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CULTURE / Books
May 8, 2011

Japan's ancient and modern sleuths deftly nab the culprit

THE FIRES OF THE GODS, by I.J. Parker. Severn House, Surry, 2011, 247 pp., $28.95, (hardcover), THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, by Keigo Higashino. Minotaur, 2011, 298 pp., $24.99 (hardcover) "The Fires of the Gods," the eighth installment of I.J. Parker's saga of Heian Period official Sugawara Akitada, begins...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 8, 2011

Hisashi Inoue's great legacy is just the ticket to inspire our best efforts

A beautiful cherry-blossom tree stands right beside the sento (public bath) I religiously go to, and its top branch hangs over an opening in the roof. In early April, petals were falling from the branch down into the water, which comes out of the ground the color of strong coffee.
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2011

Hoping for a return to normal temperatures

Just when you begin to worry that maybe the United States cannot do anything right, this happens. And suddenly things seem just a little better — and the barometric pressure in American a little bit lighter. This is to say that the loud noise you here coming from the 50 states of the United States...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2011

Group helps kids get through grief

In the aftermath of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region, victimized children face an increasing need for help in coping with the death of loved ones, according to an American expert.
Reader Mail
May 1, 2011

No time for the DIY approach

The April 17 letter from Daniel Potocki, "Give the foreign experts a chance," struck a chord. If I had the chance to write Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Japanese government, it would be a rather emotional appeal.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 1, 2011

Atsuko Muraki: Fighter for justice

Atsuko Muraki was thrown into the public spotlight in 2009, when she was head of the Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 1, 2011

Rethinking Tohoku's rebuilding

The March 11 megaquake and tsunami, and the ongoing disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that they triggered, has sideswiped all of us. Nagging worries about the dangers of the radioctivity leaking from that crippled facility and concern for those brave souls striving to tackle the plant's...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 24, 2011

After March 11, Japan must reconsider its energy options

Viewed from abroad, there is no doubt that Japan is suffering an unmitigated disaster.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 24, 2011

Of monsters and men: Godzilla's stable master

MASTER OF MINIATURES, by Jim Shepard. New York: Solid Objects, 2010, 51 pp., $12 (paper). Jim Shepard's "Master of Miniatures" is a masterful miniature, a small container filled with substantial events and substantial pleasures. Based on the life of Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects man who made it...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 23, 2011

Rolling blackouts: The virtue of silence

The rolling blackouts in Tokyo meant interruptions in watching TV, running computers, stereos and electric heaters, not to mention recharging cell phones and electronics.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2011

Giving voice to trauma-hit victims

When the gigantic tsunami hit the Tohoku region on March 11, Kazuya Kikuchi was just getting out of his truck at Sendai port. As he saw the killer waves swallow up a bunch of brand new Toyotas at the harbor waiting to be shipped, he was frozen by the surreal sound of metal against metal - a sound he...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2011

Children's voices soothe Iwate survivors

As survivors from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sat in evacuation centers across Iwate Prefecture on March 19, support came from a surprising source. Amid the steady flow of information from the radio, a children's choir began singing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 22, 2011

Is everyone in the world still patiently 'Waiting for Godot'?

"Waiting for Godot" is a masterfully minimalist play that allegorically expresses how we all strive to keep at bay the sense of life's ultimate futility. After all, there is only one certainty in our lives: our death.
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2011

Latest word from Mahathir

Before the prime ministry of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, not that many people had ever heard of Malaysia, outside of adjacent Singapore, which shared a common border as well as an intense mutual antipathy that entertained the rest of Southeast Asia for decades.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 20, 2011

A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident

I never thought at my age, that I would be in this spot. But this is where I am at 74, in the taiikukan (体育館 gymnasium) of a middle school in Miyagi Prefecture, now known as a hinanjo (避難所 evacuation center) for people who lost their homes to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the region...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 20, 2011

Win 'Stepping Higher'

With the 2011 world championships in Moscow just days away, The Japan Times is offering several readers the chance to win a copy of the recently released Japanese book "Saranaru takami-he" (Stepping Higher) about two-time world champion Mao Asada's life story.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 16, 2011

Quest to gain, impart knowledge drives expat

The importance of education informs Aileen Kawagoe's life view, although early on she turned down the chance to become an educator like her father.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Apr 14, 2011

Bouncing back and reaching higher

A blast of fashion literature
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 14, 2011

Fashion designer Saleem d'Aronville

JUDIT KAWAGUCHI Saleem d'Aronville is a British fashion designer based in Tokyo. In 2003, he launched Orihica, a brand he developed for Aoki Holdings Inc., one of Japan's top fashion retailers. As its creative director, Saleem built Orihica into a major label with 65 stores around the country. The brand's...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Apr 12, 2011

Japanese baseball finally ready to get season under way

"Gambaro Tohoku.''
CULTURE / Books
Apr 10, 2011

Poetry lies in wait to spring at our throats

NONZEN POEMS, by Morgan Gibson. Printed Matter Press, 2010, 100 pp., $15 (paper) Translator, scholar and poet Morgan Gibson's collection "Nonzen Poems" divides into four parts concerned variously with breath, nature, Buddhism, and the author's mentors and contemporaries — notably Kenneth Rexroth and...
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Apr 8, 2011

The U.S. role in advancing amateur sumo

In the second of two interviews with globally respected officials involved in the international sumo game, Sumo Scribblings recently threw a few questions over the Pacific to Andrew Freund, the face of the United States Sumo Federation. In many ways far bigger in the sport than his slim physique would...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 6, 2011

In a catastrophe, chitsujo serves Japan well

Something so immense has befallen Japan that it almost defies contemplation, let alone expression. It is a watershed event, shattering lives and the ground they are lived on; challenging also one of the unspoken (and unproven) assumptions underlying civilized life — that konton (混沌, chaos) is the...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 5, 2011

Earthquake insurance put to the test

How will Japanese insurance companies deal with the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, the biggest natural disaster in almost a century?
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2011

Kids should know what's going on

Regarding Jun Hongo's March 25 Q&A article, "Should kids be shielded from coverage of disaster?": In my opinion, and as a result of personal experience with tragedy, children should play a big part in knowing what's happening with issues. In my neighborhood, I see elementary school-age kids playing around...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 3, 2011

Burma, the broken country

EVERYTHING IS BROKEN: The Untold Story of Disaster Under Burma's Military Regime, by Emma Larkin. Granta, 2010, 265 pp., £12.99 (paper) Tropical storms are given names by meteorological offices around the world. In English we generally prefer to be anthropomorphic, using male and female names alternately,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 2, 2011

This earthquake still felt all over Japan

When my friends back home contacted me to see if I was OK after the March 11 disaster, I told everyone the same thing. "We're OK. We live 500 miles (800 km) from the disaster zone. We haven't been affected at all." We didn't even feel the earthquake, not even slightly. We have had no blackouts. We continue...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo