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November 22, 2024
 

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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 29, 2016
Babymetal, Beck and Boredoms bring strong sets to Fuji Rock's 20th birthday bash
"This is Fuji Rock No. 20," said Beck Hansen, lounging against the drum kit at the end of his hit-laden Saturday night set at this year's Fuji Rock Festival. "Twenty years goes in the blink of an eye, so I think we need to just take a moment here to appreciate ... take this in."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2016
Keigo Oyamada sees U.S. 'Fantasma' tour as a good warm-up to new Cornelius material
Hikaru Utada's "First Love" may have sold more copies, but it's hard to think of a Japanese album from the 1990s that has endured like "Fantasma." Keigo Oyamada was 28 years old when he released his third full-length as Cornelius in 1997: a dense collage of polychromatic meta-pop, full of improbable...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2016
With more than 220 acts at Fuji Rock, planning your schedule in advance is crucial
There will be 223 acts performing at this year's Fuji Rock Festival. Planning out your schedule in advance is recommended, traveling to and from the stages can eat up precious time. Here's the route that I'm considering.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2016
Korean films take on the thorny topic of Japan
Last year, one of the biggest films in South Korea was a swashbuckling tale of freedom fighters battling against a cruel oppressor: Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 13, 2016
The Qualite Fantastic! Cinema Collection festival has choice gems among the trash
Opened in 2012, Cinema Qualite has been a welcome anomaly amid the grim decline of Japan's once-vibrant "mini theater" (arthouse) scene.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 30, 2016
Retreat from the heat to the cinema this summer
The summer blockbuster is dead — or at least, it has ceased to exist as a distinct entity. Four decades after "Jaws" set the template for mass-market Hollywood spectacle, the so-called event movie has expanded its turf so dramatically that July and August, once the most fiercely contested box-office...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2016
'The Program': Stephen Frears cycles round the edges
From the NFL's deflated footballs to the bribery allegations besmirching Tokyo's Olympic bid, it can feel like the entire apparatus of professional sport has become hopelessly corrupt. But are the fans also complicit?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2016
'Twisted Justice': Gangster black comedy is a shade off
In 2003, a Hokkaido cop named Yoshiaki Inaba was sentenced to nine years in jail, on charges including drug use and possession with intent to supply. During his trial, the former police inspector revealed that his impressive career record had involved an unhealthy degree of collusion with contacts in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 1, 2016
There’s a real story behind the ‘Fake’ documentary
Everybody loves a good scandal, and they don't come much riper than the tale of Mamoru Samuragochi. The public unmasking of "Japan's Beethoven" — a celebrated "deaf" composer who turned out to be neither completely deaf nor the main author of his work — was one of the biggest domestic news stories...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 1, 2016
'Deadpool': Shooting off at the mouth and at the hip
Living in Japan, you get accustomed to scrolling through a film's release dates on IMDb, only to discover that it's arriving here months behind the rest of the world. Such has been the case with "Deadpool," which opened everywhere from the U.S. to the Republic of Macedonia back in February, but has taken...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2016
Forget clubbing: Outdoor festivals offer a natural alternative
When the revised adult entertainment business law comes into effect on June 23, bringing an end to Japan's archaic ban on all-night dance parties, it will mark the end of what has been a challenging period for the nation's nightclubs. But beyond the major metropolises, at campsites and off-season ski...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 18, 2016
'Hentai Kamen: Abnormal Crisis': Japan's pervy hero is top-crotch
If you're craving an alternative to the self-important bluster of Hollywood's never-ending superhero pageant, there's no need to wait until "Deadpool" opens in Japanese cinemas next month. For a quick fix of trashy comic-book irreverence, this homegrown product should do the trick nicely.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
May 11, 2016
Big issues in film short 'World of Tomorrow'
Given the limited options for theatrical release, short films are generally condemned to the purgatory of YouTube, which makes the case of "World of Tomorrow" especially striking. Since premiering at last year's Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize, this 16-minute animation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 6, 2016
Review: Worldwide Session at Studio Coast
Gilles Peterson has spent his entire career buoyed by gushing enthusiasm, but when the London-based DJ and record label boss declared a gig in Tokyo on May 4 to be a "career highlight," he was probably being sincere.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2016
'Captain America': Civil War: Marvel shows Superman how it's done
Have we reached peak superhero yet? After spending the winter months watching "Jessica Jones" and "Daredevil" on Netflix, viewers can now subject themselves to a barrage of comic-book spectacle at their local multiplex. Following last month's clattering, messy "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" comes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 2016
'Youth': Sorrentino gets extra sentimental
"I don't want to read any more of it, write any more of it, I don't even want to talk about it anymore," said the novelist Philip Roth in 2012, as he announced his retirement from literature. "I'm tired of all that work. I'm in a different stage of my life."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 31, 2016
Ryuichi Sakamoto offers his thoughts on politics, Japan and how his music will change 'post-cancer'
"The Professor" is back in town. Last weekend, Ryuichi Sakamoto took the stage at Tokyo Opera City for the debut concert of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra, a 105-strong ensemble of young musicians from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, which counts him as its musical director.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2016
3-D pornography is still pornography
During the heyday of Japan's "pink films" (cinematic porn) in the 1960s and '70s, directors were given free rein over their pictures as long as they included at least one sex scene per reel. For the late Koji Wakamatsu, perhaps the genre's most famous exponent, this was an opportunity to smuggle experimental...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 13, 2016
The Nihilist Spasm Band: 51 years later it's still chaos
Japanese TV had never seen anything like it. During the final episode of irreverent variety show "Tamori's Music is the World" in March 1996, viewers were introduced to a group of silver-haired Canadians billed as "the Rolling Stones of noise music" — a sobriquet that clearly owed more to their age...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2016
The Greek auteur who cooked up 'The Lobster'
When a gifted director ditches their native tongue and starts working in English, it can be a fraught process. For every Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, there's a Wong Kar-wai or Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose career still hasn't recovered since he parlayed the Oscar triumph of his 2006 drama "The...
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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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