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COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 23, 2015

Making babies makes a comeback in Japan

The slight rise in Japanese fertility since 2005 — despite the sharp recession and natural disasters that happened in the meantime — suggests there is hope that work-life balance will help to stabilize the populations of developed nations after all.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 17, 2015

Cat Town

Modernist 20th-century writer Sakutaro Hagiwara redefined Japanese poetry with his free-style verse and daringly common subject matter; he reached sublime heights by examining the mundane.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 13, 2014

Tokyo Station at 100: all change

“Tokyo Station is not just a station, it is a symbol of Japan. It has always been a part of progress in rail technology but it's much more important than that. It is a landmark that represents Japan.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2014

From a hostess club to a mountain village: Five notable Japanese photo books of 2014

While selecting some of the best photography books released in 2014, I was struck by the range of specific places that Japanese photographers captured — from a pleasure district to a mountain village and an old rooftop. Photo books with such a geographic focus might be a good way to store up energies...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 9, 2014

World Order says it wants us all to 'Have a Nice Day'

For someone who made a career out of pounding people as a kickboxer, Genki Sudo comes across as a courteous, peace-loving guy who doesn't take life too seriously.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 22, 2014

Hihōkan: Japan's vanishing sex museums

The real world ends beyond a thick, black curtain. On the other side is one of Japan's last remaining hihōkan (sex museum, literally "treasure palace") in the faded resort town of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture — a strange, dimly lit space of questionable morals and dated fantasies.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2014

Hideaki Anno: emotional deconstructionist

With dozens of the renowned filmmaker's works scheduled to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the next two weeks, we speak to the man behind the 'Evangelion' sci-fi franchise about his apocalyptic influences and prod him on the question that is on every fan's lips
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2014

tofubeats calls on pals for his 'First Album'

Yusuke Kawai tries to start a para para dance halfway through his Sept. 5 DJ set, but the inside of an Apple Store isn't an ideal space for this endeavor. Kawai, who records under the name tofubeats, is performing a special show at the recently opened Omotesando store. Half of the floor eagerly watches...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2014

Kibiji bike path: eating local in the slow lane

It doesn't take a great mind to read a map, and neither does it take one to get lost. I found myself doubting my direction three times as the Kibiji bike path — one of Japan's top 100 cycling roads — wound its way through pear- and grape-growing country, past a continuous patchwork of rice fields...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 13, 2014

A world of fear for Japan's shut-ins

Several years ago, a vogue of interest in shut-ins, or hikikomori, saw researchers from France touring Japan and meeting reclusive youths. Such was the prevalence of the disorder, said psychologist Nicolas Tajan, that "if you ask people in Japan about hikikomori, almost everyone will say, 'I know somebody...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2014

Little Forest: Natsu/Aki (Little Forest: Summer/Autumn)

Japanese food culture might be ancient, but Japan's obsession with food in pop culture is relatively recent. The "gourmet boom" of the bubble-era 1980s — when Japanese had more money and leisure to dine in style, rather than simply fill their stomachs — was a big spur. The accompanying proliferation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2014

Farewell to Taiwanese cinema, but not to love

If Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang threw a dinner party, it's easy to guess who would be invited. Tsai has staunchly and consistently worked with the same small cluster of actors from his 1992 debut film "Rebels of the Neon God" through to "Stray Dogs," which will open in Tokyo on Sept. 6, under the...
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2014

Ozawa sees risk of militarism with Abe

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe loosened the limits of the pacifist Constitution to drop a ban on the Self-Defense Forces fighting overseas, many experts said it was a step toward becoming a "normal country" able to do more in its own defense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2014

Escape From Tomorrow

An audacious kick-in-the-ribs at the Disney kingdom, "Escape From Tomorrow" is cool, cool stuff — albeit in a clunky and kitsch Ed Wood kind of way.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 12, 2014

The world could be your oyster in Aichi

In Peru, the largest Incan festival, Inti Raymi (Festival of Sun), takes place on June 25 in honor of Inti, the sun god. In Japan, those in Aichi Prefecture on June 14 and 15 can celebrate, too, by enjoying performances by the Andean folk trio Ekekos, who will honor Inti by playing traditional panflutes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014

'The Grand Budapest Hotel'

Wes Anderson has always been a bit of a mystery to me. His films are remarkably consistent in their approach and stylistic idiosyncrasies, yet they seem equally capable of leaving me rapturous ("Moonrise Kingdom") or cold ("The Darjeeling Limited"). I'm not alone here: Check out any fan's list of Anderson...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2014

Especia takes a road less traveled by idol acts

The eldest member of six-member idol unit Especia was born in 1989, so when I ask them about life during Japan's early '90s bubble era they can only imagine what it was like.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jun 1, 2014

Accidental activist battles Japan's part-timer purgatory

Miho Marui isn't exactly sure how she wound up standing on top of a bus on a blustery Tokyo day in 2009, staring up at the 35-story headquarters of KDDI Corp.
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
May 31, 2014

People's republic of amnesia: exhuming China's Tiananmen trauma

"Lies written in ink can't hide truths written in blood." — Lu Xun, writer
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 30, 2014

Photo series charts the family unit in changing Japan

Family photos in Japan, especially ones taken for formal occasions such as shichi-go-san (seven-five-three) ceremonies, are often as stiffly posed as 19th-century tintypes, with Mom, Dad and Junior never cracking a smile.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2014

Talking Pinter with Leveaux; an 'authorized' interaction

When we met last weekend, the world-renowned English theater director David Leveaux was relaxing with a cigarette "in the lovely sunshine" outside a rehearsal studio by Tokyo Bay. He was there for an intensive afternoon's work with the three Japanese actors who form the cast of his upcoming production...
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
May 4, 2014

Jewelry innovator Shiraki puts ethics at the heart of beauty

Natsuko Shiraki, a jewelry designer and CEO of Tokyo-based jeweler Hasuna Co., vividly remembers the shocking experience in southern India that changed her life.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014

India's status quo is riskier

The political party that proudly led India into independence has been reduced to a self-serving coterie of sycophants, courtiers and court jesters. Is the status quo more risky than the 'Modi alternative' in the current election?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2014

Dresden cashes in on German unification

American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, a prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, has a scene in "Slaughterhouse Five" where time-traveling hero Billy Pilgrim sees the city's firebombing in reverse, with phosphorous bombs sucked back into warplanes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 31, 2014

The Fukushima disaster: Three years on, who's fooling whom?

Japan's new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever 'base load' means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 23, 2014

Germans finally start poking fun at the Fuhrer

If Hitler were alive today, would he become a standup comic? Incredible though that may sound to anyone who lived through World War II, that is the scenario sketched out in "Look Who's Back," a satirical novel by Timur Vermes, which topped the best-seller lists in Germany after its publication in 2012...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 3, 2014

Loved abroad, hated at home: The art of Japanese tattooing

The perception gap between international views of irezumi and those of Japanese people dates back more than 150 years, to when foreigners first laid eyes on Japanese tattoos. Since that time, however, Japanese tattooists have influenced their foreign counterparts in remarkable ways — and sometimes vice-versa.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji