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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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 8, 2007

Blood, guts and bathing

Colonialism leaves a peculiar scar. As generations pass and ethnicities merge, the distinction between indigenous and invader becomes increasingly blurred until it is impossible for either side to regard the other without finding something of themselves reflected there. Some 500 years after the arrival...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 12, 2006

BOEGE Polos, up-market UNIQLO, blood-free diamonds . . .

Polos reimagined
CULTURE / Books
Dec 3, 2006

Magic in the ordinary world

BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, 334 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Just as fiction that is purely mundane can be, well, mundane, fiction that is only fantastic is often only dull. Authors such as Paul Auster and Jonathan...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 3, 2006

Women on top -- where they belong

BAD GIRLS OF JAPAN, edited by Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley. New York: Palmgrave/Macmillan, 2005, 222 pp., photos XI, $26.95 (paper) What makes a "bad girl" bad? -- that is the question posed in this book. "The answer is that badness is attributed to such females by a sexist and male-dominated society...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 26, 2006

A colloquial style of literature tourism

JAPAN: A Traveler's Literary Companion, edited by Jeffrey Angels & J. Thomas Rimer, foreword by Donald Richie. Whereabouts Press, 2006, 232 pp., $14.95 (paper). It was purely by chance that I read the stories in this anthology while visiting the very same locations that provide their setting, though...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 14, 2006

Van Cleef & Arpels' 'Treasures,' Kate Moss in Tokyo, Oakley on Cat Street . . .

Sleeping beauties When Estelle Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef opened their first boutique on Paris' hallowed Place Vendome in 1906, one of France's most revered jewelry maisons was born.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2006

Restoring our connections with the world

"The cloud-seas of the heavens are riled by waves.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 8, 2006

Getting real in the way you dress with grass-roots fashion in Japan

In the movie "The Devil Wears Prada," which opens in Japan next month, an imperious fashion magazine editor played by Meryl Streep upbraids her new assistant, who has dared to snicker at a cerulean belt that the editor is considering for an ensemble. With withering condenscension, the editor somehow...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 27, 2006

Korean voices from Japan's colonial past

HIDDEN TREASURES: Lives of First-Generation Korean Women in Japan, by Jackie J. Kim, introduction by Sonia Ryang. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2005, 240 pp., with b/w photos, $32.95 (paper). Jackie Kim, an unaffiliated freelance writer, has here compiled the oral histories of 10 first-generation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 24, 2006

Contemporary Japanese edition prints

Many local goodies appeal to the expat population of Japan -- kimono, sake and next-generation electronic goods to name a few. The area of fine arts, however, can be daunting, with most paintings and even photographs by established contemporary artists priced from the millions to the many millions of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

A stroll among the masterpieces

The Price exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum is divided into five sections, each devoted to a specific area of painting. The first sets the stage with examples of "mainline" painters -- members of the Kano school (which, from the late 16th century to the late 19th century, combined Chinese academic...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 9, 2006

Japan fashions a menswear coup d'etat

For a week in July, Paris becomes an outpost of Tokyo as Japanese designers and buyers throng the catwalks, parties and cafes where business is done at the biannual men's clothing collections
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2006

'Benevolent act' undermines pension

An illegal practice by the Social Insurance Agency came to light last week. Social insurance offices in Osaka, Nagasaki and 24 other prefectures have waived premium payments into the national pension (kokumin nenkin) program by more than 110,000 low-income people without their application.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 4, 2006

Bridgestone museum celebrates 50th anniversary

During the past 130 years or so following the Meiji Restoration, many industrialists are remembered not only for having made huge fortunes, but also for using part of their riches to amass collections of art.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 16, 2006

Critical concerns about cinema

ASIAN CINEMAS: A READER & GUIDE, edited by Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham. Edinburgh University Press, 2006, 474 pp., £19.99 (paper). CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CINEMA: Popular Culture in a Global Frame, edited by Anne Tereska Ciecko. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2006, 250 pp., £16.99 (paper). Critical...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 2, 2006

It's a different war through the eyes of civilians

LEAVES FROM AN AUTUMN OF EMERGENCIES: Selections From the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese, edited by Samuel Hideo Yamashita. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 332 pp., with b/w photos, $26 (paper). There are a number of reasons for keeping diaries -- to preserve time, to account for it,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 28, 2006

Offi's Zumi Stool, Tadao Hoshino's dresser drawers, the 'Shadow Series' chairs, Muji's Wagon Set

With the cherry blossoms finally blooming and spring-cleaning in the air, it's a good time to think about updating your home's interior. And it isn't only a few university students who will be looking for new furnishings to go with the new digs that they move into at the start of Japan's school year...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 19, 2006

Myths behind the rise of the mobile

PERSONAL, PORTABLE, PEDESTRIAN: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 357 pp., $39 (cloth). Consider the refrigerator. The changes this appliance brought in its wake are monumental. Thanks to that big humming machine in the kitchen,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 22, 2006

The new Japanese woman, from virginity to menopause

INSIDE AND OTHER SHORT FICTION: Japanese Women by Japanese Women, compiled by Cathy Layne, foreword by Ruth Ozeki. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2006. 237 pp., 2,400 yen (cloth). As Ruth Ozeki writes in her foreword to this very interesting collection of new writing: "Japanese society is undergoing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 20, 2005

Undercover's Zamiang, Billionaire Boys Club vs. The Ice Cream Store, Youth Dew . . .

Undercover art adventure
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 20, 2005

Names, cards and insurance

Naming a child I have heard that Japan does not allow middle names, even for children with foreign parents. Why not? Is there a way I can "sneak in" a middle name? Can I use a hyphen? I really want my children to have middle names.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2005

The reign of Vivienne

From being prosecuted under Britain's obscenity laws for her risque punk fashions to twirling pantyless after receiving an honor from the Queen whose image she once defaced with safety pins, Vivienne Westwood has always had a habit of causing controversy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 22, 2005

Spore's lighting solutions, Kenichiro Ohmori's Ice Partition, My Shade chair, Ryu Line Black Series, Metaphys' Factory

The Japan debut of 100% Design, an event held during Tokyo Design Week earlier this month, was a strong one, which emphasized cutting-edge interiors. The show already has a well-earned reputation in London as one of the top events on designers' calendars. Although most of the big manufacturers in the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 9, 2005

Breaking the silence on sexuality in Japan

GENDERS, TRANSGENDERS AND SEXUALITIES IN JAPAN, edited by Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta. London: Routledge, 2005, 218 pp., £60 (cloth). Now that the conspiracies of silence have begun to evaporate, scholarly works on gender and transgender have begun to proliferate. This very interesting collection...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 15, 2005

Independent brushstrokes

A commonly heard accusation is that Japanese oil painters are followers rather than innovators. It is a criticism that has been made against many early adopters in this country -- be they filmmakers, fashion designers, chefs or rock musicians -- and one that has even come from painters' compatriots....
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2005

The economy of plastic bags

A s this summer marks the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the law for recycling containers and wrapping materials, the government is moving to strengthen the law to force a change in the behavior of consumers. The target is plastic shopping bags provided for free by supermarkets, convenience...
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2005

'85 JAL crash still painful for the families

Relatives of the victims of the 1985 Japan Airlines jumbo jet crash have published a collection of essays as part of efforts to keep alive the tragedy -- which killed 520 people -- ahead of its 20th anniversary on Aug. 12.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Japan to hold major fashion event in autumn

A group of Japanese designers, apparel industry experts and textile makers will organize a major fashion event in Tokyo this fall after the Paris Collection in France, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

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