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May 01, 2024
 

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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 2, 2004
Ryuichi Hirokawa: Picture this . .
With soldiers silhouetted against dramatic desert sunsets, or helicopters swooping over cityscapes, most mainstream-media photographs we see of the war in Iraq are nothing if not models of artistic composition and taste.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2004
Robert Whiting: Outside the box
Back in 1972, a 30-year-old New Jersey native who had recently graduated from Tokyo's Sophia University was in New York City, trying to talk to anyone who would listen about politics and life in Japan. Nobody was interested.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 7, 2004
Yayoi Kusama: Lost and found in art
Yayoi Kusama was just shy of 30 when she left her hometown of Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture and headed to America to meet her hero, the painter Georgia O'Keeffe.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Nov 2, 2003
Food for thought
Yukio Hattori, 'one of Japan's busiest men,' takes time to chew over the issue of food and other meaty social matters with staff writer Masami Ito.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Oct 5, 2003
Winning smile
Think back to 1984, before the Japanese government had recruited armies of foreign-born English instructors to internationalize the countryside and when gaijin commentators on television were all but unheard of.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Sep 7, 2003
Freedom at his fingertips
Yosuke Yamashita is one of the rare Japanese jazz musicians who is a household name in his native land. Despite his uncompromisingly avant-garde style, he is also one of the few to establish himself as a well-respected jazz pianist in Europe and the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2003
Activist draws on his talents to expose U.S. militarism
American sociologist and antiwar activist Joel Andreas, 46, is the author of "Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jul 6, 2003
The straight shooter
Nobuyoshi Araki was born in Tokyo in 1940 and was given his first camera by his father in junior high. He studied photography and film at Chiba University and went into commercial photography soon after graduating. Four decades and over 250 photo publications later, the 63-year-old artist stands a long way from his start as a cameraman for the advertising titan Dentsu. While he no longer has to distribute his art by himself (at Dentsu, he indiscriminately mailed his Xeroxed photo books to strangers), he still retains his gift for self-promotion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jun 1, 2003
Looking back on a 'rudderless' land
In the four years since Howard French took the helm as The New York Times' Tokyo bureau chief, he has witnessed -- and covered -- the rise of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the fall of his former foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka, the scandalous accident at the uranium-processing facility in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, and the historic summit between Japan and North Korea last September.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
May 4, 2003
Alice Walker: Love makes her world go round
Alice Walker is best known as the author of "The Color Purple," her 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the lives of African-American women in the Deep South early in the 20th century -- which Steven Spielberg made into a film in 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Mar 2, 2003
Weighing in on the 'real Japan'
Murray Sayle, 76, likes to tell how he was delivered by the same doctor as Australian Prime Minister John Howard; how he lived a few streets away from him and went to the same high school, and then the same university.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jan 5, 2003
All the world's this scion's stage
Despite a daunting work schedule, and the added demands of this holiday season, Mansai Nomura made it -- albeit sleepy faced, but at the appointed hour -- to this interview in the coffee lounge of the Waseda Rihga Royal Hotel in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Dec 1, 2002
Writer on the borderline
Haruki Murakami is Japan's most important and internationally acclaimed living writer. "Norwegian Wood," his fourth novel, has sold more than 2 million copies since it was published in 1987. His latest, "Kafka on the Shore," has sold more than 200,000 copies since its publication in September, and has topped the bestseller lists in Japan for more than two months.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Nov 3, 2002
A 'young blood' at Yokohama's helm
Hiroshi Nakada shocked the nation in March when, at the age of 37, he was elected as the mayor of Yokohama, beating 72-year-old Hidenobu Takahide. Takahide, who died in August, ran the city for 12 years and was backed in the election by the ruling coalition and the opposition Social Democratic Party.
CULTURE / Film / CLOSE-UP
Sep 1, 2002
Films, Zen, Japan
Donald Richie is regarded as the leading Western authority on Japanese film. He first came to Japan in 1947 as a civilian typist for the U.S. Occupational forces -- an intelligent, restless 22-year-old in search of purpose.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Sep 1, 2002
Films, Zen, Japan
Donald Richie is regarded as the leading Western authority on Japanese film. He first came to Japan in 1947 as a civilian typist for the U.S. Occupational forces -- an intelligent, restless 22-year-old in search of purpose.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jul 7, 2002
Crusader for life on death row
Sister Helen Prejean, a nun with the Order of Saint Joseph of Medaille since 1957, has been accompanying death-row inmates to their executions since 1982. In her award-winning book "Dead Man Walking," which was made into a film in 1995, she relates the spiritual journey she went through with death-row inmate Patrick Sonnier.
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jun 2, 2002
Straight talking from Citizen Nic
Writer and naturalist C.W. Nicol left his home in South Wales in 1958 at the age of 17 to join an Arctic Institute of North America expedition to the Arctic. Four years later, he made his first visit to Japan to study karate and Japanese, before heading back to Canada to take part in a further six Arctic expeditions as a technical officer with the Fisheries Research Board of Canada.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
May 5, 2002
Thoughts of an accidental politician
Kyosen Ohashi was born in Tokyo in 1934 and studied journalism at Waseda University. He enjoyed a long career as a respected jazz critic and TV presenter, before quitting the entertainment world in 1990.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2002
Ken Noguchi: Climb (and clean) every mountain
When Ken Noguchi reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1999, at the age of 25 he became the youngest person to have scaled the highest peaks on all seven continents. Born to a Japanese father and Egyptian mother, he grew up moving around the globe. His love affair with the dizzy heights of high-altitude climbing started at 16, when he dropped out of school and then climbed both Mont Blanc and Kilimanjaro in the space of the next four months. Recently, he has focused his efforts on cleaning up the tons of garbage left behind by expedition groups on Mount Everest, and educating both children and adults on environmental issues. Following the publication of his latest book, "Hiyakuman-kai no konchikusho (A Million Curses)," on Feb. 27, Noguchi, now 28, spoke with The Japan Times about the high -- and low -- points of his career so far, his future plans and his penchant for sandy beaches.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
Golden Week crowds greeted with high temperatures as holiday period kicks off
The departure lobby for domestic flights is crowded with travelers at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Saturday, the first day of this year's Golden Week holidays.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

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