Japan’s Newest & Most Innovative Hotels

– Opened between 2020 and 2021 –

While the world was struggling with the spread of COVID-19, numerous hotels were opening in Japan. Many of these hotels and inns were being prepared for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in anticipation of a deluge of overseas visitors. However, the postponement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for a year due to the pandemic put the country’s tourism and hotel industries in a difficult economic position. Despite this challenge, the innovative ideas and the desire to start new businesses persisted, and many of the hotels were nevertheless opened for business. The following are some of the most interesting hotels that opened their doors between 2020 and 2021. They’re well worth the visit to discover Japanese culture and the charm of these hotels.

More Travels with Tani

In post-occupation Japan, Donald Richie travels with a good friend to Sado, the land of exile.

May 2, 1955. On the steamer from Niigata to Sado Island, Tani and I lie on the tatami in the big second-class salon. We have just been given tea and the ship is already rolling. Overhead, the loud-speakers are pouring out recorded folksongs from fabled Sado and the decks are filled. So is the tatami. I had my feet on someone’s open book.

Dr. John W. Creswell

World-Renowned Mixed Methods Research Pioneer

Research Trailblazer Blazing New Trails in Japan

Over the decades, the United States and Japan have exchanged many significant gifts. An iconic example is the cherry blossom trees from Japan that circle the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. America’s latest gift to Japan is its leading academic and author known for his work in mixed methods research, Dr. John W. Creswell. Dividing his time between Japan and Honolulu, Hawaii, Creswell is one of the most prolific authors and leading authorities on mixed methods research design, an approach to research that combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. He is a former president of the Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA) and was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to South Africa and Thailand. Creswell developed best practices for mixed methods research in the health sciences for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2011 and co-founded SAGE Publishing’s Journal of Mixed Methods Research. A professor, researcher, and academic with a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, Creswell has authored many articles and 31 books. His books have been translated into numerous languages and are used by academics around the world. Creswell started his career in 1971 as a research assistant at the University of Iowa. Since then, he has held the Clifton Endowed Professor Chair at the University of Nebraska and served as director of the Mixed Methods Research Office. He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and is currently Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Family Medicine; Co-Director of the Michigan Mixed Methods Research and Scholarship program at the University of Michigan; and Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He is also a member of the Global Council, an academic think tank made up of world-renowned researchers and documentary filmmakers who combine their strengths to impact the world. Tokyo Journal Editor-in-Chief Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with John W. Creswell about his career, expertise in research, and experience living in Japan.

Philip Kotler

The Father of Marketing

Philip Kotler has been hailed as “the world’s top expert on the strategic practice of marketing” by the Management Centre Europe. He earned an M.A. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1953 and a Ph.D. in the same subject from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) three years later. Kotler is Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, where he held the S.C. Johnson & Son Professorship of International Marketing. During Professor Kotler’s 56 years at Kellogg, his research and teaching contributed significantly to the school’s success, which included being named Best Business School for six consecutive years in BusinessWeek’s survey of U.S. business schools and being named Best Business School for the Teaching of Marketing. Over the course of his career, he has written more than 150 articles and 80 books. He has also consulted for several major corporations, including IBM, AT&T, General Electric, Bank of America, and Merck. Kotler was the first recipient of the American Marketing Association’s Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, and he received the European Association of Marketing Consultants and Sales Trainers’ prize for marketing excellence. In 2013, he became the first recipient of the William L. Wilkie American Marketing Association Foundation’s Marketing for a Better World Award for significant contributions to marketing theory and practice. He was inducted into the Management Hall of Fame and was the first recipient of the Sheth Foundation Medal for Exceptional Contribution to Marketing Scholarship and Practice. Tokyo Journal Editor-in-Chief Anthony Al-Jamie asked Kotler to talk about his outstanding career and his experiences in Japan.

Two Stonecutters

Zen Wind from Tasaka Juku

One day, a traveler stopped by a town
where a new church was being built.
There, two stonecutters were working.

