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January 24, 2025
 

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James Hadfield
CULTURE / Music
Nov 15, 2015
Electronica producer Madegg gets warped on 'New' album
Something has gone awfully askew in the music of Madegg. The 23-year-old producer, real name Kazumichi Komatsu, used to delight in creating warm, shimmering electronica that seemed to come bathed in the lambent glow of a late summer evening.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 11, 2015
Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo's 'White God' lacks teeth
Man and his best friend are having some serious relationship issues in "White God." Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo's tale of a teenage girl and her beloved hound is the stuff of canine nightmares, set in a present-day Budapest that feels more like a dog dystopia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Nov 6, 2015
Maruyama Coffee lets the beans explain themselves
From the hip barista conjuring latte art to the kissaten (traditional Japanese coffee shop) owner working an archaic siphon machine, there's a lot of fuss and theater involved in preparing coffee. So it can be hard to get excited about the French press sometimes. It's the saxophone of brewing methods:...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2015
Killing time at the Tokyo International Film Festival
Covering a film festival can turn anyone into a stickler for scheduling. Key screenings and Q&A sessions always seem to overlap and priorities collide. Do you stick with the stodgy Japanese biopic that you're supposed to be writing about, or sneak out halfway through to go watch something more entertaining?...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2015
Spotlight on Harada films is well-deserved
Following last year's embrace of anime and "content," 2015 sees the Tokyo International Film Festival reassert its credentials as an event, first and foremost, for cineastes. One particularly welcome addition is the new Japan Now section, a roundup of recent and upcoming movies from the likes of Hirokazu...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2015
Rare orchids and misfit sex workers at the Tokyo International Film Festival
Some of the hottest tickets at TIFF each year are for films that have already secured a commercial release date in Japan. For all the high-minded talk about artistry and creativity, most viewers just want to see the big movies before everyone else. But spare a thought for the less commercial offerings...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 18, 2015
Radio personality Peter Barakan brings the world to Tokyo for Live Magic!
'I'm going off track again. Wait a minute." Midway through a lengthy digression about an "amazing" New Orleans band named Boukou Groove, Peter Barakan pauses, ever so briefly, to check the conversational signposts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2015
'John Wick' lets Keanu Reeves out of 'The Matrix'
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Trevor Noah, the new host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," compared his surprise appointment to the casting of "The Matrix." Though the fact has now been consigned to an obscure bit of movie lore, the role of Neo — the po-faced hero so memorably played...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2015
Albino Sound explores angles on 'Cloud Sports'
When musicians from around the globe gathered in Tokyo last autumn for the 2014 edition of the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) — an intensive series of lectures, gigs and studio sessions that aims to nurture promising artists — many of the participants had already found a foothold within the music...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 7, 2015
'Starred Up' shows British prisoners being unpleasant
In the language of Britain's penal system, "starred up" is the term used for a young offender who gets prematurely moved to an adult prison. Designated "single cell, high risk," 19-year-old Eric Love (Jack O'Connell) certainly looks like he's ready for the big time. When the officers strip search him...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Oct 2, 2015
Kyoto's Weekenders Coffee keeps customers on their toes
To get a sense of how much the Japanese coffee scene has evolved over the past decade, pay a visit to Weekenders Coffee. This specialty coffee shop in northeast Kyoto — which marks its 10th anniversary next month — ranks among the city's most essential destinations for discerning caffeine junkies....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2015
When dub's Adrian Sherwood met experimental-rock trio Nisennenmondai
Austerity is a hell of a drug. Tokyo's Nisennenmondai has spent its 16-year career figuring out how to do more with much, much less. Since forming in 1999, the group has progressed from the well-mapped territories of instrumental noise-rock into a sparse, industrial zone bordering on the hinterlands...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2015
'Two Raging Grannies' try to figure out the global economy
As Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone's scabrous political correspondent, has often observed, one of the ways that Wall Street protects itself is by cloaking its activities in jargon so dense and dull that it's impenetrable to the average observer. In "Two Raging Grannies," a documentary by Norwegian director...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Sep 4, 2015
