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December 23, 2024
 

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CLASSICAL

The Tubassadors are (from left) Tomohiro Sosogi, Kazuto Shikada, Soen Tamura and Keisuke Nishibu.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 5, 2024
The Tubassadors hope to change the tuba’s tune
Orchestras aren't known for tuba solos in their performances. However, this Tokyo-based quartet puts the instrument front and center.
Maestro Seiji Ozawa (center) lays flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in October 2005.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Sep 9, 2024
Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s prayer for peace lives on in Hiroshima
His musical roots — and passion — can be traced back to the city where the first atomic bomb was detonated.
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Jul 14, 2024
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Great pianists aren't made overnight, it takes years of practice. It can all be undone in a matter of days, however, due to a medical condition called dystonia.
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet
CULTURE / Music / OUR PLANET
May 7, 2024
How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music
Hiroto Nagai has sonified polar climate data, resulting in a string quartet piece that he thinks can get people to care more about what the data expresses.
Pianist Fuzjko Hemming shot to fame after a documentary program about her life was aired on NHK in 1999. Her debut album released the same year, "La Campanella," sold over 2 million copies.
CULTURE / Music
May 2, 2024
Renowned pianist Fuzjko Hemming dies at 92
Born in Berlin to a Swedish architect father and a Japanese pianist mother, Hemming began learning the piano from her mother at the age of 5.
Experimentation seemed to be a driving force throughout conductor Seiji Ozawa’s life as he pushed the boundaries of what a Japanese artist could achieve with classical music to magnificent heights.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2024
Seiji Ozawa’s boundless experiment
The influential conductor was not only a man of extraordinary talent, his warm character had the power to unite people as one.
Seiji Ozawa shows his humorous side during a photo shoot with The Japan Times in 2017. The influential conductor died Feb. 6.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 10, 2024
The story behind my favorite photo of Seiji Ozawa
A lot of photography comes down to luck and reflexes. Once you get that magic shot, though, it can stay with you forever.
Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa during a rehearsal in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in September 2005.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2024
Seiji Ozawa, Japan’s trailblazing maestro, dies at 88
Throughout his illustrious career, Ozawa was instrumental in popularizing classical music for mainstream audiences in Japan and abroad.
Hiroko Higashino, who was born with three fingers on her right hand, plays an AI-powered piano during a rehearsal for a Christmas concert in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2023
AI-assisted piano allows disabled Tokyo musicians to perform Beethoven
To assist players, the Anybody's Piano tracks the notes of the music and augments the performance by adding whatever keys are needed but not pressed.
Janos Cegledy sits in a park in Tokyo's Nerima Ward. The pianist says Japan suits him, “There is a certain civility and politeness here which you don’t find anywhere else.”
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / Longform
Dec 11, 2023
The extraordinary life of a Holocaust survivor living in Japan
Janos Cegledy tours schools, telling his story. If the students ever meet a Holocaust denier, he says, they can reply, "I met someone who was there."
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2023
Pianist Yukie Nishimura performs in former no-go zone in Fukushima
The event took place in the Tsushima district in the Fukushima town of Namie after the government's evacuation order was lifted in March this year.
John Williams (right) and Seiji Ozawa (center) have been friends for decades. Their long-awaited reunion in Japan comes courtesy of a musical collaboration between Williams and the Saito Kinen Orchestra for the 31st edition of Ozawa’s annual music festival.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 24, 2023
Music legends John Williams and Seiji Ozawa reunite at Matsumoto festival
The American composer and conductor led a special program featuring his famous film scores at his long-time friend's annual event in Nagano Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 14, 2023
'Honeybees and Distant Thunder' is an ode to nature informing art and life
Riku Onda's vibrant novel follows four characters as they navigate the pressures and joys of competing in a piano contest and examines the idea of genius in the world of classical music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 27, 2023
Japan-based Holocaust survivor honors historic Jewish revolt with piano performance
Pianist Janos Cegledy's three pieces at a commemorative event in Tokyo for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Poland were a moving tribute to the Jewish people’s acts of bravery.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2023
Ryuichi Sakamoto, trailblazing musician and film composer, dies at 71
Ryuichi Sakamoto, an award-winning composer and member of pioneering electronic act Yellow Magic Orchestra, has died. He was 71 years old.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 20, 2023
Mao Fujita makes Mozart's sonatas his own
The 24-year-old concert pianist adds flourish to familiar melodies ahead of his debut recital at New York’s hallowed Carnegie Hall.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Dec 4, 2022
Ryuichi Sakamoto keeps the music going with a 'profound' concert
The upcoming “Playing the Piano 2022” concert will showcase a musician still exploring new horizons while contemplating the finiteness of life.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2022
Japanese pianists win first and fourth prizes in Paris contest
Japanese musicians won the first and fourth prizes in the piano category of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin international music competition in Paris.
Zelenskyy to replace Ukraine ambassador to Japan
Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky delivers a speech during a handover ceremony of Self-Defense Force vehicles to Ukraine, at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, in May last year.
Bankruptcies and suicides rise as Japanese struggle with mounting debt
Lawyers estimate that personal bankruptcies in Japan are on track to reach the highest since 2012 this year.
Honda and Nissan consider mutual production of vehicles, report says
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2023.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
North Korea aiding Russia where it needs it most, Canadian general says
North Korean special forces soldiers march and shout slogans during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang in April 2017.

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