Search - life_column

 
Menu
Search
 
May 14, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
1,209 results
Sort by: Relevance Newest Oldest
After adjusting your search parameters, press Enter on your keyboard or click on the red magnifying glass to run your query again.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Aug 20, 2017

Educator calls for better understanding of black history in Japan

On occasion, I still get asked this question: Of what value is a column dedicated exclusively to black issues — particularly here in Japan?
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 25, 2011

Now is the time for a 'brand Japan' that creates and inspires

On Sept. 19, just as this column hit deadline, news outlets reported that a massive demonstration was taking place in Tokyo, rallying tens of thousands of people against nuclear power.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 26, 2003

A hundred columns of words on the wall

This is it: the one-hundredth edition of "When East Marries West." At least by my count, and, as my wife says, "You should know -- you're the only one who reads it."
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2019

The creative edge that comes with ADHD

The more we hunker down and focus, the more creative thought flutters out of reach.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 1, 2012

Debito takes on Donald: readers' responses

Some readers' responses to Debito Arudou's April 3 column, "Keene should engage brain before fueling 'flyjin,' foreign crime myths":
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Dec 22, 2005

Looking back on 10 years of yakimono

In the 10 years since this column started, much has changed in the worldwide perception of yakimono, Japanese ceramic art. I'm talking about in the contemporary realm, not antiques. The deep and wide world of contemporary Japanese ceramic art is as varied as there are stars in a brilliant winter night...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

One-man media airs his views

It's 10 a.m. Sunday, and TBS TV's "Sunday Japon" show is getting under way. American entertainer Dave Spector, a regular panelist, shares the stage with a former porn actress, a Korean journalist and a member of the Diet. After an hour of exchanging ripostes with the others on major international and...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 14, 2002

You win some and you lose some . . .

Ten years ago, on March 12, 1992, this column began its life on these pages. Though it's still "green," when compared with colleagues who have graced The Japan Times for several decades, Our Planet Earth has now appeared more than 245 times.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 2, 2018

Japan according to Don Maloney: Still amusing and relevant, mostly, 40 years on

Irreverent accounts of an American businessman in the 1970s in Tokyo hold up surprisingly well today.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Mar 25, 2018

Dodgy data spared Japan's workers from a labor system that's ripe for abuse, for now

At first glance, the discretionary work system looks like a dream come true in terms of work-life balance. On closer inspection, though, it has the potential to be a worker's nightmare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 13, 2011

The loneliness — or otherwise — of the long-distance foreigner

The Japan Times received a large number of readers' emails in response to Debito Arudou's Just Be Cause column published Aug. 2, headlined "The loneliness of the long-distance foreigner." Here, belatedly, are a selection.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 12, 2000

With love, Jean

When I first arrived in Japan more than 40 years ago, one of the first words I learned was sayonara and that it meant "goodbye." As I stayed on, I began to learn that sayonara did not mean goodbye in the sense of "till we meet again" or "God watch over you" as such phrases are used in the West. The literal...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 3, 2016

Battles over history, the media and the message scar 2015

A rundown of the top 10 human rights issues of the past year as they affected non-Japanese residents.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2015

Reagan played key role in U.S. war on inflation

There is common agreement that the decline of double-digit inflation in the U.S. was the big economic event of the 1980s. But to say that President Ronald Reagan had almost nothing to do with that is wrong.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 27, 2013

Story of return to bachelorhood provides vicarious experience

'The difficult thing with a column," the late Margaret Thatcher once told the journalist Jenny McCartney, "is thinking of something new to say every week." Yes, indeed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2017

Enjoy Earth Day, while you last

Earth's climate will probably recover from this human-fueled round of global warming, but on time scales that are unimaginable to humans. And perhaps without humans.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Dec 17, 2014

Japan and others gain from Jamaican brain drain

In the last part of this series on Jamaicans in Japan, Baye McNeil speaks to a teacher, author and poet in Yokohama and an attorney in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Apr 17, 2016

Two years after Japan signed Hague, children have been returned but old issues remain

A couple of years have passed since Japan signed the international convention on child abduction, and there is cause for celebration — and concern.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE UNRELIABLE FOOD CRITIC
Dec 22, 2015

In the gutter of Osaka, but not looking at the Michelin stars

Cycling through one of the poorer quarters of Osaka, I start feeling peckish. So I park my bike in one of the rundown shopping arcades that crisscross this working-class city and duck, almost at random, into a cheap eatery. The ancient proprietress waves me to the counter and, without even asking, serves...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 12, 2012

