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October 05, 2025
 

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LITERATURE

Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 18, 2013
Doris Lessing, Nobel-winning writer, dies at 94
Doris Lessing, a Nobel Prize-winning novelist and essayist whose deeply autobiographical books and piercing social commentary made her one of the most significant and wide-ranging writers since World War II, died Sunday at her home in London. She was 94.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 28, 2013
Copyright extension opponents ready for new fight
For most of history, a great character or story or song has passed from its original creator into the public domain. Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and Beethoven are long dead, but Macbeth and Oliver Twist and the Fifth Symphony are part of our shared cultural heritage, free to be used or reinvented...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 11, 2013
For Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the subject is 'simply life itself'
In describing Alice Munro, the Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood once wrote: "She's the kind of writer about whom it is often said — no matter how well-known she becomes — that she ought to be better known."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 21, 2013
Protagonist returns with the burdens of later life
In popular Irish mythology it's often said that the seeds of the Celtic Tiger were sown shortly after Italia '90, when the country's team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup soccer tournament for the first time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 14, 2013
Making Kobayashi's works sound as if written today
For most readers, Japanese literature may suggest romantic/erotic works by Nagai Kafu, elegantly classical and humorously or sinisterly "kinky" fiction by Tanizaki, or coolly stylish contemporary works by Haruki Murakami. For such readers, this volume will come as a shock — both refreshing and depressing....
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 6, 2013
Big asteroid named after Chilean cult filmmaker
Paris AFP-JIJI
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 4, 2013
Acclaimed sci-fi author Frederik Pohl dies at 93
Frederik Pohl, who helped shape and popularize science fiction as an influential agent, editor and award-winning author, died Sept. 2 at a hospital near his home in Palatine, Illinois. He was 93.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2013
Irish poet, 'Beowulf' translator Seamus Heaney dies
Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet whose verse captured the transcendent power, darkness and humanity of his conflicted homeland, died Friday at a hospital in Dublin. He was 74.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 21, 2013
Influential crime novelist Leonard dies at 87
Elmore Leonard, a masterful crime novelist whose razor-sharp dialogue and indelibly realized lowlifes earned him an unusual mix of mass-market appeal and highbrow acclaim, dies at his home in Michigan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 26, 2013
Women's writings provide window on Tokugawa life
The Edo Period in Japan seems pretty much a feminist's nightmare. Samurai rule and strict societal boundaries confined women within the neo-Confucianistic bonds of a deeply patriarchal society.
CULTURE / Books
May 19, 2013
Ranpo's novella of a desecrated grave continues to send shivers
There has long been a taste in Japan for the bizarre and abnormal. The experimental Taisho Era was no exception. A desire for sensory experience existed even in cinema. During a funeral scene, for example, an attendant might light sticks of incense in the theater, drawing the audience into the ritual....
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 24, 2013
E.L. Konigsburg, author of 'From the Mixed-up Files,' dies
E.L. Konigsburg, the author of "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" and other classics of children's literature that have provided escape and companionship to generations of young readers, died Friday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia. She was 83.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2013
William Zinsser and the art of good writing
Careful writers will not want to skip anything in William Zinsser's essays for brains whose circuitry has not been shaped by 140-character tweets.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Dec 30, 2012
The wonderful worlds of 100 waka
The scene: England, Boxing Day 2012. The archetypical Carters are relaxing after a cold turkey lunch (with bread sauce) and are watching the Royal Family's latest sonnets being read on the goggle-box. Time for a game!
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 14, 2012
Literary awards run spectrum
When writer Shinya Tanaka won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize last month, he said, "I deserve this," paraphrasing U.S. actress Shirley MacLaine at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1984.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2011
Commendable expressways
In early July, infrastructure and transport minister Akihiro Ohata announced a plan to complete three expressways that, together, will link Sendai with Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, in about 10 years.
Takaichi poised to become Japan's first female PM after winning LDP poll
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, holds a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Saturday.
A Japanese ski resort town is roiled by a debate over immigration
A Swedish snowboard instructor works at the Niseko ski resort area on Hokkaido, in Kutchan, in December 2022
Tokyo's newest stationery store sells 'a slower, more human rhythm'
Plotter's signature customizable leather binder is just one of many products contributing to the ongoing boom in the popularity of Japanese stationery.
Retro-wrapped trains mark 100th anniversary of Tokyo's Yamanote Line
Trains decorated to resemble the 103 (left) and 205 series of trains that formerly ran on the Yamanote Line, in Tokyo on Saturday.
One dead, one missing in Japan after bear attack
A bear warning sign. More and more wild bears have been spotted in Japan in recent years, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
Eat your balloons: The culinary theater of Grant Achatz comes to Tokyo
Avant-garde chef Grant Achatz and his team from Alinea are in Tokyo for a three-week residency.
Japan’s first foreign wine investor plants its roots in Hokkaido
Intrigued by Japanese wines, Burgundy winemaker Etienne de Montille decided to explore Hokkaido's wine scene, eventually setting up his outpost in Hakodate in 2017.
Tea ceremony experts see matcha boom as a big opportunity
Atsuko Mori, founder and director of Kyoto-based tea salon Camellia Tea Ceremony, prepares matcha during a tea ceremony in Kyoto.
The summer kabuki came roaring back
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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