Search - information

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 24, 2011

Ruins Alone "Ruins Alone"

Widely recognized as one of the most innovative drummers in the Japanese underground music scene, Tatsuya Yoshida spent nearly two decades playing as part of the bass and drums duo, Ruins. During his time in the group, Yoshida worked with four different bassists. After his last bassist split in 2003,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 24, 2011

Blackwoods

In a city like Tokyo, with more than 13 million people and who knows how many aspiring musicians, what does a band need to do to set their show apart from the others?
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 24, 2011

The rivaling schools of classic Japanese art

From its original base in Kyoto to its later establishment in Edo, present-day Tokyo, the Kano school held a firm grip on the Japanese art world from the middle of the Muromachi Period (1392-1573) to the Meiji Era (1868-1912) — a grip aided by its close ties with powerful patrons such as the samurai...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2011

Disturbing Iressa ruling

The Tokyo High Court on Nov. 15 overturned a lower court ruling that had ordered the government and the Japanese unit of the British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC to pay compensation to bereaved family members of two people who died allegedly because of a side effect caused by the lung cancer drug Iressa....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2011

Time to stop worshipping stirrers of stone soup

Last month I was in Kiev, speaking at a conference focused on entrepreneurs. I wanted to give a talk that would be of general interest but also concrete. So I started with one of my favorite parables.
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2011

Supporting the unemployed

The government has started a job-seeker support system from the beginning of October, under which unemployed people can receive allowances while undergoing vocational training. The new system will serve as the second safety net for workers, besides unemployment insurance. So far, if the period of unemployment...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2011

MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes

Some years ago I was teaching an advanced English class in San Francisco that featured a hodgepodge of students from all over the world. Just as the range of cultures and accents extended from Europe to the Middle East to Asia and South America, so did the array of communication styles. Yet while the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 22, 2011

Rock star starts a new 'circle of life' with Yoyogi Village

Squeezed between the two central Tokyo hubs of Shinjuku and Harajuku, Yoyogi is rarely a destination for tourists — more of a two-minute halt that breaks up the journey to somewhere else. But this month, ecological troubadour Takeshi Kobayashi, producer of multi-million-selling rock-band Mr. Children,...
Reader Mail
Nov 20, 2011

For whom the student toils

This is an open letter to education minister Masaharu Nakagawa:
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2011

Kano hints rethink in testing rice for cesium

The ban on shipping rice from a district in the city of Fukushima due to high levels of radioactive cesium shows the need to amend the two-phase test currently performed to check the grain for radiation, farm minister Michihiko Kano indicated Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 19, 2011

Fallen soldiers' kin visit Saipan to meet U.S. vet

Relatives of Japanese victims of World War II in Aichi Prefecture visited Saipan to meet a U.S. veteran in October.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2011

Resona to up female chiefs

Resona Holdings Inc. aims to help narrow the country's gender gap by adding female managers and appointing a woman as an executive for the first time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2011

Volunteer-led Tohoku cinema provides welcome escapism

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 in the Tohoku region, survivors received nearly every type of aid imaginable from thousands of volunteers, ranging from hot meals to haircuts. But they also faced long, soul-deadening hours in shelters and temporary housing, with little in the way...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2011

Gainsbourg's muse to stop by Japan on her way to North America

Jane Birkin is a British-born singer and actress based in France, however one of her most famous roles was as the muse for French artist Serge Gainsbourg (1928-91). Birkin will be paying tribute to Gainsbourg in song next week when she comes to Tokyo for a concert.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2011

Holiday season starts with market in Osaka

With Halloween finished it's now, according to the business community, time to start making Christmas preparations.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2011

Folksy gig is family friendly

There's a folk-flavored feast for the ears happening this Sunday afternoon, with you — and your kids — invited. Husband-and-wife duo Nature Airliner (comprising Canadian musician Laurier Tiernan and Japanese vocalist Eiko Hosaka) will hold the latest in their "Presents" series at Crawfish, Akasaka,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2011

Fukuoka's got talent

A cappella group ALT48 have far fewer members than the teen-idol group from Tokyo, but they do have something extra.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2011

Saori Yuki wants a kayōkyoku wave

Defining kayōkyoku is like trying to nail down konnyaku.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 17, 2011

The embodiment of Buddha Shakyamuni through art

"What is national treasure?" wrote Saicho (767-822), the founding monk of Tendai Buddhism, in his 818 "The Essential Teachings for Tendai Lotus Sect Priests," which he presented to Emperor Saga to bolster the standing of his esoteric order. His answer was pursuing the Buddhist path, and that "shining...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2011

JinnyOops! "Mother Shock!"

The promotional flyers for the new EP from JinnyOops!, "Mother Shock!," come with a strange tagline: Minna Okan kara Umarerunchauka? You can translate that from Osaka-dialect Japanese into English as: "Isn't everyone born from a mother?" This fixation on mothers and birth may stem from the fact that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2011

"Geometry Of Light By Alyson Shotz"

Espace Louis Vuitton TokyoCloses Dec. 25
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2011

'Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue'

21_21 Design Sight
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2011

Songwriter's album touches on quake

It might still be too early to understand the effect of March 11's Great East Japan Earthquake on musicians living in the stricken Tohoku region, but as lives get back to normal artists will no doubt find ways to express themselves.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 15, 2011

Tokyo ordinance a potential contract-killer

A prediction: if Japan ever becomes a police state, it will come about not by national law but municipal ordinances. And the war on organized crime could be the engine that drives the process.

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