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Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 17, 2017

Tracing the decline of a beautiful Japan

Two irreconcilable views of patriotism were given their classic expressions by two Englishmen: Lord Byron, the poet (1788-1824), and Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer and jack-of-all-literary-trades (1709-84). Byron said, "He who loves not his country can love nothing." And Johnson: "Patriotism is the last...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2017

Online merchants wary of Amazon feel warm embrace of … Wal-Mart?

Chad Rubin began selling vacuum cleaner parts on Amazon.com Inc. in 2008 and turned it into a multimillion-dollar business. But in recent years, Rubin has found it increasingly difficult to compete on the cluttered site, where he has been forced to buy advertising that cuts into his profit. Last year,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Jun 10, 2017

Misa Kuranaga: Dancing up a storm in Boston

After being nominated for one of the highest global honors in ballet in May, Misa Kuranaga could be forgiven for relaxing her gruelling training regime. But the 34-year-old from Osaka remains as motivated as ever.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 10, 2017

'Milky Way Railroad': A beautiful if unfinished inquiry into meaning and happiness

This beloved classic of Japanese children's literature is testimony to the difficulties of translation. The title, variously called "Night on the Galactic Railway" or "Fantasy Railroad in the Stars," is a good example.
Japan Times
LIFE / EVENTS AND INFORMATION
Jun 8, 2017

800 years of katana craftsmanship on display

People visiting Japan are often attracted to the beautiful and unique traditional arts, especially samurai culture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jun 7, 2017

What you got cookin'?: a cat named Chijimi

This green-eyed beauty, with a thick mane of fur, looks like a gray lion, and he's even more beautiful when you see him in the flesh.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2017

'To Each His Own': Every wage slave needs a friend like this, but who is he?

Izuru Narushima's 'To Each His Own' is a serious treatment of the theme of 'black companies' that flirts with fantasy in its first half but shades to heart-warming melodrama in its second.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 3, 2017

'Contents Tourism in Japan': How popular narratives drive people to 'sacred sites'

Japan is an extremely successful brand. It's also a tightly controlled one. The government wants lots of foreigners to visit its 2020 Tokyo Olympics, buy its Abenomics, experience the unmatched beauty of its four unique seasons and overlook its urban blight while searching for the few heritage sites...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jun 3, 2017

The not-so-shady world of Japan's singles bars

On May 22, the Yomiuri Shimbun published a curious article about Kihei Maekawa, a former administrative vice education minister who has said that he is willing to testify under oath about the Kake Gakuen scandal dogging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 30, 2017

Finding the drama without words

"Not everything can be explained in words. Everyone draws a different nuance from the word 'love,' for example," says 50-year-old Shuji Onodera. "Yet through dance I've discovered a special beauty beyond words."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2017

'70 Years After Kitano's Death: Kitano Tsunetomi Exhibition — The Beauties of Osaka'

June 6-July 17
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2017

'In Praise of Swords: Masterpieces of Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures'

June 1-Aug. 4
PARALYMPICS
May 28, 2017

Wheelchair rugby ready to crash Tokyo 2020 party

Japan's No. 7 catches the ball but before he has time to react, a hulking, tattooed Australian is bearing down on him.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
May 27, 2017

Kyoko Sato: Curator inspired by New York's artistic energy

Kyoko Sato hit bottom soon after arriving in New York in 2002 to be with the man who was to become her husband (since divorced). "I had been able to work freely in Japanese society, so I really suffered when I came (to the States) since I couldn't do that anymore," she says. "I had really loved my job...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Tools of the Japanese Kitchen
May 27, 2017

Hone your knowledge of Japanese kitchen knives

Japanese kitchen knives have a worldwide reputation for excellent quality and artistic beauty. The trouble is, there's so much mythology and romance surrounding them, not to mention a bewilderingly wide range of prices and types, that it can be difficult to make a choice.
LIFE / Travel
May 26, 2017

Looking for 'omotenashi' in Cuba's southeast

Though half a world apart in geography, history, language and just about anything else you could name, Cuba and Japan are not entirely without similarities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 25, 2017

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia teams up with Exile's Hiro to create a contemporary fusion of vision and sound

From its debut in 1999 as the passion project of actor Tetsuya Bessho, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia has grown into a big event on the local and regional film calendar. Size is one reason: The 19th edition, which unspools from June 1 to 25 at six venues in Tokyo and Yokohama, features nearly 250...
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
May 23, 2017

Iwano confirms quad salchow for free skate next season

It is rare for an athlete to make history the first time they embark on a new level in their career. Usually they settle in, bide their time, and work their way up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2017

Kaikei: the name behind the gods

Kamakura Period (1185-1333) Buddhist sculptures often come down to us under the individual names of makers (when known) though they were often fashioned in workshops by multiple hands. A significant 13th-century work would employ a dozen or so team members and assistants and draw on multiple specialists....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
May 20, 2017

Shoemaker Hidetaka Fukaya models creations on feline elegance

A renowned craftsman in Florence is working hard to maintain his freedom of expression as a shoemaker.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2017

'Another Kyoto': Alex Kerr's roving thoughts on Kyoto as it stands today

It appears that when the Japanologist Alex Kerr was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, his tutors despaired at his unorthodox use of his time there, with one particularly testy don complaining, "He researches only the ephemera that draw his interest," going on to rail against Kerr's fascination with "superstitions,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2017

Trump's disability is Dunning-Kruger effect

We're all ignorant, but U.S. President Donald Trump takes it to a different level.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 19, 2017

Slowing down time with a trip to Okinawa's Zamami Island

Growing up in a small beach town on the west coast of Florida, much of my free time as a youth was spent in or around the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf was almost always warm, not unlike bath water, yet it provided the perfect respite from the stifling heat of the Florida summers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
May 13, 2017

Designer Yuri Suzuki chases his dreams through sound

As a boy in the 1980s, Yuri Suzuki fell under the spell of video games and his father's record collection. The family home was in bustling Shibuya Ward, near the border with Shinjuku, and the influence of global cultures within its walls was strong.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 13, 2017

Paraglider Richard Brezina: 'I am not a stranger to high adventure'

Canadian native living in Kyushu recalls his experiences of extreme sports in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
May 6, 2017

Japan Times 1917: 'Tampering with mail at the Post Office'

An extraordinary case of wanton mischief by Post Office employes was recently revealed by Mr. K. Ishikawa of Azabu, who made a formal complaint to the director of mails of the Department of Communications.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
The rise of a new work culture in Japan