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Japan Times
JAPAN
May 25, 2012

Japan's stellar speller ready for global contest

Natural learner Haruka Masuda's secret is reading, reading and reading.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 25, 2012

Fest focuses on European film

In Manchester, England, a hallucinating suicidal postman receives philosophical advice from a football legend. Meanwhile, in Sweden, a 12-year-old boy falls in love with the spooky girl next door, only to find out she is a vampire. And then there's the struggling interracial couple in war-stricken Netherlands,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 24, 2012

Wi-Fi, Facebook and all that jazz

Fumito Fukuchi, owner and proprietor of Kissa Sakaiki jazz cafe in Tokyo's central Yotsuya neighborhood, grins as he puts the finishing touches to an online schedule.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 24, 2012

"Uemura Shoen: Japanese Arts in Taisho Era — Struggle Between Tradition and Revolution"

Shoen Uemura (1875-1949) was the first woman in the history of Japan to win the Order of Culture for her contribution to nihonga (Japanese painting). She is particularly famous for her depictions of elegant Japanese women.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
May 24, 2012

This Japanese Life

Scholars of Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher best known for his controversial statement "God is dead," have for years talked about a gaping hole in his works: Where are Nietzsche's writings about teaching English to Japanese high schoolers? What has he got to say about the paranoia of being...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 24, 2012

"Realism Today: Masterpieces of the Hoki Museum"

It has been a year since the opening of the Hoki Museum, which won the The Japan Institute of Architects' 2011 grand prize and is the first museum in Japan dedicated to realist painting.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 21, 2012

Save face when taking the expressway

Foreigners in Japan often encounter conversations in which Japanese terms or concepts are expressed in English in ways that, while not necessarily idiomatic, still get the meaning across effectively. One such example would be the Japanese expression 強い (tsuyoi, strong), which in addition to physical...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
May 20, 2012

Back from Antarctica, Hindenburg disaster, Joban Line trains derail, Issey Miyake men's collection in Japan

100 YEARS AGO
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 20, 2012

'Alien' actress at home with a robot

Even today in the performing arts in Japan, gaijin (lit. "aliens"), as foreigners are called, are still often presented like something to be gawped at in a Victorian freak show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / WEEK 3
May 20, 2012

Artist creates Yokohama bodhisattvas

Eleven bodhisattvas stand in formation, their heads crowned and their almond-shaped eyes and faces dusted with gold.
JAPAN
May 19, 2012

Outsider of sorts champions his, Okinawa's cultural roots

When observing the history of Okinawa, one can't ignore the fact that since before World War II it has produced more emigrants than any other prefecture except Hiroshima.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 17, 2012

"Shoichi IDA, Prints"

It has been six years since Shoichi Ida passed away. As a prominent woodblock print artist, Ida produced outstanding works throughout his career and is considered a significant contributor to the development of Japanese print art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 17, 2012

"Images Shout: The Power of Creative Woodcut Prints"

The Fuchu Art Museum's last two exhibitions highlighting the art of woodblock prints focused on those of a delicate, sensitive nature. This time, however, it invites visitors to look at prints from a different perspective and to appreciate their versatility in subject and expression. Divided into five...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 17, 2012

Otomo's genga will make you remember

Without "Akira" there would be no "Cool Japan."
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
May 16, 2012

Suzuki aiming higher following best season of career

Coming off the best season of her long career, one might think world bronze medalist Akiko Suzuki could be content to retire from competition and turn to show skating.
JAPAN / 40 YEARS AFTER REVERSION
May 16, 2012

U.S. defense shift keeps Okinawa in strategic mix

The 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan came with a price — the continued use by the United States of sprawling military bases and other facilities in the prefecture to protect Japan and maintain peace in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 15, 2012

Readers vent over 'Bread and becquerels'

Some readers' responses to the April 17 Zeit Gist column by Gianni Simone, "Bread and becquerels: a year of living dangerously":
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 13, 2012

Born of disaster, modern architecture is itself now an ongoing disaster

In the French writer-director Jacques Tati's superb 1967 film "Play Time," people are like prisoners condemned to roam about in and amid the glass cages of high-rise office blocks. They are lost, both to the world and themselves. In the world of Tati, who died in 1982 aged 75, all cities look alike;...
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 13, 2012

Though spooked by new threats, Japanese accept mass killers

Before March last year, if you'd asked a child in Japan about nuclear radiation you would probably have been told about Godzilla, the monster powered by mutations caused by radiation, or Tetsuwan Atomu, aka the nuclear-powered robot Astro Boy. Not any more.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2012

Cancer survivors tell of workplace prejudice

Seven years ago, Naomi Sakurai was diagnosed with breast cancer and told she had only a 60 percent chance of surviving another five years.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2012

Five myths about America's conservative voters

We may be six months away from Election Day, but I've already racked up nearly 160,000 km this year crisscrossing the country and listening to voters in more than 20 states. Both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in full campaign mode, and opinions and analysis of their chances to win are flowing...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 11, 2012

Global photo organization to open Tokyo chapter with 3/11 event

Originally started in San Francisco in 2008, the photography event organization Open Show has spread to Cairo, Paris and more than 30 other cities around the world. On May 15 it will hold its first event in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

'The Descendants'

If you were an actor, middle-aged or older and looking to revamp your career, landing a role in an Alexander Payne movie could be just the thing. On the other hand, collaborating with the man who brought to the world the twin masterpieces of midlife pathos "About Schmidt" and "Sideways" may mean that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 10, 2012

After flower-vase success, former D-Bros designers set to blossom

If you're the sort of person who likes art museums but loves art museum gift shops, then you're likely to be familiar with the work of Yoshie Watanabe and Ryosuke Uehara, two designers who are currently the subject of an exhibition at Tokyo's Ginza Graphic Gallery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 10, 2012

"Play Ink & Ink Play: The Art of Chinese Opera Painting"

Chinese Opera is often portrayed in other art forms, including wall paintings and shadow plays. The combination of music, dancing and gymnastic performances makes it a colorful subject, while it is also a tool to convey the history of China and other symbolic themes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
May 9, 2012

JAL builds a social media campaign, one block at a time

JAL taps into social media and gamificiation to promote its new Boston-Tokyo route.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb