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November 24, 2024
 

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Daniel Robson
Daniel Robson, a British journalist based in Tokyo since 2006, is a features editor and writer at The Japan Times. He also writes freelance about music, videogames and Japanese pop culture for other publications around the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 1, 2014
Hokkaido Highway Blues
Sake and sakura can be a dangerous combination. Drunk on both, English teacher Will Ferguson made a bet that he could hitchhike the length of Japan, from the southernmost tip in Cape Sata to the northernmost in Cape Soya, while following the cherry blossom as it burst into life in each part of the country....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2014
Japan's World Heritage Sites
It was in September 2003 that I visited Kiyomizu-dera — exactly 11 years ago. I was in Japan for the first time, and during an excursion to meet an old friend in Osaka, she suggested driving us down the road to Kyoto to see the ridiculous number of staggeringly striking temples. Grand old Kiyomizu-dera,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2014
So Happy to See Cherry Blossoms
From great disaster flows great poetry, and this collection of haiku, collated by Madoka Mayuzumi on her visits to the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 and translated into English, offers insight from those who lost so much.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 30, 2014
In Clothes Called Fat
Food's the best. But peer pressure can make us do weird things, and when plump office worker Noko Hanazawa discovers that her boyfriend is bonking the blonde waif from work, she decides to take desperate measures. It's time to lose weight, no matter the cost.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 23, 2014
Death and the Flower
When Koji Suzuki wrote "Ring," the novel behind the film that brought the J-horror genre to the world, he apparently had a baby in his lap, and he went on to write not only horror fiction but also parenting books. "Death and the Flower" brings these two sides together nicely.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 2, 2014
Brewed in Japan: The Evolution of the Japanese Beer Industry
Newly in paperback, history professor Jeffrey W. Alexander's 2013 book charts the rise of beer in Japan, from early Dutch influence and the barrels brought by Matthew Perry in 1854 (described by the Japanese as "bitter horse-piss wine" — well, it was American beer) to today's craft boom.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 19, 2014
Black Rose Alice vol. 1
When I was a kid, vampires were blood-sucking monsters in stories of terror and fright, but nowadays they're all romantic Romeos whose interest is not so much in blood as in the lovelorn heart that pumps it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 15, 2013
Perfume dances to No. 1 with hard-edged new album 'Level3'
"Level3" is No. 1 on Japan's Oricon music chart this week, but it is not a J-pop album.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 31, 2012
'Burke & Hare'
"The Blues Brothers"/"An American Werewolf in London" director John Landis' first feature film in over a decade opened to lukewarm reception in the West, despite this homage to the Ealing Comedies of the 1940s and '50s (think "The Ladykillers") boasting a chortlesome balance of comedy and gore. In early...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 12, 2012
Fan-sourced funding site seeks followers
Long before American musician Amanda Palmer made her million dollars through Kickstarter, Japanese metal band Electric Eel Shock was raising money from its fans. And now the band's bassist, Kazuto Maekawa, wants to show the rest of Japan how it's done.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2012
Shonen Knife "Pop Tune"
Shonen Knife's 18th studio album was released just a few days before the birth of my first child. Good timing, too, because its 10 tracks contain plenty of life lessons I intend to pass on to my beautiful baby girl.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 14, 2012
0.8 Byo to Shogeki "Batikaru J.M. Yayayado EP"
Where the hell did this band even come from? Rocking the so-uncool-they're-cool image that has served sonic soulmates Polysics so well, 0.8 Byo to Shogeki's music piles up a violent barrage of cheap drum machines, minimalist guitar lines and batty boy-girl vocal interplay that is somehow twice as heavy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2012
Nagasawa quiets down for 'Seven'
Some musicians simply ooze self-confidence. They walk into the room like they own it, flashing a smile that instantly melts a thousand hearts. But Tomoyuki Nagasawa is not one of those musicians.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 24, 2012
Hokuo Music Night 2012/Finland Fest 2012: Metal Attack
Talk all you like about Cool Japan — the Nordic countries have been exporting their sound for years, and it's positively freezing. From the sweetly kitsch pop sound of The Cardigans to the otherworldly soundscapes of Sigur Ros to the black metal of Bathory, the region has a habit of throwing up acts...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 2012
Will the world soon wake up to the scent of Perfume?
When the Nippon Budokan was built in 1964, its architects probably never envisaged it one day resembling a massive nightclub filled with hundreds of laser beams in every shade of neon as three women in lightup minidresses danced like finely tuned robots to the sound of the bassiest bombast imaginable....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 13, 2012
Ben & Jerry's hopes for a warm reception
CULTURE / Music
Mar 22, 2012
Showcase tour can be a first step into America — but only if you get it right
A showcase at South by Southwest or a slot on the Japan Nite tour can be a great way to launch a band Stateside — or a great waste of time and money.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2012
Tommy February6 makes a heavenly return
The pop music industry — it's enough to turn anyone into a schizophrenic. And Tomoko Kawase is perhaps J-pop's most fragmented personality of all.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 1, 2012
Toquiwa gets a great gift from The Wedding Present
There's no doubt that the best way for an independent band to tour in another country is by opening for one that people have actually heard of. So when spunky all-girl Tokyo four-piece Toquiwa befriended 1990s indie-rock heroes The Wedding Present, its members jumped at the chance to support the British...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2012
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1
Director: Bill Condon
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Japan will spend ¥325 million in government funds on Princess Yuriko's funeral
Princess Yuriko waves during the New Year's public greeting at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in January 2019.
MUFG fires worker over ¥2 billion theft from clients’ safe deposit boxes
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is investigating the incident and consulting with the police.
China reinstates visa-free travel for Japanese nationals
Beijing Daxing International Airport
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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