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September 20, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2003

Is it a film? Is it a play? No, it's cinetheatre

Ever had a dream that was so real it made you lose your grip on reality? One that turned into hallucinations the following day? One that drove you close to madness?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2001

Talking about the weather is no longer so boring

We tend to take weather forecasts with a grain of salt. Some people leave their umbrellas at home unless the probability of precipitation is over, say, 40 percent, while others keep a collapsible in their bag at all times because they don't know what to believe. We know it's raining because we are getting...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Jul 16, 2000

When dream makers walk among us

Socrates' bestial laugh washes into the cosmic map where Blake digs with his spade and Sam stands bathed in the sparks of his youth Among colored shapes, Sam embraces the warmest softest things a woman's spirit in the shape of clouds in the shape of foam in the shape of a womb The white space of the...
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 1999

Goodwill ambassador delivers hope

Akasaka Prince Hotel's Crystal Palace Room was filled with billowing arcs and floating columns of peach, rose and violet balloons Nov. 9 to help celebrate the opening of the stage play "Friendship (Yujo)" and the release of "The Paradise of Angels (Tenshi no Paradaisu)," a five-volume set of children's...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Mar 5, 1999

Help, maybe

Recently the Franciscan Chapel Center, whose volunteer groups are active in many areas of need in our community, has provided a considerable amount of information for this column. Among them are columns that have dealt with providing rice balls for the homeless, exposed Japan as the leading source of...
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 7, 2023

Silent phones, freezing rain and anguish in Turkey quake

The disaster toppled nearly 3,500 buildings across 10 provinces, killing more than 3,000 people and injuring more than 11,000, while leaving an unknown number trapped under debris.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 29, 2022

A protest? A vigil? In Beijing, anxious crowds are unsure how far to go.

In a country where protests are swiftly quashed, many who gathered to voice their discontent — under the watchful eye of the police — were uncertain about how far to go.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 30, 2022

Four-year forests: The Japanese way to 'rewild the world'

Created in the 1970s, the Miyawaki method can help new saplings grow an average of a meter every year — a godsend for deforested areas.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Mar 30, 2022

How Ukraine has kept Russia's army at bay in villages near Kyiv

Russian advances have been halted by small, mobile Ukrainian units wielding anti-tank weapons shipped in from abroad.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 26, 2022

Thinning Antarctic ice shelf finally crumbles after heat wave

Satellite images show the 1,200 square-kilometer Conger Ice Shelf in east Antarctica collapsed completely on or around March 15.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2021

Psychedelic drugs will follow pot’s path to legalization

What distinguishes the movement to legalize psychedelics is that it is substantially more elite than the movement surrounding pot, a drug that crosses economic and cultural lines.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / Remembering 3/11
Mar 8, 2021

Tectonic wobbles and muddy deposits: The seismic clues leading up to 3/11

New research is allowing scientists to envision a future where megathrust quakes are not only less unexpected, but perhaps, to a certain degree, predictable.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jan 9, 2021

These are the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol

There were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists who have spread dark visions of pedophile Satanists running the country. Others were more anonymous, people who had journeyed from Indiana and South Carolina to heed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call to show their support. One person,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2020

When reading was a refuge and had no end

This was the worst year, and nothing made sense any longer, except when it was the best year, because time for reading seemed to expand like one of those endless summer afternoons when one was in the late stages of grade school. I despised 2020 while also, as a person of solitary disposition, found myself...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 12, 2020

How hostile design keeps Japan's homeless at arm's length

In the early morning hours of Nov. 16, a 46-year-old man allegedly struck a 64-year-old woman sitting in a Tokyo bus shelter in the head with a bag of rocks, killing her. On Nov. 21, the man, accompanied by his mother, turned himself in to the police, who charged him with inflicting a fatal injury. The...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 5, 2020

Japan's celebrities juggle private lives with public expectation

A U.S. survey has found 69% of Japanese respondents believe extramarital affairs are unforgivable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2020

The potential for a policy failure on vaccines is huge

Leaders must make decisions about who will get a coronavirus shot first and provide adequate explanations to those denied the vaccine.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2020

