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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 2, 2014

Left-behind dad eyes an end to abduction culture

How Richard Cory rescued his daughter and lost his abducted sons.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2014

The limitations of a medium can also be its artistic freedom

New work by the young photographer Yusuke Takeda shows how a mechanical limitation of digital cameras can be turned into a positive feature.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2014

'Collection of Museo Poldi Pezzoli: The Aristocratic Palace and its Beauty

Founded in Milan in 1881, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum houses the extensive collection of an aristocratic art collector. Nobleman Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli (1822-1879) devoted his life to decorating his home with artworks of the Renaissance, amassing around 3,000 pieces, including paintings by Botticelli,...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2014

Is China losing Taiwan?

Taiwan's president is learning a valuable lesson the hard way: If you want to cozy up to China, it's best not to be too Chinese about it.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 31, 2014

Call the sitter: Parents resort to online services out of economic necessity

Most Japanese parents who use babysitters do so because of work obligations.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 26, 2014

Let cherry blossoms light up the evening at Osaka castle

When it comes to spring beauty, nothing surpasses the sight of cherry blossoms in full bloom, especially when they are illuminated during the night. Add the grandiose view of Osaka Castle as the backdrop plus a delicious bento-box picnic, and you have a winning combination.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 26, 2014

There's lots to do down by the river in Kitakyushu

During World War II, Kokura, which is now part of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture, is said to have been selected as a potential target of the atomic bomb, an alternative to Nagasaki.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 23, 2014

Gravitational waves carry clues on big bang

The sighting came from a small telescope on the roof of a laboratory sitting on the ice sheet three-quarters of a mile (1.3 kilometers) from the geographic South Pole.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 22, 2014

Go potter in Mashiko

If a visitor to Mashiko had any doubts about the town's dedication to pottery, the giant, iconic stoneware jar that stands near the station ticket barrier, would dispel them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2014

'The Broken Circle Breakdown'

Love is supposed to crush you and marriage is the fast track to long-time despair. Such dark truisms are flung about in "The Broken Circle Breakdown," a Belgian film whose spirit is so 20th-century Americana it may as well be draped in the Stars and Stripes. And those truisms seem so glamorous, recalling...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 15, 2014

JR Nagoya Station: Almost a town within a city

Of the 193,000 people who pass daily through the main station of Japan's third city, Nagoya, most are probably unaware they are in a building with no rival in the entire world. The station complex, known as the Twin Towers, is a Guinness World Records holder complete with a plaque proclaiming, "The JR...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 12, 2014

Taihen actors put bodies on the line

Observing rehearsals by the physical-theater company Taihen for their upcoming "Over the Rainbow" show at ABC Hall in Osaka was in many ways a free-jazz experience.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 10, 2014

There is a giant serving of culture in one bowl of rice

Rice. A bland, white carbohydrate? Staple food that forms the nourishing core of every meal? A crop that has molded culture and society? Or primal sustenance imbued with mystic life force of the gods?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 3, 2014

Loved abroad, hated at home: The art of Japanese tattooing

The perception gap between international views of irezumi and those of Japanese people dates back more than 150 years, to when foreigners first laid eyes on Japanese tattoos. Since that time, however, Japanese tattooists have influenced their foreign counterparts in remarkable ways — and sometimes vice-versa.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 1, 2014

Masako Shirasu: woman of the world

"If you use beautiful things every day, you will naturally cultivate an eye for beautiful things without giving it a second thought. In the end, you will be repelled when you encounter the ugly and the fake. If only all Japan would come to see this, how much more joyous our lives would be and how genial...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 27, 2014

What we can learn from cats and dogs

Chikao Muratani is a veterinarian and owner of Anima Animal Hospital in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. Having worked in the United States for years, Dr. Muratani is fully bilingual and his spotless and beautifully designed clinic is known as a neighborhood hangout. People with pets are encouraged to pop by weekly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 26, 2014

Flying high, but not quite buzzing

I have vivid childhood memories of two circuses: Ringling Brothers and Shrine. The latter was a delightfully shabby affair held in an old auditorium where audiences sat on concrete bleachers that were occasionally adorned with tacky plastic chairs. There were lots of animals, and the holding areas outside...
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 23, 2014

Shambolic Venezuela's biggest threat? Itself.

Late President Hugo Chavez used to call it "la revolucion bonita" (the pretty revolution), but the world looked at Venezuela last week and saw only ugliness. Protesters gunned down in the streets, barricades in flames, chaos. One of the dead was a 22-year-old beauty queen shot in the head.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ICE TIME
Feb 23, 2014

Mao's inflexibility hurt medal chances

"If things continue as they are, it could all end in tears without a silver medal this time. Maybe without any medal."
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 21, 2014

Sotnikova stuns Kim to win Olympic gold in Sochi

Russia's Adelina Sotnikova pulled off an upset of epic proportions by defeating Yuna Kim for the gold medal at the Sochi Games on Thursday night at the Iceberg Skating Palace.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 16, 2014

Long wait ends as Kasai takes silver medal in large hill jump

Noriaki Kasai put years of frustration behind him by capturing the silver medal in the invidual large hill jump at the Sochi Games on Saturday night.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 15, 2014

Dazaifu dalliance reveals curious case of a plum-struck deity

It's all thanks to the Spanish ambassador, really. Angeles and I were at the Spanish Consulate in Fukuoka, Kyushu's biggest city, to pick up her new passport. By midday, we'd done the business, slurped our way through the obligatory bowl of Hakata ramen, and were looking for a way to fill a few hours...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014

'Iya Monogatari: Oku no Hito (The Tale of Iya)'

Cycling in the mountains near Tokyo, I often have two thoughts: First, I feel sorry for big-city denizens missing all the natural beauty so near. Second, I wonder how the locals can wrest a living from their tiny fields and orchards, perched precariously on the slopes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 11, 2014

Greenhouse CoLLabo: A peaceful retreat in Umekoji Park

Umekoji Park, near Kyoto Station, has in recent years been through more makeovers than a beauty queen. The park is already home to the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum and Kyoto Aquarium, and now the builders are working on an enormous playground. Occupying a quiet corner of the park, Greenhouse CoLLabo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014

Once admired from afar, now enjoyed up close

Billed as an exhibition of masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), 'Admired from Afar' is the latest in a number of exhibitions of Japanese art from American collections.
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2014

Japan drives a dangerous road

I was disturbed but not surprised to read in the Jan. 27 front-page article "NHK chief gets with the program" that the new chairman of NHK (Japan's national broadcaster), Katsuto Momii [appointed to the position by the NHK Board of Governors after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had packed the board], states...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014

It’s ‘otherness’ that helps define ‘self’

For better or worse, in contemporary art it is common to see male photographers tend toward featuring landscapes and objects, and female photographers working on problems of shifting identities, family and the body. In this respect there is a strong lineage for Ayaka Yamamoto's first Tokyo solo exhibition...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2014

'The Beautiful: Art for Art's Sake — The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900'

In reaction to the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), the Pre-Raphaelites embarked on a second phase — the Aesthetic Movement headed by avant-garde artists who believed that beauty, rather than the sociopolitical, should be the objective of art. This led to the popularity of decorative art, the innovative...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic