Word: junko
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...appreciation of the yen - which some economists say could strengthen to an exchange rate of 80 to the dollar by the end of next year - and it's little wonder that corporate powerhouses like Toyota, Honda and Sony have seen profits dive. Royal Bank of Scotland Japan chief economist Junko Nishioka says that over the past two months, she has grown increasingly pessimistic. She sees Japan recording at least two years of negative growth, the first time that has happened since the property and banking bubbles burst in the late 1980s, leading to Japan's so-called Lost Decade. With...
...planner also features important events in women’s history. FM learned that Finland was the first country to give women the vote, that Junko Tabei was the first woman to climb Everest, and that the first mammography machine was developed...
...country where truth is often weirder and more gruesome than fiction, few writers can compete with the stories on the evening news. The chilling exception is Miyuki Miyabe, one of Japan's most popular authors. In Crossfire, her third novel to be translated into English, Miyabe's heroine, Junko, sets out on a killing spree through the suburbs of Tokyo to avenge a young couple's death. Junko has pyrokinetic powers-she incinerates her enemies by releasing a burst of energy that turns them into piles of ash. The story of Junko's quest for justice-and her ethical qualms...
...doesn't hide her literary inspirations. When the investigator tells a colleague of the horrors she's seen, he responds, "This isn't a Stephen King novel. Would you lay off?" Like King, Miyabe grounds her paranormal happenings in the nitty-gritty details and constraints of the real world. Junko can light a cigarette from across the room using willpower, but she also waitresses at a local café to pay her rent...
...even in translation, it's a powerful and satisfying mystery. Miyabe details her characters' every thought, no matter how cutthroat or compassionate, as they argue with their families, berate themselves, fall in love and earn a living. By the end of the novel, the reader understands just how hard Junko, Ishizu and the other characters have fought for a brief taste of happiness. Miyabe's works may not be great literature, but for entertainment value and emotional oomph, they have few rivals-real or imagined...