Search - author

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Sep 28, 2004

Japanese mega-stores blazing trails in a brave, new publishing world

The Japanese bookstore world used to be one of "If you put it out, it will sell." But that comfortable age is over. Seven straight years of declining book sales have killed off some 1,500 bookstores.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 27, 2004

Debating the life of a long-deceased poet

NEW YORK -- Inuhiko Yomota, one of the most well-read and prolific writers I know, was in town, and when I said I am working on a new book on the poet Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), he told me that his friend, Masahiko Nishi, has written a book arguing that Miyazawa expressed strong anticolonialism through...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 23, 2004

Good stuff, people and advice on how to tailor your consumption

It's back-to-school time again, and whether you are going back, sending your child off, or just getting swept up in the streams of backpack-wielding kids, change is in the air. Time for new books, new people and new gossip, and time to clear the desk even if only for a place to rest your head.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 23, 2004

"The World Came To My Place Today," "Faerie Wars"

"The World Came To My Place Today," Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts, Random House; 2004; 24 pp.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004

Suffering survivor's guilt

PURPLE SUN, by Lawrence McAuliffe. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access Books, 2003, 233 pp., $12.95 (paper). In this short work, a U.S. Marine named Billy Kern cracks up and deserts his unit to remain behind in Vietnam after the war. Twenty-eight years later, a master sergeant and officer who knew him go back...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 19, 2004

A flavor of Lima with Fujimori to the fore

Visit any Latin dance club and you'll hear the salsa music blaring well before you get through the doors. But this month at dance clubs across Japan there'll be another sound as well: the buzz over a new, free-of-charge magazine on Peruvian life in this country that's being distributed not only at clubs...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2004

Shiroyama bravely battles on

In matters of war, history is most often recounted from the perspective of the conqueror and rarely, if ever, passed down from the point of view of the defeated. So it's not surprising that the historical significance of the remnants of 16th-century Hachioji Castle on western Tokyo's Mount Fukazawa --...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004

A robot could have scripted this

I, Robot Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Alex Proyas Running time: 115 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 18 [See Japan Times movie listings] When was the last time you were enthralled by a big-budget sci-fi flick?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 12, 2004

The cool aesthetics of Edo

KUKI SHUZO: A Philosopher's Poetry and Poetics, translated and edited by Michael F. Marra. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004, 358 pp., $56 (cloth). THE STRUCTURE OF DETACHMENT: The Aesthetic Vision of Kuki Shuzo (with a Translation of "Iki no Kozo"), by Hiroshi Nara, with essays by J. Thomas...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 11, 2004

Magic of Western traditions is unveiled in East

Stand by for magical moments and happenings in Tokyo's Ogikubo next Sunday. All manner of wizards, occultists and sages -- barring Harry Potter, who is otherwise engaged -- are coming to town for Japan's first International Symposium of Western Inner Traditions. According to the Tokyo-based organizer,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 24, 2004

Pension system a riddle wrapped in an enigma

Help, police! For foreigners staying in Japan for more than three and less than 25 years, there is only one word for the Japanese pension system -- ROBBERY! -- Bhupesh
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 2004

Bad book with good message

LONDON -- Here's a slightly crazy story for these hot summer days. The book the whole world is reading on its holidays -- or at any rate the whole English-speaking world -- is called "The Da Vinci Code," by the American writer Dan Brown.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 15, 2004

A pair of terrifying glances back in time

THE TOKYO ZODIAC MURDERS, by Soji Shimada, translated by Ross and Shika Mackenzie. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2004, 252 pp., 2,400 yen (cloth). THE SPECIAL PRISONER, by Jim Lehrer. New York: Random House, 2000, 230 pp., $23.95 (cloth).
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2004

'Onsen': know what you're getting into

Another big labeling scam is unraveling, and this time it's not over beef or milk but the nation's biggest tourist draw: "onsen" hot springs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 11, 2004

