Search - culture

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 13, 2018

Mitsuki Kimura and her film award without the film

Year-end awards season is in full swing, which means a lot of looking back on the past 12 months. Part of the fun of best-of lists and 2018-in-a-minute thinkpieces is arguing about placement and positioning: Did X really deserve to get so much love? Was Y not actually bloated and overrated?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 12, 2018

Will population decline create a richer society?

Inviting more highly talented and skilled workers from overseas will be crucial to raising Japan's productivity in the future.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 12, 2018

Eight decades on, no end in sight to Nanjing toll row

A mutually acceptable accounting of the Nanjing controversy is a matter perhaps best left to wiser generations to resolve.
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2018

A public-private investment fund grinds to a halt

The future of the Japan Investment Corp. and other public-private funds will remain in doubt until differences over how such entities are run are resolved.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2018

Google's China problem is America's China problem

How Beijing pressures and deploys Chinese citizens abroad to expand its power and influence is an issue of grave concern.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2018

2018 was the year in Japan that saw the stage sing, while contemporary drama barely made a squeak

Musicals have flourished in 2018, with many young stars also helping to sell out straight plays in which they appeared. However, the contemporary drama scene in Japan has been unusually quiet this year in terms of new works and writers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Dec 11, 2018

Climate change creates mutant fugu, a deadly Japanese delicacy

The road, hemmed in on one side by empty warehouses and the other by a concrete seawall, ends abruptly in a desolate parking lot. Men step out of their cars and into the darkness, then slip behind the sliding doors of a warehouse. Inside, they huddle under floodlights and wait. A clock on the wall ticks...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2018

New Zealand grapples with China's influence and intimidation

In April 2010, there was a scandal over the Confucius Institute at Osaka Sangyo University in Osaka. During meetings discussing a proposed relocation of the institute between campuses, the director of the University Affairs Board denounced it as a "cultural spy agency" for China and "a 'soft landing'...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Dec 10, 2018

The third-wave coffee boom has resulted in a new wave of java-related Japanese vocabulary

Coffee talk is more than just cream and sugar when it comes to cafes that specialize in third-wave coffee.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Dec 8, 2018

Machiko Yamashita: A Japanese breadwinner in Berlin

Former art historian and butoh dancer Machiko Yamashita brings Japanese bread buns to Berliners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Dec 8, 2018

Tadao Tsuge's 'Slum Wolf': A gritty, discomfiting yet necessary manga

Tadao Tsuge's 'Slum Wolf,' a collection of nine of the artist's short stories translated into English, deals with difficult topics in a gritty, yet dynamic, art style.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / A Weekend In
Dec 8, 2018

A weekend in Saitama: Coffee, temples and a spot of river rafting

Kick off a weekend in Saitama Prefecture in Kumagaya, an excellent starting point for a trip that will take you all across the region — from river rafting in the forested mountains of Chichibu to the historical alleys of Kawagoe.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 7, 2018

George Foreman became business giant after boxing career

Third in a three-part series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Dec 6, 2018

Bridges built by the power of K-pop and J-pop

This year hasn't been a particularly warm one for the relationship between Japan and South Korea. Ongoing tension stemming from Japan's colonization of its neighbor up to the end of World War II — and efforts to complicate what happened during this period — have bubbled up once again, affecting everything...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 5, 2018

How could Carlos Ghosn possibly have hidden billions of yen from Nissan?

How could one of the world's most visible employees go about hiding billions of yen worth of salary and benefits paid to him by one of the world's biggest companies, without the company knowing it?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 4, 2018

Spy boss says U.K. must decide if Huawei is suitable for 5G network

Alex Younger, head of the U.K.'s foreign intelligence agency MI6, said Theresa May's government must decide if Chinese-owned Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. should be barred from running fifth-generation telecom networks in Britain.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Dec 2, 2018

The greater the cooperation, 'the more trust we can build'

There's an episode from Mikhail Galuzin's childhood that he believes likely influenced his chosen career path.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 1, 2018

Question mark hangs over holiday reshuffles

The Diet passed a bill in June that will shift certain national holidays in 2020 to ease traffic congestion during the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Marine Day, which is usually the third Monday of July, will be moved to July 23, the day before the opening ceremony, while Sports Day, normally the second Monday...
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Dec 1, 2018

Escape from the everyday with Miyuki Miyabe's 'Brave Story'

Miyuki Miyabe's 'Brave Story' tackles pertinent adolescent issues that are juxtaposed against a supernatural realm of fantasy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2018

Princess Aiko turns 17, says she is enjoying school life

Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, turned 17 on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 27, 2018

Ned Rothenberg: Crossing the Pacific with bamboo flute in hand

Composer and performer Ned Rothenberg has spent his career traversing different musical worlds.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 27, 2018

Hundreds of scholars condemn China for Xinjiang camps

Countries must hit China with sanctions over the mass detention of ethnic Uighurs in its western Xinjiang region, hundreds of scholars said on Monday, warning that a failure to act would signal acceptance of "psychological torture of innocent civilians."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 26, 2018

The Protestant ethic and Carlos Ghosn

For many in Tokyo, the news about Carlos Ghosn was a shock but not a surprise.
Japan Times
SATOYAMA CONSORTIUM
Nov 25, 2018

Seaside municipality turned cycling mecca

Onomichi is a city on the southeastern coast of Hiroshima Prefecture, facing the Seto Inland Sea. Shrines, temples and many traditional buildings stand against the mountainside to the north of the city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 25, 2018

Netflix anime welcomes the dark side

As manga artist Go Nagai celebrates the 50th anniversary of 'Shameless School,' first published in the debut edition of Shonen Jump magazine, Netflix releases his 'Devilman Crybaby' as an anime series.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear