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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2016

Finding courage and hope in 2016

The Year of the Monkey is drawing to a close. Despite the events in the real world, this year at least brought us some soulful films. Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to prepare us for the impending yuckiness of future reality. Still, my picks for the best films of the year intriguingly combined sweetness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2016

Raku: A traditional contemporary art form

At the opening of "The Cosmos in a Tea Bowl: Transmitting a Secret Art Across Generations of the Raku Family" at The National Museum of Modern Art, in Kyoto, the current head of the Raku family, Kichizaemon XV (b. 1949), explained that the event would be "an unprecedented and once-in-a-lifetime exhibition...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2016

A Museum Journey: Traveling the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido through Hiroshige's Prints

Dec. 23-April 2
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2016

Tokyo: photogenic to its very core

Care to take a guess what the new exhibition "Tokyo, Tokyo and Tokyo" at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum is about? In fact there are two exhibitions with the same name running concurrently, so it's "Tokyo, Tokyo and Tokyo" and "Tokyo, Tokyo and Tokyo."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / PHOTO ESSAY
Dec 10, 2016

Arakawa River: In search of a bygone 'water city'

For much of its history Tokyo was known as city of water. Like Venice or Bangkok, canals were the arteries of commerce, and life was lived in close proximity to rivers and creeks. But that legacy was, for the most part, hidden under concrete in the rushed development leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2016

Aerial photos capture dark side of solar power plants

Koichiro Otaki started taking aerial pictures of photovoltaic power stations in April 2015. At first, it was an innocent desire to capture their sheer scale and aesthetic value that motivated him, he says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2016

'Japanese Girls Never Die': They want to have more than just fun

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to build a society in which "all women can shine." But as Daigo Matsui graphically shows in his new film "Japanese Girls Never Die," women in Japan are still living in a male-dominated society that, in everything from unequal pay to blatant sexual harassment,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 29, 2016

The alchemy of the avant-garde

"Abanga-do," the Japanese loan word derived from "avant-garde" has a relatively wider usage than the original French term. The political philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825) originally coined "avant-garde" as a rallying cry for art of the early 19th century to be a medium of social reform. In...
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 19, 2016

Vileness is a quality more repugnant than evil

There is a kind of moral ugliness that, without being quite evil, may be even more repellant than evil because evil — genuine evil — has, sometimes, a certain romantic appeal. You can admire the villain's strength, or courage, or dash, or reckless defiance of that which we all, sometimes, wish we...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 12, 2016

A new luxury hotel — in Fukushima?

On March 11, 2011, the residents of Fukushima Prefecture felt the earth shake as a massive quake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan. But few could have predicted the explosions that would later follow or that the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant would go in to meltdown. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Nov 12, 2016

Kamakura offers something for everyone

Japanese cities are fantastic places to explore with children, but if this column has proven anything, it's that I like to get away from urban centers whenever I can. Japan is full of natural and cultural wonders for curious families, but they are not confined to cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2016

Holocaust comedy snares grand prize at 29th Tokyo International Film Festival

Philippine trans people, Scandinavian reindeer herders and a romantic comedy about the Holocaust dominated the closing ceremony of the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival on Thursday.
Japan Times
Places
Nov 2, 2016

Prime koyo (autumn leaves) viewing spots in Japan

While Japan is famous worldwide for its spring cherry blossoms, its autumn leaves are equally as breathtaking. The country's mountainous terrain means travelers can see hills full of reds, oranges and yellows — if they time their trips just right.
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 29, 2016

Tokyo offers a wealth of innovative design, some of it for free

Tokyo Design Week has kicked in, with its first session ending on Oct. 31 and its second session running Nov. 2 to 7. But if the innovative products, architecture and robotics in Meiji Jingu Gaien are not enough to satiate your design curiosity, there are several free exhibitions in the city that are...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2016

Can the ultimate marketing campaign sell peace?

A Peace Age is possible, if we try hard enough.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Oct 25, 2016

Rising force Uno dazzles in victory at Skate America

They say that good things come in small packages.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 23, 2016

Uninvited pair of animal invaders leave island in a tizzy

When a boar and a deer show up offering diversity and hope to repair our ecosystem, we should be honored that they'd even consider taking up residence here.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 22, 2016

Rape allegation casts harsh light on university club

Bright and vivacious young women are in great demand as TV announcers. For many in Japan, the stepping stone to a career in broadcast news has been the annual Miss Keio contest, held during the autumn festival at the nation's most prestigious private university: Keio, in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2016

Tokyo International Film Festival welcomes audiences to the animated world of Mamoru Hosoda

The Tokyo International Film Festival, whose 29th edition unspools from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3, offers something for everyone — from golden oldies in the Japanese Classics section to films for kids in the new Youth section. However, as Japan's biggest film festival, as well as one of the most important...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WORLD FORUM ON SPORT AND CULTURE
Oct 19, 2016

Growth through stronger presentation, promotion

The World Forum on Sport and Culture will be held in Kyoto and Tokyo from Wednesday to Saturday to discuss and exchange information about the international contributions of sport, culture and the economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2016

Getting site-specific installations down to a fine art

Kenpoku Art 2016! is one of the latest projects to appear in an area for which art has been a relatively niche concern. Despite the fact that Okakura Tenshin, one of the central figures of Japanese art history, set up shop in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1906, and Art Tower Mito consistently provides top-class...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2016

The Anatomy of Colors

Oct. 22-Dec. 18
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Oct 17, 2016

Tokai breweries rush to fill surprising demand for 'amazake'

Amid the increasing popularity of amazake, a traditional sweet non- or low-alcohol sake made from fermented rice, breweries and retailers in the Tokai region are boosting production and sales ahead of winter, when demand surges.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 15, 2016

Koike exposes the dark side of the 'Iron Triangle'

When Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike was elected by a landslide in July, I don't think there were high hopes that she would take on the old-boy network of vested interests with such tenacity and verve. But she has defied expectations, exposing the seamy ways and means of a corrupt system run by the Liberal Democratic...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Oct 9, 2016

Come hither: a cat named Sync

Sync is all cat, classic cat, the kind with that come-hither look about her that you'd best not heed unless you know it's what she really wants.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2016

Macedonian envoy's Kanda River scene bags top prize in Japan Through Diplomats' Eyes contest

Macedonian Ambassador to Japan Andrijana Cvetkovik's take on the Hijiribashi Bridge over the Kanda River in Tokyo won her the Grand Prize in the 19th Japan Through Diplomats' Eyes photography contest this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / NEWS AND NOTES
Oct 6, 2016

The 20th Triennial Tobi Art Fair offers hands-on access to museum-quality artwork

The 20th Special Triennial Tobi Art Fair will be held from Oct. 14 to 16 at the Tobi Museum in Shimbashi, Tokyo. Held for the first time in 1964 targeting overseas visitors to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics that year, this extremely popular art fair brings together fine artwork carefully selected by the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2016

Kanjiro Kawai sculpted a new vision of pottery

Japan's history of ceramics stretches back for millenniums, with most spinners of clay remaining nameless. One star, however, did shape a new world of pottery: Kanjiro Kawai (1890-1966).

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes