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August 2005
COVER STORY:
In May this year people around the world commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II. In the years since the Allies victory and Germany and Japan's (August 15, 1945) defeat, societies around the world have changed dramatically. What changes have taken place in Japan? We take a look through the eyes of one extended family.
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Highlights
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ECONOMY Resurgent Nagoya- Tanji Nobuhiro profiles the most dynamic city in all Japan.
POLITICS Middle Ground- "Japan is faced with the difficult task of bolstering its political presence in the Middle East whilst continuing to avoid the minefield of political risks," writes Nakanishi Hiroshi.
LANDSCAPE On the "Water's Edge"- In this the first article of his series introducing some of Japan's finest landscape photographers, Iizawa Kotaro examines the work of a pioneer in the field, Fukuhara Shinzo.
ECO-BUSINESS Rolling Green Roppongi Hills- Integrating office, commercial, cultural and residential functions with parks and plazas, Roppongi Hills defines the contemporary image of the ideal urban cultural complex. Even the power supply is refreshingly green, as Arakawa Ryu reports.
SCIENCE National Core Technologies- An advisory committee for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has recommended ten "national core technology" projects for the government to pursue in advance of the Third-Phase Science and Technology Plan to be launched in 2006.
DESIGNS FOR LIFE Machine
Translation
—All Is Not Lost!- Translating human language must be one of the most Translating human language must be one of the most difficult tasks ever given to computers. But the machines are getting better at it, as Tony McNicol discovers.
LITERATURE Shinkokinshu:
An Anthology for Our Times- Most Japanese newspapers carry a weekly column of waka (poems in 31 syllables) and haiku (poems in 17 syllables) submitted by readers. This journalistic feature indicates to what extent poetry permeates the everyday lives of the Japanese.
Similarly, at the beginning of each year the Emperor holds a competition for waka composed on a topic of his choice, and the people of Japan submit their poems.
These modern poetic practices have their roots in the long tradition of court waka. Superior poems produced at the Japanese court over the centuries were collected in a series of anthologies compiled by imperial command. One of these, the Shin Kokin Waka Shu (New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poetry, usually abbreviated to Shinkokinshu), is considered by many to represent the summit of the art, and has the unusual distinction of having been edited personally by the emperor who commanded the creation of the anthology. This year marks the eight-hundredth anniversary since the compilation of this magnificent and unique collection.
The novelist Maruya Saiichi offers his words of congratulation.
STREET LEVEL Inside the World of
"Girl Manga"- Shoji Kaori takes the pulse of a genre that has "permanently altered the landscape of Japanese art and literature."
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