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.
CD Review | BEST-SELLER Jul 17, 2013
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu "Nanda Collection"
by Patrick ST. Michel
“Am I an adult? Or am I a kid?” sings Kyary Pamyu Pamyu on “Furisodation,” a song about the Harajuku blogger-turned-model-turned-pop-star turning 20 earlier this year. That’s the question that looms over all of her sophomore album, “Nanda Collection.” The album is obsessed with ...
CD Review Apr 18, 2013
Kis-My-Ft2 "Good Ikuze!" (Avex Trax)
by Patrick ST. Michel
Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you’ve been unable to escape the bleating “Wanna Beeee!!!” while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, “From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!” So this review ...
Music Mar 7, 2013
There's no battering the Tempura Kidz spirit
by Patrick ST. Michel
The members of Tempura Kidz have danced in front of thousands of strangers at sold-out venues across Japan, including Tokyo's famed Budokan and the Summer Sonic festival. Yet on a Thursday night in a Harajuku office building, the teenage quintet is nervous.
Music | Strange Boutique Feb 1, 2013
AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture
by Ian Martin
The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that’s guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger. ...
National Feb 1, 2013
AKB48 idol begs for fans' mercy after breaking dating ban
by Jun Hongo
A member of AKB48 stirs up an online frenzy by getting a crew cut and posting an apology for breaking the all-girl group’s rule against romantic relationships.
Music Dec 21, 2012
Hatsune Miku goes highbrow
by Roland Kelts
On her own, Japanese pop superstar Hatsune Miku can’t sing. Nor can she rap, dance or DJ. She is drug- and alcohol-free because she can’t indulge in either, and she can’t have affairs or engage in offstage shenanigans fit for YouTube scandals or tabloid ...
Music May 18, 2012
Will the world soon wake up to the scent of Perfume?
by Daniel Robson
When the Nippon Budokan was built in 1964, its architects probably never envisaged it one day resembling a massive nightclub filled with hundreds of laser beams in every shade of neon as three women in lightup minidresses danced like finely tuned robots to the ...
Editorial Oct 22, 2009
Unexpected Olympic pitch
The mayors of the atomic-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have announced their desire to invite the 2020 Summer Olympics to their cities and have called on the central government and the Japan Olympic Committee for support. Mayors Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima and Tomihisa ...