Tag - channel-surf

 
 

CHANNEL SURF

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 1, 2002
A look at the trials of the uprooted
Though so-called international marriages continue to become more commonplace in Japan, the authorities still treat them as glaring exceptions that call for special treatment. If you're not a Japanese national and you want to make sure you can stay in Japan in the event you divorce your Japanese spouse,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 24, 2002
Some downright formulaic viewing
As sports go, you can't get more specialized than Formula 1 racing. Built completely around machines, it is a team endeavor that goes beyond pit crews to embrace entire engineering staffs and, theoretically, whole automotive companies.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 17, 2002
Conveying messages of unity
It is estimated that an average of 220 people "evaporate" every day in Japan. The reasons are many, but can mostly be reduced to debt, love affairs, personal tragedy and involvement in crimes. And with no end in sight for the recession, the number is increasing year by year. Last year, about 80,000 Japanese...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 10, 2002
Clueing in on death, crime and happiness
The three dominant themes of this season's crop of drama series are detectives, fathers and hospitals, all of which can be found in this week's "Monday Mystery Theatre" (TBS, 9 p.m.). In "The Man Who Pursues the Truth," a brilliant surgeon investigates the death of a man who, like himself, lost a daughter...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 3, 2002
Meet a pianist and 'genius' chimpanzee on a poll-to-Pole journey
On Oct. 27, by-elections were held in seven districts throughout Japan for Diet seats that had been vacated by politicians forced to resign over scandals. If you weren't aware of this, don't feel bad. Not many people were. Average voter turnout was only about 33 percent. The media didn't pay much attention...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 27, 2002
Romantics, reporter go far away, so close
In Japan, there's a commonly held romantic notion that people who really want to pursue certain kinds of ambitions have to go abroad to do so. Only by immersing oneself in an environment that offers no distractions from the goal can one truly master a discipline.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 20, 2002
Apartment woes, life-or-death crises demystified
As proved by the Japanese government's successful lobbying efforts to retain the "Sea of Japan" on international maps to signify the body of water that separates the archipelago from the Korean Peninsula (South Korea wanted to change it to the "East Sea"), the Sea of Japan has an important value to all...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 13, 2002
Dear old dads star in series, specials
Fathers of all shapes and sizes are the stars of this week's lineup of drama specials and new series. "Otosan (Father)," premieres Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. on the TBS network.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 6, 2002
Down on the farm with the Tokio boys
According to research, currently the only TV show that men over age 45 can stomach, other than NHK's "Project X," is "The Tetsuwan Dash" (Nippon TV, Sundays, 6:55 p.m.). In the show, the boy band Tokio -- collectively and individually -- embark on large, time-consuming projects involving agriculture,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 29, 2002
30 years of China relations aired out
Thirty years ago, the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka normalized relations with the People's Republic of China. Historically, the relationship between Japan and China has often been compared to that between Rome and Greece, since much of Japan's culture (writing system, Buddhism, handicrafts, etc.)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 22, 2002
Suffer the little children; endure the fitness freaks
TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi recently made her 20th journey overseas as a special ambassador for UNICEF. This time she went to Somalia and, as always, a TV Asahi crew followed her as she looked into the plight of children in the war-torn country. An account of her trip will be broadcast Sunday at...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 15, 2002
It's time for family feuds!
The inter-season "specials" period is in full swing, and this week there appears to be more than the usual number of variety programs dedicated to dysfunctional families. If you're into this type of thing, which usually involves cameras invading homes where husbands and wives fight, kids fight or in-laws...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 8, 2002
The 21st-century Yujiro Ishihara's brother
Several years ago, the production company that used to be headed by the late heartthrob Yujiro Ishihara staged a contest to find the "Yujiro Ishihara of the 21st Century." Among the aspiring young actors who entered the contest was Kotaro Koizumi, whose politician father was not yet prime minister. Kotaro...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 1, 2002
The pros and cons of character typing
If you need help with a problem and want to make a bunch of celebrities feel good, check out Nippon TV's "Power Bank" (Sunday, 12:30 p.m.). For each episode of the show, individuals register as "helpers," meaning people with some kind of skill or experience, and when a viewer requests assistance, this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 25, 2002
The man who holds the purse strings
For better or worse, the Ryukyu Islands, whose most prominent member is Okinawa, have produced more major J-pop acts since 1995 than any other part of Japan save Tokyo.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 18, 2002
There's two sides to every story . . .
Despite his ubiquity in the media, the comedian Beat Takeshi is never asked to appear on NHK's sogo (general) channel, which is why his one-minute appearance last New Year's Eve on NHK's annual song contest received a lot of media attention. Considering that other popular comedians are also conspicuously...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 11, 2002
Pretend you win some, you lose some
For the second year in a row, NHK commemorates the end of the Pacific War with a drama special based on a novel by Hisashi Inoue. Last year, it was Inoue's epic about a Tokyo family, "Aozora no Tango." Sunday at 9 p.m. on NHK-G, it will be a more lighthearted tale set shortly after the war.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 28, 2002
Putting her house in order
In Japan, the vast majority of legal adoptions -- more than 90 percent -- are of adults and are usually carried out for inheritance or family succession purposes. A house with only daughters, say, will adopt a grown man who can maintain the family business and family name.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 21, 2002
The men of the house
The TV show that has most successfully exploited the current housing "reform" boom is Asahi's "Daikozo! Gekiteki Before/After (Big Construction! Dramatic Before and After)" (Sundays, 7:56 p.m.), which was the only program during the recent World Cup that managed to pull in double-digit ratings opposite...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 14, 2002
The trouble with today's disaffected youth
Long before he said "no" to America and became the controversial governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara was one of Japan's most important postwar novelists, more influential than Mishima, if not as gifted. His most famous work, "Taiyo no Kisetsu (Season of the Sun)," is certainly the last word on youthful...

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