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May 04, 2025
 

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CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Nov 6, 2003

'Grotesque' cuts too close to the bone

Do the suffocating pressures of Japanese society produce monsters? Does trying to live by men's rules drive women crazy? These are two of the questions posed by Natsuo Kirino in her powerful new novel, "Grotesque."
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2003

Europe rues decline amid shift to Asia

PARIS -- Officially, we were discussing Russia's place in Asia. It was hard to tell whether the French senator/historian on the panel was warning of Moscow's return to great-power status or urging it on. He was no crypto-communist, however: For him, Russia's resurgence would signal the return of multipolarity...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 5, 2003

Reviewing reviews of Richie

JAPANESE LITERATURE REVIEWED, by Donald Richie. ICG Muse Inc, 2003, 490 pp., 2,800 yen (cloth). Like photographers, writers who stick at their trade long enough may find themselves in possession, without having realized it, of a substantial body of work, one that has accumulated silently like a snowdrift....
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2003

Few know but many fear where the U.S. 'road map' leads

BEIRUT -- By the summer of 2002, U.S. President George Bush had firmly set his new course: "regime change" and reform in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and, where necessary, American military intervention to achieve it.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2003

Liberal ideals gain ground in the Asia-Pacific region

MANILA -- In past decades, liberal democracy and economic freedom have made great advances in all parts of the world. This general trend also applies to Asia, as is documented in the annual "Freedom in the World" surveys published by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and the "Economic Freedom...
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2003

Looming specter of tax hikes

The government's budget deficit continues to swell at an ominous pace. According to an estimate by the Finance Ministry, the total amount of bond issues in fiscal 2004 may exceed 41 trillion yen -- a sum roughly half the size of the budget. The figure could be revised downward, possibly to less than...
Events
Sep 14, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Demonstration of flower arranging set for Kyoto: The Kyoto chapter of Ikebana International will hold a demonstration of the art of Japanese flower arranging from 1 p.m. on Tuesday at the Brighton Hotel Kyoto, in the city's Kamigyo Ward.
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2003

Beijing betting that a better economy will calm restless Hong Kong democrats

HONG KONG -- China's strategy for dealing with the political situation in Hong Kong in the aftermath of the massive rallies last month -- when more than half a million people took to the streets -- is two-pronged: On one hand, Beijing is waging a massive economic campaign to prop up the Hong Kong economy....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 21, 2003

"Toad Heaven," "Ada Lovelace"

"Toad Heaven," Morris Gleitzman, Puffin Books; 2002; 192 pp. Humans are always complaining about how unfair life is. Limpy is a cane toad, but he thinks it's unfair, too. For starters, no one likes him (except his family). Female cane toads don't think he's much of a looker. (Cane toads are ugly enough,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 13, 2003

Hotshot terrorist comedy just misses target

Though only in his early 30s, Martin McDonagh already has a 1998 Tony Award under his belt for his worldwide hit, "The Beauty Queen of Leenane." What's more, his works have been staged in 38 countries -- Japan among them.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2003

Chaotic images of Indonesia

HONOLULU -- Turmoil in Indonesia was underscored Tuesday when a terrorist bomb exploded in a hotel in Jakarta killing at least 14 people and wounding about 150 more. It has added to the already surging concern of American officials in Washington and at the U.S. Pacific Command's headquarters in Hawaii,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2003

Too rich, too complex to be run by slaves

HONG KONG -- China's new premier, Wen Jiabao, on his first visit to Hong Kong in his new job gave a resounding speech, declaring that local people were in charge of their own destiny. The question now is whether he meant it and whether the leaders in Beijing are prepared to trust the maturity of Hong...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 29, 2003

A hot-headed female voice

EMBRACING THE FIREBIRD: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Poetry, by Janine Beichman. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002, 352 pp., $23.95 (paper). Vivid, rich, suggestive, imaginative -- with these words, writer Janine Beichman aptly describes the extraordinary early poetry...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 28, 2003

Extinction ahead for odd Japanese beasts

A news item earlier this year cited the upcoming extinction of the banana, giving the slippery fruit a life expectancy of but 10 more years.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 19, 2003

Men stripped to their Ys

Edward Lambert, born in the 1700s in England, was to all appearances a normal boy until he entered puberty, whereupon his skin turned black and thickened, hardening into scales, solid like the shafts of feathers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 11, 2003

Junkie XL: "RADIO JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin"

Given Junkie XL's successful dance remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation," his appearances on MTV and recent high-profile shows at the Liquid Room in Tokyo, it's difficult to ignore the arrival of his new album, "RADIO JXL: A Broadcast From the Computer Hell Cabin." Not that he's a new...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 11, 2003

Radiohead: "Hail to the Thief"

According to Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke, the cover art of the new album, "Hail to the Thief," is a road map made up of blocks of words that "rang bells" in his head whenever he listened to commentary about 9/11 and its political aftermath. Radiohead has always invited as much interpretation as the...
JAPAN / History
Apr 30, 2003

