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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2014

Lessons of suicidal Cowra breakout remain unlearned

At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, 1944, 1,104 Japanese soldiers and sailors armed only with knives, forks and a few baseball bats poured out of their huts at the Cowra prisoner-of-war camp 300 km west of Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales. Charging through a hail of machine-gun fire,...
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Jul 8, 2014

Sotnikova to headline field at NHK Trophy

The epic 2013-14 season is behind us and it is onward to a new campaign, and in many ways a new era.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 25, 2014

'Scary stories' series reaches limit

In "Hyakumonogatari," a 1911 novella by the great author and translator Ogai Mori, the protagonist explains that its title refers to a traditional way of telling ghost stories, saying: "In hyakumonogatari (meaning '100 tales'), people gather together and arrange 100 candles. Each person tells a ghost...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2014

Kids' stuff that adults need to see

Perhaps in the wake of this attack on seriousness, many artists have since taken refuge in childishness, whimsy or playfulness, though these values have been carefully rationed in 'Go-Betweens: The World Seen through Children,' with the emphasis being more on showing childhood as a state of vulnerability and transformation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jun 24, 2014

Without a canon, Japanese pop won't blast off

Exploring the world of Japanese music can be a baffling experience for those who don't speak the language.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2014

How a master circled the system

Favorites of today's museum-going public, the lushly colorful, sensuous and grotesque paintings of beautiful women by Tsuchida Bakusen (1887-1936) have long been written into the canon of nihonga (Japanese-style painting). It is easy to forget, however, just how transgressive Bakusen's images were at...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 5, 2014

Light up the night with a firefly festival

Fireflies, known as hotaru in Japan, have inspired numerous artists and writers, including Haruki Murakami, whose short story "Firefly" was later adapted into the first part of his best-seller "Norwegian Wood." In the real world, however, fireflies are sadly in decline, as their natural habitats —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014

'Oh! Father'

Japanese mystery writers have long supplied fodder for TV shows and films, but mysteries of the puzzle-plot sort have reached a saturation point. Or maybe it's just me, fed up with stories that turn on such vital questions as — in the immortal words of Raymond Chandler — "who trampled the jolly old...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 19, 2014

Japanese galleries bank on Art Basel in Hong Kong

Whoever said the Swiss were boring? For Art Basel in Hong Kong, they put on a hell of a party, and the 20 participating galleries from Japan, while not exactly dominating the landscape, certainly made the most of it.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 8, 2014

West powers Ryukyu, Kyoto favored in second round

Since rising to elite status and winning a championship in the 2008-09 campaign in their second season of existence, the Ryukyu Golden Kings have been a perennial threat to win it all.
BASKETBALL
Apr 26, 2014

Hot-shooting Osaka routs Shimane

They started the season with six straight wins, followed by eight consecutive defeats. And they lost four of their last six contests entering Saturday's series opener against the Western Conference's cellar-dwelling Shimane Susanoo Magic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 26, 2014

'Granta' opens a window into Japanese literature

With such a piddling amount of Japanese fiction finding its way into English translation each year, you learn to make the most of what you can get. So when this year's Tokyo International Literary Festival marked the launch of not one, but two compendia of Japan-related writing, it felt like an embarrassment of riches. In addition to the latest issue of 'Monkey Business,' the annual journal edited by veteran translators Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, the festival welcomed the arrival of a Japan-themed issue of the British quarterly, 'Granta,' released simultaneously in English and Japanese.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 22, 2014

Anti-Abe forces emerging

Little was heard from Yasuo Fukuda, nor was much said about him, after he stepped down as prime minister in 2008. In recent months, though, he has been sought out by some LDP leaders to help repair the damage to relations with South Korea and China, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's style of diplomacy is said to have caused.
Figure Skating
Mar 29, 2014

Mao struggles, still claims third world title

Mao Asada captured her third world title with a satisfactory free skate on Saturday night at Saitama Super Arena.
BASKETBALL
Mar 22, 2014

Northern Happinets breeze past Broncos

The Eastern Conference leaders put on an offensive clinic against cellar-dwelling Saitama on Saturday afternoon.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 21, 2014

Cracks in the ruling coalition

The exercise of Japan's right to collective self-defense has become Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political creed, but ruling coalition partner New Komeito wants Abe to slow his approach, and others close to Abe have grown apprehensive about the rise of anti-American conservatism within Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. The ruling coalition is showing cracks.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 19, 2014

Ishigaki replaces Fukuhara for worlds

An unexpected phone call turned out to be surprising, but a pleasant one for Yuka Ishigaki when the 24-year-old table tennis player learned she would replace the injured Ai Fukuhara in the upcoming Japan Table 2014, the World Team Table Tennis Championships.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2014

'Idai Naru, Shurara-bon (The Great Shurara-bon)'

Superheroes by definition have super powers. In Japan, instead of leaping tall buildings with a single bound, these heroes often shoot energy projectiles from their hands — easy and effective, save when your opponent has more wattage. This may seem childish, but it can be fun, as shown by all those...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 13, 2014

Sebastian Masuda's mission to take Harajuku art global

New York is not a city one automatically associates with the Japanese concept of kawaii — lovably, irresistibly, dependably cute. But if Sebastian Masuda, the so-called "king of kawaii," has his way, the mean streets of "Goodfellas" may one day emanate a candy-colored glow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2014

All-genre focus is the key to Art Fair Tokyo's success

It is difficult to criticize Art Fair Tokyo, the commercial art fair that celebrates its ninth edition at Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho this weekend. Truth be told, it's a wonder that the event has reached nine editions at all, what with the inherent fickleness of the art market and Japan's...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2014

Wind power on verge of taking off

Japan hasn't seen an appreciable increase in wind power in the past few years despite the start of the feed-in tariff system designed to boost renewable energy, but it still has potential and the market will grow in the next several years.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 23, 2014

Tokyo edges Yokohama, earns series split

The one-two punch of Yuji Ide and Ricky Woods guided the Tokyo Cinq Reves to a 74-71 victory over the host Yokohama B-Corsairs on Sunday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 23, 2014

Keep calm before carrying on when speaking Japanese

In Haruki Murakami's 1985 novel "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," one of the two protagonists is a coolheaded data agent working for the monolithic "System" that protects the world from "Semiotec" data thieves. He takes on a job that's a little too dangerous and finds himself confronted...
OLYMPICS / ICE TIME
Feb 13, 2014

Hanyu favored to win Olympic gold

Yuzuru Hanyu has impressed skating analysts with his performance in the short program in the team event and his official practices since arriving in Sochi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014

'Iya Monogatari: Oku no Hito (The Tale of Iya)'

Cycling in the mountains near Tokyo, I often have two thoughts: First, I feel sorry for big-city denizens missing all the natural beauty so near. Second, I wonder how the locals can wrest a living from their tiny fields and orchards, perched precariously on the slopes.
BASEBALL
Jan 17, 2014

Nomo inducted into Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame

People don't remember Hideo Nomo by his records. They remember him as a trailblazer.
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Dec 28, 2013

Snakes and Earrings

Take a walk through Tokyo's Shibuya or Shinjuku shopping districts and you'll soon notice the streets are filled with a certain kind of girl — stylishly dressed, sassy, with heavy makeup and dyed brown or blond hair. These are gyaru, and to get a peek inside their world, "Snakes and Earrings" is a...
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2013

Year of ups and downs for Japan

Japan in 2013 was besieged by problems in politics, business and society even while several key events helped to rekindle a sense of confidence in Japan.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped