Mike Sunda - The Japan Times

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Mike Sunda

Mike Sunda is a music writer focusing primarily on electronic music and the Tokyo club scene. He graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England with a degree in Japanese and has been contributing to The Japan Times since 2010.

For Mike Sunda's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books

Mar 14, 2015

To paraphrase a blundering local politician quoted in this book, Chinese must be one of the easiest languages to learn — why else would nearly 1.4 billion people speak it?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 24, 2015

Caribou explains reasons behind the songs on his 1,000-track playlist on YouTube

The worlds of indie and club music are hardly irreconcilable, either in difference or distance, but it can often be hard to spot crossover success that extends beyond one-off hits or remix packages.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Feb 5, 2015

Message trumps the medium at JMAF

When Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "The medium is the message" in the mid-1960s, the ensuing dialogue on media theory encouraged an approach that persists to the present day: to examine new types of technology through the societal and cultural changes that they engender.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Feb 5, 2015

Ruben Pater: Current advancements in drone technology are worrying

Dutch artist Ruben Pater discusses drones and survival in the modern age:

CULTURE / Art

Feb 5, 2015

Kazuhiro Goshima: The sheer amount of information in 4K ‘exceeds’ reality

Japanese artist Kazuhiro Goshima discusses film, movies and everything in between:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books

Jan 31, 2015

Hallucinating in print with Keiichi Tanaami

Prolific is a word that hardly does justice to Keiichi Tanaami. Born in Tokyo in 1936, Tanaami has worked ceaselessly, imparting a lasting legacy on the landscape of Japanese Pop Art. He has been described as "Japan's Andy Warhol," but unlike Warhol, Tanaami's works are consistently psychedelic; full of psychosexual undertones and hypercolorful memento mori that hint at a Freudian death drive.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 15, 2015

Documentary festival delivers an encore to Tokyo audiences

Last November, Japan Times film critic Kaori Shoji predicted that the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival's (YIDFF) program of screenings would slant toward sociopolitical analysis, focusing on substance over style. Audiences must have welcomed this weighty exposition of the documentary format, as the success of December's lineup — dubbed the "Documentary Dream Show" — has prompted an encore, with selected repeat screenings taking place at K's Cinema in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward over the course of the month.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books

Jan 10, 2015

Yoshitaka Amano: The World Beyond Your Imagination

Japan Times

LIFE / Lifestyle

Dec 25, 2014

'Kawaii' gets a landmark

While Japanese cool hunters might lament the lack of pop cultural exports in recent years — all the more conspicuous when compared to K-Pop's successful forays westward — kawaii (cute) culture has quietly permeated into global consciousness with all the effortless grace of singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu farting out a rainbow.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Books

Dec 20, 2014

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Dec 16, 2014

Rock, J-pop and dance: Albums we liked in 2014

The year-end album charts in Japan have a tendency to prop up the same acts year after year: Exile, anything that ends in a "48," and almost every group from the Johnny & Associates stable of boy bands. Writers at The Japan Times, however, spent the year looking past the charts to find a few gems lurking in the underground of the country's music scene. Here are some of their favorite albums from 2014.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 19, 2014

Musician Rory Viner turns Japan's suicide statistics into a song

Train delays due to jinshin jiko, which euphemistically translates to "human accident" — often a suicide on the tracks — are far from an infrequent occurrence in Tokyo.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 29, 2014

Two weddings and a 'Funeral' at Fuji

It's hard to know what the organizers at Fuji Rock Festival were thinking when they decided to have Jack Johnson headline the main stage on the event's last day. Not the infectious cheer and endearingly kitsch theatricality of The Flaming Lips, who performed directly before, or even the guaranteed singalong power of anthem-merchants Franz Ferdinand and Arcade Fire, who had closed out the prior two nights, but Jack Johnson — a man who presumably gets most of his airplay from people on hold to understaffed call centers.

CULTURE / Music

Jul 29, 2014

Jungle: 'When you write a song certain people want to hear ... that's when you start making crap music'

As Jungle, Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland — who go by 'J' and 'T' — produce classic soul and funk with an unmistakably modern feel to it. The duo has also been racking up fans and YouTube hits alike with a series of strikingly idiosyncratic, dance-oriented music videos. Jungle recently launched its self-titled debut album with a release party in their hometown of London.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 1, 2014

Leftfield J-pop, '70s influenced rock and shadowy R&B: Our favorite albums of 2014 (so far)

In his Strange Boutique column last week, Ian Martin wrote about the need for a canon in Japanese music in order for newcomers to the scene — especially those writing about it — to gain some context into what is being released.

CULTURE / Music

Jun 16, 2014

Dommune welcomes British broadcasting platform Boiler Room to Tokyo

It might not be a substitute for experiencing music in a night club, but the live-streaming medium has become increasingly popular over the years, offering viewers a chance to watch their favorite DJs from the comfort of their own bedroom.

Japan Times

CULTURE

Jun 5, 2014

Cheer on the Samurai Blue at events across the country

It may be nicknamed the "beautiful game," but these days it can sometimes be hard to see soccer as anything but ugly.

Japan Times

CULTURE

May 31, 2014

Essential summer festivals 2014

A summer without festivals simply wouldn’t be a proper summer in Japan, so now that the humidity has returned, it’s time to slop on an extra layer of sunscreen and line up some outdoor activities.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

May 13, 2014

N.O.R.K. muddies the gap between indie and R&B on 'ADSR'

Japan's electronic-music scene has long seemed to suffer from a stylistic and unbridgeable gap between popular and independent music — one side characterized by overzealous polish, the other by lo-fi charm. In the case of N.O.R.K., the two sides have collided in spectacular fashion.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 1, 2014

LA lifestyle gives starRo a new take on making music

Video-chatting with Los Angeles resident Shinya Mizoguchi toward the tail end of a particularly testing Tokyo winter, it's hard not to feel a twinge of jealousy. I deliberately avoid defaulting to my typically British weather-related opening gambit of small talk, but it's not long before the topic is inevitably breached. "What's the best thing about living in LA? Besides music? The weather, for sure," Mizoguchi says with a grin. I smile back, hoping he won't notice as I reach for another layer of Heattech to wrap around me.

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

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

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