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July 16, 2024
 

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Nobuko Tanaka

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Nobuko Tanaka
Nobuko Tanaka is a stage writer who has regularly contributed contemporary theater and dance articles to The Japan Times since 2001. She also writes for several Japanese and overseas magazines and web sites. As a promoter, she takes Japanese artists to foreign theater festivals.
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2010
Class of 2010: Japan's playwrights head west
Japan's young dramatists are increasingly shrugging off their medium's long-standing, self-imposed national isolation and are setting sail in search of new audiences, and critical praise, overseas.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2010
'Evacuate' to whole new worlds
In the foyers of theaters in Tokyo's new "happening" hub of Ikebukuro — where the provocative Festival/Tokyo (F/T) drama event is running through November — odd exchanges can often be overheard.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2010
Theater with a hint of human truth
Yumi Suzuki co-founded the Jitensha Kinqureat theater company with friends at Nihon Joshi Daigaku (Japan Women's University) in 1982, and it was not long before the Tokyo troupe gained a prominent reputation and a keen following for its true-to-life plays in colloquial language about the lives of young...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 5, 2010
Canadian director examines 'home' from an expat view
Though best known as a director of Quebec-based circus Cirque du Soleil, 52-year-old Robert Lepage is also one of Canada's most distinguished dramatists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 22, 2010
Is Tokyo staging the next major theater festival?
Festival/Tokyo, which launched last year with two sets of events in spring and autumn, is in a bid to join the ranks of the world's top-flight theater festivals — such as Edinburgh's annual spectacular in Scotland, Avignon's in the South of France and Adelaide's in South Australia. The question...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 22, 2010
Kyoto experiments with its cultural image
The inaugural Kyoto Experiment aims to present a taste of modernity in Japan's old capital, rather than the traditional stuff everyone already knows.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 17, 2010
Cultural gems host theater's treasures
There are currently 14 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan, ranging from the pristine Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido's north to Okinawa's Ryukyu castles.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 3, 2010
Double dose of dancing hits Saitama
A double bill of cutting-edge dance awaits fans at the Saitama Arts Theater this weekend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 3, 2010
From 'Dawn of the Dead' to the live-and-kicking golden 'oldies'
Shu Matsui's innocent smile is familiar. He's always beaming on TV ads, whether he's plugging a washing softener, playing a gentle new father or promoting mobile phones in the guise of a young doctor. But if you were to see any production by Sample, the theater company Matsui founded in 2007, you'd be...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 27, 2010
Orchestra taps dancer Kumagai for cross-genre concert
Thirty-three-year-old Kazunori Kumagai started tap dancing when he was 15. Four years later, he went by himself to New York to attend special training for a role in "Noise/Funk," a Broadway show that traced black history in the United States through tap, hip-hop and funk rhythms. His Broadway dream was...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 15, 2010
Can robots be chips off the Bard's block?
Actors traditionally wish each other good luck before they go on stage by saying, "Break a leg!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 6, 2010
With only a few new works a year, Ishinha is all about quality theater
Among all of Japan's many theater companies, the innovative Osaka- based Ishinha (Reformers), founded in 1970 by its current director Yukichi Matsumoto, has stood out consistently. While most companies eye their bottom line, pack their schedules with different productions and move to Tokyo to maximize...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 23, 2010
Reflections of Chekhov's Russia in modern-day Japan
"People compare me with Bertolt Brecht, and I am glad to hear that — but why won't anyone call me Anton Inoue?"
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 2, 2010
Condors hope to replicate event's magic
West Gate Park outside the Metropolitan Exit of Ikebukuro Station is a small oasis amid the hurly-burly of that northern Tokyo hub.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2010
Lack of funds fail to stop Tokyo's young theater brigade
As a promising playwright, director and actor, 31-year-old Junichi Hirota highlights a cruel fact running through Japan's theater world — namely that once technicians such as lighting engineers, sound people and set-builders are paid from box-office profits, there's often little or nothing left...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 6, 2010
Dancing for joy in Japan
As I sipped my vin rouge last week during an interval in "The Sleeping Beauty," K-Ballet's latest Tokyo production, a woman at the next table said to her companion: "I can't believe that evil fairy was a man! I just naturally thought it was a woman dancing that role."
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 4, 2010
Shizuoka festival takes the stage
The annual Spring Arts Festival Shizuoka is keenly anticipated by theater lovers across Japan thanks to its high quality of program selection.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 28, 2010
'Gas' event asks big questions
Playwright Jason Maghanoy burst to prominence in the Canadian theater world in 2007 with his maiden offering, "Gas," about the Iraq War, which questioned the meaning of democracy and freedom in the instant-reaction, life-and-death conditions of live-fire conflict.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 21, 2010
Your chance to star with two stage legends
Two titans of Japanese theater, contemporary dramatist Hideki Noda (who has also triumphed three times directing kabuki plays at its Kabukiza mecca) and star kabuki actor Kanzaburo Nakamura, will team up on stage at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro from Sept. 5-28 to perform a new play by Noda...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 21, 2010
Directing the flow of theatrical creativity
Any time you go to a theater in Japan you are sure to be handed several colorful flyers for other shows — and among them you will almost certainly find the face of Tetsuya Chiba. At 46, and the father of three boys, Chiba is one of the country's most popular and best-known stage actors, known as...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

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Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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