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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2017

Why shirtless Putin is having the last laugh

He wants to be seen as a strong man unconcerned by sanctions. Western media laps it up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / The critics who shaped modern Japan
Aug 5, 2017

Junichiro Tanizaki: Speaking to the light from the shadows

In 1933, when Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) published his short but landmark essay "In Praise of Shadows," it could hardly be seen as anything other than a riposte to the "enlightening" agenda of the great cultural critic Fukuzawa Yukichi of the preceding Meiji Era (1868-1912).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 1, 2017

Fuji Rock Festival: It may not make sense on paper, but the end results are glorious

This year's Fuji Rock Festival was a damp and turbulent affair, albeit only in the most literal sense. Whatever the formula is for convincing people to blow their entire summer vacation budget on a few days in the Japan Alps — much of which will likely be spent lining up for the toilet, getting drenched...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 27, 2017

It's a bit out of the way, but Skip City festival makes up for the distance with great films and rare access

The location for the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival doesn't make it particularly easy for casual fans to pop in. The Skip City complex — which hosts studios for audiovisual production, as well as educational and entertainment facilities — is a fairly lengthy bus ride from Kawaguchi Station...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jul 26, 2017

The Japanese 'Tunnel Man' of Alaska: Not quite life on Mars, but pretty out-there

With his dream of inhabiting the red planet out of reach, Kenji Yoshikawa instead sought out similar landscapes on Earth and teaches kids about Mars-style permafrost.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2017

Straddling East and West in art

Hybridity and eclecticism may be key concepts in much contemporary art, yet they are not new phenomena. In the Taisho Era (1912-1926), Tetsugoro Yorozu virtually personified the idea of hybrid art: As Japan rushed toward modernization, he not only experimented with the very latest forms of Western art...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Jul 22, 2017

Yasuhiko Tsuchida: Bringing a hint of Japan to Venetian glass art

On a sweltering summer day in Venice, the temperature in Yasuhiko Tsuchida's glass-making atelier feels at least 10 degrees hotter than it is outside. Men roast their faces against groaning furnaces, shirts drenched with sweat, pulling clumps of luminous molten glass from the fire as the glass artist...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 9, 2017

Tokyo filling the shoes of European artisans

While Yohei Fukuda was learning the art of shoemaking in London in the early 2000s he applied to work at John Lobb, one of the oldest and most prestigious footwear firms in the world. He was offered a position, but was asked if he would accept payment in shoes — not money. Somewhat taken aback, Fukuda...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 2, 2017

The sweet artworks of Tetsuya Nagata

Osaka-born artist Tetsuya Nagata has found a unique way to breathe new life into two time-honored crafts of Japan — washi (Japanese paper) and wagashi (Japanese sweets).
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 29, 2017

Hearty home cooking at a reasonable price

To celebrate next year's 60th anniversary, the Ootoya chain has renewed its first restaurant in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2017

Qatar: Is Trump striking the match for a little war?

Acting like a rhetorical warmonger, U.S. President Donald Trump is providing the Saudis with ample blessing for their internecine warfare.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 25, 2017

Fashion veterans make new moves

They may be newcomers to Tokyo, but behind the fashion names picking up traction this summer is a wealth of experience combined with honed artisanal skills.
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.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’