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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2022

Unraveling one of rock’s deepest mysteries: Les Rallizes Denudes

The Japanese band that emerged in the late 1960s was known for its rumbling rhythms and ear-shredding feedback — but almost nothing was known about its leader, Takashi Mizutani.
Japan Times
Special Supplements / Ainu language special
Feb 21, 2022

Efforts underway to save Ainu language and culture

Chances are you haven’t met an Ainu speaker in Japan. After all, Google’s Endangered Languages Project puts the number of native speakers at fewer than five. But the Ainu people once populated a wide swath of northern Japan, stretching from Tohoku to Hokkaido, the Chishima islands, and the southern...
Japan Times
WORLD
Sep 13, 2021

Scientists scramble to harvest ice cores vital to climate study as glaciers melt

The realization glaciers are disappearing faster than expected is prompting renewed urgency, causing those who specialize in harvesting ice cores to accelerate missions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Aug 2, 2021

Learning from disaster: Across Tohoku, a race is on to preserve vital records

Volumes of archived materials outline the ordeal communities have been through over the past decade. Soon they could be lost.
Japan Times
May 28, 2020

The Japan Times has newly implemented the "Book Viewer" Digitized and released "Japan Illustrated"

The Japan Times, Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Chairperson and publisher: Minako Suematsu) has added the Japan Times Book Viewer, which allows users to search and view booklets and books. In addition to the previous Japan Times Archive, the Japan Times has begun to digitize and offer new content...
PRESS / Services
May 28, 2020

The Japan Times has newly implemented the "Book Viewer"
Digitized and released "Japan Illustrated"

Japan Times
May 21, 2020

The Japan Times has newly implemented the "Book Viewer" Digitized and released "Enthronement Number 1928"

The Japan Times, Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Chairperson and publisher: Minako Suematsu) has added the Japan Times Book Viewer, which allows users to search and view booklets and books. In addition to the previous Japan Times Archive, the Japan Times has begun to digitize and offer new content...
PRESS / Services
May 21, 2020

The Japan Times has newly implemented the "Book Viewer"
Digitized and released "Enthronement Number 1928"

The Japan Times, Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Chairperson and publisher: Minako Suematsu) has added the Japan Times Book Viewer, which allows users to search and view booklets and books.  In addition to the previous Japan Times Archive, the Japan Times has begun to digitize and offer new content...
Japan Times
Apr 2, 2019

alt Group, the provider of “Altgo.com”, an AI development platform, and CyberSolutions partner to release the AI engine to users of “CyberMail”.

alt Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. President & Chief Executive Officer: Mr. Kazutaka Yonekura. Hereinafter called “alt”.), a developer of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and ALT Technologies, Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. President & Chief Executive Officer: Mr. Jeongyong Kim. Hereinafter...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 7, 2018

Can co-working spaces change work culture in Japan?

Freelancers aren't the only people utilizing shared office space these days, with companies increasingly looking at getting in on the act.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 26, 2017

Throwback time for fashion leads to innovation

As regular followers of Japanese fashion can attest, the industry can be seen as somewhat flirtatious, dallying with new debutantes, another sister brand, another collaboration, another short-term "limited shop" or another retail concept that makes the news but doesn't really change the game.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2017

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda represented the voice and conscience of a nation

"I stood here just after the end of the war," Polish film director Andrzej Wajda said. "I was only 19 years old. The entire area was flattened, just rubble. The Stare Miasto (Old Town) was one big gaping pit that I stared into."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2017

The new testament to Bowie's star power

"I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something," the younger Bowie once said about "a major hero" of his, Elvis Presley.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 6, 2016

It's the end of the world as we know it, and we still feel fine

Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Lost Human Genetic Archive," the inaugural exhibition for the reopening of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (now the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum), is an erudite and elaborate exercise in gallows humor. The theme is the end of civilization and human life, but possibly...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2016

Records can shed light on U.S. role in Argentina

U.S. President Barack Obama should be praised for engaging in 'declassified diplomacy.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / 5-YEAR MEMORIAL OF GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE
Mar 11, 2016

Maintaining remnants of disaster for future

Sept. 1, known as Disaster Prevention Day, was designated as such by the government in 1960. On this day every year, cities and towns nationwide, as well as schools, companies and even small community groups, run evacuation drills to prepare for natural disasters such as typhoons, landslides and earthquakes....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015

