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Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 2, 2015

Tokyo craft store meets demand for LGBT rainbow goods hard to find in Japan

At first glance, Nijiiro Komachi (Rainbow Beauty) looks like any craft shop, with colorful handmade earrings, necklaces, illustrated postcards and metal badges adorning the shelves and walls. The store in Tokyo's Kichijoji district, however, has a unique mission: to support sexual minorities in Japan....
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Aug 31, 2015

Don't confuse the homonyms of 'aki' (autumn)

Today we introduce three homonyms of the noun 'aki,' which can mean 'autumn,' 'vacant' and 'to get bored of something.'
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 29, 2015

Okinawa: always worth returning to

The island of Okinawa shimmers beneath the wing of our plane, a dark green smudge on the azure seascape. I can't see it well, ensconced as I am in the aisle seat, already subconsciously distancing myself from this visit. But my daughter, on the other end of the row, peers out the window with wide eager...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 23, 2015

Chinese shoppers keep Japan's tills ringing

The lower yen, fewer visa restrictions, cheap flights and trust in Japanese products are all helping fuel the boom in Chinese tourism to Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 15, 2015

A nose by any other name (or nationality) is as sweet

When I first came to Japan many years ago the thing that struck me the most was seeing people wearing what I thought were surgical masks in public places. Before that I had only ever seen people wearing them on American TV programs set in hospitals, or during my one experience as an in-patient when my...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jul 10, 2015

Ogawa Coffee: An old-world coffee house without the traditional atmosphere

For a small city, Kyoto is big on coffee. As with every city in Japan, the current "third-wave" coffee boom has brought more choice and quality when it comes to cafes and beans. This is undeniably good news for coffee drinkers. Ogawa Coffee and Inoda Coffee, two Kyoto coffee institutions, both predate...
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2015

Japan firms face hurdles as 'service' culture taken overseas

At Uniqlo stores worldwide, staff greet every customer with "Welcome to Uniqlo!"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 9, 2015

Drought-hit Thai farmers struggling as subsidies, like paddies, look to dry up amid water curbs

Rice farmer Boontham Chei-pa switches on a water pump in the evenings to irrigate his parched field from a canal in Thailand's central province of Suphanburi. The soil is hardly moistened before the motor is switched off.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 4, 2015

Female chefs give sushi a new lease on life

A chef dressed in white stands behind the immaculate counter of a sushi restaurant with a vast array of raw seafood spread out in front of her. It sounds like a typical scene you might find at any sushi restaurant in Japan ... except in this case the chef is female.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jun 5, 2015

The best places in Tokyo to taste Vietnam in a baguette

Remember that rumor about “Mama” Cass Elliot from the Mamas and Papas? The one about how she died in bed while munching on a sandwich? I heard that as a child and for years I took it as a cautionary tale about bedtime snacking, or else as evidence that fate has a rather whimsical sense of humor....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Jun 5, 2015

Zen and the delicate art of demitasse coffee

Shingo Naganuma isn't exaggerating when he compares the atmosphere of his coffee shop, Nejimakigumo, to a temple. Open the menu here and you'll find a list of rules, ranging from prohibitions (no smoking, no pets) to a requirement that laptop users buy extra drinks if they plan on occupying one of the...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2015

Director Kawase disregards criticism of her sentimental leprosy drama 'An'

When I first interviewed Naomi Kawase in 1998, after she won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or award for her first feature, "Moe no Suzaku" ("Suzaku"), I remarked on her "quietly stubborn determination" to persist in the face of various detractors. If anything, criticism has increased in the intervening...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 23, 2015

Change trays

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / EXPO MILANO 2015
May 3, 2015

Rethinking, updating traditional crafts

Despite a decline in the handmade craft industry, especially with a lack of young people to pass the baton to in recent years, the Expo Milano 2015 that kicked off May 1 is a big chance for densan, or traditional Japanese handcrafted products, to promote their charm and elaborate workmanship to the world....
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Apr 4, 2015

Okinawa: In the crosshairs of war

"We always seem to be at the tail end of history, dragged along roads already ruined by others."
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 20, 2015

Man City, Arsenal faced with cold reality after CL exits

According to England manager Roy Hodgson, the exit of Premier League clubs from the Champions League is "just one of those things."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 20, 2015

Why Japan's factories, jobs aren't coming back despite the weak yen

Crows circle around the tract of cleared land that was once Hoya Corp.'s Pentax camera plant in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture. All that's left is a sign directing employees to a dormitory and gymnasium, both pulled down years ago when a strong yen was driving manufacturers abroad.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Mar 3, 2015

Switch Coffee keeps the neighbors happy

"Sometimes people say you shouldn't make your hobby into your job," says Masahiro Onishi, the 28-year-old owner of Meguro roastery and coffee stand Switch Coffee. "I was concerned about that."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 12, 2015

Mountain view dinner in Urawa; strawberry delights in Osaka; foreign currency option in Hokkaido

Mt. Fuji viewing dinner in Urawa
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 10, 2015

Danish cherry wine leaves no sour taste at Cella Masumi

It's difficult to leave Cella Masumi, the tasting room and specialty shop adjacent to Miyasaka Brewing Company in Nagano Prefecture, without a bag full of treats.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 2, 2015

Going the extra mile for fair-trade fashion

Tokyo fashion industry insiders push the message that what we choose to buy and wear has consequences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 1, 2015

Bringing a 'cesspool to sushiland' life to the stage

"Coming to Japan was the best decision I've ever made," says Stefhen Bryan, loud and enthusiastically, contrasting with the frown he was making a moment earlier at the miso-flavored ramen he'd ordered and just tasted. "Should've gotten the salt-flavored."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015

Back to the love hotel for ex-pink film director

Interviews with people you know well can turn awkward if you try to be the probing questioner instead of the coffee-shop companion. No such worries with 61-year-old Ryuichi Hiroki, the former pink film (i.e., soft pornography) director who made his commercial and critical breakthrough with the erotically...
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jan 27, 2015

Shiga's Woodbury embraces pursuit of excellence

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Terrance Woodbury of the Shiga Lakestars is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 27, 2015

Pommeke makes fries the main dish

Tokyo boasts plenty of Belgian culinary spots, from beer bars to chocolate shops. Chef Bart Sablon even points out that there is a Belgian waffle store right around the corner from Pommeke, a recently opened operation where the 39-year-old works as executive chef. "That's a total coincidence, though,"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2015

Crowdfunding helps revive quake-hit small businesses in Japan

When an 18-meter tsunami demolished his soy sauce factories in 2011 and killed an employee, Michihiro Kono despaired about the future of the company his family founded two centuries ago.

Longform

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