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Mark Schreiber

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Mark Schreiber

Mark Schreiber worked as a salaryman in travel, consumer electronics, computer software, advertising and market research before turning to translation and writing full time. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has lived in Tokyo since 1966.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN

Jul 6, 2019

‘The Last Train’: High-stakes crime in glitzy Roppongi

‘The Last Train’ is a fast-paced police procedural with well-crafted prose, but suffers from a series of minor research errors.

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Jun 22, 2019

Japan’s print media ponder wealth, poverty and pensions

One of my recollections from the bubble economy of the 1980s was a passage in a 1987 book titled “Hokokuron” (“The Theory of National Wealth“). Its author, the late economist Taiichi Sakaiya, stood out as one of the bubble era’s most fervent cheerleaders.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Jun 8, 2019

Japan’s convenience stores work hard to stay relevant

Ride the Seibu Shinjuku Line to Iriso Station in the city of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, and you can enjoy shopping at Japan’s oldest franchise convenience store, a Family Mart that opened in September 1973. The following May, the nation’s first 7-Eleven outlet was opened in Toyosu, Koto Ward — not...

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

May 25, 2019

Fatal traffic mishaps put drivers in the media spotlight

“Heartbreaking accidents have continued to occur although measures have been taken,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ruefully at a meeting of government officials on May 21.

Japan Times

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

May 20, 2019

Matching the ins and outs of two common kanji

From April 1, the 入国管理局 (nyūkoku kanri-kyoku, Immigration Bureau), which operated under the auspices of the 法務省 (hōmushō, Justice Ministry), was upgraded from a bureau to an agency. Its Japanese name changed to 出入国在留管理庁 (shutsunyūkoku zairyū kanri-chō), which can...

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

May 11, 2019

Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era

Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera’s coverage of imperial...

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Apr 27, 2019

Trains, planes and automobiles to celebrate Golden Week

If you’re looking for some mundane distractions to get you through the holiday period, Shukan Taishu (May 6-13) has got just the thing. Its “Reiwa Commemorative Edition” introduces unusual rides. Okinawa, for example, sports an “Ostrich Land,” where you can hop a ride on the back of one of its giant...

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Apr 13, 2019

Japan searches for remedies at the dawn of the Reiwa Era

Japan’s weekly magazines do not consider their primary role to be reporting cheery news. It would be more correct to say their practice is to proceed from a pessimistic perspective and then, after readying readers to rude realities, encourage searches for sustenance and survival, if not salvation.

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Mar 30, 2019

When apo-den telephone scams take deadly turns

On Feb. 28, the body of Kuniko Kato, 80, was found in her ransacked apartment in Tokyo’s Koto Ward. Her wrists had been bound with clear plastic wrap and her mouth and ankles bound with duct tape. While the specific cause of death has not been made public, she appeared to have suffocated. A police search...

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Mar 16, 2019

Does NHK drama credit instant noodles to the right inventor?

Each morning at 8 o’clock, millions of homemakers across the country tune into a 15-minute-long segment of a serialized morning drama on NHK. The current story, titled “Manpuku,” relates the saga of the man who invented instant noodles and his devoted wife, played by Hiroki Hasegawa and Sakura Ando,...

Japan Times

LIFE / Language

Mar 11, 2019

Turn an ‘H’ on its side and look what kanji you get

If you turn an ‘H’ on its side, you get something that looks like the kanji ku014d or ku, and from there you can go all sorts of places.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Mar 2, 2019

Dealing with gun issues in a nation with few guns

Japan’s reputation as a country relatively free of gun crime is borne out by official statistics. In terms of individuals charged with crimes committed using firearms, the 2018 white paper issued by the National Police Agency listed eight homicides in 2017 — all of which involved members of crime syndicates...

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Feb 2, 2019

Facial recognition technology: What would George Orwell say?

This coming June, British author George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” marks the 70th anniversary of its publication. In the United States, Penguin has announced plans for a special 75,000-copy reprint. According to The New York Times, the publisher noted that, sales of the novel have...

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Jan 19, 2019

Tolerant attitudes make Japan a drinker’s paradise

If any doubts existed that Japanese people are exceptionally tolerant toward the imbibing of alcohol, those were erased in 2014, when the Pew Center, as part of its Global Attitudes Project, surveyed people’s views on drinking in 40 countries.

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Jan 5, 2019

Examining the strange synergy of Heisei Era crimes in Japan

There’s a tendency in some societies to associate a period of history with the crimes that occurred therein. This is why we use expressions such as “crime of the century.”

Japan Times

LIFE / Language

Dec 17, 2018

‘Politically Correct Bedtime Stories’ and a dose of ‘Murphy’s Law’ to make learning Japanese fun

I am still waiting for someone to publish a concise history of humor from the 30 years of the Heisei Era. Thinking back, I can recall two bestselling books that conveyed American-style humor in translation. Both appeared in the 1990s, and they demonstrate how Japanese people, much to their credit, take...

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Dec 15, 2018

Namie Amuro tops Nikkei Marketing Journal’s list of 2018’s most popular products and services

Described in its choice for the year’s yokozuna (grand champion) as dasa-kakoyosa — something that’s behind the times, but cool nonetheless — entertainer Namie Amuro appeared at the top of the Nikkei Marketing Journal’s 48th annual Hitto Shohin Banzuke (ranking of hit products) on Dec. 5.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books

Dec 8, 2018

Japan’s modern crime literature: Centuries in the making

Japan boasts an impressively large and growing body of native-grown mystery fiction that dates back to the 1920s.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN

Dec 1, 2018

Magazines explore the inevitability of death and taxes

From this week, beneath the glitter of tinsel and glimmer of outdoor seasonal illumination, the bonenkai (year-end party) season begins in earnest.

Japan Times

LIFE / Language

Nov 26, 2018

The kanji used for ‘normal’ are pretty extraordinary

In May, an article in the business magazine President cited a survey of newly hired company workers in which a majority of those recruited this year indicated they were content to ‘strive for the commonplace.’

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.

What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI

Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI

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