Excuse this proud new father — it's time to indulge in some baby talk

I'll preface this column by admitting that it is fairly common, among journalists on the science and health beats, that after they personally reproduce they experience a burning desire to write about the science of childbirth. Seasoned editors know to expect that postnatal reporters will start pitching...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 25, 2012

Multilingual ex-professor pours all his energy into translation, writing

Curled up in his German grandfather's library, the young Charles De Wolf looked up from the pages of Goethe to dream of the cobblestoned streets of Europe.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 12, 2010

Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English: responses

A selection of readers' views on "Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English" (Just Be Cause, Sept. 7) by Debito Arudou:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 2, 2005

Harumi Kurihara: Homing in on success

As a cook and lifestyle guru, Harumi Kurihara has often been dubbed Japan's answer to America's Martha Stewart or Britain's Delia Smith. But in February this year, she scaled new heights when the English-language edition of her book "Harumi no Japanese Cooking" -- titled "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" --...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jan 13, 2003

Learning from living things, often the hard way

Since I write this column at home, school holidays are always a problem. It's impossible to get any work done with my kids hanging around. One day during the recent winter holidays, I complained about feeling pressured. The deadline for today's column was looming, but I didn't even have a topic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Jun 4, 2023

'Stakeout Diary': A killer on the run, two postwar gumshoes — noir at its finest

When a photographer was given rare permission to follow two detectives through Tokyo on a murder case, who’d have known he’d gather a legion of fans decades later.
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and a professor at the Gregorian, the Harvard of Rome's pontifical universities, in his office at the university in Rome on Jan. 29. Benanti advises the Vatican and the Italian government on navigating the tricky questions — moral and otherwise — raised by artificial intelligence.
WORLD / Society
Feb 14, 2024

The friar who became the Vatican’s go-to guy on AI

Father Paolo Benanti, an ethics professor and self-proclaimed geek, spends his days thinking about the Holy Ghost and the ghosts in the machines.
The rapid advance of artificial intelligence and technology threatens traditional human life and values, but finding a balance between innovation and preserving human connection may offer a path forward for humanity's future.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2025

Does humanity have a future in the virtual and AI age?

The virtual age and artificial intelligence are making traditional ways of life seem increasingly obsolete, and this will only grow with AI's spread.
The tech platforms contributing to social instability should financially support independent journalism as a way to combat misinformation and promote a healthier society.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2024

How independent journalism can save society from the effects of Big Tech

Independent journalism is critical in verifying facts, exposing corruption, addressing societal issues and contrasting it all with the negative impacts of Big Tech.
A Ukrainian soldier looks out from a tank as he holds his position near to the town of Bakhmut, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, on Dec. 13.
COMMENTARY / The Year Ahead
Dec 28, 2023

The battles Ukraine has already won

Many of the nation's key victories began long before Russia’s latest assault.
Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, located 270 kilometers north of the city of Cairns, Australia, on April 5, 2024
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Mar 17, 2025

From oil spills to new species: How tech reveals the ocean

New technologies are helping to reveal hidden oil spills, speed up the discovery of new species and uncover the impact of light pollution.
Transport ministry issues warning to Haneda Airport operator
The operator of Tokyo's Haneda Airport has been warned by the government over its inappropriate transactions.
Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
Then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visits a school in South Gate, California, in February 2012. Experts say Xi won big in his standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Nissan shares surge as carmaker set to cut 20,000 jobs in huge overhaul
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars and car parts imported to the U.S. have been painful to most global brands, but crippling in Nissan’s case.
Japan might be playing long game in U.S. tariff talks
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House earlier this year. Ishiba said Monday that farmers won't be sacrificed for automakers in Japan's tariff negotiations with the U.S.
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
Japan set for bigger role in Philippines after SDF’s debut in key drills
Philippine Army Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, who was involved in managing the latest iteration of the Balikatan U.S.-Philippine drills, told The Japan Times that he expects military ties with Japan to surge even further once Tokyo ratifies a key visiting-forces agreement with Manila.
In China’s ‘Michelin Guide,’ Tokyo leads overseas listings with 30 entries
China's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its award ceremony overseas for the first time, picking the dining capital of Singapore to promote its brand to an international audience.
Who could become Japan's next prime minister?
Clockwise from top left: Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi
With a new Shibuya studio, Apple Music bets big on Japan
Apple Music personalities (from left) Ebro Darden, Kentaro Ochiai, Zane Lowe and Mino came together for a special recording in late April to discuss music and celebrate the newly opened Apple Music studio in Tokyo.
Escalation fears rise in Japan following Chinese moves near Senkakus
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of the Uotsuri islet, one of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. Concerns are growing in Tokyo after a Chinese government helicopter violated Japan's airspace around the uninhabited islets.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER