Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Oct 14, 2007

Searching through the past to find someone you can (or can't) love

Many Japanese families were split up during World War II — men sent to the front-lines, women and children evacuated to the countryside, workers shipped to factories far from home. In the chaos that followed surrender, it was difficult for people to reunite with loved ones. For years, even decades,...

CULTURE / Music

Oct 12, 2007

Dedicated followers of suburbia

Think of New York and rock musicians and you might well think of Lou Reed, whose identification with his home town is so secure that he remains the only rock star with the guts to actually title an album "New York." Even Billy Joel restricted himself to "52nd Street."

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Oct 7, 2007

Clueless policy persists as Japan burns the unburnables

Last month, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara traveled to Fiji and Tuvalu on a fact-finding mission. Since the trip cost Tokyo taxpayers more than ¥15 million, the press was interested in just what sort of facts the governor would find in the South Seas and how they could be applied to one of the world's...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 30, 2007

Cancer may kill, but it can also revitalize a flagging media career

Right now there's a commercial on TV for the American insurance company AFLAC featuring veteran journalist Shuntaro Torigoe, who was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. It shows the 67-year-old reporter in what looks like home videos undergoing tests, or about to be operated on, or clowning around with...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 28, 2007

Ozomatli

Ever since turntablist Cut Chemist and MC Chali 2na left Ozomatli in 2003, the salsa-inspired, jazz-capable Los Angeles collective's strong hip-hop component has been eclipsed by a tendency to try out every other international style as a means of advancing their inclusive global view.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 23, 2007

TV 'kangaroo courts' led by excitable pundits make joke of law

The current box-office winner in Japan is "Hero," the movie spinoff of a popular TV series starring heartthrob Takuya Kimura as a nonconformist prosecutor. Now there's an oxymoron. In American pop culture, at least, prosecutors tend to be the bad guys since they represent the establishment, but in Japan...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 21, 2007

Talib Kweli "Eardrum"

Talib Kweli's reputation as the rapper's rapper is based on his inventive rhyme schemes, but his underground credentials were established in cahoots with fellow MC Mos Def in Black Star and with DJ Hi-Tek on the classic "Reflection Eternal." On his own, his skills are often compromised by the shrillness...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 21, 2007

Dot Allison

As the vocalist of One Dove, the Glasgow trio that charmed club music aficionados with a mix of 1960s pop and dub atmospherics, Dot Allison occupied an appropriate perch from which to coo and simper.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 16, 2007

They're fey, maybe not gay, but anyway, the 'talent' are coming out to play

It's been more than 9 months since this column last looked at Johnny's Jimusho, Japan's most powerful talent agency, and in the meantime a lot has happened to the young male charges of reclusive company president Johnny Kitagawa. For one thing, these charges, or at least some of them, are no longer young,...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 14, 2007

Kanye West "Graduation"

Has any other pop superstar ever accomplished as much with indistinctness? Listening to the opening lines of Kanye West's third album, it took me a moment to figure out if it was him rapping or one of his many high-profile guests.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 9, 2007

Cardboard-bun incident serves up more distaste for China

Though it wasn't the most significant news story of the summer, the video that circulated worldwide in early July about the Dalian street vendor who sold pork buns stuffed with cardboard was certainly the most fun for local news outlets since it involved two subjects Japanese media can't get enough of:...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 7, 2007

Battles look past end of postrock

Almost all Japanese editions of albums by foreign artists contain Japan-only bonus tracks, but few of these tracks are as site-specific as the one that closes the debut album by the New York-based postrock quartet Battles.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Sep 2, 2007

You have to appear to be a complete loser in Japan to get benefits

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's vision for a "beautiful country" stresses self-reliance. The media usually translates this aim in national defense terms: a stronger military that doesn't have to duck behind the United States. To the average person it simply means you're on your own. That buzz word of several...

CULTURE / Music

Aug 31, 2007

Gogol Bordello "Super Taranta!"

The previous album by this motley crew of Brooklyn-resident immigrants was called "Gypsy Punks." It's a good description of the music, but the generic-sounding title may have also fooled people into thinking it was some kind of anthropological exercise.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 26, 2007

Paranoid android Abe blind to reality when it comes to eye contact

Image and issues always compete for voters' attention on the campaign trail, with the former usually winning. A successful candidate is the one who uses the media most effectively in shaping an image that's acceptable to more people than the next candidate's. Issues, on the other hand, have become more...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 19, 2007

When the way of the 'samurai' was pointless self-annihilation

Before the war there was a famous woman commonly referred to as Mrs. Inoue, though after the war people stopped talking about her.

CULTURE / Music

Aug 17, 2007

Girls have all the fun

If there was a festival anthem to this year's Summer Sonic, it was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The overflowing crowd at Cyndi Lauper's Sunday set on the Sonic Stage was mostly made up of women who mouthed every word to her string of hits. And when she finished with her biggest hit, the female members...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 12, 2007

Failing to learn lessons from a nuclear past

What do disgraced yokozuna (sumo grand champion) Asashoryu Akinori and Tokyo Electric Power Co. have in common? Answer: Both are under the delusion that they can get away with lying in plain sight.

CULTURE / Music

Aug 10, 2007

Tori Amos "American Doll Posse"

On her latest opus, Tori Amos assumes five different female personae (including one named "Tori") who sing 23 songs comprising four thematic suites.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 5, 2007

Celeb candidates stung by real election hero

TV Tokyo began its summary coverage of last Sunday's Upper House election later than the other stations, and included some genuine theater: A short dramatization of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's "crushing defeat."

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