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JAPAN
Feb 10, 2010

Toyota the city rides out the storm

TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. — Even in its hometown, the great automaker has lost some of its mystique.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 26, 2010

Artist perseveres to embrace life in Japan, keep tapped to Iran roots

Award-winning Iranian artist Mansour Kordbacheh has lived in Japan for 21 years and feels the weight of it on his shoulders.
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2009

DPJ administration's first budget

After some drama and confusion, including a screening unit's slashing of budgetary requests before public eyes and tough demands by Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, the Hatoyama administration has compiled the fiscal 2010 budget, its first budget since its inauguration in mid-September....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2009

Australia shows off Asia's talent

BRISBANE, Australia — Over the past year, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made waves in his country and across the region with his plans to spearhead the development of an Asia Pacific Community. Rudd is in part picking up where former Prime Minister Bob Hawke left off 20 years ago, when Australia...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009

The Italian art of making wine and painting

Imagine the colors of a vast Tuscan vineyard drenched in a September sun — emerald green leaves, gnarled brown vines, deep purple grapes, shale earth, azure sky — an artist's inspiration for both palette and palate. For renowned Italian artist Sandro Chia, 63, these Tuscan colors, soaked into the...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 9, 2009

Rural event blends art, nature

A countryside exhibit of more than 200 modern-art works aims to harmonize art and nature.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2009

The ins and outs of competitive art shows

Michiyo Yamanaka probably devoted several weeks to creating the three abstract paintings she entered in this year's Nikaten, one of Japan's oldest and largest competitive art exhibitions. Heaven forbid she ever finds out how long it took the judges to condemn her efforts to oblivion: 18 seconds.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2009

Classics' artsy paperback jacket makeovers a hit

A young "idol" with paperback in hand standing in a high school classroom isn't what one would expect to see on the cover of Natsume Soseki's literary classic "Botchan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

Allowing ourselves to be deceived by art

Whether enjoying the sight of shadow puppets against a wall or the suggestive placing of objects in an Austin Powers movie, people have long delighted in the playful use of images.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2009

Scholar interns at old bookstore

Students of literature often find themselves among old books in the dark reaches of a library. But Harvard University student Peter Bernard has taken another tack, spending most days for the past two months combing the antiquated works at a 106-year-old bookstore in Tokyo's Kanda Jinbocho district.
Japan Times
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Aug 2, 2009

Sokun Tsushimoto: Caring for body and soul

With his shaven head, straight back and deep, calming voice, Sokun Tsushimoto, a newly qualified physician who started practicing at a Tokyo clinic in April, clearly betrays evidence of his long and rich life experience.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 27, 2009

How to Japonese

The blog How To Japonese should appeal to anyone studying intermediate and advanced Japanese, but don't expect structured step-by-step courses. Launched in 2008 by Daniel Morales, a New Orleanian who first came to Japan in 2002 and currently works as a translation coordinator in Tokyo, the blog pretty...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 3, 2009

Propeller puts an old spin back on the Bard

"Propeller may be another English group of actors doing a play by their compatriot, Shakespeare, but this is something quite different. How different? . . . Well, you will understand what I mean if you see it!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 19, 2009

Collectors pleased with Art 40 Basel fair

The consensus among the 61,000- odd dealers, collectors, museum curators, media and art lovers who descended on the Swiss town of Basel for the 40th edition of the annual Art Basel fair on June 10-14 is that the art market is surprisingly healthy despite a global economic recession.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jun 3, 2009

Creative Commons fights for new copyright

On April 17, the district court of Stockholm issued its verdict in the copyright infringement case of the torrent tracking Web site The Pirate Bay, whose managers and another associate were accused of facilitating the illegal downloading of music, movie and video-game files. The four defendants were...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 24, 2009

Netsuke: delicate treats for the dandies of Edo

Until modern times, Japan seems to have been almost unique in having no tradition of jewelry, apart from the stone beads and gold accessories found in burial mounds from the last few centuries of the prehistoric period until circa seventh century. Elaborate necklaces, bracelets and diadems could be seen...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2009

Darkness at the opera

Say the word "opera," and a string of flamboyant images spring to mind, from vivid stage sets to dramatic divas — unless it's the world of opera as seen through the singular gaze of artist Sophy Rickett.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 20, 2009

Free of cash concerns, Estonia produces top-class animation

A collection of witty and cynical animation films from Estonia are taking center stage at Laputa Asagaya, an art-house theater in Tokyo's Suginami Ward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2009

Edo to Meiji

The popularity of ukiyo-e (genre painting) woodblock prints is partly due to aesthetic reasons and partly symbolic ones. In terms of sheer beauty, there is much to recommend in the better examples in the genre, from bright blocks of color and sinuous lines to lively compositions and intriguing details,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2009

Econ lessons from Japan

Searching the reasons for Japan's "lost decade" — the deflation and stunted growth said to have plagued Japan ever since the collapse of the "bubble economy" in the early 1990s — has long been popular among U.S. and British commentators seeking an answer to the West's current economic problems.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2009

Linking video games to their visual history

Think of post-World War II popular culture in Japan as it relates to contemporary art, and you invariably arrive at Murakami Takashi and his Kaikai Kiki company/studio. But a new generation that draws from Japanese pop culture — and yet has no close connections to Murakami's art stable — has emerged...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2009

Snow yaks and yetis — an ice man cometh

Fans of Pop Surrealism were no doubt tickled pink to hear of their messiah, painter Mark Ryden, making an appearance in Tokyo for the opening of "The Snow Yak Show" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. The solo exhibition features eight new works from the masterful painter, each exquisitely detailed in his characteristic...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2009

'Anime,' 'manga' grab spotlight at major exhibition

At the Japan Media Arts Festival, prepare to jet into the sky like Superman and dance with speakers blasting at your hips, as the nation's largest showcase of cutting-edge "anime," "manga" and high-tech arts gets more interactive.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2009

Vienna's Arming strikes the right note

"During these five years, we have often tackled contemporary works," says Austrian conductor Christian Arming, music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) since 2003. "I believe that broadened our horizon."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2009

Vienna's Arming strikes the right note

"During these five years, we have often tackled contemporary works," says Austrian conductor Christian Arming, music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) since 2003. "I believe that broadened our horizon."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2008

Was that the sound of the China art bubble bursting?

As quickly as it appeared, the Chinese contemporary art boom ended last week in Hong Kong.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2008

Golden glories

One of fall's annual pleasures is the Big Autumn Exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum, and this year the organizers have pulled out all the stops with "Treasures by Rinpa Masters," a breathtaking show of Rinpa art in celebration of the 350th anniversary of Ogata Korin's birth. Korin (1658-1716) is...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 26, 2008

How Japanese mysteries evolved from imitation to adaptation

PURLOINED LETTERS: Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature, 1868-1937, by Mark Silver. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, 217 pp., $52 (cloth) Western-style stories of crime and detection began making their appearance in Japan from the mid-19th century, initially as translations of...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past