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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2013

Western influences on Suda's nostalgic East

The fusion of East and West is a major theme in 20th-century art, even though, in important ways, the two don't mix. What seems at one point to be their ostensible unification, appears in another as discordant. Such inconsonance lurks in the background at the retrospective of Kunitaro Suda's work at...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2012

Harnessing the spirit of Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) belongs to a category of ukiyo-e print artists that have long polarized art historians and connoisseurs for their jarring colors and compositions, cynical depictions of sex and violence, and use of Western pictorial techniques. These so-called "Decadents" were seen to represent...
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2012

Boxed in, Japan swings right

Henry Kissinger once famously remarked that a great power does not retreat forever. This is a particularly apt comment on China's and South Korea's contributions to the outcome of last weekend's elections in Japan.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2012

Ishihara leaves office with sights on Diet seat

Shintaro Ishihara officially stepped down Wednesday as governor of Tokyo after the metropolitan assembly accepted his letter of resignation and ended his 13½ years in the office.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2012

Pass the bond flotation bill

Due to the Diet's state of confusion, there is no predicting when a bill will be enacted to float bonds to cover some 40 percent of the fiscal 2012 budget. If this situation continues, it is inevitable that people's lives will be seriously impacted in a negative manner. The public's trust in the legislature...
Reader Mail
Aug 26, 2012

Military brothels go way back

Study world history. European powers and others kept "comfort women" or legitimate military brothels into the 20th century. In the 1970s, there were separate brothels in South Korea for American forces and for Katusas (Koreans attached to the U.S. Army).
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 15, 2012

Better late than never for Japan's first, "slowest" Olympian

Have you heard the one about the Japanese runner who took 54 years to finish the Olympic marathon?
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 18, 2012

Ryunosuke Akutagawa in focus

Though he died by his own hand at the age of 35, novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa's accomplishments were such that, even after so brief a writing career, Japan's most prestigious literary accolade — the Akutagawa Prize — now bears his name.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 5, 2012

Hashimoto: a young politician to keep an eye on

He's young, photogenic, energetic, brash, bold, intelligent — and, almost oxymoronically, a politician, one of very few in Japan within living memory who come close to fitting such a description. He has many ideas, all of which boil down to this: "Nihon no kuni wo ichi kara risetto shite, mōichido...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 4, 2012

Taro Yamamoto: Actor in the spotlight of Japan's antinuke movement

On a rainy midwinter day, Taro Yamamoto stood with a small group of people in front of Shimokitazawa Station in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and addressed passers-by in that artsy youth-culture hub.
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2012

Itami airport site to be Tokyo backup?

Imagine the following scenario: After decades of warnings from seismologists, a massive earthquake strikes Tokyo in 2022 and levels wide swaths of the city, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands more missing or injured.
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2011

Diet must get down to business

The Diet on Monday enacted the ¥12.1 trillion third supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 to finance reconstruction of the areas affected by the March 11 triple disasters. Bills for securing funds for the budget are expected to pass the Diet on Nov. 30, but Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will have a difficult...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 25, 2011

Sweet dreams of a childhood winter warmer

The mournful chant of the ishi-yakiimo-ya or stone-roasted sweet-potato seller advertising his wares is a cherished part of the late fall and winter landscape in Japan. The sing-song chant is often accompanied by the thin, penetrating tone of a whistle, which seems to echo the sound of the wind. Braving...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2011

A business-like summit

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Oct. 19 met with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak in Seoul at the Blue House. By choosing South Korea as the first country to visit as prime minister for a bilateral diplomatic meeting, Mr. Noda signaled to Seoul that he gives importance to the ties between Japan...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 16, 2011

Il Rifugio Hayama: coastal cucina with flair and local flavor

The summer beach season may be over, but we are already planning our return to the Shonan coast. Not for the sand and sea, though, but the promise of a meal at Il Rifugio Hayama, currently our favorite Italian restaurant in all of Kanagawa Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 27, 2011

Mask maker keeping Shimane tradition alive

Hanging on the walls of Jake Davies' home are around 20 artifacts that seem at odds with the idyllic village in Sakurae, Shimane Prefecture where his rustic abode is set.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Aug 14, 2011

Japan's unsung role in India's struggle for independence

Nestled in the upmarket Wada district of Tokyo's Suginami Ward, Renkoji Temple is a model of gentility. On weekday mornings, pensioners sit and sketch its prayer hall while housewives chat quietly in the shade of its well-tended trees. Given this setting, it would be easy to mistake the bust of a bespectacled...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 24, 2011

Taking in Tomonoura's many delights

"The most beautiful scenic view in Japan," was how the woman in the temple in Tomonoura translated it when I asked her the meaning of some calligraphy carved into a wooden sign mounted on the wall.
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2011

Go-ahead for reconstruction

The Upper House on June 20 enacted a basic law for reconstruction of Tohoku-Pacific coastal areas devastated by the March 11 quake and tsunami. Besides the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and other opposition parties supported the bill, while the Japan Communist...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 5, 2011

Amon Miyamoto: Globe-trotting dramatist seeks new horizons

Fifty-three years ago, Amon Miyamoto was born into a world in which he grew up listening to spirited exchanges between leading lights from the stage and showbiz in his father's coffee shop across from the modern-leaning Shinbashi Enbujo outpost of the venerable Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo's smart Ginza...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 15, 2011

Cheap BBQ meat boss pays a high price for being variety show favorite

Since the earthquake of March 11, there's been a lot of bowing and kneeling on TV. Everywhere the executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. go in the Tohoku region, they are compelled to not only bend over for residents of the area, but in some cases get down on the ground and perform dogeza, the act of...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 28, 2010

The Rita Taketsuru Fan Club

In January 2001, I was riding a single-car train through Hokkaido ski-country when a blizzard swept in without warning and stopped us dead on our tracks. It was 11 a.m. but the snow clotted the windows dark and the wind rocked us so hard it felt as if we would tip over.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2010

Opposition: Kan lacks crisis-management ability

Opposition lawmakers spent Thursday badgering Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet for "lacking crisis-management ability" and "being late" in responding to news of North Korea's shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2010

No end in sight to Ryoma craze

From Prime Minister Naoto Kan to Sapporo Beer, lawmakers and companies are invoking the image and legacy of Sakamoto Ryoma, the 19th century samurai who helped overhaul Japan's government and economy. Kan mentioned Ryoma in a speech June 8, the day he became prime minister, drawing comparisons between...

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