Search - things-to-do

 
 
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 15, 2009

Do Japanese yet realize that culture's acquired, not in the blood?

There's no doubt that Japanese people's attitudes toward foreigners, and the ways they relate to them, have changed markedly in the 40-odd years since I first arrived here. But is this change we can believe in?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Feb 15, 2009

Keio's man ahead of his time

Next time you come by a ¥10,000 bill, take a look at the face of Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835-1901) that appears on the front, for he was a most remarkable man.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 14, 2009

Abramovich a constant reminder of the golden rule

LONDON — The decision had been made by the man who has changed the face of English football — some might say world football.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2009

Aso's handout foes face trump card: poll

Prime Minister Taro Aso's ¥2 trillion cash handout program, his key stimulus plan, is under threat after former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, arguably Japan's most popular lawmaker, openly dismissed its importance.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Feb 14, 2009

Japan showed promise in draw

Japan's 0-0 draw with Australia on Wednesday night was far from being the disastrous result that Socceroos manager Pim Verbeek warned it would be during his pre-match mind games.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 14, 2009

Painting pictures from an artistic lyrical palette

As a narrative goes, lyricist Chris Mosdell's story is anything but a straightforward one.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2009

Will Nissan's drastic actions be enough?

Nissan Motor Co., facing its first loss in nine years, will slash 20,000 jobs, shift production abroad, cut dividend payments and have a chief recovery officer oversee it all. It may not be enough to halt the earnings slide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2009

An abandoned history of Chinese influence

Edo Period (1603-1868) paintings from Osaka have been relatively neglected in comparison with paintings from Tokyo and Kyoto. A canonical list of works and a historical framework were written up in Tokyo in the 1890s in a series of influential lectures by scholar Okakura Tenshin, setting the directions...
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2009

Who is responsible for the past?

Regarding the Feb. 7 article "Aso Mining POWs seek redress": Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yukihisa Fujita is quoted as saying, "As a prime minister of a nation who represents the country, (Prime Minister Taro) Aso needs to take responsibility for the past as well as the future."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2009

U.S. expert urges death penalty rethink

While 80 percent of the Japanese public is in favor of capital punishment, support for executions would drop if life without parole sentences were also an option, according to an American criminologist who visited Tokyo recently.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2009

Japan as the catalyst for improving global public health

What place should Japan occupy in the world? This existential question has troubled Japan's leaders for the past two decades. Military leadership is restricted by the Constitution. Economic might has lost its glimmer. Cultural influence, epitomized by "cool Japan," has yet to take center stage.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / STYLE WISE
Feb 12, 2009

Fashion inspired by imaginary destinations, the 1950s and naughty Polaroids

Your visa to Fugahum "Fugahum is our imaginary country. Yes, it's also our brand, but I always wanted to create a nation and write its history," says Akiyoshi Mishima, the philosophical half of the fashion unit Fugahum that the designer has formed with partner Asuka Yamamoto. "Isn't that what a fashion...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 12, 2009

State minister Seiko Noda

Seiko Noda, 48, is Japan's state minister in charge of science and technology policy, food safety, consumer affairs and space policy. As a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and of Prime Minister Taro Aso's Cabinet, she is entrusted with running 21 different departments. Not one to crack under...
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2009

Any foreign tongue gets short shrift

I agree with many of the comments made by Gregory Clark in his Feb. 5 article "What's wrong with the way English is taught in Japan." Based on my own teaching experiences, lack of motivation on the part of students and teachers is a driving force for poor English-language ability. That said, I've also...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Feb 11, 2009

Clearing up digital photography

Look sharp: In digital photography, cameras that are small and easy to use tend not to take good pictures in low light and to have a crimped dynamic range. A camera's dynamic range defines how much detail it can capture in shadowy areas of the picture and brightly lit parts at the same time. The better...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 10, 2009

A young life in legal limbo

For years, Arlan and Sarah Calderon fretted over when to tell their daughter, Noriko, that she was different.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Feb 8, 2009

Horne fired up about playing for Benoit, Broncos

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league, Japan's first professional basketball circuit. Steve Horne of the Takamatsu Five Arrows is the subject of this week's profile.
Reader Mail
Feb 8, 2009

Why limit worldwide broadcasts?

Regarding the Feb. 3 article "NHK goes global with all-English broadcasts": As has been the case with all articles concerning this subject, we are told that "The broadcasts will not be aired in Japan." Am I the only one to ask, "Why not?"
BASKETBALL / INSIDE LOOK
Feb 7, 2009

Playing in Ivy League presents challenges

NEW YORK — Team update: The senior shooting guard helped the Columbia University men's basketball team record back-to-back home victories over Yale and Brown last week. It was the Lions' first sweep over those schools since 2004.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Feb 7, 2009

Long-shot meeting, longtime love

After training under a dyer for six months in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, art student Satoko Yamagishi decided she needed a break. In October 1998 she went to Montreal, where she met Philippe Lavoie, a Canadian computer chip designer studying Japanese.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 7, 2009

Stripped of stereotypes

If you ever have the chance to meet Lu Nagata, you will never forget her style and determination.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2009

'20-seiki Shonen Dai-2-sho: Saigo no Kibo'

Movies based on popular long-running manga commonly cram in too much, from story lines to characters. This confuses nonfans, while often failing to satisfy fans, who complain about omissions — though the original comic may have run for thousands of pages in dozens of volumes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2009

Western Japan's eclectic master

A matter of temperament was said to distinguish the two major regional centers of nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Tokyo and Kyoto, at the turn of the 20th century. Tokyo painters imbued their works with "brain" by way of complex content, while Kyoto artists held firm to their "brush" in a looser style...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 6, 2009

Simple beauty

Fashion photographer Aram Dikiciyan recognizes that his work is hard to define. "I can't really decide if I'm a fashion photographer or an artist," he explains over coffee in Tokyo's fashionable Omotesando district.
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 6, 2009

Simple beauty

Fashion photographer Aram Dikiciyan recognizes that his work is hard to define. "I can't really decide if I'm a fashion photographer or an artist," he explains over coffee in Tokyo's fashionable Omotesando district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2009

Primary approach adds up for GO!GO!7188

"Last year we toured Japan with bands such as Mongol800, and while we were messing around with the other bands on stage, we came to rediscover how much fun it is to just make a noise," says Akiko Noma, better known as Akko, bassist with off-kilter rock band GO!GO!7188.
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2009

High road to physical fitness

Regarding the Jan. 27 Hotline to Nagatacho article " 'Marathon' ritual must change": While I understand the author's intent in asking for change, I must respectfully disagree with him on the "need" for things like his son's "marathon" to be discontinued. I myself was much like the author's son. As a...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan