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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 23, 2008

In Japanese, flattery will get you everywhere

In directing plays over the years, it has always struck me how clever actors are at producing insulting dialogue in the early stages of rehearsals. From the first day of rehearsal, they have the invective of their characters virtually down pat. When their character is called upon to say something nice...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 21, 2008

The making of 'the world's most beautiful woman,' amatuer a capella, and house remodeling

Japanese contestants have figured prominently in recent international beauty pagents, in particular the Miss Universe contest, which endeavors to find the most gorgeous woman in the world. The runnerup in 2006 was Kurara Chibana, and last year the winner was Riyo Mori.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Sep 21, 2008

Low and slow — Nagoya's slice of Southern California

Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 7, 2008

Japan is both a model and warning for today's rising world powers

The United States of America considers itself the world's democratic social prototype. At least most Americans seem to buy into that national self-image.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 2, 2008

Urawaza — quirky, everyday Japanese tips — head West

Two years ago, a mysterious 20-second video clip triggered some unexpected buzz on the Web site YouTube. In the segment, an ordinary-looking housewife draws an invisible line across the chest of a shirt with her finger. Then she pinches the shirt under the armpit and at the shoulder, does a quick flipping...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2008

Firms strop goods as facial hair finds favor

Japanese men have long shunned facial hair, as many companies frowned on employees with beards or mustaches, or even prohibited them in the workplace.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 25, 2008

Photographer finds affection in the Arctic

Love's warmth can be found in the coldest of places — and among the wildest of creatures.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 11, 2008

Step into the shade

Inspired by a Japanese sense of beauty in subtlety, the Berlin dance duo of Malgven Gerbes and David Brandstatter will perform "Eulogy to the Shade" in Tokyo in early August.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2008

'Naissance des pieuvres'

Karl Marx once divided the world into the haves and have-nots, but in the world of teenagers one of the main divides — less significant but nonetheless painful — is that of the pretty and unpretty.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jun 22, 2008

Women drive today's car industry

There's a common misconception that cars only interest men — and that the secret to success in the automotive industry is therefore to find new and better ways to build vehicles that appeal to them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2008

One man, two worlds

Ryosuke Hashiguchi is one of the few gay filmmakers in Japan to have had a measure of popular success making films with gay themes. His third film, "Hush" (2002), about a gay couple whose life changes when one of them is drafted into becoming a father by a desperate woman, was an indie hit, as well as...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 7, 2008

A new kind of ambassador

I recently woke up to my cat staring me down. "Hello, kitty," I said.
CULTURE / Art
May 29, 2008

Hideaki Kawashima: Wavering

Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
May 18, 2008

Handsome is not enough: beauticians make the man

Perhaps no words send shivers down a company employee's back more than when your boss gravely tells you that he'd "like to have a chat with you." So, when mine at the English-language conversation school that I was teaching at said this to me a few years ago, my heart sank to the ground.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 1, 2008

Halls of light in a city of horses

Something for everyone — that seems to be the motto for the new Towada Art Center in Aomori Prefecture. With cash in hand and a desire to see their town turn around, Towada has banked on art as a way to bring back vitality to an area that has lacked it of late.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2008

Up close with images of faith

W ith its current exhibition of National Treasures from Yakushi-ji Temple, the Tokyo National Museum is offering a not-to-be-missed opportunity to see masterpieces of ancient Buddhist and Shinto art. For the first time ever, they are being displayed in a museum so that they can be studied much more closely...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2008

Why's Japan grown so ugly?

YUNOMINE, Wakayama Pref. — My brother wanted to create a new room in the loft of his house in an English provincial city, actually Kingston upon Hull (population 250,000), a place of passing interest to Japanese because two centuries ago it was one of the world's biggest whaling ports. Today, the whales...
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2008

Justice minister's cultural brains

David McNeill's Jan. 27 article, "Justice minister talks in death-penalty riddles," cites a clunky and faulty translation of an interview with Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama. However one may disagree with Hatoyama's civilization theories, his arguments are clear. According to the interview, as published...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Savor the sensation of being a 'princess'

My handsome butler, resplendent in his smart black waistcoat and bow tie, greets me at the door. "Hello princess," he softly intones as he manfully leads me to a rose-strewn alcove.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Hitting hairdressing's highs the flat-top way

Wielding a hair dryer in one hand, a comb in the other, and with another comb held between his teeth, hairdresser Hideki Sato, 34, tackles the jet-black locks of a male model.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 6, 2008

Politicians, dogs and bowels mix it up in our annual media awards

Media Personality of the Year: Hideo Higashikokubaru.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2007

The falsity of 2007

The kanji for the Japanese word "nise," meaning fake or false, has been chosen by the Kyoto-based Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation as the kanji that most appropriately defines domestic events in 2007. Unveiled at Kiyomizu Temple in the ancient capital, the choice underscores flawed ways of thinking...
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007

One missionary's 'swamp' is another's 'religion allergy' challenge

"For 20 years I labored in the mission. The one thing I know is that our religion does not take root in this country."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 27, 2007

Feeling designs

'Design is not just about making something, it is about designing the feelings of the person who uses it," says Tokujin Yoshioka, sitting in his Daikanyama studio among magazine-laden shelves and prototypes in various stages of development.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 1, 2007

Skin goes only so deep

Nothing has changed since Aristotle noted a couple of thousand years ago that "it is not possible without considerable disgust to look upon the blood, flesh and similar parts of which the human body is constructed." Much here in "Skin of/in Contemporary Art," at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, until...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2007

New robot can give facial massages

With steely arms sprouting cables and wires, the WAO-1 robot looks nothing like a relaxation device.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 6, 2007

Jumping mullets, it's the season for fire prevention!

Ahh, autumn on Shiraishi Island when I wake up to quacking ducks paddling around in the port in front of my house waiting for me to open the Duck Cafe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 20, 2007

Butoh flowers of life and decay

There is a muscular eloquence to Junichi Kakizaki's constructions. He describes himself as a floral artist — not an ikebana (flower arrangement) master — and has won awards for his interpretation of the traditional Japanese art form. He considers his works to be contemporary art — either installations...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2007

Got the Biwa blues

This is the second part of a two-part story on a trip to Lake Biwa and its environs in Shiga Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007

Japan's Paradise Lived

It's a strange world we're about to enter.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’