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Joy to the world: JO1 (pronounced Jeiowan), a Japanese outfit with K-pop influences, is a notable example of efforts by South Korean music companies to make gains in the J-pop industry.

What does 2021 have in store for J-pop?

by Patrick St. Michel

Last year marked a paradigm shift for the music industry in Japan. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a move toward digital, an area the nation’s labels and artists have long bristled at embracing. With people stuck at home, unable to go to concerts or pop into CD stores, companies had to adapt to...

Don’t drool: Mouthwatering descriptions of food appear in all of these books!

Five books about Japan that are perfect for foodies

by Claire Williamson

We’ve already established that there’s a fantastic canon of Japanese cookbooks out there when you’re craving a washoku meal or hearty bowl of noodles. But you can’t exactly curl up and read them cover to cover. Fortunately, many authors writing about Japan use the country’s cuisine as a central p...

Pedestrians walk past a poster promoting the anime film "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train" at a cinema in Tokyo on Dec. 16. The movie became the highest-grossing film in Japanese box-office history on Monday.

‘Demon Slayer’ becomes Japan’s highest-grossing film

An animated movie based on the blockbuster "Demon Slayer" manga series has become the highest-grossing film in Japanese box-office history, its distributors said Monday, ending the reign of Hayao Miyazaki's "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" ("Spirited Away") from 2001. The film, a tale of an ado...

Easy to digest: The candid prose of “Eat a Peach,” David Chang’s new memoir, gives readers intimate access to the trials and tribulations of building a culinary empire and Chang’s own battles with mental illness.

Life in David Chang’s kitchen isn’t always peachy

by Claire Williamson

Even if you’ve never heard the name of award-winning chef David Chang, you’re almost certainly familiar with his work. There’s his restaurant empire, Momofuku Group; his Netflix series “Ugly Delicious” (which features more than one location in Japan); and he even became the first celebrity to win...