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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2016

Nam June Paik has the last laugh

Rapid, multilayered, fluid — the high-tech images created by Nam June Paik earned him the epithet the Father of Video Art. He may be most often associated with banks of television screens and intense, distorted video images, but as a new retrospective of his work at the Watarium (The Watari Museum...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 30, 2016

Subtle messages lie hidden in a corporate collection

Tokyo Station Gallery is showing a pick 'n' mix exhibition, "12 Rooms 12 Artists," comprising a variety of modern and contemporary art acquisitions from the UBS art collection. There is no explicit curatorial imperative to connect or compare the works, so you're free to enjoy the visual confections in...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 17, 2016

Sex trade a shaky safety net for Japan's working-poor women

For the past six years, 47-year-old single mother Kasumi Endo has lived a double life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2016

'Thomas Ruff'

Aug. 30-Nov. 13
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2016

The colorful combination of power and art

Each part of Italy has its own character, but Venice has always been something special and unique. While much of Italy was reduced to insignificant statelets, for much of the peninsula's history Venice was quite the reverse. It projected power far across the Mediterranean and ran a large commercial empire...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 9, 2016

Refugee reluctance clashes with labor realities as asylum seekers, banned from working, build Japan's roads

Mazlum Balibay paves Japan's roads, digs its sewers and lays its water pipes — all for a country that doesn't want him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 16, 2016

Ultraman: Ultracool at 50

Ultraman has been defending humanity against monsters and aliens for half a century. We examine the superhero's enduring legacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2016

Paris' Pompidou waves the flag of French art

Seven decades of art history; one masterpiece for every year, each created by a different artist from France or closely connected with the country; and all from the collection of an iconic Paris art institution — that's the premise of the current exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 11, 2016

Novelist Hideo Furukawa views the Fukushima disaster through nonhuman eyes

After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, critically acclaimed writer Hideo Furukawa experienced an unsettling "imagination meltdown."
CULTURE / Books
Jun 4, 2016

Black Illumination: Haruo Sato's lush, gloomy landscapes

Most of us, when we feel sad, assume there is a cause for our sadness. Often there is, and the feeling can then be addressed, diagnosed, resolved. But what about sadness without a cause? This is the terrain of melancholy and, while melancholy has a rich and varied history in the West, it takes on unique...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 28, 2016

Backstage drama on Ginza's Konparu-dori

A temperate breeze swings through the surrounding willow trees as I pass jewel-encrusted ball gowns in the display windows of Ginza Takaraya, near Shinbashi Station in Tokyo. I'm scouting out Konparu-dori, a street named for the eponymous noh troupe that was gifted land here by the Tokugawa shoganate...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 24, 2016

The Royal Ballet brings two classic romances set to sparkle afresh

In the competitive melee of world-class dance, the Royal Ballet keeps on its toes. Since 2011, when Christopher Wheeldon's groundbreaking "Alice in Wonderland" became its first new, full-length work in 16 years, the company based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, has been continually...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 18, 2016

Giving voice to foreign talent via the spoken word

Tokyo's English poetry scene gets a shot in the arm with a lively event night and new journal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 13, 2016

World was a stage for acclaimed theater director Yukio Ninagawa

Acclaimed stage director Yukio Ninagawa was a titan of global theater but his hand felt astonishingly fragile when I shook it in delight in 2012 after the world premiere of "Trojan Women," which brought together a remarkable ensemble of Japanese, Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli actors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2016

Prince's desire for control of own music set example for today's musicians

Music legend Prince left as big a mark behind the recording industry scenes as he did on his millions of fans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 19, 2016

Akiyama remodels the canon of clay

Artist Yo Akiyama has never been one to play by the rules. As a young student in the ceramics program at Kyoto City University of the Arts (Kyoto Geidai) in the mid-1970s, he quickly earned a reputation as a troublemaker, never content to accept his teacher's lessons at face value.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 22, 2016

Strindberg's surrealistic 'Dream' heralds a pivotal era for KAAT

He doesn't officially become Kanagawa Arts Theatre's artistic director until April 1, but Akira Shirai wasn't fooling when he declared, "I aim to make KAAT (the official acronym of his Yokohama base) a place where we take a whole fresh look at theater's role in today's Japan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2016

The transformative power of Japan's 'magical girls'

There is one surprising thing about Japan's male-dominated — some may say rabidly misogynistic — society: manga and anime support women. True, there are plenty of examples to the contrary (take a short stroll through any Akihabara anime shop if you need proof). But at the same time, the modern Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2016

Predicting a crime you have not yet committed

Scientists have demonstrated that a computer can outperform human judges in predicting who will commit a violent crime. Whether to use this in real life raises many ethical issues.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 13, 2016

Why Abenomics is failing

Only when a synergy is achieved between easy money policy and a growth strategy to stimulate private-sector investments can the engine of a virtuous circle get started.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Mar 10, 2016

Looking for comfort in art following the Great East Japan Earthquake

In her film "Heart of a Dog," the American artist Laurie Anderson explores loss as exemplified by the death of a loved one. A recurring theme is the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, an incident that profoundly changed the way New Yorkers like Anderson confronted their environment....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2016

'Mariko Mori: Cycloid'

March 11-April 23
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 23, 2016

Kyoto Experiment goes from strength to strength

“It may be wrong to mix different wines, but old and new wisdom make an excellent mixture." So claims The Singer in Bertolt Brecht's 1944 play, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 28, 2016

Opera Theater Konnyakuza perfects a union of stage and song

The world of opera has always found inspiration in the works of William Shakespeare, but adapting them for the stage requires flexibility.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 19, 2016

'Takashi Murakami's Superflat Collection: From Shohaku and Rosanjin to Anselm Kiefer'

Jan. 30-April 3
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 9, 2016

Low wages at the heart of foreign labor shortage woes

There has been a lot of discussion recently about allowing more foreign workers into Japan to make up for severe labor shortages in some fields. As of the end of 2014, the labor ministry estimated there were 790,000 foreign nationals working in Japan legally, which is more than the number of national...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 3, 2016

Jamie xx: The archaeologist of U.K. rave culture

Sitting in his favorite East London cafe, Jamie Smith is nervous. Tonight, he will headline his biggest ever show as Jamie xx at Brixton Academy.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan