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CULTURE / Stage
Oct 15, 2014

'Polygraph' blurs realities in a dark blend of blood and beauty

The 1980s murder at the center of "Le Polygraphe" echoes that of an actress in the Canadian city of Quebec — a killing for which the chief suspect for a time was the renowned Quebecois dramatist Robert Lepage, who cowrote the play in 1987 with actress, author and theater director Marie Brassard. Postmodern...
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 10, 2014

Olympic construction transformed Tokyo

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the opening installment of a five-part series that will run during the next two weeks, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, takes a look back at the preparations for the event.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 10, 2014

Making noise about keeping the decibels down

Yoshimichi Nakajima was waiting for the train one day at his local station in Tokyo when he politely asked the station attendant to lower the volume on his microphone. He was told that would be "difficult," so Nakajima lent a hand by grabbing the mic and throwing it onto the track. He then recounted...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Oct 8, 2014

Biased pamphlet bodes ill for left-behind foreign parents outside Japan

A pamphlet about the Hague Convention provides valuable insights into the Foreign Ministry's slanted mind-set towards the child abduction issue.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Oct 5, 2014

Families run into twin 'walls' as they seek after-school care

The gulf between day care for preschoolers and after-school care for elementary school students can come as a major shock to the system for parents and children alike.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2014

Four Japanese universities slip in annual global ranking

The University of Tokyo holds onto its title as Asia's No. 1 institution of higher learning while four of its domestic contemporaries lose ground.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 29, 2014

Mount Fuji finds mixed success with tolls

As the Mount Fuji climbing season drew to a close earlier this month, authorities were assessing the success of a new ¥1,000 voluntary climbing fee, which almost half of hikers skipped paying. It was introduced this year following a trial in 2013.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
Sep 23, 2014

Veggie ramen broth that's as clear as your conscience

A ramen aficionado might scoff at the idea of a meatless broth. That pork or chicken essence, I'm told, is what gives ramen its characteristic hearty kick. There are, however, a handful of brave shops around Tokyo that can hold their own against those meaty bowls any day.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 8, 2014

How vulnerable is Japan to severe weather?

The deadly mudslides in Hiroshima and other parts of western Japan last month caused by torrential rains have raised concerns about how vulnerable Japan is to such natural disasters, especially given severe weather events due to climate change.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: ARCHITECTURE
Aug 29, 2014

Checking in on Tokyo hotels old and new

The news that the Hotel Okura in Tokyo will be redeveloped in time for the 2020 Olympics has been greeted with dismay by surprisingly far-flung and influential group of admirers — an indication of the status of clientele that has patronized the hotel since it opened in 1962, U.S. President Barack...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 17, 2014

Small-minded leaders flirt with a 'sunlit picture of Hell'

One hundred years later, we Americans, Australians, British, Chinese, Europeans, Indians, Japanese, Koreans and Russians still have leaders with the same narrow chauvinist mind-set that sparked World War I, supposedly the war to end all wars.
JAPAN / History
Jul 5, 2014

Battle of Saipan: beginning of the end

Seventy years ago, the Imperial Japanese Army lost a pivotal battle over the Pacific island of Saipan, a defeat that put Tokyo within range of high-altitude U.S. B-29 bombing raids that could evade Japan's inadequate air defenses.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 5, 2014

Fiery Shinjuku protest goes global without NHK

Until the Great East Japan Earthquake, social media didn't have much purchase on Japanese social life. But disasters are transformative, and in a country where the mass media is cautious about its role vis-a-vis the authorities, social media came into its own after the tsunami and meltdown.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / DEALING WITH DEMENTIA
Jul 4, 2014

Assistance for vulnerable elderly on the rise

Last in a three-part series
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 26, 2014

Beer garden season begins with a hearty 'kanpai'

When the first Biergarten (beer gardens) started popping up in Germany's Bavarian region in the late 19th century, who would've thought that they would one day come to represent summer in Japan. Well, I guess it's not that unbelievable.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jun 24, 2014

Yokohama 'museum' marks 20 years curating ramen royalty

Now that ramen has taken its place alongside sushi as the world's favorite Japanese food, it's easy to forget what the noodle landscape was like just a couple of decades ago. Back in the 1990s, foreigners knew ramen — if they knew it at all — as cheap fuel for all-night study sessions or as a belly-filler...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
Jun 24, 2014

Deep-fried veggies are happiness on a stick

Summer evenings are here, and so are the slow hours spent cooling off with a cold beer and crisp fried vegetables at a kushiage restaurant.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014

Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 13, 2014

Guide to Tokyo burgers returns with a new edition

When it comes to Tokyo food trends, four years is almost a lifetime. Back in 2010, when Yoshihide Matsubara wrote "The Burger Map," the definitive guide to burgers in the capital area, hamburgers were still generating a fair amount of buzz. Then came pancakes and then, in an unlikely 180-degree twist,...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 12, 2014

As visitor numbers boom, North Korea becomes ultimate tourist trap

"Taking you to places where your mother would rather you stayed away from." That's how one Western travel agency advertises its tours to North Korea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 7, 2014

Kengo Kuma: 'a product of place'

Renowned architect's new book, 'My Place,' reflects an awareness of humanity's close affinity to the world around us.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 7, 2014

Japan's efforts bring back 'extinct' species

Oriental stork 73; crested ibis 82; red-crowned crane 1,143; short-tailed albatross estimated 3,550. Those numbers of wild birds in Japan seem perilously low — and they are, especially when considered alongside the Japanese population of 126.75 million people — but in reality they are good news!...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 31, 2014

Modern cat tale echoes former feline fiction

That the Japanese are great cat-lovers should come as no surprise: a taste for the elegant, the mysterious and the quirky leads in a feline direction, after all. There are paintings of cats from the classical period of the imperial court and prints from the more popular ukiyo-e of the Edo Period (1603-1867)....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 1, 2014

A golden time to dine outdoors

Now is the golden season in Tokyo: balmy days, mellow temperatures, low humidity and no mosquitoes. There's nothing better than a nice, leisurely (and maybe even boozy) lunch outside — dinner, too, as long as you bring a warm jacket or throw.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 29, 2014

Music curators deserve credit for keeping local scenes alive

The term "cultural curator" is one that tends to provoke reactions ranging from sneers to rage. It really is a horrible term in some ways, with problematic embedded associations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FUKUSHIMA FILE
Apr 20, 2014

Evacuees still wary of returning

An evacuation order for part of the Miyakoji district of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, was lifted April 1, but many residents haven't returned yet because of lingering concerns about radiation. They are also worried about the lack of jobs, shops and medical services.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2014

Koza: the carbonized city

My first glimpse of Koza was a burned out car on a monochrome print I picked up at a recycle shop in Naha. I would see the image again when I visited the history section of the Okinawa City Hall, where there was a prominent display on the Koza Riot of 1970.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Apr 17, 2014

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Tales of the Weird and the Strange

While many overseas scholars are attracted to the retrained aesthetics of Japanese arts and letters, it was the country's wild and wooly folklore that captivated Zack Davisson, an American writer and translator. While pursuing his masters degree in Japanese studies Davisson immersed himself in the mysterious...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 5, 2014

Phuket puts Peranakan heritage back on map

As evidenced by all the Chinatowns dotted around the globe, over the centuries China has seen many of its people seek new lives in other parts of the world. And from about 1400, Southeast Asia was especially popular for Chinese emigrants who had a yearning for foreign shores.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell