Search - shop

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 3, 2008

One huge fan of civilization

As long as you've at least half a sleepy eye slightly focused on popular culture, you've seen his art work, even if you never go to galleries. Up until two years ago, he'd never even shown in one, at least not the ones where you stand around sipping wine and eating imported cheeses.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLEWISE,ON: FASHION
Mar 11, 2008

Stella McCartney, Anna Antoniades and more

Anna Antoniades in Nakameguro
Japan Times
LIFE / COSPLAY CULTURE
Mar 9, 2008

Business booms as Japanese subculture soars

The last two decades have seen kosupure ("cosplay," or "costume play") blossoming from being a local Japanese subculture to a thriving worldwide trend — and business.
Japan Times
LIFE / THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
Feb 24, 2008

Blazing a trail to the cyberfuture

Yukiko Nakagawa started toying with a personal computer when she was a 6th-grader in the early 1980s — years before Microsoft introduced its first Windows operating system, and back when most people, let alone children, had never seen a PC.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Feb 22, 2008

Tofu maker finds success through innovation, determination

Many of Japan's small and medium-size companies are feeling the pinch as they struggle to pass rising costs on to their larger corporate customers. One, however, Saitama-based tofu maker Shinozakiya Inc., succeeded in getting supermarkets to swallow a 30 percent increase in wholesale prices in November....
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Feb 1, 2008

Referee row lifts handball's appeal

Team handball, the figurative water boy of sports, is suddenly in the game and earning the roaring approval of fans in Japan.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 27, 2008

In memory of one for whom Japan was a muse

A month ago I lost a very close friend. This would not be the proper place to write about it, except for the fact that despite her not being Japanese, her profound understanding of Japan and her love for the country were the lifeblood of her artistic career.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / ON: DESIGN
Jan 22, 2008

Naoto Fukusawa, the peg pencil, Gallery Le Bain and more

Naoto Fukusawa: Beech Boy
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 22, 2008

Trouble on two wheels; moving out

Gaijin on a bike! "I have been harassed by the police while riding my bicycle," writes FC. "I happened to get the bike from a friend and it turns out it actually belonged to someone else. The bicycle is very, very old and worthless, but they tracked it down and apparently it was 'stolen.'
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 13, 2008

Single parenting drama, variety commonplace talents, childbirth drama

SMAP band member Shingo Katori, whose last TV drama job was playing a monkey, gets to be more than human in the new series "Bara no Nai Hanaya (A Florist Without Roses)" (Fuji, Monday, 9 p.m.). Katori plays Eiji, a young widower with an 8-year-old daughter, Shizuku. He saves his money for years to fulfill...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / STYLE WISE
Jan 8, 2008

Raf Simons, Bulgari, Marc Newson and more

Candy-colored covers
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jan 4, 2008

Where ambitions have long soared

First of two parts
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2008

'Fukubukuro' hunters rise early to bag their prey at nation's shops

With the new year comes the season of shopping extravaganzas.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 25, 2007

Natsuki Maeda

Shop clerk Natsuki Maeda, 19, is a charismatic fashion leader in Tokyo's world-famous Shibuya 109 building, the epicenter of cool threads for girls and for women who, regardless of their age, would like to look as young as they feel. Working in one of the 100 shops here is synonymous with celebrity status,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Dec 7, 2007

Winging it in Ota Ward

Ota Ward is totally fly. For starters, it hosts Haneda, the only airport actually situated in Tokyo's 23 wards. Although a plane would come in handy in navigating this southernmost and largest of the city's wards, you'd miss out on roasting wieners at Ota's weekend barbecue hot spot, Jonanjima Seaside...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2007

When we let machines down

LONDON — Dinosaurs, so we are told, died out because they were too big. Or some say they were wiped out by an asteroid. No matter — all agree that their basic problem was size. They were just too large, their brains were too remote from their bodies, and their control systems could not cope.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2007

Shopping rules tourists

Tourist-wise, Japan has a somewhat divided character. Despite Japan's fascinating history and vast cultural treasures, tourists apparently come here primarily to go shopping. A recent Japan National Tourist Organization survey found that nearly 35 percent of the visitors were in Japan for the shops....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2007

'Always Zoku 3-chome no Yuhi'

Are the Japanese more nostalgic than the rest of us? It's hard to say, but here cinematic look-backs tend to be more bittersweet than in the West, especially films set in Tokyo, which was obliterated in World War II and has undergone several reincarnations in the six decades since.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2007

'Once'

The characters in "Once" don't even have names; it's just the Guy (Glen Hansard) and the Girl (Marketa Irglova), and the story spans about 10 days in their lives one autumn in Dublin. "Once" was a sleeper hit at the Sundance Film Festival — and it's like a small, shining halo of brightness that recalls...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 2, 2007

Oden: Japanese for 'soul food'

There's no need to look at the changing leaves to know what season it is; just walk into your nearest 7-Eleven outlet and sniff. Those trays of oden stewing by the checkout are all you need to know that winter is on its way.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 28, 2007

Masters of all they survey

"How do you get to the Seibu department store?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 23, 2007

Kazuhiko Hashiguchi

JUDIT KAWAGUCHI
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 12, 2007

Free wine tastings, and celebrity chef at the Cerulean

Wine tasting — and it's free Vinos Yamazaki's new wine shop in Yurakucho, Tokyo, will hold a three-day Wine Festival to mark its opening, with free wine tastings, special seminars and a limited sale of special wines, from Oct. 12 to 14.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 10, 2007

Trash can's size adjusts to your trash; MP3 player one-fifth as thick as iPod

Trash suffers so much at our hands. We inflict the twin insults of scorn and apathy on it, despising our refuse and really not caring too much just how it is removed from our presence. Just think how many research grants are devoted to building the better mousetrap, while we just treat our trash cans...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Oct 9, 2007

Actress Devon Aoki in Tokyo with Levi's, Toga in the parking lot and more

Denim diva
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Oct 5, 2007

All at sea in Shinagawa

In Edo Period Shinagawa, popular footwear included geta (traditional wooden sandals) perched on meter-high, box-frame stilts weighted down with large stones. A fashionista freakout? Not exactly. Turns out these uberplatforms, a pair of which are on display at the Shinagawa Historical Museum, were designed...
BUSINESS
Oct 3, 2007

'Otaku' fantasy businesses raising social worries

With her frilly green dress and white lace gloves and about to serve tea under a chandelier in a small Tokyo store, Naru Naruse looks the perfect French maid.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2007

'Baum Kuchen'

"Bridget Jones's Diary" was yet another variation on the Cinderella story, but instead of becoming the belle of the ball, Renee Zellwegger's Bridget stayed pretty much the same pumpkin throughout, but got her prince anyway.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan