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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 21, 2010

Secret history of Takiji Kobayasshi; a detective's all-seeing eye; CM of the week: Leopalace 21

Since it was reprinted in 2008, the novella "Kanikosen" (The Factory Ship) has sold 500,000 copies. Originally published in 1929 by proletarian writer Takiji Kobayashi, the story was rediscovered by the current generation of young people who have tried to enter the workforce and, in many cases, failed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 15, 2010

Habsburg treasures celebrate art history

It seems anachronistic and a little too culturally remote to call Rudolf II (1552-1612) a culture otaku, but that's how the catalog for the "Treasures of the Habsburg Monarchy," now in its second staging at Kyoto National Museum until March 14, describes him. The reclusive Rudolf had diverse interests...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 14, 2010

"Ryomaden" romanticizes (and monetizes) history

It's official. Japan is in the throes of what's bound to be a long-term romance with a certain rebel samurai named Ryoma Sakamoto.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2010

China fights the tide of history

The sentencing of a dissident to 11 years in jail on Christmas Day is the latest brick in the wall that the Chinese government is erecting in an effort to insulate that nation from the tide of history. Mr. Liu Xiaobo's crime? Being one of more than 300 people who signed Charter 08, a direct appeal for...
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 10, 2009

Title win cements Antlers' spot in J. League history

Having won an unprecedented third straight championship at the weekend, the current Kashima Antlers side has earned the right to call itself the best the J. League has ever seen.
JAPAN / COP15 COPENHAGEN SPECIAL
Dec 7, 2009

A brief history of climate talks: looking back, looking forward

Industrialization in the 19th century brought many of the benefits we enjoy in the modern world, changing the structure of society, industry and economy. But nearly two centuries later, one of the downsides of the Industrial Revolution is gaining more attention: global warming.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 6, 2009

Turney breaks ground as first foreign coach in history of Giants

Cheers to the Yomiuri Giants for hiring strength and conditioning coach John Turney, recently let go by the Yokohama BayStars after leading the players on that team through stretching and calisthenics during pre-game drills for nine seasons.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 2009

Under the guise of medical history, the Mori gets radical

Don't be distracted by the big names showing at "Medicine and Art: Imagining a Future for Life and Love" — Da Vinci, Okyo, Damien Hirst — the jewels of the show lie in the obscure — timeworn or contemporary.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 11, 2009

Sankeien: Great love in a garden almost grows

Miho leans out over the Lotus Pond to get a good photo of one of the bright-red flowers when the camera slips out of her hand. Standing next to her, I instinctively lean forward, stretch out my hand (my reflexes, even if I say so myself, are very good) and pluck the camera out of the air with ease.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 27, 2009

Murder with hefty history

PAPER BUTTERFLY, by Diane Wei Liang. Simon and Schuster, 2009, 227 pages, $24.00 (hardcover) Reviewed by Mark Schreiber Mei Wang, the Beijing-based female private investigator who made her first appearance in "The Eye of Jade" (2008), is back. Burned out by the demands of her job in the Ministry of Public...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 23, 2009

On a high road of old

In stark contrast to many of today's passport-toting Japanese, their compatriots of old weren't a well-traveled bunch.
Reader Mail
May 31, 2009

Adult manga has 50-year history

The May 26 article " 'Manga': heart of pop culture" has to be one of the most poorly researched articles I've ever had the misfortune to read in The Japan Times. The Japanese comic magazine industry's targeting of the adult audience has nearly 50 years of history. Titles targeting salarymen are published...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2008

Dueling with a rare Japanese superhero

Japanese pop culture, by and large, doesn't do human superheroes. Super-powered robots (Atom Boy, aka Tetsuwan Atom), monsters (Godzilla) and aliens (Ultraman) exist in abundance, but it's harder to find the local equivalents to Spider-Man or Batman, especially on the big screen.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 12, 2008

Science's own alternative history

I'm a sucker for stories that imagine alternate histories. Philip K. Dick wrote a classic, 1962's "The Man in the High Castle," that supposed Japan and Germany won World War II, and annexed the United States between them. Another came to mind last week; "The Difference Engine" (1990) by William Gibson...
JAPAN / Q&A
Nov 11, 2008

Tamogami — history again retold

Ousted Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Gen. Toshio Tamogami's war essay justifying Japan's aggression in China and colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula has stirred controversy both at home and abroad. More is in store as he is set to give unsworn testimony Tuesday in the Upper House.
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 28, 2008

A brief history of evolution: From ancient Greeks to Watson and Crick

Sixth Century B.C.: The idea that species could evolve into other species existed before Darwin and Wallace's theories. The ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander put forward early evolutionary ideas, for example. However it was not until the end of the 18th century, with the development of the sciences...
Reader Mail
Jun 1, 2008

Dealing with Nanjing's history

In reference to the May 22 article "Nanjing victim's libeler loses appeal": I am pleased that the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling against Shudo Higashinakano's book "The Nanking Massacre: Fact Versus Fiction."
CULTURE / Books
Apr 27, 2008

U.S. democracy's history of violence

DEMOCRACY WITH A GUN; America and the Policy of Force, by Fumio Matsuo, translated by David Reese. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, 2007, 306 pp., $26 (cloth) As a child in wartime Japan, Fumio Matsuo, now a journalist, and his family were nearly wiped out by U.S. incendiary bombing of regional...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 27, 2008

Deadly weapons forged as art

The slow, rhythmic thrust of a piston covered in tanuki (raccoon dog) skin blasted air from box bellows onto the searing-hot charcoal. A casual glance at his forge was, however, all that Yoshindo Yoshihara needed to know the fire's exact temperature.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2008

Keynes and the end of economic history

PARIS — Some academic works, for reasons that are at least partly obscure, leave a persistent trace in intellectual history. Such is the case with John Maynard Keynes' paper "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren."
Reader Mail
Dec 16, 2007

Okinawans know their own history

During World War II, Okinawa was a battlefield. Scars of the war still remain there. The people of Okinawa were not to be captured, they were afraid of American soldiers, so many committed mass suicide. Now the topic is a textbook controversy.
Reader Mail
Nov 20, 2007

Balanced view of Chinese history

Regarding Gregory Clark's Nov. 15 article, "The fusillade against China": Bravo! At last, someone (Western) who is balanced in his opinions. Most Westerners don't remember or care to know about the Opium Wars, the war with eight foreign nations, the wars with Japan, Russia, etc.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 25, 2007

How will history judge Murakami the artist?

As Takashi Murakami would be the first to admit, art history is all about identifying iconic artists who can be held up as representives of movements or periods.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007

Japan's Paradise Lived

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

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic