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February 18, 2025
 

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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 8, 2017
When you go to a film festival, all you can do is roll the dice and pray for gold
Covering a film festival is what's known in the profession as a crapshoot. No matter how many screenings you manage to clock, you're probably going to miss half of the flicks that end up winning prizes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 17, 2017
Psych-rock act Kikagaku Moyo makes a virtue of DIY and keeping it 'sloppy'
If you were to glance at Kikagaku Moyo's tour itinerary for 2017, it would be easy to forget that the group was Japanese at all. The psych-rock quintet recently completed the second leg of a European tour that encompassed nearly 50 dates, having racked up 26 shows around North America earlier in the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Oct 14, 2017
Sound artist Aki Onda explores memory through sound
'I never miss Japan,' says New York resident Aki Onda. 'Now I have a distance — that's why I enjoy going back to Tokyo.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 20, 2017
Sapphire Slows is getting more vocal, and not just in her music
When she first emerged on Tokyo's bedroom producer scene in 2011, Sapphire Slows shot to prominence almost instantly, scoring a release on voguish Los Angeles label Not Not Fun mere months after starting out. A full-length album, "Allegoria," followed on the same label in late 2013; and then, like the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 12, 2017
Wonk plays around with 'experimental soul' on a pair of new albums
"The way music from America and other Western countries got imported into Japan, the roots are different," says Ayatake Ezaki, keyboardist for Tokyo-based quartet Wonk.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 31, 2017
Miho Hazama will celebrate 100 years of jazz at Tokyo Jazz Festival performance
Japanese audiences are renowned as some of the world's most respectful listeners, but for musicians accustomed to getting more raucous receptions elsewhere, the experience can be a little unnerving.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 31, 2017
Drum prodigy Senri Kawaguchi doesn't put limits on her music
In 2010, the online encyclopedia Drummerworld added a 13-year-old Japanese schoolgirl to its list of the world's greatest players. Senri Kawaguchi had rocketed to fame after posting YouTube videos of herself drumming along to songs from the "K-On!" anime series, wearing the same sailor-suit school uniform...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2017
Netflix's 'Death Note' may be dumber, but is it really evil?
After the furor over the recent "Ghost in the Shell" adaptation, moviegoers should be familiar with the concept of "whitewashing," the insidious Hollywood practice of casting Caucasian actors in roles that originated as non-white characters. But when Lakeith Stanfield, who is African-American, was picked...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 1, 2017
Fuji Rock Festival: It may not make sense on paper, but the end results are glorious
This year's Fuji Rock Festival was a damp and turbulent affair, albeit only in the most literal sense. Whatever the formula is for convincing people to blow their entire summer vacation budget on a few days in the Japan Alps — much of which will likely be spent lining up for the toilet, getting drenched...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 27, 2017
Quruli has noticed a change in the way young people listen to music
Many musicians will admit to having a special affection for Fuji Rock Festival, which unfurls at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture this weekend. Few, however, have a history as tightly intertwined with the event as Quruli, the affable guitar-rock outfit from Kyoto.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2017
Keiji Haino at 65: 'I want to be a bad boy, right until the end'
"I don't want people to treat me like a god," says Keiji Haino, chuckling. "I want to be a bad boy, right until the end."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 5, 2017
Cornelius opens up a little more on his latest album, 'Mellow Waves'
Though it has been 11 years since his last album, Keigo Oyamada never really went away. The studio wizard known as Cornelius has spent the past decade diversifying his portfolio: creating soundtracks for anime and educational TV; playing in electro super-group Metafive and collaborating with J-pop singer...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2017
Honoring Hideo Ikeezumi, a hero to the Japanese underground
Few figures have played as pivotal a role in the recent history of Japanese avant-garde music as Hideo Ikeezumi, founder of P.S.F. Records, who passed away on Feb. 27 at the age of 67.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2017
A new generation of jazz comes to the fore at Tokyo Lab
Pinning an exact birth date on any genre is a tricky business, but 2017 has been deemed the 100th anniversary of jazz, in recognition of the first recordings released back in 1917. A century after the earliest jazz, "jass" and "jazbo" groups entered the studios, though, where does the music stand today?...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 24, 2017
