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August 15, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2020
'Zero': Practicing kindness in life and in love
In Japan, people with mental illnesses have long been stigmatized, marginalized and isolated from broader society. In 2009, documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda released “Mental,” a film about Masatomo Yamamoto, an elderly psychiatrist in Okayama Prefecture who respected his patients as individuals...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 16, 2020
The race to save Japan's independent cinemas
As Japan's film industry feels the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, campaigners take to crowdfunding to help save smaller cinemas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2020
For filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi, freedom was the most important thing of all
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi, who died on April 10 at the age of 82, was incredibly prolific during his six-decade career. A pioneering experimental filmmaker in the 1960s, he went on to direct 2,000 television commercials (by his own estimate; no exact count exists) and 43 theatrical features.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2020
Shochiku celebrates a century of Japanese cinema hits
Despite setbacks caused by COVID-19, film studio Shochiku is determined to go ahead with its program of anniversary events and releases where possible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 9, 2020
Japan’s film and TV industries soldier on despite coronavirus
The death of comedian Ken Shimura on March 29 due to pneumonia caused by COVID-19 sent a shock wave throughout the country. A star on Japanese TV for decades, he was the first major celebrity here to pass away after contracting the virus.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2020
'Step': Parenthood drama that tugs at the heartstrings
By now there are many films about single fathers, but for me the eye-opener was 1979’s “Kramer vs. Kramer.” In it, Dustin Hoffman plays a workaholic adman who struggles to raise his young son after being abandoned by his wife (Meryl Streep), but resists giving up the boy when she returns to claim...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 26, 2020
'Not Quite Dead Yet': A feeble take on two days of death
Ghosts that haunt the living for laughs have been Hollywood staples going back to at least “Topper.” In this 1937 comedy, a feckless young couple (Cary Grant and Constance Bennett) die in a car crash and, as ghosts, decide to bring fun to the life of their stuffy older pal, Cosmo Topper (Roland Young)....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 19, 2020
'Extro': A Japanese mockumentary that works
I was once an extra for film being shot in the dead of winter in Nagano Prefecture, playing a member of a media pack running down a snow-covered slope to an ambulance. To stand out, I kept a step behind the others through retake after frigid retake. Naturally, I was edited out.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 13, 2020
How the Japanese film industry is coping with the COVID-19 crisis
From cinema closures to business as usual, the film industry in Japan is employing its own methods to keep people safe and still watching films across the country.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 12, 2020
'A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad's an Alcoholic': An addict's tale with honesty on tap
Honoka Matsumoto stars as a daughter working through issues stemming from her father's alcoholism in a film based on manga artist Mariko Kikuchi's autobiographical web comic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2020
What ‘Fukushima 50’ can teach us about crises
Author and journalist Ryusho Kadota on how the nation's handling of the 3/11 triple disaster bodes for its ongoing response to COVID-19.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 5, 2020
'Fukushima 50': A disaster film with real-life roots
Ken Watanabe and Koichi Sato star in the first film dramatization of the meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2020
'First Love': A heartfelt throwback to the golden age of yakuza flicks
Masataka Kubota plays a doomed boxer who takes on the yazuka in Takashi Miike's newest film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2020
'Shape of Red': A torrid but ultimately unsatisfying affair
Kaho plays a frustrated housewife who engages in a passionate tryst with a former boyfriend in Yukiko Mishima's latest film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 19, 2020
How to navigate social media and a social city with Netflix's 'Followers'
Artist and director Mika Ninagawa launches new streaming about the lives of Tokyo's bright young things and their quest for recognition
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2020
'37 Seconds': A woman's journey of self-discovery
In Hikari's debut feature, first-time actor Mei Kayama plays a woman determined to become a manga artist, but who must overcome her lack of life experience, her physical disability and her contolling mother.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2020
'Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku': A musical take on an otaku romance
This film adaptation of a web comic by single-named artist Fujita has the central couple dancing and singing their way to love.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2020
'We Make Antiques! Kyoto Rendezvous': Kansai caper revisits old tricks
Kiichi Nakai and Kuranosuke Sasaki reprise their roles as scammers in Masaharu Take's sequel to 2018's 'We Make Antiques!'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2020
'Romance Doll': A mature take on guys and dolls
The premise for Yuki Tanada's film about a sex doll designer gets laughs, but also offers sharp insights into human issues.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 22, 2020
'Romance Doll' shows there's a fine line between sex and love
Yuki Tanada's latest film, an adaptation of one of her own novels, looks at the use of dolls as substitutes for humans in relationships.
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

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