Search - 2012

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013

Nuclear dispute shapes fight over future of fading town

This superbly told tale about the waxing and waning fortunes of Kaminoseki town over the past four centuries presents some interesting local counterpoints to the more familiar national narrative.
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 2013

AKB48 and sexual politics

The tearful video from a 20-year-old female pop group member who 'broke the rules' was a disturbing reminder of Japan's troubling gender issues.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Feb 17, 2013

Fukushima radiation threatens to wreak woodland havoc

For Yuji Hoshino, mushrooms were a way of life. The 50-year-old farmer grew up watching his father raise shiitake mushrooms on their land at the foot of the mountains in Sano, southern Tochigi Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 17, 2013

Tracing time's passing through faces of Tokyo

Petri Artturi Asikainen would regularly accost strangers in Tokyo, on the streets, in parks or bars and on trains. With a high-end Nikon D3 digital SLR in his hands, the lanky and bespectacled Finn would ask — somewhat timidly summoning one of the few Japanese phrases he had memorized: "Can I take...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013

Kanai's provocative, textured 'girls' fiction' wistfully surprises

INDIAN SUMMER, by Mieko Kanai, translated by Tomoko Aoyama and Barbara Hartley. Cornell East Asia Series, 2012, 149 pp., $24 (paperback)
BASKETBALL
Feb 16, 2013

Struggling Fitzgerald released by Happinets

The Akita Northern Happinets have terminated forward Dan Fitzgerald's contract, the bj-league club announced on Friday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 16, 2013

Debate rages over effect of nursing on mother and child

Is breast-feeding far and away the best thing? Or have we done women a disservice by overstating its benefits?
BASKETBALL
Feb 15, 2013

Defensive hustle, intensity keys to Murry's success

An individual's all-around game can flourish when attention to details and a commitment to defense are ever-present.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 15, 2013

Osaka restaurants revisit award-winning dishes

Over the next month, Osaka restaurants will start preparing some award-winning dishes to serve up to lucky diners.
EDITORIALS
Feb 15, 2013

Improve reconstruction efforts

As of mid-January, at least 316,000 people were still living away from homes affected by the 3/11 quake-tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2013

Breathing life into the forgotten and neglected

Painter Daisuke Fukunaga (b.1981) states: "If the world is the stage of a theater, I want to paint the bustle of the things waiting behind the blackout curtain rather than the heroine." His motifs are of things forgotten and neglected, but unlike his earlier works of 2007, which realistically depicted...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 13, 2013

Turning a wall into a moving canvas

People who took in the evening celebrations marking the reopening of the Tokyo Station building in September saw a dazzling array of 3-D images on the outer walls.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 13, 2013

Davis sets sights on playing in NBA

Can shot-blocking maestro Jeral Davis reach the NBA in his late 20s?
Japan Times
TENNIS
Feb 11, 2013

Strong field assembles for Qatar Total Open

Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams headline a strong field for the WTA's Qatar Total Open that features 17 of the top 18 players in the world beginning here on Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2013

Cues from Germany and France

The recently celebrated half-century-long Treaty of Friendship between Germany and France has a lesson for Japan concerning reconciliation in Asia.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 11, 2013

Movers of Abe's diplomacy

Who are the key figures helping Prime Minister Shinzo Abe personally lead Japan's diplomacy rather than defer to the defense and foreign ministries?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 10, 2013

The evolution of Japan's turn away from Confucian ideas

'The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish,” writes political thought scholar Hiroshi Watanabe of the University of Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 10, 2013

Abe's 'unpredictable past' runs counter to his people's remorse over wars

“They were remarks made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. But since then we have welcomed in the 21st century.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 10, 2013

Japan's animal spirits

BONES OF CONTENTION: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan, by Barbara R. Ambros. University of Hawaii Press, 2012, 255 pp., $29 (paperback)
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 10, 2013

Murakami ideal man for new U.N. goodwill ambassador role

Kudos to Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player in the major leagues, on his recent appointment as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. "Mashi" is highly qualified to take the leadership role in supporting charities and, having been acquainted with him for...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 10, 2013

Hacker leaks Bush emails, photos

The Secret Service said Friday that it is investigating the theft of numerous personal emails from members of the Bush family, after an apparent hacker leaked the emails and Bush family photos to the Smoking Gun news website.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013

Future leaders stress 'politics of the daily'

In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's current president, Thein Sein, will both turn 70, so a great deal depends on future leaders. On a recent visit I caught up with two promising aspirants who focus on the "politics of the daily."

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’