Japan Occupation turned foes into friends

Before Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed at a small airstrip outside Tokyo to begin the U.S.-led Occupation of Japan in 1945, Americans were the object of intense hatred, portrayed by propagandists as rapacious foreign devils.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 27, 2003

The wandering laptop minstrel

With his long black hair pulled back in a tight, neat ponytail and his pale complexion, electronica musician Nobukazu Takemura has an otherworldly quality somewhere between a computer geek and a monk.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 24, 2003

Feedback

Dear readers, as you rarely get the last word, this week's column aims to put that right. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the dangers of our society's addiction to oil, and noted that much of the world still believes the primary purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to dominate its oil supplies and establish...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 21, 2003

Sky's the limit for broadcaster in search of sporting excellence

A recent survey of 1,000 Japanese sports viewers who subscribe to JSky Sports showed that 25-30 percent enjoyed watching or wanted to watch baseball, sumo and soccer, 19 percent favored domestic rugby, 13 percent enjoyed cycling and 12 percent preferred international rugby, NBA and NHL.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2003

In search of the real al-Jazeera

The war in Iraq hasn't been easy for nonparticipants such as Japan to sort out. The most obvious villains were also technically the victims, and the perpetrators of hostilities have looked like invaders one minute, liberators the next. Perceptions and judgments could, and still do, shift like the wind....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 13, 2003

Matsui, Matsui . . . and a little more Matsui

Because of coverage of the invasion of Iraq, it feels as if we're being spared the all-Matsui-all-the-time media blitz we were promised last fall when the former Yomiuri Giants slugger, Hideki Matsui, signed with the New York Yankees. We aren't. Matsui madness is everywhere, but because the war has engaged...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 6, 2003

A legend from Kyoto to Kerouac and way beyond

Gar Snyder is a legendary figure. The real-life original of Japhy Ryder -- traveling companion, friend and spiritual inspiration to the novelist Jack Kerouac -- he appears in that guise in Kerouac's 1959 novel, "The Dharma Bums." There, speaking as Ryder, he announces that, after study in the East, he...
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2003

One week into the war

It has been nine days since the United States launched its attack against Iraq. The war has not gone as many expected. The difficulties encountered by the U.S.-led coalition have raised questions about Washington's strategy and the assumptions that undergirded the allied assault. Although those doubts...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 9, 2003

Yayori Matsui's legacy lives on -- as intended

Last weekend, a memorial gathering was held in Waseda for Yayori Matsui, the former Asahi Shimbun reporter and women's rights advocate, who died in December from liver cancer at the age of 68. A proper funeral service had been held two months earlier at the Shibuya church founded by Matsui's minister...
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Fears of 'anti-Americanism' overblown

MANILA -- In 1996 Samuel Huntington published his epochal work "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." In it, he argues that, since the demise of the Cold War, cultural divides have become the focal points of international conflicts. Judging from recent editorials in American and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2003

Starting all over again

Gowasan means "call off," "start again," or "bankruptcy." The term is originally derived from abacus calculation, where it refers to the shaking of the abacus to return all beads to their starting point after completing a calculation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 12, 2003

Bright white, big city

Something interesting I recently learned about anatomy: There are 26 bones in the human foot, and if you break just one of them, your entire leg is basically useless.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 8, 2003

Can a foreign catcher succeed here in Japan?

A Happy New Year to all readers of the "Baseball Bullet-In" out there.
Britain responds after Expo 2025 afternoon tea brews outrage
The café space at the Osaka Expo's British pavilion
Woman says archbishop of Tokyo ignored her pleas after priest allegedly raped her
In a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, Tokie Tanaka, 64, details her allegations of sexual abuse against a Catholic priest.
Israel protests after Kyoto inn seeks war crime declaration from tourist
A street in Kyoto in March 2023. An Israeli tourist was asked to sign a document stating that he had not committed war crimes when he checked in at a Kyoto guesthouse in April, prompting a response from Israel's ambassador.
Second round of U.S.-Japan tariff talks ends inconclusively in Washington
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (far left), U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator. The second round of tariff negotiations between Japan and the United States were held on Thursday in Washington.
'Ukiyo-e in Play' showcases traditional art carved anew
The Adachi Institute has been working on creating brand new ukiyo-e prints in collaboration with contemporary artists such as Yayoi Kusama, whose “Mt. Fuji in Seven Colours: When life boundlessly flares up to the universe” (2014) can be seen on display at “Ukiyo-e in Play.”
Want to see the future at Expo Osaka? Get in line.
“‘Future of life,’ by Ishiguro,” the World Expo pavilion by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, displays humanlike androids.
Ishiba hears advice from across the aisle on how Japan should handle Trump
Prime Minister Shigaru Ishiba and CDP head Yoshihiko Noda at a parliamentary session in Tokyo on April 23.
Don't send in the clones: AI event nixed as Alt accounts get reality check
A screenshot from the website for Alt's AI conference, which was canceled after the company disclosed an investigation into its sales figures.
CDP submits bill proposal on separate surnames, but challenges remain
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers speak to reporters in parliament on Wednesday after submitting a bill in the Lower House to allow married couples to retain different surnames.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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