Search - features

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 30, 2005

Rosie Stancer

Only three women have ever on their own reached the South Pole. The first was a Norwegian skier. The second was a Briton, who covered the requisite 1,123 km in 42 days, a record that stands. The third was Rosie Stancer, also a Briton and the eldest of the three when at 43 she trekked solo in one of the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 28, 2005

Gray-headed Lapwing

* Japanese name: Keri * Scientific name: Vanellus cinereus * Description: Lapwings are attractive, plump, medium-size birds (body length 30 cm; wingspan about 85 cm) with large orange eyes, yellow legs and a yellow bill with a black tip. The head and neck are gray, as are the tops of the wings,...
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Is the economy better off under Koizumi?

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday enters the fifth year of his administration.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 24, 2005

Menswear to the rescue

The Fall 2005 season saw the Tokyo Collections in a sorry state.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 24, 2005

Surreal circus of 'beasts' and beauties

Before the Heatherette show, during Fall 2005 New York Fashion Week, the paparazzi are doing what paparazzi do best: stalking their quarry with the determination of psychotic bounty hunters.
Features
Apr 24, 2005

Grande dame of haute kuchuuru

In the fickle world of fashion, where players come and go with the regularity of the seasons that their working lives are firmly pinned to, there are fortunately just a few who hang in there to lend some sense of continuity.
Features
Apr 24, 2005

Wannabe style capital puts on a 'cute' show

"Fancy a trip to the Singapore Fashion Festival?" My gnarled editor swiveled around from the Mac and shot me a grin. "This looks like a junket."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 22, 2005

Trilogy in a triangle

In general, pre-bubble nightlife in Tokyo was rather dull. In the early 1980s, a Saturday night out in Shinjuku or Roppongi meant jockeying for space in a crowded disco with packs of Japanese intent on line dancing in front of mirrors. There were a few alternative bars scattered in and around Aoyama,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Apr 21, 2005

Fast, furious -- and frustrating

In "Meteos," a new puzzle game for the Nintendo DS handheld, the denizens of the universe greet you with a plea (in earnest, broken English): "We want you, save our planet!"
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2005

A nation asleep at the wheel

Train carriages filled with white-collar workers dozing off on each other's shoulders are one of the most striking sights in Japan.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2005

'Man Friday' recalls time in line at Japan's first record expo

With the 2005 World Expo Aichi in full swing until September in Nagoya, it may come as a surprise to some that Japan's first world exposition was to have taken place as long ago as in 1912. But that was cancelled due to the death of Emperor Meiji. Another one, to have run in conjunction with Tokyo's...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2005

Jackpot jottings

While Japan's auto industry is forever being feted, the country's far-bigger pachinko business -- which takes a staggering 30 trillion yen a year in bets -- is almost entirely overlooked by society and the wider world.
Features
Apr 17, 2005

It's time Japan jumped on its cultural bandwagon

The Japanese have never regarded their culture as universal.
BASKETBALL
Apr 15, 2005

JBA gives green light to break-away teams

The Japan Basketball Association on Wednesday granted the Niigata Albirex and the Saitama Broncos special approval to break away from the amateur Japan Basketball League.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 14, 2005

Azure-winged magpie

* Japanese name: Onaga * Scientific name: Cyanopica cyana * Description: Magpies are in the Corvid family, that is, they are related to crows and jackdaws. But Azure-winged magpies are more elegant, with long, light-blue tails and wings, gray backs, white throats and black caps on the top of their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 13, 2005

Vision of a 'superflat' future

NEW YORK -- Murakami-mania hit New York last week as the "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture" exhibition at the Japan Society opened to much media fanfare.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 10, 2005

Drop-dead gorgeous

Eiko Koike is a leggy, lushly upholstered Japanese celebrity, famous for her doe eyes and D-cup breasts.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 9, 2005

Ramos to captain beach soccer team

Former Japan international midfielder Ruy Ramos will steer the national squad at next month's beach soccer World Cup, Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2005

Singapore turns to Japan's matchmakers as birthrate sags

Japan might assist in Singapore's efforts to set up matchmaking services, sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2005

Honda hopes compact wagon debut snaps slide

Honda Motor Co. said Thursday it will start selling its first compact station wagon this week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Apr 8, 2005

A new cellarful of tipples

The dot-com era saw an unfortunate number of foreign wine promoters descend on Japan. They were armed with snappy Powerpoint presentations and talk of quick riches, but their only apparent success was in relieving investors of their excess cash before moving on.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 6, 2005

Triumph in Tohoku: Staff of Eagles works miracle

SENDAI -- I saw something beautiful Friday night.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2005

Bitter medicine to build trust

Political parties are bracing for a new round of joint parliamentary panel talks on social security reform. The biggest issue is how to integrate disparate and unequal parts of the public pension system. Prospects for final agreement look uncertain at best, given the wide differences that exist between...
Features
Apr 3, 2005

Does language 'difficulty' speak of a sense beyond mere words?

I have often been told by Japanese people that theirs is the most difficult language in the world. Virtually all the Japanese people who have said this to me, I might add, have spoken no other language than their own.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 3, 2005

So much food that we don't know what to do with it

The media didn't quite know what to make of that bizarre story last month about the elderly Sapporo man who allegedly killed his wife following a dinnertime spat. One might expect a husband to become angry over not getting enough food, TV commentators implied, but in this case the situation was the opposite....
MORE SPORTS
Apr 2, 2005

Japan to have two separate leagues

The Japan Basketball Association said Thursday the men's top-tier basketball league will be recreated as a domestic pro league starting from the 2007-2008 season.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2005

Laws to protect personal info kick in, criticized

Laws to protect personal information took effect Friday, banning the public and private sectors from using information on a person other than for its intended purpose and from providing it to a third party without permission.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2005

How to stabilize China, according to Hu

SINGAPORE -- China needs stability as it faces one of its most radical economic, social, cultural and political transforma- tions in history. This message was clearly delivered during the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing three weeks ago. President Hu Jintao needs stability to consolidate his...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past