Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Stage | STAGE Dec 22, 2011
Japan's dramatists take on the 'nuclear village'
by Nobuko Tanaka
The place to start when reviewing this year’s highlights in contemporary Japanese theater, has to be The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11. That day led to a nation in mourning, an ongoing nuclear crisis and an awakening among dramatists, who saw the ...
Stage | STAGE Sep 9, 2011
Festival/Tokyo rewrites its script after quake
by Nobuko Tanaka
Chiaki Soma, the program director at Festival/Tokyo (F/T), needed to figure out how to proceed with the country’s biggest theater festival following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. She closed her office for 10 days and asked the staff to carefully consider ...
Stage | STAGE Sep 1, 2011
Sachiko Hara makes her mark in Germany
by Nobuko Tanaka
Tokyo-born Sachiko Hara, 46, was the apple of her ordinary, working-parents’ eye. She was encouraged to get a degree in German studies from the prestigious Sophia University, and after that it seemed some sort of high-flying career was hers for the taking. But during ...
Stage | STAGE Aug 11, 2011
Tokyo gets five rare takes on Kyoto tradition
by Rei Sasaguchi
The upcoming staging of NHK Enterprises’ fifth “Gei no Shinzui” (“The Essence of Art”) series at the National Theatre in Tokyo promises a rare and rather sublime Kyoto treat for the capital’s lovers of traditional Japanese performing arts. Titled “Kyo no Miyabi” (“The Elegance ...
Stage | STAGE Aug 4, 2011
Rising noh star on mission to broaden audience
by Tomoko Otake
Noh, the 600-year-old performing art featuring drummers, chorus singers and masked actors, has survived in the modern world to this day thanks to its loyal, though aging, fan base. But as with many other traditional art forms, it is in dire need of new ...
Art | STAGE Aug 4, 2011
'Tokyo Tango': A fairy tale to keep you on your toes
by Tai Kawabata
When the mayor of a village is told by a frog king, who is fascinated by the elegance of swans gliding in the lake, that his villagers should wear toe shoes (ballet pointe shoes) all the time, he instructs everyone between the age of ...
Stage | STAGE Jul 21, 2011
From the favelas of Brazil come street-style dancers supreme
by Eriko Arita
In a weeklong festival of street-dance performances and competitions being held at Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, starting from July 30, one dance group perhaps stands out in particular for its emotionally charged performances. As part of Compagnie Käfig, a dance ...
Stage | STAGE Jul 14, 2011
The future of Japanese theater lies in individuality
by Nobuko Tanaka
In April 2010, Junnosuke Tada became Japan’s youngest-ever artistic director of a public theater when, at age 33, he was appointed by the Kirari Fujimi Theater in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture. Such meteoric progress (in Japanese terms) was an emphatic vindication of Tada’s decision to ...
Stage | STAGE Jun 16, 2011
You're not alone in feeling lonely
by Nobuko Tanaka
For playwright and director Ryuta Horai, the last two years have been a nonstop whirl of activity since “Mahoroba” (“A splendid location”) — his drama about four generations of women in a traditional rural family meeting up and feuding — won the highly prestigious ...