On 'Kiseki,' rappers bring out the true grit in resurgent DJ Krush
On 'Es.U.Es Corporation,' DJ Krush's collaborators bring an undeniable energy to the proceedings, and the veteran turntablist responds with some of his grittiest productions since the 1990s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
May 18, 2017
Taicoclub's role in Japan's electronic music scene will be missed, so catch it while you can
When I interviewed Taro Yasuzawa this time last year, he didn't let on that he was about to pull the plug on the event he'd been organizing for the past decade. A few weeks later, it was official: Taicoclub, the plucky all-night music festival that debuted in 2006, will be marking its penultimate edition...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 6, 2017
'Mouthfeel: How Texture Makes Taste': Exploring the science behind how food feels
Few people are likely to forget the first time they try shirako. The thought of eating cod sperm sacs may sound downright nauseating to the average Western diner, but those who pluck up the courage to try some are rewarded with an explosion of silkiness, more typical of a dessert than a savory dish....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 26, 2017
Ryuichi Sakamoto resists the prettier path on 'async' and comes out stronger
In the liner notes for "async," his first solo album in eight years, Ryuichi Sakamoto lists some of the strategies he employed during the recording process: capturing elusive melodies at early-morning synthesizer sessions, compiling field recordings of rain and ruins, rearranging Bach chorales until...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 12, 2017
Hollywood's 'Ghost in the Shell' remake misses the mark
After the online petitions, the countless think pieces and Twitter tirades, Hollywood's "Ghost in the Shell" was never going to have an easy passage. Rupert Sanders' film — a $110 million live-action movie based on a beloved manga and anime property — was ill-fated from the start, tarnished by the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KNOWING KISSATEN
Mar 24, 2017
Tokyo's classical music cafes are time capsules for audiophiles
In this age of musical abundance, it's hard to fathom that an LP once cost the equivalent of a few days' wages in Japan. In the 1950s, audiophiles who couldn't afford to buy their own music did their listening at coffee shops known as meikyoku kissaten ("musical masterpiece cafes"), which boasted high-end...
Japan's Iwaya vows to push ahead with sanctions against Russia
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya meets with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and counterparts from other countries at the State Department in Washington on Jan. 21.
Nippon Steel wants 100% of U.S. Steel, not a minority stake, report says
The U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
U.S. drops website wording on not supporting Taiwan independence
The U.S. State Department has dropped the phrase "we do not support Taiwan independence" from a fact sheet on the democratic island on its website.
Singapore says Asia now views U.S. as a ‘landlord seeking rent’
According to a prepared text of Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen's remarks posted on a government website over the weekend, the image of the U.S. "has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent."
It’s time to get serious on the pension system, ex-digital minister says
Former digital minister Taro Kono has long counted reform of social security and pensions among his pet policies.
Japan’s English-language education doesn’t pass the test
One-third of elementary school students in Japan do not like learning English, according to a 2021 poll, an 8% rise since 2013. The pressure of taking proficiency tests is eroding children's engagement with studying English and its benefits.
Black History Month in 2025: The boundaries between 'us' and 'them'
Kendrick Lamar performs at the halftime show of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Sky not the only limit for JAL and ANA’s climate goals
All Nippon Airways aircraft at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in August 2024. ANA has staked a lot on greener kinds of jet fuel, with 70% of the emissions reductions under its net-zero emissions plan coming from them.
The different faces of ‘Asura’ through the generations
Netflix series “Asura,” directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is a remake of a classic TV drama (known as “Like Asura” in English), created by Kuniko Mukoda and broadcast by NHK between 1979 and 1980.
Mao Asada sets out to safeguard the future of Japanese skating
"I hope skaters who train here will go on to shine on the world stage," Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada told the Japan Times at Mao Rink Tachikawa Tachihi, a skating rink in Tachikawa, Tokyo, whose establishment she was involved in, on Jan. 28.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high
Challenging spirit and teamwork keep ANA flying high

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