Clever plot of "Dumb Animal" play

It was two years ago, that the three main actors in "Donju (Dumb Animal)," currently running at the Parco Theater, met up over a drink or three. Arata Furuta, Katsuhisa Namase and Narushi Ikeda, are all now in their late 30s and early 40s, but were very prominent in the energetic 1980s Shogekijo (small...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 8, 2004

The art of seeing

Photographer Jun Akiyama is taking ostrich strides down a Tokyo sidewalk, snapping pictures on a flimsy-looking tourist camera. Click! A child's curious glance is frozen in grainy black-and-white. Click! Akiyama catches a moment of anxiety on an old woman's face.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 8, 2004

Hosoki Kazuko in TBS's "Zubari Iu Wa Yo! and more

Fortune tellers and paranormals used to be quite popular on Japanese TV until the Aum Shinrikyo affair made people a little nervous about certain kinds of unorthodox beliefs. In the past few years, however, such TV personalities have slowly made a comeback. The most striking example is Kazuki Hosoki,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 8, 2004

All of Japan between two covers

JAPAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 1102 pp., 48 illus., 14 maps, $59.95 (cloth). This large, beautiful and indispensable volume is a translation of "Le Japan: Dictionnaire et Civilisation," published in 1996, the year of the author's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 4, 2004

No winners or losers in 'The Face of Jizo'

In the early 1960s, Hisashi Inoue, the author of the original play "The Face of Jizo," was working under contract as a writer at NHK. The idea for the play came when he was sent to Hiroshima in the summer to do a program about the anti-nuclear movement.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

Activist sees Japan as war addict, like U.S. in comic

The Japanese people should learn from their World War II defeat and put pressure on the government to stop the country from sliding back into militarism, the author of an American antimilitarist comic book says.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2004

DPRK diplomacy or brinkmanship?

TARGET NORTH KOREA: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, by Gavan McCormack. New York: Nation Books, 228 pp., 2004, $13.95 (paper). Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's gamble on a trip to Pyongyang seems to have paid off, giving him a boost in the polls, reuniting some of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2004

Way to go keigo: a loaded language of politeness

KEIGO IN MODERN JAPAN: Polite Language From Meiji to the Present, by Patricia J. Wetzel. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 206 pp. with illustrations, 2004, $45 (cloth). Keigo is often thought of as a separate kind of Japanese (often called "polite speech," "honorifics," or the like) that is used...
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 2004

A little hit of sunshine

Forget that old squabble about which is smarter, dogs or cats. They're both smart. Look at them, lying there in the only patches of sunshine in the house, lazily hogging the beams as the sun shifts. It's almost as if they were addicted. "Well, of course we are," they would say if they could talk. Lying...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 18, 2004

The literary perfect crime

SAYONARA, GANGSTERS, by Genichiro Takahashi, translated by Michael Emmerich. New York: Vertical, Inc., 2004, 311 pp., $19.95 (cloth). A poet is talking to a refrigerator. The refrigerator with whom he is conversing is Virgil -- yes, that Virgil, author of "The Aeneid" and later Dante's guide through...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 13, 2004

The big squeeze

The news from Japan these days is untypically sunny. The economy is performing at its sharpest clip for 13 years, investment and profits are up and analysts are gingerly forecasting a sustained recovery.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 11, 2004

Bedroom poetry beckons

EROTIC HAIKU (bilingual), edited and translated by Hiroaki Sato, illustrated by Emi Suzuki. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2004, 114 pp., 1200 yen (paper). Since Eros was the god of love, in the sense of sexual desire, so "erotic," the dictionary explains, means "arousing or concerned with this." The cover of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 7, 2004

Darkness in teenage wizardland

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Alfonso Cuaron Running time: 136 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy has come and gone, but its fantasy film rival, the "Harry Potter"...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 4, 2004

Utagawa Hiroshige: Around the provinces in 69 plates

HIROSHIGE'S JOURNEY in the Sixty-odd Provinces, by Marije Jansen. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004, 160 pp., 70 full-page plates and other illustrations, $34.95 (paper). Here is a beautifully printed and edited reproduction of the complete "Famous Views of the [Sixty-odd] Provinces" (Rokujuyoshu meisho...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji