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September 15, 2025
 

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Philip Brasor
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 17, 2009
Sparks plug away toward ultimate entertainment
Most successful pop musicians live in a strange world. Several years ago, Bono shocked conservative sensibilities and delighted antiestablishment types by uttering the F-word at the Grammys, but he was not being rebellious. The word slipped out because he was excited about receiving an award from the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 12, 2009
Entertainment as a fun family soap
Last weekend, actor Shunta Nakamura was arrested for possession of hashish while sitting in a parked car in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. The suspect's father, veteran actor Masatoshi Nakamura, quickly obliged the showbiz media by performing one of those tearful apologies that everyone looks forward to under...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 10, 2009
Simon & Garfunkel
The news that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are touring again is bittersweet for many people. Reportedly, the purpose of the reunion is to make up for the pair's neglect of Asia and Oceania during their last tour in 2001, so there will be no stops in North America or Europe. And since it has been informally...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 5, 2009
Dead ends, about turns abound in the politics of roads
About a year ago, the government was all in a lather about extending the gasoline tax. Local governments and the ruling coalition, not to mention interested bureaucracies, wanted to continue the tax because they said the revenues were necessary to build more roads. Opposition parties were against the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 29, 2009
Make room in the scrapyard of history for those quaint TV sets
When regular television broadcasts in America started in 1939, the intrinsic evils of the medium were already being discussed, and by the '50s the term "idiot box" had been coined.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 22, 2009
The cowardly whisper of politics
A few weeks ago I watched "All The President's Men" for the first time in more than 20 years. Set in the early 1970s, it was a potent blast from the past, but what struck me wasn't the relative youth of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman or the pre-Internet drudge work that their real-life characters,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 15, 2009
Japan's 'silly couple' reunite despite domestic violence
For the past few weeks, America's showbiz media has lingered over the alleged beating that R&B star Rihanna received at the hands of her boyfriend, the equally popular singer Chris Brown. Below the titillating layer of scandal is the story's more sobering subtext of domestic violence (DV), a social problem...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 8, 2009
Gay rights in Japan blurred on TV
When Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk two weeks ago, he used his acceptance speech to rail against supporters of California's Proposition 8, which last November repealed a State Supreme Court ruling extending marriage rights to same-sex...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 1, 2009
Japan loves wasting food
The Fair Trade Commission's current investigation into whether or not Seven-Eleven Japan Co. bullies its franchise members has been barely covered by commercial TV news, which isn't surprising.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 22, 2009
Be it booze or cheese, LDP loves to court controversy
Was he or wasn't he? That is the question the media wrestled with last week when discussing former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa's behavior at the Valentine's Day news conference held during the Group of Seven meeting in Rome. By this point everyone seems convinced he was drunk, but the relationship...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 15, 2009
The recession will lead to a downturn in media quality
Every day there is more gloomy news about a major manufacturer or retailer or service company cutting jobs — and not just a few dozen here or there, but thousands, tens of thousands. No one gets out alive, except self-made billionaires and McDonald's, which is doing quite well, apparently. People will...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2009
Of Montreal
In the late 1990s, the band Of Montreal had deals with two different Japanese independent labels, including the estimable Quattro Records, which reportedly did very well by the American outfit. It's easy to see why. Of all the groups that emerged from the Elephant 6 collective of freewheeling psychedelic...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 8, 2009
New law may backfire on victims
In December, a new law went into effect allowing victims of crimes and their families to participate in trial proceedings. Previously, victims were virtually shut out of criminal courts unless they were called on to provide testimony. Under the new law, they may sit next to prosecutors during trials,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2009
Blackstreet
Since the golden age of hip-hop in the late 1980s, producers have dominated urban music, but few have actually been credited with creating an entire subgenre.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2009
Popularity's dead! Rebellion against brands starts now
Recently I ran into a friend who works at a TV station in Tokyo. The conversation turned to Johnny's Jimusho, the most powerful talent agency in Japan, whose stable of male singers has dominated television for almost two decades. When I asked her if she had run into any of Johnny's stars, she said she...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 25, 2009
Poking fun at the ¥12,000 handout
The opposition parties' objections to the extra fiscal 2008 budget, which was put together to deal with the unexpected seriousness of the economic downturn, center on the ¥2 trillion in cash handouts originally conceived by the LDP's coalition partner, New Komeito, last summer during the final days...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 18, 2009
TV delves deep toward darker depths of dumbness
A fter more than a decade of slipping popularity, NHK's "Kohaku Uta Gassen" ("Red and White Song Contest") roared back to relevancy last New Year's Eve with impressive ratings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 16, 2009
Deerhoof
Occasionally, you'll run across a review that says San Francisco's Deerhoof are the greatest band in the world. They're not, but you can understand why some people think so. There's something perfect and unique about their angular, chaotic guitar songs, and how many bands can claim perfect and unique...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2009
Glasvegas
The name is cute: a mash-up of Glasgow, the band's hometown, and Las Vegas, the American Oz. In the great tradition of British bands appropriating U.S. cultural touchstones, Glasvegas take these twin geographic signifiers and turn them into a whole different country that nevertheless feels familiar to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 4, 2009
Rounding up 2008's media
Media Figure of the Year: Tomohiro Kato
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Strikes on Qatar and Poland shake U.S. sway among friend and foe
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Sept. 8. Israeli strikes in Qatar and Russian drone incursions into Poland have challenged the U.S. leaders claims of global respect.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.

Podcast

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

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Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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