Commentary / Japan May 1, 2019
Eiichi Shibusawa was a man of his time and ours
by Ken Shibusawa
Eiichi Shibusawa's message from over 100 years ago is sustainability — indeed, a very important message for the new Reiwa Era.
Business | INSIDER REPORT Oct 29, 2018
Sōgō shōsha: Thriving through adversity in postwar Japan
by Patrick Ryan
This is the fourth part of a new series of reports written by industry specialists. The first 12 articles are about Japanese general trading companies, or sōgō shōsha. To understand better the businesses the sōgō shōsha are involved in today, a look should be taken ...
National Oct 23, 2018
150 years on, Abe calls for 'emulation' of Meiji Era bravery to overcome Japan's modern crises
by Tomohiro Osaki
Abe praised the steps ancestors took toward reinventing Japan and likened their “brave” fight against the rise of the West to current challenges, including a rapidly shrinking population.
National / History | AT A GLANCE Apr 28, 2018
150 years since the Edo Castle surrender
by Yoshiaki Miura
What's done is done. But what if a historic negotiation over the surrender of Edo Castle between Saigo Takamori, who led the Imperial forces during the fall of Edo, and Katsu Kaishu, the shogunate's army minister, had fallen through 150 years ago? The surrender ...
Art Apr 3, 2018
When art met craft in Meiji Era Japan
by Matthew Larking
The focus of "The 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Period: Making and Designing Meiji Arts and Crafts" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, concerns the relationship between nihonga (Japanese-style) painters of Kyoto and craft production during a time when craft and design ...
Art / Openings In Tokyo Aug 30, 2016
'Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art'
by Mark Jarnes
Sept. 7-Oct. 30 This upcoming exhibition celebrating Japan's Meiji Era (1868-1912) aims to live up to its name by setting out to amaze even the most erudite of art and culture fans. More than 100 works of traditional crafts from Meiji Japan — including netsuke, lacquerware, ...
Books / Reviews Jul 9, 2016
Baron Raimund von Stillfried: The photographer who invented Japan
by Lucy Alexander
To many in the West, Japan is an exotic country, seen through the distorting lens of tourist cliches: cherry blossoms, geisha, samurai, kamikaze. In that sense, little has changed since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), when Japan was first promoted abroad as a sort of ...
Voices | FOREIGN AGENDA Jun 24, 2015
Story of Japan's industrial rise deserves to be told, forced labor and all
by William Underwood
Proposed Kyushu UNESCO sites could be a showcase for East Asian cooperation or festering points of contention.
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Sep 13, 2014
by Mark Schilling
Best known for his translations of "The Tale of Genji" and the fiction of Yasunari Kawabata, for which the author won a Nobel Prize, Edward G. Seidensticker was also an accomplished essayist and historian. Low City, High City, by ...
National / History Mar 26, 2014
Images of 1896 Sanriku quake found
by Kiyoshi Numata
More than 10 glass-plate negatives of photos taken by an amateur photographer showing damage inflicted on a town in Iwate Prefecture by a devastating earthquake and tsunami 118 years ago were discovered recently, with experts describing them as important for both disaster studies and ...
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Oct 16, 2013
The wonderful world of Japanese law: Yōkoso to endless discovery
by Colin P.A. Jones
The legal system is designed to keep the order by protecting the old. This is one of the deep structural issues that make it so hard to do new, disruptive things in Japan.
People | CLOSE-UP Aug 5, 2012
David Atkinson: Ancient Japan captures money man's interest
by Tomoko Otake
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. Having graduated from Oxford University with an M.A. in Japanese studies in 1987, and ...