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November 23, 2024
 

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Philip Brasor
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 3, 2008
'Pimp' my road — For bureaucrats, it's business as usual
It's that time of year again, when the highways and byways of Japan are suddenly filled with construction crews tearing up asphalt for repair and maintenance work. That's because the annual budgets of the crews' public-sector employers must be used up before the end of the fiscal year in March, regardless...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 27, 2008
Bae Yong Joon, superstar, how many hits have you had so far?
Few stars have been cannier with their stardom than Bae Yong Joon, the South Korean actor who won the hearts of Japanese women in the 2002 soap opera "Winter Sonata."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 20, 2008
People keep their eyes on the TV screen — well, at least one eye
When home-appliance manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. announced earlier this month that it was renaming itself Panasonic Corp., the company said it was doing so in order to unify its various brand names, which, in addition to Panasonic, included Matsushita and National. This strategy would...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 18, 2008
Spoon tune in to Radio Ga Ga
Spoon always seemed to be on the verge of greatness. Each successive album from the indie-rock quartet since they formed in Austin, Texas, in 1994 has sold more than the one before. Critics, too, have been supportive — even in the '90s when they were the tiniest of blips on the radar.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 13, 2008
Media pundits ponder Japan's prospects for year ahead
With the yearend summaries behind us and the stockpile of New Years' TV variety specials exhausted, the media turns its attention to the business of looking at Japan's future. It's an annual ritual that rarely results in anything edifying, but 2008 may turn out to be a watershed year.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 6, 2008
Politicians, dogs and bowels mix it up in our annual media awards
Media Personality of the Year: Hideo Higashikokubaru.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 4, 2008
Linda Thompson "Versatile Heart"
When she and Richard Thompson were setting the standard for English folk rock in the 1970s, Linda Thompson was burdened with interpreting her husband's songs of "doom and gloom." Twenty-five years after their divorce, and two albums into a late comeback, Linda finally seems to be lightening up, at least...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 23, 2007
Japan faces up to a world of gun crime
As is often the case with breaking news stories, the on-site, real-time television coverage of the shooting at the Renaissance Sports Club on the evening of Dec. 14 in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, was a flurry of vague incidentals and conflicting accounts.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 16, 2007
Japan stands back as the poor get poorer
One of the year's biggest selling books is Hiroshi Tamura's "Homeless Junior High School Student," a memoir focusing on the 28-year-old comedian's adolescence.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 9, 2007
Media shows little respect to family of young murder victims
On Nov. 27, 11 days after 58-year-old Keiko Miura and her two preschool grandchildren went missing from Miura's home in Kagawa Prefecture, and the same day Miura's brother-in-law Masanori Kawasaki was arrested for their murder, the online Ohmy News service compared the coverage of the incident to that...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 7, 2007
Youssou N'Dour "Rokku Mi Rokka"
Since escaping from Sony's fusion fixation around the turn of the millennium, Senegal's most vital musical export has rebooted his career by exploring styles he only touched on in the past. "Nothing's in Vain" (2003) appropriated chanson and "Egypt" (2005) was a full-throated tribute to the Middle Eastern...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 2, 2007
Japanese media reaches for the stars in restaurant coverage
The first Michelin Guide to Tokyo's best restaurants has sold extremely well since going on sale Nov. 22, which isn't surprising given the huge amount of press it has received. The media love it when a foreign entity pays close attention to Japanese culture, and in this case it's culture you can eat,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 25, 2007
Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over your head
As shown by the media frenzy sparked by lapses in decorum on the part of women like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the value of a person's sins increases exponentially in direct proportion to her fame. Women celebrities are subject to closer scrutiny for their mistakes than are men,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 23, 2007
Cut 'n' paste chaos on a stage near you
A seldom discussed reality of the indie-rock life is the day job, since most bands cannot afford to quit work and spend all their time on music. Take The Go! Team, the sextet from Brighton, England, whose debut album, "Thunder, Lightning, Strike," was an instant hit in Britain on release in 2004 and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 18, 2007
Losing the plot and ratings when jumping on the Showa bandwagon
In order to keep people watching a TV drama series every week, it helps to have a loose plot thread — an overarching mystery that remains unexplained while the various story lines develop over time. The protagonist of the Friday night TBS serial, "Uta-Hime (Song Princess)" (10 p.m.), is Taro Shimanto...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2007
Boy band's effort to recharge battery in solar debate falls flat
In the fall of 2003, the boy band TOKIO embarked from Tokyo on a journey to cover the entire coastline of Japan in a 1997 Daihatsu Hijet minivan that they had refit themselves with a solar roof-panel and a battery-powered engine. Driving in shifts of two, the five members have, as of the most recent...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 4, 2007
It's where you live, and not where you're at, for those bureaucrats
Last week, the Cabinet rejected a recommendation from the National Personnel Authority to raise bonuses and special allowances for some government employees, believing that the public, disillusioned by a constant stream of money scandals involving politicians and bureaucrats, wouldn't stand for it. But...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 2, 2007
Shins wince their way to success
In a recent article in The New Yorker, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones said that the term "indie rock" has become "an aesthetic description, and no longer has anything to do with (record) labels." If that's the case, then exactly what kind of aesthetic does indie rock describe?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 1, 2007
Curios spice commercial fare
Tokyo International Film Festival remains an ambitious also-ran on the circuit, even if its regional-movie showings give cheer
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 28, 2007
And the government says: Let them eat rice
When I tuned in to NHK's "Nihon Kore Kara (Japan From Now)" on Oct. 20 to watch a live citizens' debate about Japan's food-security crisis, I felt the issue was a no-brainer. Who could argue against the importance of food security, meaning the self-sufficiency of a country to feed itself? And given the...
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
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.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
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.
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Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
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