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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
Nov 2, 2007
Amerie
Amerie leaped to fame in 2005 with the platinum-selling smash single "1 Thing," a masterful piece of dance-floor R&B cowritten and produced by Beyonce cohort Rich Harrison. The song was a perfect pop platter, offering a taste of the times while somehow sounding one step ahead of the competition. Better...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 2, 2007
Various Artists "Good Girls Don't! Neo"
Nowhere does squeaky grrrl-punk as well as Japan. Heck, it's one of the country's top selling points, as music fans lured here by Shonen Knife or the output of the Benten label will attest.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Oct 31, 2007
Loopy Lisa offers a surreal take on cybersex
The Internet is a wonderful thing. By firing up your computer and jacking it into a wall socket, you have instant access to millions of pages of information. You can learn about any subject under the sun, share your knowledge with others, market your business, buy almost any product imaginable, keep...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2007
Radiohead "In Rainbows"
With a "revolutionary" distribution system whereby fans can pay whatever they like for a download of the album (or pay $80 and wait nearly two months for the physical CD and vinyl box set), Radiohead have got the industry talking (and mostly what they're saying is "Huh?"). Having submitted my download...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2007
The scary sexy girls of painter Junko Mizuno
With an international audience hungry for Junko Mizuno's graceful images of hellish honeys, it's no wonder that the young artist is looking to the West.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2007
A globalist rapper pauses for breath
Having delivered one of the defining albums of 2007, M.I.A is one of the most talked-about artists in pop today. Stuffed with politically informed dancefloor bangers, "Kala" is an album that simultaneously appeals to the cerebral and primal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2007
"The Smiths — The Early Years" By Paul Slattery
It's easy to forget that The Smiths were as seminal a band as they really were. For better or worse, they pretty much invented modern indie music as we know it, recording four studio albums and countless timeless singles in five years, before imploding in the animosity that endures to this day (last...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2007
Tokyo Jihen "Variety"
Pop music's not just for kids, you know. And while there's plenty of it about for grownups, few artists offer such consistent and thrilling fare as Tokyo Jihen. On this, their third album since forming in 2003, the band offer 13 tracks dripping in jazzy cool, fronted by the shredded, throaty voice of...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 21, 2007
Splitting sides — in English
As they say in England, you have to laugh. Well, you don't have to, but there's a fair chance that those who go to see "Laugh" in Tokyo or Yokohama will anyway.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 19, 2007
Transformers: more than meets the ear
Since 1984, Transformers has proven an immensely enduring toy brand, spawning a hugely popular TV series (which in turn spawned even more spinoff TV series), a couple of movies and ever more toys, right up to the present day. In fact, the toys have their roots in the 1970s Japanese toy lines Microman...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 7, 2007
Rain — an ice-cream addict's best friend
As typhoon season approaches I rub my hands with glee. It's a common misconception that summer is the best season for ice cream. What better example of man's triumph over nature than enjoying a cold snack in a warm apartment as the rain crashes down outside? Truly, it's enough to make anyone feel invincible....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 1, 2007
Manga magic from a girl who uses her melon
Worth a reported ¥500 billion every year, Japan's manga industry is a serious business. But not so for Saki Matsuzawa, a budding 12-year-old mangaka (comic book artist) who has created her own adorable interactive storybook, "Meron Pan no Ichi Nichi" (titled in English as "A Day of the Melon Bread"),...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2007
'I was totally squished, but it was ace'
It's apt that Rock in Japan takes place in between Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. While Fuji sprawls myriad bands over a vast, scenic site and Summer Sonic hosts acts for a younger crowd in an exhibition hall and stadium, RIJ combines the best of both.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2007
Girls have all the fun
If there was a festival anthem to this year's Summer Sonic, it was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The overflowing crowd at Cyndi Lauper's Sunday set on the Sonic Stage was mostly made up of women who mouthed every word to her string of hits. And when she finished with her biggest hit, the female members...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 10, 2007
Self-manufactured and proud
Ayear after the U.K. release of their debut album "We Are The Pipettes," the band are finally bringing their 1960s-styled pop to Japan. Their live show is not to be missed: Rosay, RiotBecki and Gwenno (who each go by one name) are ably backed by The Cassettes, their all-boy band, deploying dancetastic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 27, 2007
Ready for the muddy mountain
Through her three solo albums and work with Peaches, Broken Social Scene and Chilly Gonzales, Leslie Feist (who releases records under her last name) has established herself as the soulful queen of Canadian indie rock. Her new album, "The Reminder," released this month in Japan, is a collection of bruising,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jul 18, 2007
'Kane' gone? Try saving with these money boxes
Money — it makes the world go round, and it even talks. Or at least, these money boxes do.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 6, 2007
Crystal Kay is all yours
"I've been on the Crystal Kay train," says the R&B diva sitting across the table. Twenty-one-year-old Crystal Kay isn't speaking figuratively, or in some sort of existential code; she's referring instead to Tokyo's Yamanote Line, whose carriages were recently plastered inside and out with her visage...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 17, 2007
Changes of note
She has quietly become one of the decade's best-selling artists, has a third No.1 album in the charts — and debuts as an actor in the film opening this week's Cannes Film Festival
CULTURE / Music
May 11, 2007
Elliott Smith "New Moon"
Mystery still surrounds the death of Elliott Smith. Was it his own hand that plunged a knife twice into his chest at home on Oct. 21, 2003, or someone else's? While Smith may not have left a suicide note to clear things up, he did leave an awful lot of unreleased material — like a singer-songwriter...
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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