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October 30, 2025
 

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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2019
'The Nikaidos' Fall': What's in a name? Everything.
The weight of tradition threatens to crush a once-great family in "The Nikaidos' Fall," a contemporary drama about people with an unhealthy fixation on the past. Iranian director Ida Panahandeh's film starts in a cemetery and never really leaves the realm of the dead. Its characters are so haunted by...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2019
'His Lost Name': A lack of more than just a name
Cinema abounds with tales of imposters and con artists, but some of the most interesting stories are the ones where people get wise to a deception and decide to go along with it anyway. In "His Lost Name," a young drifter arrives in a rural backwater under a fake identity, only to get sucked into a relationship...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2018
'A Crimson Star': A taboo and toxic story of love
At a time when many aspiring Japanese filmmakers spend years working on other people's movies before having a chance to make one of their own, getting your first feature into cinemas at the age of 22 is no small achievement.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 23, 2018
YMO's Yukihiro Takahashi celebrates a pair of 40th anniversaries
The past few years have been a boom time for Japanese reissues, as labels dredge up everything from ambient obscurities to glossy disco-pop for the benefit of listeners who missed them first time around. For Yukihiro Takahashi, it's all a bit confusing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2018
'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald': Wizards and wands, but no magic
Quick: what's a good spell against boredom? After getting off to a nimble start with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in 2016, J.K. Rowling's five-part prequel to the "Harry Potter" series is already starting to feel like an almighty slog. While its predecessor was a fleet and frothy caper,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2018
Tasuku Emoto talks about directing, acting in English and sounding like Tom Cruise
This has been a busy year for Tasuku Emoto. Long accustomed to appearing in colorful supporting roles, the 31-year-old actor has found himself starring in three films in 2018.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2018
The bold, the bracingly alive and the barely coherent: The Tokyo International Film Festival wraps up for another year
For once, the best film won. Though the jury at Tokyo International Film Festival has erred in the past, there could be few complaints about this year's choices. Mikhael Hers' "Amanda" was a worthy recipient of the Tokyo Grand Prix: An emotionally devastating portrait of ordinary people coping with a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2018
'The Gun': A blast of stylish nihilism
Chekhov's principle about how you can't introduce a gun in the first act of a story without using it later on might also apply to Toru (Nijiro Murakami).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Nov 1, 2018
SuperDeluxe provided a safe space for experimentation that Tokyo will miss
For the past 16 years, Tokyo's SuperDeluxe has been a place where it felt like almost anything could happen, and it quite often did. So when the venue announced a few weeks ago that it would be closing in January, after its building was earmarked for demolition, the news was akin to hearing that a close...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 25, 2018
Masaaki Yuasa: Anime for the discerning fan
Masaaki Yuasa is one of the most exciting directors working in Japanese animation today, with a three-decade career behind him. Yet until last year, you may not even have heard of him. Long the filmmaker of choice for discerning anime fans, the 53-year-old has had a significant profile boost over the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Oct 25, 2018
Amid Japan's multitude of music festivals, Frue is worth celebrating
As the opening set started at Festival de Frue last year, it was clear the organizers wouldn't be making a profit. Quirky J-pop act Wednesday Campanella, who had played to a capacity crowd at Fuji Rock Festival a few months earlier, kicked off its performance in front of an audience of just a few dozen...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 23, 2018
It's pop, but complicated: Tokyo Shiokouji takes minimalism in new directions
Fuji Rock Festival's Rookie A Go-Go stage has served as a springboard for bands from Asian Kung-Fu Generation to Chai, but each year it draws a few acts with rather less obvious commercial appeal. The most peculiar group to appear this year was Tokyo Shiokouji, an eight-piece ensemble featuring percussion,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2018
'It's Boring Here, Pick Me Up': A rural road movie with no destination
What passes for countryside in Japan is often a vast sprawl of low-rise development: chain restaurants, big-box stores, gas stations and pachinko parlors. While there's no shortage of films that have tried to capture the ennui of life in such areas, the results are often as uninspiring as the locations...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2018
