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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.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 4, 2010

Manga's Cinderella story

"I want to tell you a real love story," whispers a pen-wielding Misako, a graphic-novel version of comic artist Misako Takashima, on the first page of the 2007 book, "Rock and Roll Love."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 13, 2009

Superheroes to the rescue

What I could use in Japan is a superhero.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2008

Picasso: a man of many passions and muses

It's been said that Picasso changed style whenever he changed lovers. That may be an exaggeration, but when viewing the evolution of Picasso's art, it's easy to imagine the upheavals in his private life. Married twice and with four children by three women, the artist's lovers — Fernande Olivier, Olga...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2008

A selection of cultural others

We are our own most keenest observers, whether it be in the bathroom mirror or in the department store window. But while the face is humankind's most distinctive feature, we are also remarkably poor at getting ourselves in perspective. When asked what size their face appears on the mirror surface, the...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 10, 2008

Kurosawa cohort tells illuminating Showa tails

Alongside great artists are those who witness their triumphs and setbacks, recording behind-the-scenes episodes that illuminate the processes of art.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 18, 2007

Golden girl Arakawa retains passion after Olympic glory

Time flies when you are on top of the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2006

A lifetime in search of Japan's true self

Shohei Imamura, who died on May 30, had one of the great careers of postwar Japanese film, winning the Cannes Palme d'Or twice, as well as many other awards and honors. But he spent much of that career on the fringes of the industry, like a bull elephant who separates himself from the herd and goes his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 11, 2006

Grappling with gravity

At the Dairakudakan performance space in Kichijoji, a group of female performers move with the particular deliberateness of the butoh dance style. Their partners in the dance are snow-white noh masks, fully true to tradition but with one important modification: lurid red tongues extend and curl from...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2005

Bar Camaron: An appetite for Andalucia

'Tis the season for grazing -- coaxing the appetite to life, while nibbling on snacks and sipping on something nice and cool. And this summer, more than ever before, Tokyo is discovering the pleasures of tachi-nomi (literally "stand and drink") joints and their upscale counterparts, which eschew all...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 21, 2004

Daring to break the rules: Japan's first modern novelists

TWO JAPANESE NOVELISTS: SOSEKI & TOSON, by Edwin McClellan. Tuttle, 2004, 166 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Even if they do recognize the man, Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) for many non-Japanese is no more than the prim blue gent in the mustache that once peered out from the 1,000 yen bill. Yet Soseki is the...
MORE SPORTS
Nov 12, 2004

Top coach Bollettieri backhands rule changes

The last time I spent $1,500 in one hour, the scenario involved chips, cards, a green velvet table and blurred vision. $1,500 is also the fee for a one-hour, private lesson with unquestionably the world's most renowned tennis coach, Nick Bollettieri. Returns on investments of this nature can be significant...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 14, 2004

Roland Thompson

His happiest memory, Roland Thompson says, is of his training, and learning advanced techniques, in Soke Shioda's black-belt aikido classes. His saddest memory is of the day Shioda died. He regards himself as "very fortunate to have been with him, and to have trained with him, during that last part of...
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.

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