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A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Takashi Miike's blood-soaked vengeance tale, one of two Japanese films being shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, draws the biggest boos so far, with critics savaging it as overacted and cliched.
Have you ever given your best effort while striving to achieve something but felt like what you were doing was futile? That’s the feeling I’m getting about Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics. With just over three months to go until the IOC ...
Unlike most jazz drummers — even those that lead their own band — Han Bennink is a force unto himself, playing in his own inimitable way regardless of who’s alongside him. Audiences in Tokyo will get to experience this for themselves next month when ...
Though a music professor at the University of California, Irvine with 13 albums under his belt, 54-year-old Kei Akagi is still best known for having played on Miles Davis’ last recorded works. The Sendai-born, Cleveland- raised pianist and composer maintains the link on his ...
Though branded the French Bjork, 33-year-old Daphne’s claim to fame in Japan comes from singing the theme song in a commercial for Kanebo hair products. But “La Cle,” a bonus track on the Japanese release of her second album, “Carmin,” reveals a sultry, sexy ...
Gonzalo Rubalcaba may be Cuba’s best export besides cigars. Though the 44-year-old pianist/composer, now based in the United States, has played with various groups in Japan before, notably at the Mount Fuji Jazz Festival in the 1990s, for his forthcoming tour he will hold ...
The recipient of Japan’s second-highest honor, The Order of the Rising Sun, two years ago, 74-year-old alto-saxophonist Sadao Watanabe has come a long way, baby, since the bearded longhair studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in the 1960s. Watanabe has had a varied ...
Dream teams of any sort are temporary creations made to fulfill a fan’s fantasies, and musical ones do not get any more fantastic than The Quartet. Pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette are giants of the jazz ...
The Tokyo Jazz fest organized by NHK and Nikkei was a 2-day event when it started 5 years ago and, up until 2005, had Herbie Hancock as director. How things have changed. Like 2006′s event, this year’s festival will still be at Tokyo International ...
Brooklyn-born Marcus Miller kicks off his latest album playing the sitar, lending “Blast” an Indian groove before adopting a hip-hop beat in the chorus. It’s an early indication of Miller’s diverse musical tastes: “Free” features the noted bass guitarist playing 14 different instruments. Miller, ...
It is easy to tell that Hiromi Uehara is a hypersensitive pianist, aware of everything around her as she performs. During one concert, a cell phone rang, and she quickly played a chord based on the ring tone to smooth over the interruption — ...
Fresh from winning the 2007 Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy for “Simpatico,” pianist Eddie Palmieri and trumpeter Brian Lynch are bringing their quartet to Japan. The group will play Blue Note Tokyo at its Roots Music Festival before continuing on to the Sapporo City ...
The man who helped make the ukulele more than a Hawaiian curiosity continues to show listeners what the four-stringed instrument can do on his latest album. Here, Ohta-san — the stage name of 72-year-old, Honolulu-born Herb Ohta — covers Antonio Carlos Jobim songs, in ...
At 68, with a taste and range as diverse and eclectic as ever, Takeshi Shibuya shows no signs of slowing down. In the past week alone, Shibuya has played with his famed Takeshi Shibuya Orchestra, performed as part of a duo with a guitarist, ...