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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013

'Things Left Behind'

When the Japanese refer to "the war," they mean World War II. When they talk about "the bomb," they mean the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. The event is so familiar, the contours of its tragedy are painfully etched into our collective memory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 24, 2013

The Pushkin's masterpieces cannot fail to inspire

There are a lot of people who wish that art had simply stopped around 1911 or so. If it had, we would have been spared many of the monstrosities that modern art then proceeded to unleash — urinals in art galleries, randomly distributed paint, pickled animals, cans of the artist's excrement, etc. Of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 17, 2013

The different brush strokes of Tani Buncho

The latest exhibition at the Suntory Museum of Art commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Tani Buncho — a painter, connoisseur and art historian of formidable energy and with an insatiable drive for knowledge. Of samurai lineage, Buncho underwent foundational art training in Kano School...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 3, 2013

The 'floating world' that drifted to the West

The main pleasure of any extensive ukiyo-e (woodblock print) exhibition, like the "Floating World" show now on at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, is the evocation of the unique civilization that underlies this particular slab of global modernity.
WORLD
Jun 20, 2013

Surveillance 'foiled more than 50 terrorist attacks' on U.S. soil

The U.S. government's sweeping surveillance programs have disrupted more than 50 terrorist plots in the United States and abroad, including a plan to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, senior Obama administration officials testified Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2013

Ova bank presents legal issues

If things go smoothly, a Kobe-based private network will begin in vitro fertilization with ova from donors by yearend. Some legal problems are expected.
LIFE / Digital
Jun 19, 2013

The NSA has us all trapped

Watching British Foreign Secretary William Hague doing his avuncular routine in the Commons on June 10, I was reminded of the way establishment figures in the 1950s used to reassure hoi polloi that they had nothing to worry about. Everything was in order. The Right Chaps were in charge. Citizens who...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2013

Is NSA's snooping worse than TSA's groping?

A former NSA contractor who washes up in a Chinese city-state to rail against the state of U.S. privacy doesn't hold a lot of credibility with many Americans.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jun 11, 2013

Prabal Gurung takes to the sky, Swedish style lands in Osaka and NukeMe creates turbulent fabrics

Prabal Gurung is being tapped to design new uniforms for All Nippon Airways group's 60th anniversary last year. ANA surely chose New York based-Gurung in a bid to show its global aspirations, and it helps that he is one of the hottest commodities on the market, as a young up-and-comer with some major...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2013

Real scandal is the power IRS wields

American Republicans on Capitol Hill are abuzz with the possibility that the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service will lead to tax reform.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jun 4, 2013

From paperclip holders and cityscape planters to corner lights and sustainable cameras

Even though we are moving — forcibly — toward the paperless office, the reality is that we still at some point find ourselves with piles of physical documents to deal with, which usually means a desktop covered in paper clips.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 31, 2013

'Oblivion'

I have seen the future and it looks like about half a dozen other sci-fi films poured into a cauldron and left to smelt. Influences are one thing, but "Oblivion" is a bit of a Frankenstein's monster, its plot composed almost entirely of bits hacked off from other well-known films.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 26, 2013

Women's writings provide window on Tokugawa life

The Edo Period in Japan seems pretty much a feminist's nightmare. Samurai rule and strict societal boundaries confined women within the neo-Confucianistic bonds of a deeply patriarchal society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2013

Guitarist Dustin Wong brings singer Takako Minekawa out on a 'Toropical' journey

Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It's a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in front of him. The flurry of interlocking sounds he's produced...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2013

'Dreams as Seen in Modern Western Paintings'

Yasuo Kono, a businessman with an interest in art and music, had an eye for acquiring Western-style art. His collection is renowned throughout Japan and has been praised by many for its impressive number of musically inspired modern works. This exhibition showcases 200 paintings from Kono's collection....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 2, 2013

An art expedition to Southeast Asia

Confronting the ongoing state of transformation that characterizes their native Singapore, two artists exhibiting at a new exhibition, "Welcome to the Jungle," adopt quite different approaches and media. Francis Ng in "Constructing Construction #1" turns his camera on an unfinished section of an ugly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2013

i-fls "Diary of Spectre" (self-release)

The first song I ever made — and I'm willing to wager many who graduated high school in the mid 2000s share this experience — was using Apple's GarageBand, a software application that lets people make music on their computers. "I made a killer techno track last night, dude," I overheard one classmate...
BASEBALL
Apr 7, 2013

High honor for Nagashima, Matsui

Shigeo Nagashima and Hideki Matsui both had legendary careers with the Yomiuri Giants, the latter also excelling in the major leagues after leaving the Giants. Now their accomplishments are being officially recognized with the People's Honor Award.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 1, 2013

Historian seeks to have Jefferson speak for himself

Thomas Jefferson died 186 years ago. But J. Jefferson Looney still wants the nation's third president to speak for himself.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 31, 2013

Fashion Week Tokyo: The menswear question — to be showy or simplify?

The February bankruptcy of Takeshi Osumi's seminal brand Phenomenon, and its departure from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo (FWT) before this season's March 17-23 shows, left a chasm apparent to all. And indeed, it's a mystery who may be able to fill the rather large shoes of the man who added such...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 31, 2013

Thousands flock to the Fashion Week Tokyo party

It is four seasons since Mercedes Benz became Fashion Week Tokyo's main sponsor, and in that time it has given the industry segment that relies on these twice-yearly events a real confidence boost.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 25, 2013

Long-ago wiretap inspires a battle with the CIA for more information

Paul Scott, the late syndicated columnist, was so paranoid about the CIA wiretapping his home in the 1960s that he'd make important calls from his neighbor's house. His teenage son Jim Scott figured his dad was either a shrewd reporter or totally nuts.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Mar 8, 2013

Fashion good enough to eat

The idea of edible clothing is nothing new in the sensational world of avant-garde fashion. Most famously, iconoclastic pop singer Lady Gaga grabbed headlines in 2010 when she showed up at the MTV Video Music Awards wearing a "meat dress" made of raw beef, which was of course met with a flurry of criticism...
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 2, 2013

Remembering the day Napster set music free

In the first weeks of 2000 the founders of Napster were in their office above a bank in San Mateo, California, considering dizzying numbers. Figures scrawled on a whiteboard told how many people around the world had installed their file-sharing application and were using it to download music from each...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 24, 2013

A compelling entry point for discovering Japanese poets from the postwar era

101 MODERN JAPANESE POEMS, compiled by Makoto Ooka, translated by Paul McCarthy, edited by Janine Beichman. Thames River Press, 2012, 144 pp., $45.00 (hardcover)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 7, 2013

'Great French Paintings from the Clark'

Located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is known in the United States for its wide range of European masterpieces dating from the Renaissance to the late 19th century. Besides its famous collection of French Impressionist paintings, it houses all genres of...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji