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November 22, 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 / Stage
May 14, 2015
Maya Inoue makes a play to refine her father's theatrical legacy
Hisashi Inoue's death at the age of 75 on April 9, 2010, at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, was a major event in the postwar Japanese theater world. It moved many dramatists to stage works by the great author and playwright who combined comedy and searing social and political commentary into...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 2, 2015
Dramatist brings citizens of all ages together
Public theaters across the country are holding significantly more community productions and workshops aimed at local residents who are looking to get involved in performance art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 28, 2015
TACT serves up some fantastical holiday fare
If you're so busy wondering how to spend the upcoming Golden Week holiday that you can hardly sleep, why not simply go and enjoy the TACT/Festival at TMET (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre) in Ikebukuro — where you can count sheep, too, if you want.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 16, 2015
Shizuoka blooms with culture at theater event
With sunlight dappling fresh green leaves, flowers in bloom and birds singing, spring and early summer is when Europeans leave their homes to enjoy the arts at great annual events such as Germany's Theatertreffen and France's Avignon Festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 2, 2015
Shinobu Terajima dresses down for risque role in 'All Nudity Shall Be Punished'
Sex and violence can be a good draw to get crowds out to the theater, but don't underestimate the power of actress Shinobu Terajima to bring audiences to a show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 31, 2015
'Tenimyu' 2.5-D shows net over 2 million tickets sold
There's kabuki, noh, butoh, bunraku, regular plays, glitzy musicals and Japan's unique all-female Takarazuka musical theater troupe — but another home-grown performance-art genre has for some time been carving a niche in this country's diverse entertainment world in the shape of so-called 2.5-D musicals....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 25, 2015
Summit spotlights school dramatists
"Diversity is the outstanding attraction of high school drama, so I'm always appreciating afresh theater's myriad charms," the prominent director Keisuke Tanaka said with a beaming smile during a recent interview ahead of the fifth annual High School Drama Summit at Tokyo's leading Agora Theater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 18, 2015
Psycho-drama mystery tests Tani's 'pop' principles
"Probably nobody ever got involved with theater the way I did," Kenichi Tani said with a laugh, explaining that because his teachers at school were "really boring" he set his sights on becoming an interesting teacher in the future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 11, 2015
'Titanic' set to sail into Japanese hearts
English director Thom Southerland's reworking of the megahit Broadway musical "Titanic" was an instant sensation when it opened in August 2013 at the popular midsize Southwark Playhouse in a trendy part of South London by the River Thames.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 4, 2015
John Caird delivers home truths with 'Twelfth Night'
As an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Caird may be one of the leading pillars of the English theater establishment, but in a recent interview with The Japan Times, this acclaimed director of plays, musicals and opera declared, "In a sense, some part of me is becoming...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 25, 2015
Unique exhibition reveals some K-Ballet gems and pure Kumakawa gold
"Looking at my last 15 years' work, I see it as a series of excitements," Tetsuya Kumakawa told The Japan Times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 18, 2015
'Mercury Fur' exposes a caring kind of depravity
After the premiere of "Mercury Fur" at Theatre Tram in Tokyo's lively Sangenjaya district this month, Issey Takahashi, who stars in that dystopian 2005 play by Philip Ridley, declared: "I think this is a very dark prophecy, but as I was acting my character Elliot today, I also felt it's a story of hope...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2015
No-frills dramatist casts Japan in a different light
The title of Yudai Kamisato's new work "+51 Aviacíon, San Borja" references his grandmother's address in Lima and the international telephone dialling code of Peru — but that only hints at the unusually cosmopolitan background of this 32-year-old Japanese playwright and director who also has relatives...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2015
Double bill seeks out unknowns
Like many others in Japan’s rising performing-artist generation, 34-year-old Ney Hasegawa says he first felt the lure of the stage when he went to see shōgekijō (small-scale youth theater) plays while he was in high school. After that, he started taking an interest in dance, too, and when he formed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2015
Ninagawa still exploring in eighth take on 'Hamlet'
Yukio Ninagawa's "cherry-blossom" staging of "Macbeth" at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985, with actors in that famously Scottish play sporting kimono rather than kilts, was a sensation due to its radical reimagining of so revered a work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 28, 2015
Yokohama fest offers a performing-arts feast
Since Tokyo Performing Arts Market began in 1995, the annual event has established itself as one of Asia's leading trade shows for creators, producers and festival organizers — as well as being a great chance for general audiences to catch a wide range of cutting-edge works staged over a short period...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2015
Avignon chief sees culture and politics sharing the stage
"The Avignon Festival is not only about shows and theater, but also about thinking, searching and seeking to understand the world and its politics — and offering an opportunity for three weeks' intellectual life experience every year," Olivier Py, the event's artistic director, declared with passion...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 21, 2015
French triumph frees SPAC pioneer to be bolder still
Following on Olivier Py's comment in the accompanying story that "everybody" at last year's Avignon Festival loved Satoshi Miyagi's "Mahabharata — Nalacharitam," which Py, as the festival's director, had awarded the honor of opening the event, I rolled up to Shizuoka Performing Arts Center to find...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 24, 2014
2014: New horizons opened up in Japan's theater world
Looking back over the past 12 months in Japan's theater world, it's clear that one encouraging trend is a lessening of the capital's dominance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 17, 2014
Silence is golden in art-comedy for all
"I've been drawing pictures for as long as I can remember," Kentaro Kobayashi said when I asked him how he came to be such a versatile and popular entertainer.
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.

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