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Philip Brasor
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2004
Adam Pierce, Doug Scharin
What's in a name? In the case of the postrock instrumental project called Mice Parade, it's an anagram of Adam Pierce, the moniker of a multi-instrumentalist who earned his rep with the lo-fi Boston pop band The Swirlies as well as with the lighter, more experimental Dylan Group under the leadership...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 11, 2004
It's best to be aware of this big trucking problem
The crimes of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. have made the media a little more attentive to vehicles that blow up. In the past several weeks, it seems an awful lot of MMC products have spontaneously combusted. Whenever they do, it's reported in the newspapers, and the frequency of such reports (at least four...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 11, 2004
A French kiss from Monte Carlo ballet
The annual archipelago-length steamroll tour by New York's famous all-male classic ballet parody troupe, Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte-Carlo, which is in the middle of its 20th visit to these shores right now, has probably stolen some of the limelight from its namesake, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 4, 2004
The Offspring
Though Berkeley's Green Day still holds the now tattered standard for the mid-'90s pop-punk revival, their Southern California cognate, The Offspring, better represents the commercial realities of that revival over time. Formed in the late '80s, The Offspring were a staple on the underground punk and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 4, 2004
Imaginative filmmakers shed light on dark side of humanity
At the end of May the Cine Pathos movie theater in Ginza was scheduled to run "Concrete," which is based on a "nonfiction novel" that itself is patterned after an incident that took place in Tokyo's Adachi Ward in 1989. Four teenage boys abducted a high-school girl and kept her prisoner for 40 days,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2004
Kelis
So which hip-hop couple do you like? Beyonce & Jay-Z, or Kelis & Nas? Given the brittleness of celebrity engagements, either pair might have split as of this morning, but the choice is pretty distinct: penthouse-paid-for vs. prove-it-all-night.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2004
Conrad Herwig: "Another Kind of Blue"
On "Another Kind of Blue," leader/trombonist Conrad Herwig and trumpeter/arranger Brian Lynch update, into Latin jazz, what is Miles Davis', and perhaps jazz's, most listened to recording, "Kind of Blue." Latin jazz has often taken cues from Miles Davis, but this collection of New York's finest Latin...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 27, 2004
Korean wave may help erode discrimination
Though a lot of people are tired of the guy by now, there's something encouraging about the inexhaustible, Beatlemaniacal attention being paid to Korean star Bae Yong Joon. Bae's popularity is merely the most prominent feature of the current kanryu (Korean wave) boom, but the attraction that many Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2004
Big in Japan, without really trying
Eugene Kelly released his first-ever solo album, "Man Alive," in December. So far, it's only available in Japan, which isn't unusual. Japanese record companies are famous for taking chances on unknown artists no one else is interested in. But Kelly isn't exactly an unknown artist. He was part of the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 20, 2004
Talent agencies enjoy the biggest laugh
Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of the biggest talent agencies in Japan, recently announced that it plans to build a new 1,000-seat comedy theater in Shinjuku. The company already operates a 458-seat theater in the Shinjuku Lumine building, and like that one the new venue will present only Yoshimoto acts. The company's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2004
Badly Drawn Boy: "One Plus One Is One"
One of the great things about Damon Gough's 2000 Mercury Prize-winning debut, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast," was its efficiency. The economy of the sound combined with the sophistication of the writing and arranging set a benchmark for bedroom music-making.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 13, 2004
Ludacris
'Flow" is considered the basic skill of an MC but if you asked any rapper to define it they'd probably have a hard time. It has something to do with cadence, alliteration, internal rhyme and tone; but in the end it's about conveying the impression that the rapper has total command of the words being...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 13, 2004
Murakami's job guide for teens lights the pipe of dreams
In mid-May, NHK's nightly news feature "Closeup Gendai" looked at the current post-university recruitment situation from the viewpoint of the recruit. For the past decade, the main story with regard to this issue has been the difficulty of finding work as more and more companies restructured along nontraditional...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 6, 2004
Move your butt and your mind will follow
Nic Offer and John Pugh, the vocalist and drummer of the New York dance-punk band who go by the moniker !!!, are on a mission to liberate butts everywhere, but right now they're hungry. It's a sunny spring day and they're sitting in an Ebisu bar and promoting their debut album, "Louden Up Now."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 6, 2004
Japan is back to the Stone Age when it comes down to transplants
Is Japan still in the medical Stone Age? A look at American depictions of the medical profession might make you think so. Last Tuesday, NHK had a bunch of celebrities sitting around and rapturously discussing the American hospital soap opera "ER" and its mature take on the physician-patient dynamic....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 2, 2004
Out of the 'hood
Pop music has become hip-hop, which dominates the charts in practically every country that has charts. It's become so ubiquitous that some American presidential candidates went out of their way to show they dig it. Dennis Kucinich employed a rap in his campaign song, Howard Dean used Wyclef Jean, and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 30, 2004
Media leave Imperial family forgotten, lonely, and in a corner
The excitement last weekend over North Korea's release of some of the Japanese abductees' children overshadowed another news story about prisoners of the state -- the Japanese Imperial family. Crown Prince Naruhito returned from his whirlwind wedding tour of Europe to a tense Imperial Household Agency...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2004
PJ Harvey: "Uh Huh Her"
These days, when inspiration strikes, musicians can utitilze the flexibility and affordability of home-recording technology. Polly Jean Harvey, whose songs are the aural equivalent of manic-depressive episodes, goes the whole DIY hog on her latest album, not only playing all the instruments (except drums)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2004
Challenger
When Al Burian and Dave Laney disbanded Milemarker several years ago, they left a curious legacy. With a lineup that went from three to five and back again whenever the wind changed, the band became notorious for never doing the same thing twice. Though fundamentally a hardcore punk band, Milemarker...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 23, 2004
Foreign markets fail to grasp soul of anime
If, as many people claim, Japanese pop culture is sweeping the globe, then anime is the hand that wields the broom. A number of recent big-budget Japanese animated features, including Mamoru Oishii's "Innocence," currently in competition at Cannes, have attracted funding from Hollywood without the usual...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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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