Pritzker Laureate Shigeru Ban

Creating Architecture for Humanity

Shigeru Ban is a Japanese architect who graduated from Cooper Union in 1984. As a child, he demonstrated a strong interest in architectural poetics, which influenced all of his later works. He designed a number of iconic buildings, including the Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Aspen Art Museum in the U.S. He is well known for his work in paper and cardboard architecture. He also assists many humanitarian relief efforts across the globe. In 2022, the Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) and Shigeru Ban Architects provided the Paper Partition System (PPS) for shelters for the increasing number of refugees staying in the neighboring countries of Ukraine. These shelters are simple partition systems to ensure privacy for inhabitants, and they have been used in numerous evacuation centers in Japanese regions hit by disasters, such as the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011), the Kumamoto Earthquake (2016), the Hokkaido Earthquake (2018), and the torrential rains in southern Kyushu (2020). In 2014, he received the Pritzker Architecture Prize for his work. Tokyo Journal Editor-in-Chief Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Shigeru Ban about his achievements, work, and advice for aspiring architects.

Making knots with wishes and spirits in mind

The Art of Mizuhiki

There are many theories about the origin of mizuhiki or decorative rice paper cord. Some experts say mizuhiki dates back to the early 7th century. When the Japanese traveled abroad, they would tie and wrap souvenirs for the emperor’s family using white-and-red-dyed hemp strings. Th e same materials and methods used today were established around this time. Later, mizuhiki came to be used as decoration for gifts. The most familiar use of mizuhiki for the Japanese is when it’s attached to the bags used to wrap gifts and money for weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. Mizuhiki is said to seal one’s feelings, such as for a married friend, a deceased person, or a bereaved family member. The ornamentation is an incidental element. To find out more, I talked to two mizuhiki artists who work in Tokyo and Kyoto. They did not begin their careers as artists, but after discovering mizuhiki, they both chose the path of traditional crafts as if they were guided by mizuhiki. By learning more about them and the direction they aim to take, I was able to understand the aesthetic sense and philosophy that runs deep within traditional Japanese crafts.

Yumiko's Home Cooking YAKISOBA

JAPANESE STIR FIRED NOODLES

Yakisoba (焼きそば) is the Japanese version of stir-fried noodles. Th e noodles are stir fried with sliced pork and plenty of vegetables and then coated with a sweet and mildly spicy sauce that distinguishes it from other Asian stir-fried noodles.

A guide to ponzu and its many unique ingredients

Ponzu is a vinegar with flavors from different regions

Soy sauce and miso are known around the world as Japanese seasonings. Both of these fermented seasonings are characteristic of Japanese cuisine, as they are well suited to cooking with umami and to bringing out the natural flavors of the ingredients. Ponzu is another Japanese flavor, and it has been attracting the attention of chefs around the world. Th ere are two main types of ponzu. One is a mixture of vinegar and citrus juice; the other is the same mixture combined with soy sauce. Although soy sauce and miso vary in flavor depending on the ingredients and the region of origin, they do not differ in flavor as much as ponzu can. With ponzu, the aroma, acidity, and sweetness vary greatly, depending on the type of citrus fruit added to the sauce. Taking advantage of such variation, each region in Japan is now promoting its own variety of ponzu. In some cases, stores make and serve their own original ponzu, in other cases, farmers bottle and sell theirs. We asked the experts at a long-established restaurant that makes ponzu to teach us how to make it. Their ponzu vinegar has a rich regional flavor.

Sushi Kimura

Tomoo Kimura, the Sushi Chef behind Singapore’s Michelin-starred Restaurant

Tomoo Kimura is an acclaimed Japanese sushi chef who runs the Michelin-starred restaurant Sushi Kimura. After graduating from Hattori Nutrition College in 1987, Kimura spent two decades mastering the art of sushi. He learned most of the craft working under a mentor at Tsukiji-Sushi Sei, an Edomae-style sushi restaurant in Tokyo founded in 1889. In 2012, he moved to Singapore to open Sushi Kimura, which became the only Japanese restaurant listed in the 2018 Michelin Guide for Singapore. At Sushi Kimura, the chef pays homage to his Japanese roots through the ingredients he uses, which he has shipped directly from Japan, from the rice and fi sh to the water used to wash and cook the rice. Tokyo Journal Editor-inChief Anthony Al-Jamie interviewed Chef Tomoo Kimura about his career and what it takes to open and run a successful sushi restaurant.