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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jan 5, 2003

All the world's this scion's stage

Despite a daunting work schedule, and the added demands of this holiday season, Mansai Nomura made it -- albeit sleepy faced, but at the appointed hour -- to this interview in the coffee lounge of the Waseda Rihga Royal Hotel in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

Following in the master's footsteps

During the 10th century, according to legend, there was a blind man called Semimaru who was famed as a biwa (lute) player. Tiring of the stresses of Kyoto life, he moved outside the city and lived by himself in a small house.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 10, 2015

Code + culture: New Internet artists from Japan

If the Internet is an ocean, why do we spend so much time floating on its surface? What's really going on down there? Not just in the deepest, darkest trenches, but among the forgotten protocols, faulty algorithms and emerging parameters outside the busy shipping lanes and far from the crowded life rafts...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 14, 2009

Finding wisdom in fire and earth

Mishima, nestled at the foot of Mount Fuji, is certainly not a center for yakimono (ceramics), one of the most revered arts in Asia. But it is home to Robert Yellin, one of the foremost English-speaking experts on the craft.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 1, 2007

Drawing on experience

Cartoonists in Japan are as abundant as the cherry blossoms at this time of year -- but Rieko Saibara is probably the only one who has both a lyrical and rebellious side to her work -- along with an astonishing power and what has been called a "lethal poison.''
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2004

Director has whale of a time making experimental 'Mind Game'

Now an animation veteran, with 17 years in the business, Masaaki Yuasa still looks young enough, acts deferential enough and dresses down enough to be mistaken for a rank-and-filer. Instead, he is a rising industry star hailed for his work on the "Crayon Shinchan" franchise, the nearest Japanese animation...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Dec 4, 2003

Living on 3 million yen a year

Is there a conspiracy among Japanese politicians, economic experts and elite bureaucrats to destroy Japan's egalitarian postwar social and economic systems and replace them with an American-style, dog-eat-dog type of capitalism typified by a society of haves and have-nots? In his best-selling "Nenshu...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 6, 2002

Dewi Sukarno: 'Miss Ambition' who's done it her way

Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno has become a well-known Japanese media figure in recent years and has just raised some $90,000 for victims of terrorist attacks in the United States.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Jul 6, 2000

Mixing traditions in a quest for freedom

A frog smokes a cigarette in this detail from "The Waiting" by Taeko Takezawa. "I am a totally different type from the other people you've interviewed," says painter Taeko Takezawa as she lights up a clove cigarette. "I am not living my life with any kind of issue consciousness. I'm just trying...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 9, 2022

'Emergent Tokyo' digs into an urban sprawl borne from chaos and order

Architect Jorge Almazan and Studiolab, his research laboratory at Keio University, take an innovative approach to exploring the historical conditions that shaped Tokyo's eclectic cityscape.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 11, 2021

Mima Osawa: 'COVID-19 upended fashion trends for the better'

Mima Osawa puts sustainability and style at the forefront of her fashion line, Mono Handmade.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 22, 2020

China sharply expands mass labor program in Tibet

The program mirrors the one in the western Xinjiang region that rights groups have branded coercive labor.
JAPAN / History
Mar 14, 2020

The 1970 Osaka Expo: Looking back at the past to gauge where Japan sits in the present

The 1970 Osaka Expo laid down a bold statement about Japan's future. Fifty years later, has the country been able to live up to its promises?
Japan Times
CULTURE
Feb 21, 2020

Six-time world champion Shu Takada has got the world on a (yo-yo) string

Six-time world champion yo-yo performer Shu Takada wants to take the yo-yo mainstream and show his tricks to the world
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 21, 2019

Jomon revival: Interest in Japan's indigenous hunter-gathers grows

From his hilltop studio in the suburbs of Tokyo, Taku Oshima is reviving an ancient form of body art tradition he believes was practiced by the indigenous hunter-gatherers that inhabited Japan thousands of years ago.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 14, 2019

A cut above the rest: A new generation of barbers is trying to overcome an image problem

A group of men sporting tattoos and smoking cigarettes chats casually on benches outside Mr. Brothers Cut Club in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku neighborhood.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Mar 5, 2019

Rising choreographer Benoit Richaud says Kaori Sakamoto in good form ahead of worlds

Following a disappointing fourth-place finish at last month's Four Continents Championships in California, Japan champion Kaori Sakamoto didn't dwell on her result, but rather went right back to work to prepare for this month's world championships in Saitama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 26, 2017

Diana Garnet sings the praises of anime

It has become one of the most common questions I'm asked after talks at anime conventions in the United States: How can I get a job in the Japanese pop culture industry — not here, but in Japan?
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / B. League / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 26, 2017

Retiring coach Richardson leaves lasting legacy on Golden Kings, Okinawa basketball

Successful organizations have people who inspire others and encourage them to build an environment where success is a top priority.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2017

Kanji Furutachi: Reacting to Japan's film industry

Over the years I've heard many complaints about the bad acting in Japanese films, from the hammy emoting of over-indulged veterans to the amateurish turns of "idols" cast more for their agency connections than any perceptible talent. I've added to this chorus of negativity, but I've also noticed that...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 6, 2014

Yoshio Taniguchi: thriving in the shadow of greatness

Architect Yoshio Taniguchi generally doesn't like having his photograph taken for use in the media. In a way, it's a logical extension of his approach to his work, which could be described as architecture by subtraction. Having painstakingly removed everything extraneous from a design, and having overseen...
BASEBALL
Nov 26, 2013

Kawakami was Japanese baseball's first Zen master

Most foreign fans of baseball in Japan may not know the name Tetsuharu Kawakami, who passed away recently at the age of 93, but perhaps it's time they did.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 18, 2013

Foreign-born professional strives to reconnect Japanese with koto music

Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Mar 26, 2013

Consensus: Corporal punishment in sports misguided, demoralizing, backward

The following are some readers' responses to the March 12 Foreign Element column by Richard Parker headlined "Right or wrong, corporal punishment can produce winners." See many more in the comment section below the original article.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 16, 2012

Disaster looms large for artist 'genius' Makoto Aida

What to make of Makoto Aida? One day, he's filling a giant blender with thousands of naked young girls and whirring them into a bloody concoction. The next he's piling up dead salarymen into a great mountain — nay, several great mountains, which recede majestically into the foggy distance.
Karen Hill Anton's “A Thousand Graces" centers on a young woman who takes her first steps toward adulthood by leaving her home in the countryside to go to college and live on her own terms.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2023

An intimate portrayal of resisting society’s expectations

Set in the 1970s, Karen Hill Anton’s novel captures a woman’s emotional struggle to bear the pressures of Japanese society while pursuing her dreams.
Toshikazu Shiba (right), 71, works full-time along with younger staff at sofa manufacturer Eucas in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 17, 2025

More older people choosing to work for social connection and survival

Older residents are exploring ways to navigate the later stages of their lives, whether continuing their careers or with new ventures.
In Japan on a scholarship he fought hard for, Oscar Ruto found himself needing to take a break and headed into Tokyo for a weekend of partying.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 27, 2023

'I wasn't always an alcoholic … and then I was'

As the party season draws near, it's important to deal with yearend stress in healthier ways.
New Orleans' French Quarter following an early-morning attack on Jan. 1
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 2, 2025

‘No terrorist to me’: Relatives and friends saw few signs before attack

The violence appeared to explode out of nowhere to those who had known Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar as a quiet and caring person. But there were also signs of growing instability.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami