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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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007
Japanese/Chinese production tackles history
In 2002, the FIFA World Cup of soccer hosted by Japan and South Korea boosted already flourishing cultural exchanges between the two countries in areas such as pop music, shopping and television dramas. The same year, the scriptwriter and director Oriza Hirata, who founded the Tokyo-based Seinendan Theater...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 6, 2007
Love triangles
Setagaya Public Theatre (SEPT), Japan's foremost municipal arts venue, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 22, 2007
When Godot finally arrives
Minoru Betsuyaku wanted to be a painter, but his father died when he was 7, leaving him as the oldest of five sons. Everyone around him said that he would never be able to support his family as an artist, so he entered Tokyo's Waseda University, resolved instead to become a newspaper journalist.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 9, 2007
Ethereal beings
Twenty years ago when he was in his mid-20s, Yukikazu Kano founded the Hanagumi Shibai Theater Company to start what he called "neokabuki." His idea was to bridge the gap between the traditional and contemporary theater fields in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2007
Beirut dramatist seeks new strategy
Lebanese dramatist Rabih Mroue returns to Tokyo International Arts Festival this year with the world premiere of his new play, "How Nancy Wished that Everything was an April Fool's Joke," three years after making his TIF debut. It is a work that reflects the fluid situation of Lebanese society after...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2007
Drama despite the Establishment
At last December's press conference heralding this year's Tokyo International Arts Festival, Artistic Director Sachio Ichimura was in a less than festive mood.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 16, 2007
Enough to make a vampire drool
Belgian choreographer Jan Fabre's most controversial work, "Je Suis Sang (I am Blood)," will be performed for three stagings only in Japan at the Saitama Arts Center this weekend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 25, 2007
Dairakudakan dancers play with Josef Nadj
Speaking in Tokyo a year ago, Josef Nadj, one of the most respected choreographers in the contemporary dance world, said that for his next project in Japan he wanted to create something playful for the audiences in collaboration with Japanese dancers and Japanese culture. The 49-year-old Yugoslav-born...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 12, 2007
Iraqi play eschews straight acting
Next week, Tokyo audiences will have a rare chance to sample contemporary theater from Iraq, as one of the Middle East's most prominent directors, 56-year-old Salah Al-Kassab, presents his play "Dream in Baghdad," performed by five Iraqi actors. The play also tours Sendai and Sapporo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 28, 2006
Provocative plays in the quiet
Spending as much time as I do in theaters guarantees that I am treated to some brilliant productions, others that are dire, and plenty in between. However, ones truly astonishing and most "provocative" (to use a key word in drama criticism these days), are naturally not thick on the ground.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 22, 2006
A bluebird for the kids, and a dark Cinderella
For this winter vacation season, theater company EN presents a new, original play for children, "Aoitori Kotori Nazenaze Aoi? (Bluebird, Why are you Blue?)," at Theater X in Ryogoku, continuing a tradition of appealing to young theatergoers since it began in 1981
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 7, 2006
Golden oldies step out into the limelight
Sixty-three-year-old Masatake Takei careened around the stage without his trousers, trying to beat off the angry mob of obasan (old ladies) who had just stripped him to his underpants. The audience obviously loved the spectacle, roaring with delight. But what was the president of a Tokyo architectural...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 7, 2006
'Old bunch' learn new tricks to bridge the generations
A way from the bustle of the Waseda University students just around the corner, a quite different demographic gathered in a rehearsal studio there to prepare for their world premiere in Tokyo's theater youth culture hub of Shimokitazawa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 30, 2006
Moving beyond nonsense
Born Kazumi Kobayashi in Tokyo, 43-year-old Keralino Sandroviich -- or Kera, as he is best known -- started his career with the techno band Uchoten (Rapture) which he formed in 1982 when he was a student at the Japan Academy of the Moving Image. Although he had planned to be a film director, when Uchoten...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 10, 2006
Politics at heart of two 'new' plays
American-born Australian and long-term Japan resident Roger Pulvers presents a double-bill of his plays in Japanese at Theater X in Tokyo's Sumida Ward from Nov. 15-18.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 3, 2006
A cultural emblem
Written by Wesley Enoch, one of Australia's leading young director-writers, the world premiere of "Cookie's Table" will be staged with a Japanese cast in Tokyo from Nov. 8 by Rakutendan Theatre Company.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 13, 2006
Dedicated to dance
A hundred years old this month and still an active dancer, "Kazuo Ohno Photo Exhibition" captures on film one of the most famous Japanese performing artists in history. The exhibition, comprising 100 images of Ohno taken by 42 photographers, runs Oct. 14-23 at Konica Minolta Plaza in Shinjuku, Tokyo....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 12, 2006
A triple threat in contemporary dance
In recent years, the contemporary dance scene in Japan has grown both in audience size and in the diversity of high-quality, small dance companies. Thirty-one year-old Jo Kanamori, artistic director at the Niigata Ryutopia arts center, is widely considered a trigger for the movement. Kanamori's dance...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 1, 2006
Hisashi Inoue: Crusader with a pen
So wide-ranging are 71-year-old Hisashi Inoue's talents and activities that it is difficult to know which to focus on at the expense of others.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2006
An Asian woman becomes aware
Thirty-one year-old playwright, director and actor Keishi Nagatsuka has been turning heads since he staged his first productions while still a student at Waseda University. In 1996 in Tokyo, he founded the Asagaya Spiders company, which has received glowing critical acclaim and regularly plays to full...
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.
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.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

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