What is Ukiyoe?
浮世絵 うきよえ Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a kind of woodcut print which flourished from about the 1680s to the 1850s. It depicts the everyday life of common people, and portraits of actors and beautiful women are also among its themes. Many foreign artists have been influenced by this unique style including Van Gogh. Among the most […]
What is Noren?
暖簾 のれん Noren Noren are curtains with vertical slits hung in front of restaurants, bars, and shops during business hours. The name of the shop or a symbol indicating the products sold there may be dyed into the cloth, so the noren also functions as a shop sign. Since a shop’s noren symbolizes the shop, […]
Share Houses Are Popular Among Regular Workers in Japan
Regular company staffs, Temporary workers, Part-time workers, Non-regular company staffs, Between jobs, University students, Others Source: Hitsuji Incubation Square Various reasons for choosing to live in a shared house In Japan, so-called share houses in which people live communally in order to pay less rent were once seen as the domain of short-term foreign visitors. […]
How to Pass on Japanese Wooden Building Technology to Future Generations
Izumo Taisha on the "Kojiki" The oldest written mythology and history of Japan, the Kojiki (“Record of Ancient Matters”) was completed in 712 AD. The work covers prehistoric legends about how Japan sprang forth from the gods and the origins of the imperial reign that continues to the present. In 2012, to commemorate the 1,300th […]
Business Training in Japan Is Not Popular. OJT Is Popular. Why?
By R. Kopp Allow me to share three recent incidents related to training that took place at Japanese companies in the U.S.: An American discovered that his Japanese colleague wasn’t happy for him leaving the factory floor to come attend a training session. A training session was scheduled that seven Japanese were supposed to attend, […]
Japanese Go Online More and More
Online Percentage of Japanese People By D. McCaughan So how connected are you? In the previous column, I introduced the results of the “Truth about Connected You,” -- a global study into the way people use and think about their mobile and digital connections and how these things are changing and forming their personalities – […]
Natto: the Most Popular Fermented Food in Japan
Produced 12 million packages a day in Japan Perhaps every country has some kind of fermented food, whether it is popular in that country or not. There is Vegemite in Australia and Marmite in the UK and New Zealand, as well as surströmming in Sweden, which is rarely found in other countries but nonetheless famous […]
Haruki Murakami: Resonating Under
“Resonating Under”: Haruki Murakami Speaks in Public After 18-year Hiatus By Ryoji Shimada, staff writer “I rarely put myself in the public eye,” Haruki Murakami explained. “I don’t show myself on TV or radio. Nor do I give lectures. But for I have appeared at this event, to commemorate my mentor.” So saying, world-renowned novelist […]
What Is Shakuhachi?: The Blue-eyed Shakuhachi Player Who Continues to Create New Musical Instruments
Shakuhachi player and maker John Kaizan Neptune In a house surrounded by bamboo forest in Kamogawa City, which is located in the southeast corner of the Boso Peninsula, Chiba Prefecture, lives a foreigner who unduly suits an outfit of samue robes paired with a tenugui towel. John Kaizan Neptune, who came to Japan 40 years […]
Japan’s Eco Busines: Saving the Earth and Saving Money
From Solar Panels to Spaghetti Noodles, the Color of Japanese Business Is GREEN By Tom Baker When you get behind the wheel of your car, turn up the air conditioner at home, or pop open a cold drink, are you destroying the environment? Many people worry about the impact of such activities, but most of […]