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November 10, 2025
 

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Philip Brasor
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2006
The Editors/We Are Scientists
Is the current postpunk revival the second or the third? Having lost count around the time Interpol hired a full-time stylist, I've become jaded about influences. So when The Editors' Tom Smith rejects suggestions that he must have listened to Echo and the Bunnymen as a kid and says he preferred R.E.M.,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 16, 2006
Unlike with the French, a lack of fight spells future gloom for Japan's workers
While traveling through Europe recently I tried to get a handle on the controversy surrounding France's now abandoned First Job Contract (CPE) law, which was meant to make it easier for companies to hire young people. However, those same young people thought the law would make it easier for companies...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 14, 2006
The Rogers Sisters "The Invisible Deck" (Too Pure/Hostess)
Rock musicians manifest the confrontational mode in many different ways, and New York's The Rogers Sisters utilize most of them. A classic power trio that has absorbed every trick the configuration has yielded over the years, the group works up from the kind of precision noise that sisters Jennifer and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 9, 2006
Bringing the lady-makes-tea debate to the boil
In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 7, 2006
Craig David
Arguably the most popular artist to emerge from the short-lived garage/2-step scene in Britain, Craig David arrived fully formed as a producer, since he was DJing both on radio and in clubs in his hometown of Southampton before hooking up with garage maven Artful Dodger. Together, they produced a number...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 2, 2006
Buying U.S. out of Okinawa started a habit that is hard to kick
The bombshell that former Foreign Ministry official Bunroku Yoshino dropped last month hasn't had the explosive effect one might expect. Yoshino was in charge of the ministry's American Bureau at the time the United States handed Okinawa back to Japan in 1972, and in an exclusive interview in the Feb....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 31, 2006
Spring in their steps
As a crash course in the current state of African-American pop music, this weekend's Springroove festival being held on consecutive days in Osaka and Chiba Prefecture showcases an impressive range of artists. The headliners all represent major labels, and thus the mainstream: Since hip-hop and R&B are...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 26, 2006
Consumer credit companies have your money, and the media, in their pockets
On Jan. 13, the Supreme Court found in favor of an individual who had sued a consumer credit company for charging too much interest. By doing so, the court rejected the controversial "gray zone" that such companies take advantage of in their business.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 19, 2006
Prefecture opts for foster-care plan to combat declining birthrate
A recent Associated Press poll found that Americans' views about abortion aren't very clear-cut. Only a small percentage of the respondents were in favor of either legalizing abortion completely or banning it outright. About 60 percent were somewhere in the middle. The AP took these results to mean that...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 17, 2006
Reggae Japansplash
Until 2002, Reggae Japansplash was Japan's longest-running non-jazz summer music festival until it was moved up to the spring. The change made it easier to book a reasonably priced venue, but also eliminated one of the festival's most basic appeals: grooving to deep, sinuous riddims under a sweltering...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 12, 2006
Weekly magazines joust over trillion-yen fortunetelling trade
It is often said that if you really want to understand what is happening in Japan you should read the weekly magazines. Though the weeklies' journalistic standards are considered less rigorous than those of the daily newspapers, they are less reluctant to step on toes that belong to people who might...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 10, 2006
Dem Franchize Boys "On Top of Our Game"
In case you didn't know, "snap" is a relatively new hip-hop genus of the Dirty South species, utilizing slower tempos and concerning itself mainly with clubbing and a life of leisure. Dem Franchize Boyz is one of the groups who take credit for inventing the style, and Jermaine Dupree, who produced their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 9, 2006
Who are you, Tommy?
" 'Tommy' didn't really answer anything, which was the beauty of it.''
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 9, 2006
A thumbnail history of the rock musical
"Bye Bye Birdie" (1961) The songs aren't rock, but it was the first Broadway show to address rock 'n' roll: an Elvis-like singer (actually based on singer Conway Twitty) stages a big publicity event before he enters the army.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 5, 2006
A few bows too many for shamed DPJ lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata
One picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words, and the one that graced the front page of the Feb. 24 Asahi Shimbun is worth more than all the kanji expended on the Democratic Party of Japan's e-mail fiasco.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2006
At the heart of the matter
April 26 will mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 3, 2006
James Brown
Of all the self-promoting labels James Brown has appropriated in his career, "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" is probably the most apt. People think it refers to the intensity of his live performances -- the hoarse screams, the manic, stuttery dance steps, the buckets of perspiration -- but...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 26, 2006
It was downhill all the way in Japan's media coverage of Olympics
Were the Turin Winter Olympics really that boring or was it just the Japanese television coverage?
CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2006
The Verbs "And Now . . . "
When Meegan Voss tells off her unfaithful lover in "Don't Say a Word," you imagine her walking out the door all calm and collected. "I'm tired of your story," she exhales, and while the bluesy backing track sounds a little like "Piece of My Heart," Voss's vocals are exactly the opposite of Janis Joplin's...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 19, 2006
Careful planning helps to preserve male-succession mind-set
The morning after it broke, news that Princess Kiko is expecting a baby in September was greeted with predictably meaningless blather on the TV wide shows. Commentators made a connection between the pregnancy and that ceremony the princess and her husband, Prince Akishino, attended in September of last...
Tsunami threat passes following magnitude 6.9 quake off Iwate
A tsunami advisory was issued for Iwate Prefecture on Sunday evening following a strong earthquake. The advisory was later called off, after waves measuring 20 centimeters were recorded in some areas.
The Toyota buyout is a major test for Japan’s reforms
Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor, speaks during a media preview at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Oct. 29. Minority investors are challenging the carmaker's bid to take affiliate Toyota Industries Corp. private.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Takaichi plans pay cuts for herself and her ministers
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi chats with her Cabinet members in parliament in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Mother of Thai girl forced into sex work in Tokyo detained in Taiwan
The Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
Jenson Button brings end to an illustrious racing career intertwined with Japan
Jenson Button races for Honda during the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2008.
Cleanliness gets competitive at Tokyo’s Spogomi world cup
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 qualifying countries scoured the streets of Shibuya for all manners of trash as part of the Spogomi litter-picking competition.
Jon Homewood: ‘There’s beauty in what we throw away’
After a peripatetic childhood around the world, teacher and artist Jon Homewood ended up coming to Japan in 2012 for a professional opportunity.
Yokozuna duo Onosato and Hoshoryu poised for another clash of titans
Yokozuna duo Onosato (right) and Hoshoryu clash for the title on the final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Sept. 28 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years
By Yukana Inoue

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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