'The Chaplain': Ren Osugi shines as a clergyman working on death row
The sudden death of Ren Osugi last February robbed Japanese cinema of one of its most dependable actors. That loss is rendered all the more acute by "The Chaplain," Osugi's final screen role, and his debut as producer. It's the kind of serious, intelligent drama that might struggle to get made without...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2018
'Music progresses when people make mistakes': Foodman favors taking risks on new album
Last month, the return of Ultra Japan to Tokyo provoked the usual eye-rolls with its parade of EDM superstars gallivanting onstage to obviously pre-recorded sets. But trust Takahide Higuchi — the Nagoya-based producer better known as Shokuhin Matsuri aka Foodman — to see the funny side.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2018
'Cafe Funiculi Funicula': Extra spoonfuls of sentimentality make this flick hard to swallow
An old-fashioned coffee house serves up a dash of mystery and a great dollop of sentiment in Ayuko Tsukahara's "Cafe Funiculi Funicula." Based on a pair of best-selling novels by playwright-turned-author Toshikazu Kawaguchi, this aggressively tear-jerky paean to life, death and past regrets plays like...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2018
Electronic artist Tim Hecker delves into ancient Japanese court music and negative space on 'Konoyo'
For the first decade of his career, the Canadian composer and sound artist Tim Hecker specialized in transmuting digital audio into thick miasmas of sound that combined orchestral richness with the sensory assault of noise music. But after reaching an apotheosis — and his largest audience to date —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2018
In defense of difference: Hikaru Toda's 'Of Love & Law' showcases the efforts of two lawyers fighting discrimination in Japan
For all its many attractions as a place to live, Japan can be unforgiving for anyone who's perceived as different.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2018
'Come On Irene': You can't buy love ... or a decent protagonist
In the late 1980s, Japanese media ran a flurry of reports on an alarming shortage of brides in the country's rural areas. Unable to find potential partners at home, bachelors in farming villages were searching for wives in mainland Asia — sometimes with support from their local governments, and often...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2018
'And Your Bird Can Sing': A vague take on the complexities of youth
The work of the late novelist Yasushi Sato, who took his own life in 1990, has been enjoying a minor cinematic renaissance over the past decade. Starting with Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's "Sketches of Kaitan City" in 2010, the author's stories have spawned four films to date.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
At first summit with Trump, Takaichi pledges 'new golden age' for alliance
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi raises her fist as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in front of U.S. Navy personnel on board the U.S. Navy's USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the American naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.
Abe shooting suspect Yamagami pleads guilty to murder
Members of the media gather outside the Nara District Court in the city of Nara on Tuesday hours before the start of the trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, the man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022.
Takaichi buys time and builds trust with ‘near-perfect’ Trump summit
U.S. President Donald Trump walks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier during a visit to the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.
JPYC, world’s first yen stablecoin, is issued
Noritaka Okabe, head of Japanese startup JPYC, at a news conference for the first yen stablecoin in Tokyo on Monday
Oasis returns to Tokyo: Rain, rapture and rock
Fans wait to get into the Oasis show at Tokyo Dome on Saturday. While lining up in the rain, some broke into impromptu versions of the British rock group's hits.
Kyushu banzuke sets the stage to cement 2025’s sumo narratives
Onosato ahead of his bout against Aonishiki at The Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 18
Tokyo Film Festival opens with global stars and a spotlight on Asian storytelling
Director Junji Sakamoto (left) walked the Tokyo International Film Festival red carpet with Sayuri Yoshinaga (center) and Non (right), who both play mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, in the biopic "Climbing for Life."
Spanish artist and Japanese writer duos diversify the manga talent pool in Japan
"Menheim” is a dark fantasy manga with a story that centers on a girl’s quest to find a cure for her ill brother.
Japan’s youth are apathetic toward the climate crisis. Could anime change that?
“Future Kid Takara,” a series of anime shorts to be aired on NHK Educational TV in November, attempts to educate children about climate change.

Podcast

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

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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