'Smart lockdowns' are the future in Europe

EU countries are experimenting with new ways of dealing with COVID-19. Germany, Portugal and Italy have all enforced selective or "smart” lockdowns, shutting down smaller regions in response to new outbreaks as opposed to bringing their entire countries to a halt.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2020

Lockdowns haven’t proved they’re worth the havoc

The U.S. survived the 1968 pandemic without shutting down society, and there isn't much evidence that shutdowns are truly effective this time.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2020

Lockdown critics may have some valid points

It's always worth listening to smart people with ideas that go against the grain.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 30, 2020

We live in neither East nor West

With COVID-19 pulling the world apart, it's the people, from healthworkers to thoughtful neighbors that can bring it back together.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2020

Italy's lockdown tests the limits of democracy

Restrictions on 17 million people are the most draconian in the West, but they're far less strict than China's. The onus is on citizens to comply.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 21, 2019

Review: 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King' at the New National Theatre, Tokyo

A truly entertaining production of “The Nutcracker” should leave you questioning whether the performance was just a dream. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” a take on the holiday classic staged by the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in the run-up to Christmas, is no exception. Performed for the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2019

Which Tiananmen narrative is true?

There is little doubt about the Beijing spring of 1989 that called for greater openness, freedoms and democracy in China, or about its suppression. But there is a counter-narrative that receives no mention in the China-bashing mainstream media.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 17, 2019

Boris Johnson slim, trimmed and ready to fight for power

For a man who has made his name as a comical shambles, cracking jokes on talk-shows and scruffing up his famous blond mop, Boris Johnson is taking a deadly serious approach to his work.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 11, 2019

Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era

Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera's coverage of imperial...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 20, 2019

Downsized dwellings: Inside Tokyo's tiny living spaces

Twenty-five-year-old Sotaro Ito lives in a 9.46-square-meter apartment with a loft in the capital's retro-hip Koenji district.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 20, 2019

In search of family and friends in Japan

Here is another of our occasional columns featuring requests from readers who are hoping to reconnect with "long-lost" people in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 12, 2019

U.S.-led coalition warplanes hit last Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria

U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck Islamic State's last stronghold in eastern Syria and hundreds of civilians fled the besieged enclave on Monday as U.S.-backed fighters pressed their campaign to seize it.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2018

Religion and politics; hopes and disappointments

What a confused and frightened world needs from spiritual leaders is perception, wisdom and illumination, not the same old damaging socialist message from the 1970s.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Bank of Japan to start unloading ETFs in surprise move that rattles market
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda said it would take a century for the bank to sell all its ETFs at the pace proposed.
Over 90% of low-income families in Japan struggling to feed children
Save the Children Japan domestic program chief Sonoko Kawakami speaks at a news conference in Tokyo in July. A survey conducted by the group in June has found that over 90% of low-income households with children face food insecurity.
JAL to punish president and 36 others over pilot drinking scandal
Japan Airlines Managing Executive Officer Yukio Nakagawa (center) and others apologize after one of the airline's pilots was found to have been drinking alcohol, during a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 4.
After seven decades, is it finally time for the LDP to split up?
Signage atop the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. Japan’s ruling party faces a tough decision over its future as it searches for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, reverse its waning popularity and reassure investors
Behold the glory of Japan’s fruit boxes
Otherwise common sights in Japan's supermarkets, the country's fruit and veggie boxes can hide surprising symbols of local pride.
How Yuki Joseph Nakajima turned failures into breakout success at Tokyo worlds
Yuki Joseph Nakajima after finishing sixth in the men's 400-meter final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Thursday.
Robot tour guides in Tokyo offer way for those with disabilities to work
Tours are being offered in Tokyo using a shoulder-mounted robot equipped with a camera, speaker and microphone. The robot twitches its wing-like arms, which it can fold together as if in prayer when visiting a temple.
World Athletics stars relish Tokyo atmosphere after COVID-hit Olympics
Organizers of the World Athletics Championships said over 500,000 tickets had been sold and that they are expecting to end the event in front of large crowds this weekend.
Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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