Daniel Robson - The Japan Times

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Daniel Robson

Daniel Robson, a British journalist based in Tokyo since 2006, is a features editor and writer at The Japan Times. He also writes freelance about music, videogames and Japanese pop culture for other publications around the world.

For Daniel Robson's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Apr 7, 2010

Game director Mikami ups speed, action in 'Vanquish'

Fifty-two floors above the ground in Tokyo's Roppongi district, one man is reaping all the applause. As he soaks it up, the look on his face is difficult to read. It has been over four years since he last received such attention, and he has yet to impart the information he came to relay; has yet to experience the coming vindication.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 2, 2010

Lights, camera, Sakanaction!

"I hope foreign listeners can persevere with Japanese music," laughs bespectacled musician Ichiro Yamaguchi. "Sure, there's a lot of crap music here, but there's a lot of good stuff, too. Intelligent music is in the minority now, but I believe it will become mainstream in the future."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 19, 2010

Tokyo Jihen "Sports"

Given that she writes the majority of the songs in both projects and works with many of the same musicians, it's bizarre that Shiina Ringo's finest moments come not in her solo work but with her band Tokyo Jihen. Last year's long-anticipated solo release "Sanmon Goshippu" ("Superficial Gossip") was a bland, overproduced collection of what sounded like game-show theme tunes. Thank goodness, then, for "Sports."

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Feb 17, 2010

Keep your fūtō out of your mouth at the post office

A fun part of living thousands of miles from family and friends is sending packages home — that is, so long as you know the requisite jargon to communicate at the yūbin kyoku (郵便局, post office).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 5, 2010

Supercell's synthetic pop wins real fans

"Most people become a musician intentionally and set out to find success," says Ryo, the multi-instrumental talent behind art-pop outfit Supercell. "But me, I just uploaded a song to (video-sharing Web site) Nico Nico Douga without any big intentions. People on that site go by their user name, not their real name — though Ryo is actually my name — and never reveal their true identity. Since that's the world I came from, that's just what stuck."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jan 8, 2010

Uhnellys "Be Bo Da"

Anyone who says the Japanese can't do hip-hop is at best wrong, and at worst blinkered. Usually taking their cues from old-school rap, before the quest for "bling" railroaded the genre's more commercial strata into a moneyed-up misogyny fest and drove the good stuff underground, plenty of Japanese acts stand on par with the best artists coming from the West. And without doubt, one of the most interesting is boy-girl duo Uhnellys.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Dec 25, 2009

The decade's most influential

Last week, The Japan Times picked Hikaru Utada as the most influential artist of the past decade. This week, our writers ask various figures in Japan's music scene who they thought were the most influential artists of the noughties. We asked them to choose one Japanese artist and one non-Japanese artist, a task that proved to be difficult for some. Meanwhile, other musicians thought movements such as the Internet were the star of the decade rather than an actual performer. Here's what they said: CRYSTAL KAY Singer

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Nov 25, 2009

Moving house needn't leave you speechless

Along with divorce and bereavement, hikkoshi (引っ越し, moving house) is widely considered one of the most stressful experiences a person can go through, and adding an unfamiliar language to the mix can be enough to drive the best of us bonkers. It doesn't help that in Japan fudōsanya (不動産屋, estate agents) and ōya (大屋, landlords) have a pile of infuriating and expensive customs; simply renting a place to live here can take almost Spartan stamina.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Nov 21, 2009

American bar, ski lodge owner puts the emphasis on fun

"The first question people ask when you say you're in the bar business in Japan is whether you have to pay money to the yakuza," says Matt Naiman, owner of several bars around Japan and a ski resort.

CULTURE / Music

Nov 13, 2009

Coldrain "Final Destination"

Formed in 2007 in Nagoya, emo- rockers Coldrain have a commodity that is rare among Japanese bands: English-language lyrics that don't suck. That's mainly down to vocalist Masato being part American. Yet while their lyrics are written in English, the band's presence online is entirely in Japanese. Coldrain are aimed squarely at the domestic market.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Nov 6, 2009

Vola & The Oriental's record-making Machine

"Once you're on a major label, you have to crank albums out fast!" says Ahito Inazawa, the frontman for Vola & The Oriental Machine.

CULTURE / Music

Oct 30, 2009

Masadayomasa "Kimagure Kapuri"

OK, so they're not the first band to do away with bass guitar and present a big fat sound as a duo. But by god, they're one of the best. Formed by Ruu and Miwako in Fukuoka in 2004, Masadayomasa play live shows so hot as to practically melt your ears: Miwako standing as she crashes massive rhythms from her drum kit; Ruu arching backwards to let out bloodcurdling screams that don't even need a microphone to set spines on edge.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 23, 2009

Versailles get dolled up for visual-kei fest

With dozens of Japanese bands trying to crack the West over the last 20 years, whoever would have guessed visual-kei would be the first genre to truly succeed?

LIFE / Food & Drink / WEEK 3

Oct 18, 2009

Roll up! Roll up!

London, where there are tens of thousands of Japanese people living at any one time, is awash with world cuisine. But most Japanese food available in eateries there would hardly pass muster in its homeland.

CULTURE / Music

Oct 16, 2009

Loud Park is Japan's biggest gathering of heavy-metal maniacs, and a relatively new but much-loved event. Since 2006, the two-day festival has presented the world's heaviest and hairiest, from Slipknot to Marilyn Manson, and this year sees the return of the festival's first headliners, Slayer and Megadeth, as well as Judas Priest.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 2, 2009

Little Boots serves pop a remedy

"I don't know what it is about my music that appeals to the Japanese," says Victoria Hesketh, the British pop sensation better known as Little Boots. "A lot of people in England miss the point, and they're like, 'Oh, it's just pop music.' And the whole point is that I was trying to do something simple in a clever way, which people in Japan really seem to understand."

CULTURE / Music

Sep 25, 2009

Burning bright, a light that will never go out

While Sonic Youth just keep getting older and Dinosaur Jr are now all seniors, The Cribs have taken a shortcut to making their own baby-based name sound ironic. The Wakefield, England, band — initially based around twins Ryan and Gary Jarman and their younger brother, Ross — were all in their mid-20s until, last year, they invited an older gent into their ranks.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Sep 25, 2009

In the anime "Macross," the top chart sensation was Sharon Apple, a cybernetic singer who bewitched a fictional future with her laboratory-engineered music and hologramatic cleavage. Here in real-life Japan, 2009, the defining act is Perfume: three carefully choreographed girls who sing autotune-crippled vocal lines over a blend of video-game synths and hard techno created by producer-of-the-moment Yasutaka Nakata.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Sep 19, 2009

Tokyo rabbi gives unconditionally

"Whatever we have, we give 100 percent," says Binyomin Edery, the 33-year-old chief rabbi at Chabad House in Tokyo. "Our bank account is at zero! If we have one, we give two; if we have two, we give four. That's what we do."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Sep 11, 2009

Electric Eel Shock stays metal, man

'I am 'Metal Man,' " states Akihito Morimoto matter-of-factly. "I love heavy metal, and I also studied metal materials and die-cast manufacture at university. So all my life is about metal."

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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