Japan's fertile architectural evolution

Today, Japanese contemporary architecture enjoys an outstanding international reputation, but the story of its emergence to a position of such accomplishment and acclaim has not yet been told comprehensively. A pair of exhibitions at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa presents a postwar...
On the first day of the 2000s, the world was relieved that the Y2K computer glitch was mostly nothing. And in Russia, Vladimir Putin came to power.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Jan 1, 2025

Japan Times 2000: Japanese celebrate new year

Check out what was on the front page on Jan. 1 in 1925, 1950, 1975 and 2000.
The front page of The Japan Times on Feb. 21, 1925, carried news of clashes in the streets over the debate of extending voting rights to Japanese males over the age of 25.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Feb 1, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Tokyo factions ready to fight over manhood suffrage bill in Diet

Objections from the country's 1% came as Japan debated extending voting rights to all men over the age of 25.
On March 21, 1925, a front page headline announced that the Tokyo Radio Broadcasting Bureau, the precursor to NHK, had begun operations with a communications range of 50 kilometers.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Mar 1, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Government sanctions official broadcasting station, the precursor to NHK

Japan’s first official broadcasting station began operating 100 years ago, setting a new precedent for the speed of communication and news.
On April 23, 1925, The Japan Times ran a story about the principal clauses of the new Peace Preservation Law that was enacted to suppress ideologies deemed dangerous by the state.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Apr 5, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Peace law has several teeth

The Peace Preservation Law was a means of ideological suppression that grew tighter over time until it was repealed by Allied authorities following World War II.
An actor portrays a "pocong," a ghost widely known in Indonesia, at a horror entertainment venue at a mall in Jakarta. The pocong is just one of the monsters that features in massively popular Indonesian horror movies.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 15, 2025

Indonesia's horror movie industry rises from the grave

Five of the top 10 films from 2024 were categorized as horror movies, a statistic that underscores just how popular the genre is.
Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, makes front-page news on May 18, 1975.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
May 3, 2025

Japan Times 1975: Junko Tabei becomes first woman to summit Mount Everest

A 35-year-old housewife from Saitama achieved the impressive feat in May 1975 with the help of a Sherpa guide and 15-member Japanese women’s team.
Tokyo police declared that Japanese young men and women were simply "not accustomed to one another’s society" due to their cultural upbringing — and thus freewheeling dance venues and foreign customs needed to be reined in.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Jun 4, 2025

Japan Times 1925: Tokyo police impose curfew on ‘social dances’

In June 1925, concern over “the moral effects of the Western dancing” on Japanese youth led to restrictions on social venues.
A front-page article from July 1950 reported that Kyoto's historic Kinkakuji had been "totally razed" in a fire.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Jul 5, 2025

Japan Times 1950: Kyoto’s ‘Golden Temple’ burns to the ground

The historic Kinkakuji was destroyed in an act of arson in July 1950, a shocking event that would serve as the inspiration for a novel by Yukio Mishima.
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 12, 2025

‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’

The Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society almost shuttered earlier this year, but a flood of support has buoyed efforts to save games on extinct media.
In August 1950, The Japan Times reported on the canceling of Hiroshima's fifth annual peace ceremony due to the Korean War.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Aug 2, 2025

Japan Times 1950: Hiroshima peace festival canceled

In August 1950, the fifth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the city’s annual ceremony praying for peace was canceled due to ongoing combat on the Korean Peninsula.
A woman prays at the Peace Memorial Park ahead of the memorial service to mark the 80th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, in the city of Hiroshima early on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2025

Documents show U.S. initially estimated Hiroshima bombing victims at 100,000

One of the documents said that the heart of the city of Hiroshima was so completely devastated that "not even debris of buildings was left."
Prime Minister Yoshio Mori declared in September 2000 that Japan must “grab the historic opportunity of the IT revolution."
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Sep 6, 2025

Japan Times 2000: Prime minister pitches ‘e-Japan’ as way of life

Japan must “grab the historic opportunity of the IT revolution,” Prime Minister Yoshio Mori declared as the final Diet session of the century opened in September 2000.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight