Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Oct 12, 2003

Young Japanese silently reject salaryman lifestyle

Government facilities are depressing places, but none are as depressing as your neighborhood unemployment office. That's why, in Japan, unemployment offices have been given the cheery, infantilized name "Hello Work," a term that conjures up visions of company presidents waiting at the entrance with job...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Oct 5, 2003

Role of victims in court needs careful monitoring

In the past, the press was often accused of bearing down too hard on victims of crimes and their families. In the most extreme cases, the media would camp outside the homes of victims who didn't want to talk to them (the family of the Kobe boy who was beheaded by another boy in 1995) or imply that a...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 28, 2003

Dancing in the dark, but who's calling the tune?

Ever since the five Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korea in the late '70s returned to Japan a little less than a year ago, the media, the government, the abductees' families and supporters, and the abductees themselves have been performing an elaborate and awkward dance.

CULTURE / Music

Sep 21, 2003

Russian masters play to bury Leningrad

It's been more than a decade since Russia changed the name of the former Czarist capital back to St. Petersburg, but in Japan, where commercial concerns overrule even historical destiny, it took a long time for the reversion to take hold. For most of the '90s, any orchestra or ballet company from the...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 21, 2003

An endless supply of meat for loan sharks

Half the job of solving social problems is getting the word out. This is especially true when it comes to criminal activities like fraud. Victims of fraud are by definition people who don't know enough about fraud to realize when they're being ripped off.

CULTURE / Music

Sep 14, 2003

Television stands test of time

It seems every band that broke up in the decade prior to, say, 1985 has reunited in the past few years to take advantage of whatever shred of nostalgia still dangles from its reputation. Television, the guitar band that emerged from the underground New York scene centered on the Bowery dive CBGB's in...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 14, 2003

That obscure object of trivial pursuits

Last week, I read a review of the new Sofia Coppola movie, "Lost in Translation," on the Web. The movie, which was received enthusiastically at the Venice Film Festival, is about two Americans who strike up a friendship in Tokyo, and the writer referred in passing to the "unfathomable craziness of [Japanese]...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Sep 10, 2003

Cursive

In the summer of 2002, Eastern Youth, the most conscientious punk band in Japan, released "Eight Teeth to Eat You," a split CD with the Omaha emo-core band Cursive. Then they announced they would bring the group to Japan for a short joint tour. Unfortunately, Cursive frontman Tim Kasher suffered a collapsed...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 7, 2003

North Korea unveils secret weapon: It's an attack of the clones

This year's World University Games, held in the South Korean city of Taegu from Aug. 21 to 30, drew a record 7,000 young athletes from 174 countries. The Games also drew daily Japanese media coverage, with some news shows running lengthy special reports on all the excitement in Taegu.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Sep 3, 2003

David Byrne: "Young Adam"; The Zephyrs: "A Year to the Day"

As a multimedia artist who mainly works in music, David Byrne is peculiarly suited to the job of movie-score composer, but for some reason he hasn't done that many. The producers of the Scottish film "Young Adam" asked him to write the movie's music and had an advantage since they were also involved...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 3, 2003

The Plan finally disbands, but the dialogue continues

Last January, The Dismemberment Plan announced that after 10 years, four well-received albums and countless tours that earned them a reputation for being one of the most consistently exciting live acts on the planet they were calling it quits.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 31, 2003

Reform is required to untangle pension system

A woman I know recently went to her local Social Insurance Agency office to find out about her pension. Since she is 68, she is past the age when she should have started collecting benefits, but she was never sure what she was supposed to do because the SIA never contacted her.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 27, 2003

Joao Gilberto

Experts agree that two pop music genres were invented by individuals: bluegrass by the American mandolinist Bill Monroe in 1938, and bossa nova by Brazilian Antonio Carlos Jobim in the mid-'50s. Jobim wrote "Desafinado," and while, in 1957, this was bossa nova's first big hit, the single itself was sung...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 24, 2003

Keeping abreast of the boob tube's favorite idols

Can we talk about breasts? Specifically, the large kind, which in the United States are affectionately (or not) called "knockers" or "hooters." In Japan, the slang is more clinical : kyonyu (giant breasts), honyu (rich breasts), and even bakunyu (explosive breasts). These words are clinical because nyu...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 20, 2003

Pretty Girls Make Graves: "The New Romance,"

'I heard a record and it opened my eyes," goes the pivotal line in "Speakers Push the Air," the opening song on "Good Health," last year's debut album by the Seattle quintet Pretty Girls Make Graves. The record's passionate immediacy opened a lot of people's eyes to the possibility that punk still had...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 17, 2003

Adding color to pre- and postwar mentalities

During the ceremony to mark the 58th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba blasted the United States for "worshipping nuclear weapons as God" -- a statement that, understandably, received a great deal of media attention. And while U.S. President George Bush, who is advocating...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 13, 2003

Natacha Atlas: "Something Dangerous"

Beyonce Knowles is not a singer I would have pegged as a model for Natacha Atlas, but the coincidental similarities between Atlas' new album, "Something Dangerous," and the Destiny Child leader's chart-topping debut solo joint, "Dangerously in Love," go beyond their titles. Atlas dives headfirst into...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 10, 2003

The spirit of corrupt regimes alive in Japan

It's no secret that Japan discourages asylum-seekers, though officials never admit to it openly. When asked what the government would do about the 10 North Korean refugees who entered the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok on July 31, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said that it would be better for them...

CULTURE / Music

Aug 10, 2003

State of the rock nation, in 35-min. bites

Since they took place on successive weekends, it's difficult not to compare this year's editions of the Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic, so let's do it. Fuji is bucolic where SS is urban. Fuji's vibe is communal and free-spirited, while the SS vibe is commercial and controlling. Fuji is populated...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Aug 6, 2003

Kings of Leon: "Youth and young Manhood"

The story about the Kings of Leon, a Nashville-based rock band touted as the next big thing, is that the four young men, with their tight bell-bottoms and shaggy hair are pure throwbacks. Having grown up shuttling between Memphis and Oklahoma City with their itinerant Pentecostal preacher father, the...

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