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November 21, 2024
 

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Ian Martin
Ian Martin is a freelance writer covering music and pop culture. He has been active in the Tokyo music scene as an indie event organiser, DJ and label owner since 2004 and has been contributing to The Japan Times music page for almost as long.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 10, 2016
Z/nz finds the right kind of wrong on debut album
'We were outside the station at Yahata in Kitakyushu and there was this festival going on — this group of old guys playing in a band with all these young people dancing. It was a strange scene — what kind of festival is this? That's where the album title 'Nanka Festa' ('Something Festival') came...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 27, 2015
The best Japanese indie albums of 2015
While it remains this column's firm conviction that J-pop is trapped in a self-perpetuating dark age, the indie and underground music scenes provide a far livelier picture of Japan's musical landscape. In 2015, there was such a flow of fascinating new releases arriving from all angles that it was difficult...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 27, 2015
The complexities of living too close to Tokyo
While traveling in the northeastern part of Japan last month, I was struck by the way quirky, alternative and avant-garde music carves out a space for itself in parts of the country that are isolated from the major cultural centers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 23, 2015
Unexpected places step in to fill the role of live house venues in Japan's north
When I made the decision to embark on a largely bicycle-based tour of every prefecture in Japan to investigate music scenes outside the industry mother-brain of Tokyo, I made a point of not having any expectations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2015
Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her’s Aiha Higurashi listens to her inner teen on ‘Eternal Adolescence’
Aiha Higurashi pauses, her brow furrows slightly, and she purses her lips. Her eyes have the sharp, scrutinizing focus of someone who doesn't want to miss a single cue or nuance of meaning in her surroundings. There's a wariness about her, and even in the simple matter of scratching her chin, it's her...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Sep 25, 2015
Hokkaido's musical 'dreamers' and 'patriots' comprise a necessary duet
Viewed from the hothouse of the Tokyo music scene, the northeast of Japan can sometimes seem like a mysterious land. A gray, frozen, sparsely populated expanse: a cultural wasteland.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Aug 29, 2015
Music festivals are better when the customer isn't always right
In an industry that devotes itself with ever more granular precision to the art of serving you what its research says you want, music and events that demand you meet them halfway are ever more precious.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 26, 2015
Rock in Japan focuses on the experience of an eternal afternoon
If the lackluster response to Fuji Rock Festival's lineup announcements and the closure of at least one of its stages suggests looming trouble for Japan's festival scene, there is one rival that has gone from strength to strength: the domestically focused Rock in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2015
Keep up the hunger to find new music
Have you heard or had this conversation recently?
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 22, 2015
Band boom of the 1980s left a handy indie infrastructure
The wonderful and invaluable music website Tokyo Gig Guide lists just under 700 performance venues in Tokyo, but the scene wasn't always so flush with space.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 24, 2015
The secret to indie success is in the bag
Here's a joke: When is a bag not a bag? Give up? When it's a symbol for the shifting place of music in the pop cultural landscape. . . . I'm here all week, folks. Try the veal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 24, 2015
Leave charts to fans of music, not gimmicks
Anyone who pays any kind of attention to the music charts in Japan knows that for many years now they've been a joke.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 24, 2015
Sympathy for the snob: Real DJs play vinyl
Up a backstreet in Shibuya's Udagawacho neighborhood, tucked in behind the Milky Way, Chelsea Hotel and Star Lounge live-music venues — an area tight with record stores — I'm on my way to a party crammed with style-conscious young folk in sweaters and berets, DJing against the backdrop of Roman Polanski's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 27, 2015
Kuwata's left jab has nothing on the politics of ad money
If this column is going to be about one thing in 2015, it will be politics in music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 23, 2014
Who was music being made for in 2014?
When looking back on the year in music, the big question music fans should be asking themselves is, "Who was music being made for in 2014?" Looking at the broader picture, we can find the answers writ large across the Japanese music scene.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 16, 2014
Rock, J-pop and dance: Albums we liked in 2014
The year-end album charts in Japan have a tendency to prop up the same acts year after year: Exile, anything that ends in a "48," and almost every group from the Johnny & Associates stable of boy bands. Writers at The Japan Times, however, spent the year looking past the charts to find a few gems lurking...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 25, 2014
Pop artifice was never better with Aya Matsuura
When a pop singer who has long faded from the limelight suddenly starts appearing in your Twitter timeline in the form of glowing, nostalgic re-evaluations, they're either gearing up for a comeback . . . or dead.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 21, 2014
You say proto-this, I say post-that, let's call the whole thing 'skronk'
A famous quote of mysterious provenance (most likely the American actor and singer Martin Mull) has it that, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," and anyone who has ever tried to write about music will know that language can be an inadequate tool.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Sep 30, 2014
Live houses need to rethink their product if they want to attract customers
In these times of declining music sales it has become a truism that the live arena is where bands and artists can make their money. Certainly that seems to have factored into the decision by U2 and Apple to give the Irish band's new album to iTunes users for free — whether they wanted it or not.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 20, 2014
Studio Ghibli inspires endless adaptations
As one of the most important and acclaimed animation studios in not only Japan but the world, it's unsurprising that Studio Ghibli has also inspired a wealth of printed material. Helen McCarthy's "Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation" about the studio's most celebrated director and Miyazaki's...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
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.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
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.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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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