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April 01, 2025
 

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FILM

People dressed as King Kong and Godzilla attend the world premiere of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood last month.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Apr 2, 2024
'Godzilla x Kong' tops North American box office with $80 million haul
Japan's favorite monster seems to be on a roll this year, winning an Oscar and topping the box office in a prized market.
A poster for "Oppenheimer" is displayed at a theater in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Friday. The film's Japan debut came eight months after its global release.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2024
'Oppenheimer' opens in Japan eight months after global release
Japan screenings were delayed as the worldwide premiere was only weeks before the anniversary of the 1945 bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Joel Vaudreuil's "When Adam Changes" won the grand prix at this year's Niigata International Animation Film Festival, the largest festival devoted to feature-length animation in Asia.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 28, 2024
Niigata film festival showcases cutting-edge overseas talent
The six-day event dedicated to feature-length animation presented a lineup of stories that were psychologically rich and emotionally dark.
Directed and co-written by Sunao Katabuchi, animated film “In This Corner of the World” depicts the beauty of nature and the horrors of war with equal potency.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2024
Films that give the Japanese perspective of the atomic bomb
Movies about the nation's darkest days — in genres such as dramas, fantasies and anime — offer another side to Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' story.
“Blue Imagine” centers on a young actor (Mayu Yamaguchi) who finds support at a communal living space after she is sexually assaulted by a well-known director while participating in his actors’ workshop.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2024
'Blue Imagine' gives voice to victims of sexual abuse in the film industry
Urara Matsubayashi's debut feature finds the beauty in women coming together in solidarity to publicly speak out against abusers.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2024
The night Godzilla trampled Hollywood
The humanity behind visual effects and animation won in the end, and Japan should be proud.
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus One,” which won an Academy Award for best visual effects earlier this week, was made for a reported $15 million — a small fraction of the budgets used by its Hollywood competitors.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2024
'Godzilla Minus One' fought the odds and won big at the Oscars
Once mocked, the long-running monster franchise took on Hollywood's behemoths — and won.
Nintendo's popular video game character Super Mario will return to the big screen in April 2026.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 11, 2024
Nintendo announces new 'Super Mario' movie
The video game company will partner with animation studio Illumination again for the animated feature scheduled for an April 2026 release.
Masaki Takahashi, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya and Tatsuji Nojima celebrated winning the Oscar for best visual effects on the Dolby Theatre stage in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2024
Oscars 2024: A night to remember for Japanese cinema
Filmmaking peers in Hollywood honor the excellence of two Japanese titans: Studio Ghibli and Godzilla
Nikon's acquisition of RED, a favorite in Hollywood, promises to propel the Japanese firm into the world of cinema.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 8, 2024
Nikon to buy U.S. cinema camera maker RED
The acquisition of RED, a favorite in Hollywood, promises to propel the Japanese firm into the world of cinema.
Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, at his office in Burbank, California
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 27, 2024
Disney reshuffles leadership at troubled namesake movie division
New President David Greenbaum oversaw the release of Oscar nominated "Poor Things" and previous winners such as "The Shape of Water" and "Nomadland."
Wim Wenders (left) co-wrote the script for “Perfect Days” with top advertising creative Takuma Takasaki. Japanese star Koji Yakusho (right) won best actor at Cannes last year for his performance as the film’s protagonist, a taciturn toilet cleaner in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2024
Oscar-nominated 'Perfect Days' is 'not about toilets,' Wenders says
The director's film about a taciturn cleaner who keeps Tokyo's public toilets spotless prompts reflections on urban solitude, community and growing older.
Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada attends the red carpet event for FX's "Shogun" at the Academy theater in Los Angeles on Feb. 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 27, 2024
Disney’s ‘Shogun’ has a lot to teach the West
Walt Disney returns "Shogun" to the screen and reinvents an epic tale for a new generation.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2024
Film director Hideo Sakaki held on suspicion of sexual assault
While allegations of sexual abuse were made against Sakaki as far back as March 2022, this is the first time that the director has been taken into custody.
Diagnosed at a young age with a rare variant of glycogen storage disease type IV, Mark Bookman went on to distinguish himself in academia in both the United States and Japan.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Feb 19, 2024
New film honors life and legacy of disability pioneer Mark Bookman
Free screenings of THE new documentary on Japan-based disability rights advocate Mark Bookman will be held around Tokyo on Feb. 24, 25 and 27.
Straight-to-video films, locally called “V-Cinema,” were popular in the 1990s and into the 2000s, becoming a training ground and launchpad for Japanese directors and actors.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024
Threatened with extinction, V-Cinema hopes for new saviors
Physical deterioration and copyright issues mar the influential film genre that once served as a launchpad for directors and actors in Japan.
The title monster in “Godzilla Minus One” is a threat, of course, but the real story is about finding community in the wake of destruction.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2024
‘Godzilla Minus One’ stomps into ‘Oppenheimer’ territory
Those movies, along with “The Boy and the Heron,” are essentially in conversation about the moral weight of American and Japanese actions in World War II.
An Oppenheimer film poster at AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York in July
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 24, 2024
'Oppenheimer' to be shown in Japan, eight months after meme outrage
The release date is almost eight months after memes mixing visuals from the film "Barbie" with atomic blasts provoked anger from people in Japan.
Journalist Shiori Ito sheds a tear as she speaks to reporters outside the Tokyo district court on Dec. 18, 2019, after hearing the ruling on a damages lawsuit by her, accusing a former TV reporter of rape.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2024
Japanese journalist brings lonely #MeToo battle to Sundance
Shiori Ito's fight for justice is the subject of "Black Box Diaries," a documentary she herself directed.
Rising directorial star Sho Miyake's new relationship drama, "All the Long Nights," centers on two colleagues (Hokuto Matsumura, left, and Mone Kamishiraishi) who form a bond when they discover they both struggle with health issues.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2024
Familiar faces return to the big screen in 2024
Amid a roster of hits such as "Demon Slayer," “Doraemon” and “Detective Conan," Japanese cinema gets a little more inclusive in the year ahead.
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
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