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January 22, 2025
 

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James Hadfield
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2025
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
New exhibition “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time” is the first comprehensive overview of the musician’s installation work presented in Japan.
A masterless samurai in 15th-century Japan (Yo Oizumi) leads a popular uprising against the authorities in “Muromachi Outsiders.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2025
‘Muromachi Outsiders’: Yo Oizumi commands attention in rebellion tale
The actor convincingly breaks the mold of his comedy persona to inhabit the role of a sword-wielding folk hero in Yu Irie’s period epic.
The film version of “The Solitary Gourmet” is a directorial debut for Yutaka Matsushige, long known for his leading role as salaryman and gourmand Goro Inogashira.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2025
‘The Solitary Gourmet’: Palatable movie adaptation may leave you wanting more
Lead actor Yutaka Matsushige’s film directing debut offers ambient pleasure for fans of the long-running TV series.
Kenichi Takito (left) and Non play literary nemeses working in close quarters in Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s lukewarm comedy, “The Hotel of My Dream.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2024
‘The Hotel of My Dream’: A literary comedy that never really gels
Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s adaptation of Asako Yuzuki’s novel promises a festive treat, but casting and cadence prevent it from realizing its full potential.
AE3803 (Mei Nagano, left) and U-1146 (Takeru Satoh) are the red and white blood cell protagonists of “Cells at Work!,” Hideki Takeuchi’s quirky film about the human body.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2024
‘Cells at Work!’: Cellular shenanigans make for a fantastic voyage
Spirited performances by Mei Nagano and Takeru Satoh bolster Hideki Takeuchi’s quirky and stylish film.
Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s “The Making of a Japanese” is an even-handed portrait of elementary school in Japan, where the citizens of tomorrow are forged.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2024
‘The Making of a Japanese’: A warm and engaging portrait of Japanese schoolchildren
Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s documentary is a candid and heartfelt glimpse of elementary school in Tokyo.
Keiichi Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama) goes on the run after being sentenced to death for a triple murder he insists he didn’t commit in Michihito Fujii’s “Faceless.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2024
‘Faceless’: Fugitive thriller turns a blind eye to hard truths
Michihiro Fujii’s latest offers stylistic flourishes while treading the familiar terrain of the fugitive film.
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2024
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
Junichi Yasuda’s film about a time-traveling warrior is a loving tribute to the “jidaigeki” (period drama) genre and its practitioners.
A strait-laced tax officer (Seiyo Uchino) teams up with a gang of con artists to take down a crooked property developer in “Angry Squad: Civil Servant and Seven Swindlers.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2024
‘Angry Squad’: A caper comedy with a lot of heart
The film’s two-hour running time breezes by as a strait-laced tax officer joins a colorful crew of con artists.
Childhood friends Hiroto (Hiroya Shimizu, right) and Kanamori (Mahiro Takasugi, left) find their gangland loyalties put to the test in Takuro Iwaya’s “Oasis.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2024
‘Oasis’: Real-life bromance elevates a generic crime drama
Co-stars Hiroya Shimizu and Mahiro Takasugi’s convincing chemistry as childhood friends carries Takuro Iwaya’s pulpy B-movie.
An idealistic samurai (Taiga Nakano) leads a motley gang of felons on a suicide mission to defend a fortress during the 1868-69 Boshin War.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2024
‘11 Rebels’: Underdog antiheroes deliver a crowd pleaser
A knotty period in Japanese history gets a modern treatment in Kazuya Shiraishi’s spectacle-driven samurai period drama.
A gravely ill man (Arata Iura) starts to question if it’s worth sacrificing the life of his clone in order to save his own in Sayaka Kai’s “Adabana.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2024
‘Adabana’: Existential sci-fi will have you seeing double
Sayaka Kai’s drama set in a world where a privileged elite extend their lives by keeping clones in reserve is imbued with literal and figurative darkness.
“The Cats of Gokogu Shrine” centers on a local shrine in Ushimado’s Honmachi district, which has become home to a colony of street cats.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2024
Kazuhiro Soda embraces the wisdom of street cats
The filmmaker turns his camera closer to home in his new documentary, “The Cats of Gokogu Shrine,” and brings a community into focus.
Ayato (Hayato Isomura) and his younger brother do their best to navigate difficult life circumstances in “The Young Strangers.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2024
‘The Young Strangers’: A tough watch but thrillingly alive
Takuya Uchiyama’s drama about two brothers trying to make it from one day to the next is audacious and emotionally wrenching.
“Super Happy Forever” tells the story of a couple (Hiroki Sano, left, and Nairu Yamamoto) who met at a seaside hotel.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2024
‘Super Happy Forever’: Melancholy romance makes most of fleeting happiness
Kohei Igarashi’s nonlinear romantic drama is an understated but emotionally resonant tale of love and loss.
A husband and wife living in domestic bliss — in space — are not quite as perfect as they seem in “Previously Saved Version.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2024
‘Previously Saved Version’: An intriguing premise gets lost in space
Kei Ishikawa’s psychodrama about an affluent couple that has left a supposedly uninhabitable Earth is attractive to look at but never more than mildly engaging.
Comedian Yuriyan Retriever takes on the role of Japan’s most hated heel, Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto, in “The Queen of Villains.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Sep 20, 2024
Yuriyan Retriever is Japan's biggest heel — and proud of it
The comedian takes on the role of Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto, a real-life rule-breaking brawler in women’s professional wrestling, in Netflix's “The Queen of Villains.”
Ryo Yoshizawa plays a young man with deaf parents in Mipo O’s decade-spanning drama, “Living in Two Worlds.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2024
‘Living in Two Worlds’ raises the bar for depictions of deafness
Mipo O’s film about a child of deaf adults is best when it doesn’t try to educate viewers.
Masami Nagasawa looks fabulous in a range of outfits as the eponymous protagonist of “All About Suomi.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2024
‘All About Suomi’: The leading lady shines, but the film lacks sparkle
Masami Nagasawa’s performance as a woman whose true self is hard to pin down elevates an otherwise middling Koki Mitani comedy.
A young woman visiting a rural backwater from Tokyo (An Ogawa) finds an unlikely playmate in Tatsunari Ota’s “There Is a Stone.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2024
‘There Is a Stone’ finds beauty in the inconsequential
While very little happens, Tatsunari Ota’s slow-moving debut feature offers stirring moments of simplicity.
Trump pledges to save U.S. from 'decline,' vowing new 'golden age'
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
Cedar pollen is already in the air in Tokyo
Climate change and urbanization are believed to have contributed to the earliest ever observation of cedar pollen in Tokyo, on Jan. 8, an expert says.
Large fire breaks out near Osaka's Tsutenkaku Tower
Smoke rises from a fire at a commercial building near Tsutenkaku Tower, in Osaka, on Tuesday.
U.S. Osprey accidentally drops cargo into sea in Okinawa
A V-22 Osprey
What went wrong at Fuji TV's news conference on allegations against Nakai?
Fuji TV President Koichi Minato speaks at a news conference on Friday in Tokyo.
'America first' returns as Trump ditches focus on allies and rules-based order
U.S. President Donald Trump reviews troops during his inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington on Monday.
Japan looks to learn from the past with bid to build Australian warships
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami frigate, of the class of the same name, is anchored at the MSDF's naval base in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in September 2022.
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.

Podcast

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

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

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