Tag - koji

 
 

KOJI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 3, 2018
Koji Yakusho reveals what makes a good director and how it feels to play 'dirty'
With a career spanning four decades, Koji Yakusho has been both a star overseas ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Babel") and an award-winner at home, most notably for his 1996 breakthrough "Shall We Dance?" But through it all he has maintained a Tom Hanks-esque nice guy image.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 29, 2017
Nomura CEO targets U.S. in push that could include acquisitions, and puts European ranks on notice
Nomura Holdings Inc. is getting serious about shedding its perennial underdog status in the U.S.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017
Surefire formulas failed Japanese cinema in 2017
In a quarter-century of reporting on the Japanese film industry, I've yet to find one optimist about its future.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 19, 2017
JAAF recognizes top athletes at annual awards banquet
Post-Olympic years are usually considered down years. But it wasn't necessarily the case for Japan's track and field scene, which was highlighted by some notable feats and accomplishments in 2017.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 4, 2017
Supercar's 'Three Out Change!!' may be the most stunning debut in Japanese rock history
The years 1997 and 1998 were a watershed in Japanese music. It was the dizzying peak that marked the point between the relentlessly climbing music sales that preceded and the mostly unbroken decline that followed. It also saw the 21st century begin to take shape, with artists such as Hikaru Utada, Ayumi...
Japan Times
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Sep 15, 2017
T.League unveils ambitious details for inaugural 2018 season, beyond
With an ambitious goal to eventually become the best table tennis league in the world, the T.League Premier League will kick off in Japan in the fall of 2018.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 6, 2017
'The Third Murder': Director Hirokazu Koreeda triumphs with a trial drama that keeps the focus on character
Murder mysteries are popular film and television fodder in Japan, but most revolve around puzzle plots that hold as much real-world probability as the cases of Sherlock Holmes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 5, 2017
A somber prelude to riots of color
Koji Kinutani's entire career — from his student work to his metaphysical portraiture, which inaugurated a manga trend in contemporary art; his Styrofoam sculptures; the "Goddess of the Silvery Peak" (the basis for the official 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games poster); and his sometimes frightening...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 25, 2017
Drinking to health and history in Kagoshima
Passengers flying into Kagoshima Airport in Kyushu pass over verdant mountains and lush agricultural fields just before landing. This rich terrain, fertilized by ash from a nearby active volcano, partially explains one facet of the prefecture's reputation: Kagoshima is famous for healthy cuisine.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 15, 2017
Once a food for the upper classes, tofu is now enjoyed by the masses
It's not certain exactly when tofu was introduced to Japan. One theory holds that it was brought over from China by the great Buddhist priest and scholar Kukai, also known as Kobo Taishi (734-835) in the early ninth century during the early Heian Period (794- 1185). However, we must fast-forward to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 8, 2017
Ginza's new noh theater seeks to break down cultural barriers
The Kanze Noh Theater reopened in April in Ginza Six, a new upscale shopping complex in central Tokyo that seeks to attract domestic and foreign audiences to a wide range of the country's traditional performing arts.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 2017
Television has forgotten its golden years
Japanese commercial television companies have a problem. The bulk of their programming has always been aimed at relatively young people, because that's what advertisers want. But young people no longer watch TV, or, at least, not in the numbers they used to. Having grown up in a world ruled by the internet,...
Japan Times
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Apr 7, 2017
JAAF looking to raise bar for nation's male sprinters
The Japan men's 4x100-meter relay team stunned the world by capturing the silver medal at last summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympics. And that feat made its compatriots think the future is bright for the nation's sprinters for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 10, 2017
Fukada's filmmaking a breath of fresh air
Koji Fukada's black comedy "Hospitalite" ("Kantai") won best film in the Tokyo International Film Festival's Japanese Eyes section in 2010 and since then he has become accustomed to stepping up on stages to receive prizes for his work.

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