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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2011

American's food import firm has grown organically

Jack Bayles, owner of Alishan Organic Center and founder of Tengu Natural Foods, has lived within a 5-km radius his entire time in Japan in the shadow of the verdant, hazy mountains of Chichibu near the Koma River in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture.
LIFE
Nov 14, 2010

The Hour of the Ox

At 13 years of age, Angelica Akahoshi was the youngest person ever awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for Literature.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2010

Portrait of the artist's mother as a young woman

Even today, you'd have to go far to run into a radical individual like Leonie Gilmour. But in America in 1901, to meet a young woman like her must have been on par with witnessing a comet.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 28, 2010

Building a world without barriers, borders

One afternoon in the mid-1980s, Hiroko Kimura was taking a rest from sightseeing on a park bench in Adelaide, southern Australia. As she was enjoying the warm sunshine, she spotted the words "Japs go home" carved into the wood. This was the height of the bubble years and Kimura was aware that some people...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2010

Synthetic biology's promise outweighs its risks

MELBOURNE — In the 16th century, the alchemist Paracelsus offered a recipe for creating a living being that began with putting sperm into putrefying "venter equinus." This is usually translated as "horse manure," but the Latin "venter" means abdomen or uterus.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 9, 2010

Children of Japan

Childhood. We all know it, we've all been through it, we've all lost it. Memory retains traces of it. We recall facts, incidents, fragments — but not what it felt like to be a child. Childish feelings are nameable to the adult, but not recoverable. They are on the other side of an impassable boundary...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2010

Yang Fudong on the beauty of living

Based in Shanghai, Chinese artist Yang Fudong has gained worldwide recognition for his multimedia installations incorporating material shot on richly textured, black-and-white 35 mm film. His five-part film cycle "Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest" (2003-07) was one of the defining works in the...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2009

'The Time Traveler's Wife'

One of our most common romantic notions is that of destiny, the idea that there is in fact one perfect soul mate out there who we are fated to meet. Most of us get this notion drilled out of us the hard way, through a couple of failed, bitter, find-all-your-stuff-piled-outside-the-door relationships,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 6, 2009

Nepalese 'VIP' advocates investing in disability

Nepalese Kamal Lamichhane chuckles when he describes himself as a VIP. "As I told the audience at Manchester Metropolitan University last month, I really am a VIP — a visually impaired person. Unlike those people who become very important because of what they achieve in life, I have been a VIP since...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2009

Otaku star Shokotan offers a little fan service

"I really care about how much proof of my life I can leave behind; how many concerts I can give and how many photos I can have taken," admits Japanese celebrity Shoko Nakagawa, better known to her legion of fans worldwide as Shokotan. "I'm just afraid to have any free time and I'm scared of doing nothing."...
LIFE
Dec 14, 2008

Stone Age Japan

This story spans 10,000 years, yet presents few recognizable individuals. Here's one:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 7, 2008

Jurgen Lehl: A rebel with style

First-time visitors to Japanese department stores are likely to be surprised by the brand Jurgen Lehl. Chances are they haven't heard of it although it sounds international and its quiet chic suggests they should have. As well, Jurgen Lehl outlets generally occupy large chunks of prime in-store real...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2007

'La vie en rose'

Even if you've never listened to a single song by Edith Piaf, it's impossible to be unmoved by this biopic — in all probability the film will have you rushing to buy a CD as soon as the lights come on.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 28, 2007

'Splume' -- Japan gets its own world of avatars

Judging by Newton's Third Law of Motion the great English scientist really must have gazed into a crystal ball and seen the Japan of today. His famous law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every anonymous concrete apartment block and crisp white shirt locked in...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2007

Right-to-die issue need not be incoherent

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- On Dec. 21, an Italian doctor, Mario Riccio, disconnected a respirator that was keeping Piergiorgio Welby alive. Welby, who suffered from muscular dystrophy and was paralyzed, had battled unsuccessfully in the Italian courts for the right to die.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 2006

Calling on the right brain for creative strategy

With his head shaved and outfitted in designer glasses and crocodile-style winklepicker shoes, Gordon Watson does not look like the stereotypical president of any type of company, let alone one selling life insurance.
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2006

Major insurers plan firm to run joint sales outlets

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co., Mitsui Life Insurance Co. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. said Tuesday they will jointly set up a new company to operate outlets to sell insurance products.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2006

Man with cancer can't sell policy for cash

Man with cancer can't sell policy for cash
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2006

Livedoor's Horie arrested

Prosecutors arrested Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie and three company executives Monday night on suspicion of securities law violations, investigative sources said.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2005

Banks allowed to sell more insurance products

Banks will be allowed to sell more insurance products over the counter, the government announced Thursday.
MULTIMEDIA
Oct 30, 2005

Speaking volumes

Kaori Shoji
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 25, 2005

Women of poetic substance

PATHWAYS, by Edith Shiffert, New York: White Pine Press, 2005, 115 pp., $14 (paper). A WOMAN'S LIFE, by Harue Aoki, Tokyo: Shichigatsudo, 2004, 120 pp., 1,200 yen (paper).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 13, 2005

Back to the original balanced diet

When Kit Kitatani was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1986, he went through the usual procedure of having the tumor surgically removed and starting chemotherapy treatments. But his white blood-cell count was too low to continue the chemo. His doctor said he had less than six months to live.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 28, 2005

The face of joy and happiness

OTAFUKU: Joy of Japan, by Amy Sylvester Katoh, photographs by Yutaka Sato. Singapore: Tuttle/Periplus, bilingual (English and Japanese), 2005, 192 pp., many illustrations, 1,700 yen (cloth). Most of us know Otafuku without knowing her name. She is the full-faced folk figure we see all around us in Japan,...

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