Search - works

 
 
CULTURE / Books
May 15, 2011

Nintendo's Wiining ways

PLAYING TO WIIN: Nintendo and the Video Game Industry, by Daniel Sloan. Wiley, 2011, 256 pp., $24.95 (hardcover) Ten years ago, tough times had hit Nintendo with shrinking sales and profits, increasing demand for new products and growing pressure from competitors. What hope was there for a comeback from...
JAPAN / WEEK 3
May 15, 2011

Author's fiction turns horribly real

The Pacific Ocean a few kilometers off the coast of a city in the Tokai region of central Honshu turns white. Hundreds of curious holidaymakers caught in a traffic jam on the seaside road get out of their cars and jump up onto the sea wall for a better view of the strange sight — only to realize that...
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2011

The new setsuden culture

While the kanji for "hot" was chosen as emblematic of 2010, setsuden, or electricity conservation, seems to be the keyword for 2011, or at least for the coming summer.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2011

Shimizu projects profit gains on rebuilding plans

Shimizu Corp. is forecasting a profit jump of about 24 percent this year on the outlook for a recovery in orders for infrastructure projects including roads and bridges.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2011

Employing disaster survivors

More than two months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, construction of temporary housing for disaster victims and the restoration of lifelines such as electricity, gas, city water and sewerage have become urgent tasks. Close attention also must be paid to employment of disaster survivors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Excellent Techniques of Metal Crafts, The Late Edo And Meiji Periods"

From the end of Edo Period (1603-1867) into the Meiji Era (1868-1912), Japanese arts and crafts experienced major changes. Sword and sword-accessory-related metalwork, in particular, was affected by the opening of Japan to the West and its influences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Sharaku"

Toshusai Sharaku's active career lasted a mere 10 months sometime in the years of 1794-95. Despite this brevity, his work has been acclaimed for its minimal and abbreviated but stylistic appearance. The mystery behind Sharaku's true identity — which is still unknown — also continues to fascinate...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Eikyu Matsuoka"

Born near Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, Eikyu Matsuoka (1881-1938) was the youngest of eight brothers, who included well-known academics such as poet and Japanese literature researcher Michiyasu Inoue, folklorist Kunio Yanagida, and linguist Shizuo Matsuoka.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2011

A tale of two cities: Art Fair Kyoto challenges Tokyo

After the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the art scene in Tokyo was struck by cancellations, postponements and confusion as it attempted to make sense of the disaster and worked on ways to contribute to the reconstruction of the Tohoku region of Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2011

'Yu Kiwanami Solo Exhibition'

imura art gallery, kyotoCloses May 28
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 12, 2011

Inspired by the West and re-made in Japan

Staging famous Western works, or those from well-known foreign playwrights, is an established feature of contemporary theater in Japan, with Japanese dramatists often adapting or reworking plays so they resonate more with domestic audiences.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2011

Will Islamists rule post-revolution Egypt?

For the first time in Egypt's modern history, Islamists, the most organized political group on the ground with a recognizable outreach to every corner of the country, seem close to governing Egypt, after decades of social influence.
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2011

First extra budget moves

The Diet on May 2 enacted the first supplementary budget for fiscal 2011. Worth ¥4.015 trillion, the extra budget is aimed at pushing reconstruction measures in the Tohoku-Pacific region, which was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The Kan administration now faces the more difficult...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 9, 2011

A further understanding of how money talks

In my previous column on the subject of 金 (kin or kane), alternatively meaning money, gold or metal, I realized that I'd barely scratched the surface of this vast subject. What forms does money take? How is it handled? Or, for that matter, how is it mishandled?
CULTURE / Books
May 8, 2011

Unfractured folk tales, and fantastic fables

SPECULATIVE JAPAN 2: "The Man Who Watched the Sea" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2010, 269 pp., $16 (paper) A good anthology, particularly one that aims to provide an overview of an unfamiliar subset of a nation's literature, should not please all its readers...
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.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 8, 2011

Pedal-power pleasures on Kansai's byways

Spring is the perfect season to explore Kansai by bicycle. Going with the flow along largely flat cycle routes beside the Yodo, Katsura and Kizu rivers, it's possible to chart a comfortable six-day trip — or, in my case, a rather challenging four-day one — between the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Nara....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 8, 2011

New drama addresses the politics of surrogate pregnancy in Japan

Keiko Matsuzaka started out as a glamorous ingenue who sang and acted. Her career didn't differ greatly from those of other late Showa Era (1926-89) idols, except that she gave in to the unflattering changes her body underwent after entering middle age. Most other actresses who are still working in their...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 7, 2011

In search of a nuclear disposal site

Roughly 300 km northwest of Finland's capital, Helsinki, is the island of Olkiluoto, home to two nuclear power plants and the potential site for one of the world's first permanent underground high-level nuclear waste repositories.
JAPAN
May 5, 2011

Workers set to enter reactor 1 building

Eight workers are scheduled to be the first to enter the reactor 1 building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant since it was ripped apart by a hydrogen blast the day after the March 11 tsunami, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2011

'Art Brut Japonais': Unleashing the uninhibited power of expression

In recent weeks there have been several contemporary-art group exhibitions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Annual, VOCA at the Ueno Royal Museum, and the Sompo Japan Rising Artists Exhibition. In theory these exhibitions, which are usually scheduled to coincide with the optimism of spring,...
SOCCER / J. League
May 4, 2011

Defense sets tone for Marinos in shutout over rival Reds

Yokohama F. Marinos kept up their impressive start to the J. League season with a well-deserved 2-0 away win over Urawa Reds on Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 1, 2011

Explore Seoul's hidden heart

Just two weeks after the March 11 triple-catastrophe in Tohoku, and a mere 90 minutes after leaving Haneda Airport in Tokyo, it was almost unreal to be standing in Kimpo International Airport just outside Seoul and listening to excited Japanese tourists chatting about what and when they will eat and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 1, 2011

Revenge of the aunties

If the collective noun for a bunch of morons is a "drool," then what would it be for a group of feckless twenty-something cretins? A "slobber"? A "salivation"? The group of six men in this rollicking satire run the entire gamut of idiocy as they battle the formidable Midori Oba-sans (aunties), those...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2011

Evacuee mayor's community torn

Katsutaka Idogawa, the 64-year-old mayor of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, is standing at a crossroads.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 29, 2011

Bright set out to lighten spirits

All-female vocal quartet Bright are putting their efforts into Action for Nippon, a charity that works to help kids affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 29, 2011

Making Kyoto's modern architecture part of the city's heritage

On the Kamo River of Kyoto, a city renowned for its traditional wooden houses and temples, sits a neglected concrete building. Though now looking a little forlorn, when it opened 40 years ago, this was the glamorous Hotel Fujita Kyoto, a holiday spot much loved by numerous sophisticated visitors, including...

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