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Thu-Huong Ha
Thu-Huong Ha is the culture critic at The Japan Times, focusing on contemporary art and fiction. Previously she was a reporter for Quartz, an editor for TED.com and an executive producer of TEDxNewYork. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, The Believer, and ArtReview, among others. Her debut novel, "Hail Caesar," was published by Scholastic/PUSH in 2007. Get in touch: [email protected] or instagram.com/whatthusee.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
May 31, 2024
Help! I'm stuck in Japan's endless cycle of seasonal prep
Rainy season is here, and so are all the preparations for your home and clothes. Why does living in Japan feel like an endless cycle of gearing up for the weather?
CULTURE / Books
May 14, 2024
‘Takaoka’s Travels’: The fantastical romp of a real-life royal turned monk
Tatsuhiko Shibusawa’s outlandish novel is based on a real-life Japanese prince who set out for India, only to go missing along the way.
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2024
Shanghai duo Birdhead flips photography
Artists Ji Weiyu and Song Tao play with randomness and control in their Kyotographie exhibition, "Welcome to Birdhead World Again, Kyoto 2024."
CULTURE / Art
Apr 27, 2024
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
The largest solo show ever of a Black artist in Japan is an absorbing history lesson that draws a line between Chicago and Aichi.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2024
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
This year’s installment of the photography festival highlights underrepresented groups from around the world — while avoiding anything too challenging.
LIFE / Language
Apr 18, 2024
The unexpected ways in which Japanese words 'make it' into English
Thanks to new entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, pretty soon even your grandparents will know what "onigiri" and "omotenashi" mean.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 18, 2024
Cannes announces honorary Palme d’Or for Studio Ghibli
This marks the first time the honorary award is going to a group instead of an individual.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 11, 2024
Yayoi Kusama was the world’s top-selling artist last year
Sales from Kusama’s auctioned works totaled $80.9 million in 2023, moving her up from the second-highest selling artist in 2022.
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Apr 6, 2024
Why is the most exciting art in Japan so hard to get to?
Japan has a unique movement of public art projects and festivals that are a slog to get to — by design. A writer examines the country's “inconvenient art."
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 30, 2024
Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani’s ‘Time’ is a dreamy blur
It’s been one year since the composer’s death, but his creative output carries on in Japan.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2024
Riken Yamamoto awarded Pritzker Prize for architecture
Riken Yamamoto is the ninth Japanese architect to receive the honor, making the nation again the country with the most Pritzker laureates.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 24, 2024
Sayaka Murata's 'Earthlings' is a fittingly wild ride on stage
The book’s gore and guts make for a fun, zany stage adaptation.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2024
Have we reached teamLab saturation?
The art collective re-opens its Borderless museum in Azabudai Hills. But the experience is starting to feel stale.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 31, 2024
How a trendy sushi roll usurped the traditions of Setsubun
The lore around “ehōmaki” sounds just whacky enough to make it an old custom, but it turns out to be a fairly recent phenomenon.
CULTURE / Wide Angle
Jan 31, 2024
The internet goes in search of blame after the death of Hinako Ashihara
To piece together what happened, social media users are going in search of clues, treating the internet as a virtual crime scene.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 19, 2024
Akutagawa Prize draws controversy after win for work that used ChatGPT
Rie Qudan won Japan’s most important prize for early career writers for “Tokyo-to Dojo-to,” a novel that “exposes the prophecy of the AI generation.”
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2024
‘Rental Person Who Does Nothing’ finds value in just being
In his new memoir, Shoji Morimoto describes his unique business model: Do nothing for his clients.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 14, 2024
Yasuko Toyoshima creates delight from the quotidian
A new Tokyo exhibit of the conceptual artist’s works presents a cohesive worldview about the interaction between a life of rules and deviation.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Dec 31, 2023
The art world's big planetary problem
Over the last five years, it’s become increasingly clear to major art institutions in Japan and around the world that the sector has a sustainability issue.
CULTURE / Art / 2023 in Review
Dec 16, 2023
Eager crowds congested Tokyo’s biggest art museums in 2023
Art fans came with wallets ready for a lineup of blockbuster exhibitions, creating bottlenecks at photo-friendly masterpieces and gift shops.

Longform

The language of opportunity: Bilingual education is on the rise in Japan