Search - information

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 28, 2012

Mashiko-based U.S. potter vows he'll not be defeated by 3/11 destruction

Harvey Young, a ceramic artist for over 40 years who has spent nearly three decades in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture, knows a thing or two about shaping beauty out of chaos — and about the sudden misfires life can bring. Even his early love for pottery warped and melded with other interests until it...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2012

Softbank shifts to paperless workplace, Apple tools

Internet giant Softbank Corp. will go paperless starting this month by banning employees from printing handouts or distributing paper press releases.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Apr 27, 2012

Jury out on if inquest system lived up to role

The prolonged trial of former Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa marked the first time a Diet member has been tried after being subjected to mandatory indictment by a panel of ordinary citizens who received authorization to review a case prosecutors gave up on.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 27, 2012

Fans experience the Web in real time at party

From Justin Bieber to Lana Del Rey, it seems the way to stardom now is via online video-sharing sites such as YouTube.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 27, 2012

What to eat when you can't stand the heat

As the weather gets warmer, foods that are served cold and require little to no cooking become more appealing. In Japan the choice of such dishes goes way beyond a plain green salad. One of these is sashimi, a food that defines Japanese cuisine. While it's eaten year round along with its first cousin...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 27, 2012

Representing Japan at Art Kyoto

In the wake of the recently held Art Fair Tokyo, Kyoto is following up with its own alternative in Art Kyoto. Organizers will, however, eschew the international art fair model seen in Tokyo and do what Kyoto does best — represent Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 27, 2012

Representing Japan at Art Kyoto

In the wake of the recently held Art Fair Tokyo, Kyoto is following up with its own alternative in Art Kyoto. Organizers will, however, eschew the international art fair model seen in Tokyo and do what Kyoto does best — represent Japan.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 27, 2012

Acrobatic bicyclists to make Shizuoka a stage

If your Golden Week schedule isn't full yet, how about visiting a picturesque tea-growing district set against the backdrop of Mount Fuji and enjoying street theater performed by Italian artists?
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2012

Tsuruga plant may sit atop active fault

Reversing an earlier assessment, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted an active and dangerous fault may be lurking directly beneath one of the two reactors of the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 24, 2012

Polish journalist-designer-photographers Pawel Musialowski and Malgorzata Gajderowicz

Pawel "Mr. Jedi" Musialowski, 39, and Malgorzata Gajderowicz, 29, are a Polish journalist-designer-photographer, husband-and-wife team who video-blog exclusively about their favorite place on earth: Japan. Pawel created Kawaii, Poland's first magazine dedicated to Japanese manga and anime in 1997, and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 24, 2012

Tokyo gets double dose of gay pride for 2012

For the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, gay pride parades are not only a great means to raise awareness of LGBT issues and spread the message of diversity and acceptance, but also a much-needed excuse to gather supporters together and party down. At such events in hundreds of cities...
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2012

Clean energy rates may get boost

Japan may announce preferential price rates this month for electricity generated from renewable energy in a program that will start in July to encourage investment in plants driven by nonfossil fuels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 22, 2012

Matsumoto in May means 'crafts '

England gave the world the Windsor chair, but it was the city of Matsumoto in central Nagano Prefecture that reinvented it for Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 22, 2012

It takes a forest, a field and a stream to raise a child

In 1996, back when the present U.S. Secretary of State was the first lady, Hillary Rodham-Clinton published a book titled "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us," which popularized an old African proverb — "It takes a village to raise a child."
CULTURE / Books
Apr 22, 2012

Chinese National Army and the Golden Triangle

The Secret Army: Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle, by Richard M. Gibson with Wenhua Chen. Wiley, 2011, 384 pp., $32.95 (paperback) Anyone who has stared into the devitalized eyes of an opium addict will know how grave the legacy of the narcotics trade continues to be in the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 20, 2012

Actress Mizukawa tackles 'violent, turbulent' character

Despite being holed up in a Tokyo hotel room for a press junket, 28-year-old actress Asami Mizukawa is surprisingly upbeat. However, she gives an unusual response when asked about the new TV mini-series she is starring in.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 20, 2012

Stroll on the streets provides wondrous feats for passersby to behold

Even the most determined cynics aren't going to be able to avoid staring in awe at the wondrous feats that this weekend's annual Yokohama Street Performance is preparing to throw at them.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 20, 2012

Comic plays mark anniversary

While the most prominent of entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo's myriad business interests are the near endless TV appearances by its contracted comedians, the real heart of its operation lies not in the studio but on the stage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 20, 2012

Shindo's 100th birthday screenings

"I have depicted so many things, but I have depicted only one thing," Kaneto Shindo once said. "It is how humans live." And on April 22, the venerable filmmaker — the oldest working director in Japan — will celebrate his 100th birthday.
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2012

Buddhist explanation for flaws

The recent debate on this page did not start with the relative superiority of atheism over religion but with the cruel criticism of a letter from a reader who tried to console people who had lost loved ones in the 3/11 tsunami. The main religion of the Japanese, Buddhism, has explanations for the complaints...
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2012

Catholic Church's belief crisis

I usually enjoy Kevin Rafferty's social commentary, but his views expressed in his April 11 article, "The pope's leadership crisis," need to be challenged. His assertion that the story of Jesus "requires less suspension of belief than Harry Potter" is ridiculous. To truly believe that Jesus was the son...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami