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November 22, 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 / Music
Jul 18, 2008
Pop Levi goes slightly wrong
"It was a very obsessive thing," says Jonathan Pop Levi about the recording of his new album of warped pop music, "Never Never Love." "It took six days a week for 12 hours a day for four months to get it to sound that way. Especially in the vocals; if a computer could do a perfect impression of a human,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2008
Teenage pop stars know how to operate
"It's kind of embarrassing," says Taylor Henderson, violinist with teen sensations Operator Please, as she recalls the Australian release of the Queensland band's breakthrough single, "Just a Song About Ping Pong."
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2008
Ketchup Mania "F.L.A.G"
Ketchup Mania's hardest album to date takes the punk-pop template handed down from Green Day or Blink 182, fusing it with the darker, metal-brushed sound of U.K. band The Wildhearts and poppy female vocals that recall 1990s J-pop giants Judy & Mary. The result is a multicultural paean to rock 'n' roll...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2008
Perfume at Rock in Japan
Pop trio Perfume will appear at Rock in Japan in what is likely to be the most thrilling spectacle of the weekend — while making the festival's name seem utterly inappropriate. Expect idiosyncratic dance routines, are-they-aren't-they miming debates, and a whole parkful of tech-tastic tunes as the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2008
Is this America's most dangerous band?
Nashville punk four-piece Be Your Own Pet are dangerous. That's the official line of their own label in the United States, Universal, where faceless suits chopped three songs from the band's new album, "Get Awkward," for being "too violent." Yes, the same label that releases albums by chain saw-wielding...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2008
The Breeders: 'What took you so long?'
Despite being the indie buff's band of choice for the best part of two decades, you wouldn't call The Breeders prolific. "Mountain Battles," released this month, will be only the band's fourth album since it formed in Dayton, Ohio, in 1988, and its first since 2002's "Title TK." With a history dogged...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 17, 2008
The 50 Kaitenz put their own spin on the classic 'Kitaro' theme tune
While "GeGeGe no Kitaro" has held immeasurable influence over the animation industry, its theme tune is a treasure unto itself. With lyrics written by "Kitaro" creator Shigeru Mizuki, it might have been recorded by various anime soundtrackers, but it's always retained its original melody, chalking up...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2008
Utada Hikaru "Heart Station"
Here's a question: If more than 8 million people have already bought Utada Hikaru's "Flavor of Life" as a physical or download single, do they really need it on an album too?
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 28, 2008
Kings of eccentric theater spoof late-'70s 'Gorenja'
Saru Kingu (Monkey King), a theater group comprising members of Japanese comedy group Super Eccentric Theater along with various special guests, offers up its latest production this week in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2008
Music's greatest theme park
In mid-March, as spring began uncoiling anew, the world's music industry once again turned its eyes to Austin, Texas, the self-styled "live-music capital of the world," for the annual South by Southwest industry conference and festival. Planes disgorged thousands of band members, record-label bigwigs,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2008
Maki Rinka at SXSW: My music goes well with alcohol
Far from the glorious cacophony blasted out by the majority of the Japanese acts at South by Southwest, Osaka's Maki Rinka plays a coquettish, kitsch pastiche of 1950s and '60s jazz and good old Hollywood glamour. At the first of her two SXSW shows, at The Rio on March 12, she took the stage dressed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2008
Ketchup Mania: Austin's f**king crazy!
With their Green Day-esque stoopid-punk sensibility, Ketchup Mania might be the most American-sounding band on the Japan Nite bill at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, were it not for the clear streak of Judy & Mary- tinged pop that marks them out as Japanese. Ketchup Mania — Hiro (vocals), Dai (guitar),...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2008
Detroit 7: Playing at SXSW is killer!
Detroit 7 are one of Tokyo's most explosive bands, a tight trio blasting out raw, Iggy Pop-inspired garage punk and dripping with showmanship. At their performance at South by Southwest's Japan Nite on March 14, singer Tomomi Nabana drawled her lyrics in a deep husk, thrashing her left-handed guitar...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2008
Yuki "Video 2"
Whatever you think about the quality of solo output by artsy pop diva Yuki, one-time vocalist with groundbreaking 1990s J-pop act Judy & Mary, you can't deny that she's unique. The singles from her fourth solo album, "Wave" (2006), and those that have followed may seem a bit samey, treading the same...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 29, 2008
YMCK takes 'chiptune' revolution major
'The music in video games is less memorable now than it was in the old days," says Midori Kurihara, vocalist with YMCK, and she should know: Her Tokyo three-piece band emulates the sound of classic scores to games on the 8-bit Nintendo Famicom console (known in the West as the Nintendo Entertainment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 8, 2008
Shorty Cat
Adding some spice to this month's Wild Wacky Party event, held to mark the 18th anniversary of Japanese punk ladies Lolita No. 18, South Korea's Shorty Cat are bound to cause a few cold sweats.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / HOME COMFORTS
Jan 25, 2008
Catering to the English taste bud abroad
The best thing about being English is that no matter where you go in the world, the food is always better than the rubbish you put up with at home; and conversely, as one of the finest cuisines in the world, Japanese food sure gives no cause for complaint.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 19, 2007
Five crackers for your seasonal techno-stocking
With Christmas just around the corner, most Japan Times readers will doubtless have their shopping lists all but completed, with bountiful stockings prepared for all their kith and kin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 30, 2007
Kiyoshiro Imawano
OK, so the lineup's almost identical every year, the festivities kick off at lunchtime and are (mostly) all over in time for dinner and it's held in a hall that's more akin to an aircraft hanger than a music venue. But Countdown Japan is the only way for die-hard fans of Japanese music to ring in the...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 23, 2007
Kylie Minogue — "X"
Britney Spears — "Blackout"
As 2007 dribbles to a close, we are treated to long-awaited comeback albums by two renowned lady stars.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
'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.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.

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

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