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.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Nov 2, 2007

Amerie leaped to fame in 2005 with the platinum-selling smash single "1 Thing," a masterful piece of dance-floor R&B cowritten and produced by Beyonce cohort Rich Harrison. The song was a perfect pop platter, offering a taste of the times while somehow sounding one step ahead of the competition....

CULTURE / Music

Nov 2, 2007

Various Artists "Good Girls Don't! Neo"

Nowhere does squeaky grrrl-punk as well as Japan. Heck, it's one of the country's top selling points, as music fans lured here by Shonen Knife or the output of the Benten label will attest.

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Oct 31, 2007

Loopy Lisa offers a surreal take on cybersex

The Internet is a wonderful thing. By firing up your computer and jacking it into a wall socket, you have instant access to millions of pages of information. You can learn about any subject under the sun, share your knowledge with others, market your business, buy almost any product imaginable, keep...

CULTURE / Music

Oct 19, 2007

Radiohead "In Rainbows"

With a "revolutionary" distribution system whereby fans can pay whatever they like for a download of the album (or pay $80 and wait nearly two months for the physical CD and vinyl box set), Radiohead have got the industry talking (and mostly what they're saying is "Huh?"). Having submitted my download...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Oct 11, 2007

The scary sexy girls of painter Junko Mizuno

With an international audience hungry for Junko Mizuno's graceful images of hellish honeys, it's no wonder that the young artist is looking to the West.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 5, 2007

A globalist rapper pauses for breath

Having delivered one of the defining albums of 2007, M.I.A is one of the most talked-about artists in pop today. Stuffed with politically informed dancefloor bangers, "Kala" is an album that simultaneously appeals to the cerebral and primal.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Sep 28, 2007

"The Smiths — The Early Years" By Paul Slattery

It's easy to forget that The Smiths were as seminal a band as they really were. For better or worse, they pretty much invented modern indie music as we know it, recording four studio albums and countless timeless singles in five years, before imploding in the animosity that endures to this day (last...

CULTURE / Music

Sep 21, 2007

Tokyo Jihen "Variety"

Pop music's not just for kids, you know. And while there's plenty of it about for grownups, few artists offer such consistent and thrilling fare as Tokyo Jihen. On this, their third album since forming in 2003, the band offer 13 tracks dripping in jazzy cool, fronted by the shredded, throaty voice of...

Events / Events Outside Tokyo

Sep 21, 2007

Splitting sides — in English

As they say in England, you have to laugh. Well, you don't have to, but there's a fair chance that those who go to see "Laugh" in Tokyo or Yokohama will anyway.

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Sep 19, 2007

Transformers: more than meets the ear

Since 1984, Transformers has proven an immensely enduring toy brand, spawning a hugely popular TV series (which in turn spawned even more spinoff TV series), a couple of movies and ever more toys, right up to the present day. In fact, the toys have their roots in the 1970s Japanese toy lines Microman...

Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink

Sep 7, 2007

Rain — an ice-cream addict's best friend

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Sep 1, 2007

Manga magic from a girl who uses her melon

Worth a reported ¥500 billion every year, Japan's manga industry is a serious business. But not so for Saki Matsuzawa, a budding 12-year-old mangaka (comic book artist) who has created her own adorable interactive storybook, "Meron Pan no Ichi Nichi" (titled in English as "A Day of the Melon Bread"),...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 17, 2007

'I was totally squished, but it was ace'

It's apt that Rock in Japan takes place in between Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. While Fuji sprawls myriad bands over a vast, scenic site and Summer Sonic hosts acts for a younger crowd in an exhibition hall and stadium, RIJ combines the best of both.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 17, 2007

Girls have all the fun

If there was a festival anthem to this year's Summer Sonic, it was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The overflowing crowd at Cyndi Lauper's Sunday set on the Sonic Stage was mostly made up of women who mouthed every word to her string of hits. And when she finished with her biggest hit, the female members...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 10, 2007

Self-manufactured and proud

Ayear after the U.K. release of their debut album "We Are The Pipettes," the band are finally bringing their 1960s-styled pop to Japan. Their live show is not to be missed: Rosay, RiotBecki and Gwenno (who each go by one name) are ably backed by The Cassettes, their all-boy band, deploying dancetastic...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 27, 2007

Ready for the muddy mountain

Through her three solo albums and work with Peaches, Broken Social Scene and Chilly Gonzales, Leslie Feist (who releases records under her last name) has established herself as the soulful queen of Canadian indie rock. Her new album, "The Reminder," released this month in Japan, is a collection of bruising,...

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Jul 18, 2007

'Kane' gone? Try saving with these money boxes

Money — it makes the world go round, and it even talks. Or at least, these money boxes do.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 6, 2007

Crystal Kay is all yours

"I've been on the Crystal Kay train," says the R&B diva sitting across the table. Twenty-one-year-old Crystal Kay isn't speaking figuratively, or in some sort of existential code; she's referring instead to Tokyo's Yamanote Line, whose carriages were recently plastered inside and out with her visage...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 17, 2007

Changes of note

She has quietly become one of the decade's best-selling artists, has a third No.1 album in the charts — and debuts as an actor in the film opening this week's Cannes Film Festival

CULTURE / Music

May 11, 2007

Elliott Smith "New Moon"

Mystery still surrounds the death of Elliott Smith. Was it his own hand that plunged a knife twice into his chest at home on Oct. 21, 2003, or someone else's? While Smith may not have left a suicide note to clear things up, he did leave an awful lot of unreleased material — like a singer-songwriter...

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

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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