Tag - close-up

 
 

CLOSE-UP

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 2, 2015
Actor Yusuke Iseya's most important role is helping the environment through his Rebirth Project
Prepared to step out of his comfort zone and say what he really thinks, Yusuke Iseya is something of a rarity in the Japanese entertainment industry. An actor with a conscience, he's most well-known for movies such as "13 Assassins," "Tomorrow's Joe" and the Hollywood film "Blindness," yet rather than...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 5, 2013
Downtown comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto leans from TV to film
The Downtown comedy duo — comprising Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada — are sitting on a train speeding towards Narita Airport outside Tokyo. It's not like they're going anywhere, or doing anything, even — they're just sitting there and waiting for something to happen. "Something" in this...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 31, 2013
Naoto Kan speaks out
Naoto Kan took his first steps in the world of politics around 40 years ago as a pugnacious citizen-activist, admonishing those with power as only those without it can. He likes to say he's the same man now, but of course there's an irony in that. After all, in the intervening years he acquired about...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2013
Toyohiro Akiyama: Cautionary tales from one not afraid to risk all
In December 1990, journalist Toyohiro Akiyama made headlines the world over when he blasted off aboard a Soviet rocket to become the very first "space correspondent" in history.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 6, 2013
Yoko Narahashi: From Hollywood to Hirohito
From "Empire of the Sun" to "The Last Samurai," and from "Memoirs of a Geisha" to "Babel" — when Hollywood film directors have turned their cameras to the Land of the Rising Sun, there is one person they have insisted on having by their side: Yoko Narahashi, a casting agent, producer, sometimes director...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 2, 2013
Language no barrier to multimedia Jon Kabira
With a long rousing cry of “Goooooooood Mooooorning Tooookyoooooooooooo!” Jon Kabira launches into his weekly radio show “JK Radio — Tokyo United” every Friday at 6 a.m. on J-Wave.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 5, 2013
Dai Tamesue: Japan's 'samurai hurdler' keeps rising to new challenges
Though word-class track athlete Dai Tamesue may have hung up his spikes, he has plenty of insights to share on how sports can play a bigger role in society.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 7, 2013
Shigeru Ban: 'People's architect' combines permanence and paper
Generally speaking, an architect's style is defined by particular forms or shapes. There's Frank Lloyd Wright's prominent horizontal lines, for instance; Le Corbusier's simple white boxes; or, more recently, the deliberately abstract masses of Frank Gehry — of Guggenheim Bilbao fame.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013
Japanese women strive to empower themselves
When it comes to gender equality, Japan has never failed to disappoint.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013
Yukari Horie: Making life easier for working moms
Yukari Horie, 30, is managing director of Arrow Arrow, a Tokyo-based NPO that offers consulting to companies with female workers who are in the later stages of their pregnancy or who have just become moms and are wondering how to adjust their work styles to accommodate their life needs. Horie's group,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013
Maco Yoshioka: Battling the postpartum blues
Maco Yoshioka is the founder of Madre Bonita, a nonprofit group that offers postpartum fitness programs for women using elastic exercise balls. Yoshioka, 40, who studied sports physiology at the University of Tokyo, says she became aware of physical and mental difficulties for new mothers when, in the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013
Yu Negoro: Documenting the gender imbalance
Yu Negoro, 40, is a documentary filmmaker who has delved deep into the issues of gender and sexuality in Japanese society. Her first project was a series of three short films dealing with women suffering from eating disorders, a condition Neguro suffered in her 20s. Attributing her problems partly to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 3, 2013
Hidetoshi Masunaga: making revolution through the Constitution
On Dec. 14, 2012, two days before the Lower House election in which the Democratic Party of Japan headed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was eclipsed as the conservative Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power in a landslide, a one-page advert with a huge banner headline appeared in a vernacular...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 6, 2013
Frederik Schodt: pop culture ambassador to the world
Quick quiz: Who was the first Japanese civilian to be issued a passport?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 2, 2012
Michael Woodford: Japan's whistle-blower supreme speaks out
Michael Woodford glances out of the floor-to-ceiling window of his multimillion-pound loft apartment, which looks out across the River Thames toward the City of London, the so-called Square Mile that is among the world's leading financial and commercial centers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 4, 2012
Yoshiko Tatsumi: Cookery guru serves wisdom with her soups
"Never fight a war with Chinese people, because we would lose," Yoshiko Tatsumi sternly warned, "with absolute certainty," a 40-strong group of mostly middle-aged women gathered recently in her spacious three-story residence set in gardens in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2012
Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'
Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 2, 2012
Film star Satoshi Tsumabuki moves up to a new stage
Wearing a headband and tracksuit, Satoshi Tsumabuki — the 31-year-old darling of the Japanese entertainment world — was easy to spot among a crowd of actors in a rehearsal studio in downtown Tokyo recently. He was there preparing for "Egg," Hideki Noda's new play, which opens Wednesday at the Tokyo...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 5, 2012
David Atkinson: Ancient Japan captures money man's interest
David Atkinson was still in his 20s when he rose to fame as a Japan-based banking analyst with the U.S. investment bank Salomon Brothers, prior to him moving to Goldman Sachs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 1, 2012
Author Lesley Downer's romance with Japan is no fleeting affair
British writer, historian and journalist Lesley Downer has been visiting Japan and writing about it for nearly 35 years — beginning in 1978, when she was part of the first-ever intake of the English Teaching Recruitment Program, which evolved into the famous JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program)...

Longform

Capsule hotels were created as a way to deal with the amount of overwork employees tend to do in Japan. Can't commute home? Then spend the night in an tiny, affordable sleeping space.
Japan wakes up to the market for a proper sleep