Roasted-on-the-spot coffee from Kyoto is going global
The five-story pagoda of Hokanji Temple has crowned the skyline of eastern Kyoto for more than a millennium — give or take the few times when it burned down and was reconstructed. Just down the lane from the current incarnation (constructed in 1440) sits a rather newer landmark, % Arabica, which has...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 2, 2015
White people on holiday are threatened by Asian stereotypes in 'No Escape'
In this globalized age, Hollywood studios can no longer afford to trample over local sensibilities. Earlier this year it was revealed that an upcoming thriller about an American family caught in a Southeast Asian revolution would be having its title changed from "The Coup" to the less provocative "No...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2015
A disfigured face drags ghosts back to postwar Berlin in 'Phoenix'
In Kobo Abe's 1964 novel "Tanin no Kao" ("The Face of Another"), a scientist left disfigured by an industrial accident dons a synthetic mask and poses as a different man in order to seduce his estranged wife. When she responds rather too readily to his advances, he reacts angrily, only to discover that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 12, 2015
Director attacks critics who claim Japanese films fall short of Hollywood standards
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Shinji Higuchi, the director picked by Toho to revive its dormant "Godzilla" franchise, promised that his version of the iconic monster would be larger and more terrifying than its predecessors. However, the most hair-raising comment in the article was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2015
Bryce Dallas Howard kicks her high heels up in 'Jurassic World'
Typical: You spend $150 million on your effects-heavy summer blockbuster, and all people want to talk about is a character's choice of footwear. When "Jurassic World," the long-gestating sequel to the original "Jurassic Park" trilogy, opened internationally in June, the film's producers probably weren't...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 6, 2015
New theme park, old problems, but 'Jurassic World' is still wild
Time hasn't been kind to Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park," the 1993 blockbuster that paved the way for every CGI-driven popcorn flick of the past two decades. But it isn't the movie's visual effects that betray its age: it's the setting. The film's titular theme park may have spent millions on cloning...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2015
Black depths of Swedish humor plumbed in 'A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence'
If Vladimir and Estragon, the hapless protagonists of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," had attempted to make a comedy sketch show, they might have ended up with something like "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence." This mordant, strikingly original work from Swedish director Roy Andersson...
U.S. Osprey accidentally drops cargo into sea in Okinawa
A V-22 Osprey
Search for suspect underway after fatal stabbing at Nagano Station
The crime scene where three people were attacked near JR Nagano Station on Wednesday
Large fire breaks out near Osaka's Tsutenkaku Tower
Smoke rises from a fire at a commercial building near Tsutenkaku Tower, in Osaka, on Tuesday.
Fuji TV scandal sparks probes on exploitation within TV industry
Fuji Media Holdings' headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The company will hold an extraordinary board meeting on Thursday over the firestorm sparked by TV host Masahiro Nakai's alleged sexual misconduct.
Drunken driver hits and kills 19-year-old student in Fukushima
Fukushima Prefectural Police have arrested an alleged drunken driver who fatally struck a 19-year-old in Fukushima Prefecture.
Dodgers introduce Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki speaks during his introductory news conference with the team in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Japan-made games part of a rising tide of indie greatness
One of the brighest spots of Japan's indie gaming landscape in 2024 was Sonokuni, and with more incubators and other avenues of support springing up, there may be more games like it in the future.
Terunofuji’s career was unique — and great
Yokozuna Terunofuji enters the ring at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo earlier this month during what would be his final tournament.
Fuji TV scandal sparks probes on exploitation within TV industry
Fuji Media Holdings' headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The company will hold an extraordinary board meeting on Thursday over the firestorm sparked by TV host Masahiro Nakai's alleged sexual misconduct.
For kids, Japanese food ‘is a doorway to exploration’
"A Very Asian Guide to Japanese Food" is the first edition of the Asia-centric series to focus on rice balls, fermented soybeans and other Japanese staples.

Podcast

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

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

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