2005. But those "no" votes have obscured the fact that 18 of the EU's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 1, 2007

Buddha's fighting soldiers

THE TEETH AND CLAWS OF BUDDHISM: Monastic Warriors and Sohei in Japanese History, by Mikael S. Adolphson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007, 214 pp., with 32 illustrations and maps, $36 (cloth) Buddha with fangs and claws is an unexpected image, if only because religions so often express themselves...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 17, 2007

Brian S. McElney

The UNESCO designation of World Heritage sites is given to only a few selected cities. Bath in southwest England has the designation. Although it is called one of the best preserved 18th-century cities in the world, its origins go much further back in time.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 7, 2007

Through the Terayama looking glass

THE EXPERIMENTAL IMAGE WORLD OF SHUJI TERAYAMA, DVD four-volume box set. Tokyo: Daguerreo Press, Inc./Image Forum Video, 2006, color/monochrome, English subtitles, bilingual menu, audio commentaries (Japanese only) by Nobuhiro Kawanaka, Tatsuo Suzuki, Sakumi Hagiwara and Henriku Morisaki, 346 min., 18,900...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 24, 2006

Sutra-writing by hand to boost the brain

Amid the current national craze over anything that might boost brainpower -- or at least help its legions of elderly to retain their mental functions -- a relatively low-key, centuries-old Buddhist practice has lately been attracting a lot of attention.
LIFE / Language
Nov 21, 2006

Net resources make light work of Japanese study

'When the tunnel where the border is long is passed through there was snow country."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 6, 2006

Japan's baroque theater

KABUKI: Baroque Fusion of the Arts, by Toshio Kawatake, translated by Frank and Jean Connell Hoff. I-House Press, 2006, 358 pp. with 78 illustrations, 1,905 yen (paper). This is the new enlarged and revised edition of an important book on the Kabuki, originally published by the University of Tokyo Press...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 27, 2006

The revenge of the Red Demon

Playwright, actor and director Hideki Noda has been the undisputed leader of the Japanese contemporary theater world for 30 years. In that time he has written, directed and often acted in more than 60 plays in Japan -- all of them hits or superhits among his mushrooming fanbase. In fact, Noda has been...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2006

Japan yields to resolution by China, Russia

In an apparent compromise to China and Russia, Japan intends to draw up a U.N. draft resolution that condemns North Korea's July 5 missile test-launches but may not include strong measures such as sanctions, which Tokyo had earlier pushed, several government officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2006

Firms plan Jakarta interactive shows

Sumitomo Corp. and Fuji Television Network Inc. said Monday they will jointly produce TV programs for Indonesian audiences in which viewers can participate by using the text messaging services of their cell phones.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 28, 2006

'Patriotism' a useful tool for the government to meddle in education

"I Am a Patriot" was a song released by "Little Steven" Van Zandt in 1984. In it, he sang that he loved his country because "my country is all I know." It's worth mentioning as the controversy over the use of "patriotism" in the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education continues to make headlines....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 21, 2006

Yukio Mishima's prequel to the end

YUKOKU (Patriotism), 1966, produced, written and interpreted by Yukio Mishima, associate producer Hiroaki Fujii, associate director Masaki Domoto, photographed by Kimio Watanabe. Tokyo: Toho DVD, 2006, Disc One: 28 minutes, Disc Two: 175 minutes, 6,300 yen. In 1961 Yukio Mishima published a short story,...
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2006

Textbooks given state makeover

, which it controls.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2006

Saving our environment one step at a time

Having ended 2005 with a rant (see below), let me begin 2006 on a more positive note by introducing some valuable environmental education resources.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 8, 2006

Resurrection of 47 masterless samurai

KUNIYOSHI: The Faithful Samurai, by David R. Weinberg, translations and essay by Alfred H. Marks, Foreword by B.W. Robinson. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005, 192 pp., map, pictures, color plates. 39.50 euro (paper). This is the paperback edition (first published in 2000) of one of the most interesting...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 27, 2005

The Indianapolis Museum of Art takes some tradition back to Japan

JAPANESE MASTERWORKS: Paintings From the Indianapolis Museum of Art; edited by Heisaku Harada and John Tadao Teramoto; foreword by Anthony Hirschel; introduction by Christine M.E. Guth; and essays by Tae Nishida, Shiji Hashimoto, Takeshi Nagai and Yumiko Kuniga. Seattle: University of Washington Press,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 7, 2005

The god of love's guide to bedroom etiquette

THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED KAMA SUTRA, edited by Lance Dane. Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2003, 320 pp., with 250 full-color illustrations. $25.00 (cloth). The classic textbook on erotics, the "Kama Sutra," was written or compiled around the 5th century and is attributed to a sage, Vatsyayana,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

Indelible mark of the tattoo

THE WORLD OF TATTOO, by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers/Hotei Publishing, 304 pp., 720 color illustrations, $80 (cloth). Charles Darwin averred that there was not one country in which the inhabitants did not tattoo themselves. From the ancient Briton to the plains Indians, through...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 22, 2005

Breathing the life into the dance

"I had a hard time finding the title," Pina Bausch tells me during an interview about her most recent work, "Nefes." The Turkish for "Breath" is the title of the latest in a series of works which the choreographer, who will turn 65 in July this year, has created in collaboration with theaters around...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2005

Memoirs of an activist

RESTLESS WAVE: My Life in Two Worlds, by Ayako Ishigaki. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2004, 286 pp., $16.95 (paper). Those who know something about Ayako Ishigaki (or who have cheated and read the afterword to "Restless Wave" before the text proper) will find the first...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 3, 2005

Common weeds of nationalism

NATIONALISMS OF JAPAN: Managing and Mystifying Identity, by Brian J. McVeigh. Latham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, 331 pp., $34.95 (paper). Angry Chinese and Korean responses to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, anti-Japanese actions by Chinese soccer fans at the Asia...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 31, 2004

Sweeping view of socio-economic change and continuity in China for a half-century

HUMANISM IN CHINA: A Contemporary Record of Photography, edited by Wang Huangsheng and Hu Wugong. Guandong: Lingnan Meishu Chubanche, 2003, 488 pp., $40 (paper). China is a society in the midst of sweeping socio-economic convulsions that are rapidly and drastically altering the lives of its citizens....

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