author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 21, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Twitter

@ianfmartin

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.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 24, 2011
Late-night dancing should not be a crime in Japan
Imagine a town where playing rock music is under a curfew and police crack down on unlicensed late-night dancing. Are you thinking of the town from the film "Footloose"? Or are you thinking of Fukuoka? Kumamoto? Yokohama?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 3, 2011
Must-see indie groups coming out of Aichi
Nagoya is the biggest city in Aichi Prefecture and has a population of well over 2 million, so there is no way an article like this can hope to capture the full depth of its musical talent. However, here are a few bands that are well worth checking out.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 3, 2011
Record stores fuel Nagoya's scene
Despite having had its musical reputation sullied by Yasushi Akimoto's decision to make it the home of SKE48, the first offshoot of pop-idol army AKB48, Nagoya is home to one of Japan's most vibrant independent music scenes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Oct 27, 2011
Cruel to be kind: Does noruma work in bands' favor?
One of the first stumbling blocks you'll probably come across starting up a band in Japan is trying to book gigs. You'll explain to the booking manager about your music, give them a demo CD or a link to a place they can hear you online, they'll say, "Sure, I love your sound" — and then they'll tell...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2011
The Human League know you still want them
Emerging out of the late-1970s new-wave scene in the English industrial town of Sheffield alongside fellow electronic and synthpop luminaries such as ABC, Cabaret Voltaire and Heaven 17, The Human League was one of the bands that defined the sound of the '80s, with their distinctive plastic-glamour fashion...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2011
The cute 'n' kooky world of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japan's newest pop idol
A recurring theme in the Strange Boutique column has been the question of what has gone wrong with pop music in Japan. Amid discussions of the pernicious influence of advertising agencies, record industry conservatism in the face of declining sales, and the faceless, self-replicating Eurobeat monstrosity...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 8, 2011
(M)otocompo's theater challenges stale indie scene
Shuffling onto the stage in a flurry of robotic jerks come three men wearing glazed expressions and identical striped tops. In time with the retro-futurist synthesizer chirps and bleeps, they then lurch into a kind of clockwork dance routine, while a fourth man, wearing a construction helmet and mask,...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 25, 2011
Avoid the sins of playing live in the grimy clubs of Japan
Spend a lot of time trawling the grimy-toilet venues of the Tokyo music scene and, apart from gaining an encyclopaedic knowledge of how to smuggle alcohol past staff members guarding the doors of various venues, you will start to pick up on the minutiae of musicians' stagecraft like a sommelier when...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jul 28, 2011
Tis the season for some girl-pop classics
In Japan, observation of the seasons is an ingrained cultural trait that not only forms the basis of haiku poetry and many classic works of art, but also marks the calendar for cultural ephemera from special-edition Kit Kats to alcoholic drinks to pop music. Since summer is now at full burn, here are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2011
She Talks Silence aim for live experience on new mini-album
When a band kicks off an interview with a statement like "We don't do gigs, we do performances," you could be forgiven for thinking you're in the presence of a group of uncompromising, postindustrial noise punks. However, for indie-pop group She Talks Silence, this attitude is all about intimacy.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jun 30, 2011
Every day we're schaffeling: What Girls Generation are doing right
A big part of what has made the current wave of South Korean idol pop so successful in Japan is obviously the image. K-pop's often crass objectification of young women makes for a welcome break from J-pop's often crass objectification of barely pubescent girls. However, laughable though we may find...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2011
AKB48 "Koko ni Ita Koto"
Beneath the media frenzy over the "election" of this year's front line members, behind the coy faced but otherwise absurdly blatant evocation of teen sex imagery, and far from the bizarre stories of the otaku (obsessive) fan who bought thousands of copies of the same CD — as if trying in some perversely...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2011
Decade of fine tuning yields gold for capsule
"I see capsule as a J-pop group, but then again, I don't think J-pop should be made into a particular genre with its own rules," says Yasutaka Nakata of electro unit capsule and producer of idol sensations Perfume. "There are professional producers who try to create 'J-pop music,' but really any pop...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 2, 2011
Nisennenmondai "Nisennenmondai Live!!!"
Tokyo instrumental trio Nisennenmondai (which translates to "year 2000 problem") have always seemed to struggle between an unwillingness — or fear of — compromising their scratchy, lo-fi sound and the problem of transferring the immediacy and sometimes breathtaking energy of their live performances...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 26, 2011
'Golden age' of kayoukyoku holds lessons for modern J-pop
On April 21, 2011, the actress and singer Yoshiko Tanaka, aka Sue from 1970s idol group the Candies, died after a relapse of the cancer that she had been living with for 20 years. A tragedy, at the relatively young age of 55, and one that comes during a period of deep soul-searching for the Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 19, 2011
Tetsuya Komuro's 'Digitalian is Eating Breakfast 2'
Emerging from the tail end of the 1980s new-wave scene with the band TM Network, Tetsuya Komuro was a producer who defined the 1990s. In fact, anyone searching out a single point when the more modern agglomeration of styles that later became known as J-pop killed off the older kayoukyoku (an older term...
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 22, 2011
Japanese music fans need the shows to go on
Last month I wrote a hastily conceived piece for this column documenting the immediate reaction of the music scene in Tokyo to the Great East Japan Earthquake. It was a difficult article to write because the situation was still unfolding and so much was unresolved; however, a month later, a picture of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 8, 2011
The Monochrome Set
In many ways, The Monochrome Set are the archetypal "Big in Japan" band. Formed in 1978 by a handful of Adam Ant's former backing musicians, the band, featuring guitarist Lester Square's faintly retro playing style and vocalist Ganesh "Bid" Seshadri's dryly humorous lyrics, flew insolently in the face...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 25, 2011
Altz, Hotel Mexico to play weekend bash
A mid the continuing developments surrounding the March 11 earthquake, clubs and live venues, at least in Tokyo, are gradually getting back to their regular schedules, much to the relief of musicians and fans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 18, 2011
Indie scene aims for normalcy in unusual situation
As I write this on Tuesday afternoon, four days after the earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 and with the continuing drip, drip, drip of nerve-shaking news from the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima forming background noise to life in Tokyo, I see on the BBC news feed that Canadian...
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

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER