Menu
Search
 
May 12, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

CULTURE

Stage

Film
Books
Art
Music
TV & Streaming
Stage
Entertainment news
Kotoba Slam Japan runs regional competitions to select a representative for the annual World Poetry Slam Championship, which will take place in Mexico at the end of the month.
CULTURE / Stage
Japan’s slam poetry scene is all about raw vulnerability
Slam poetry is a rarity in Japan, but the scene is full of energy and potential that the poets have been bringing to the world slam poetry stage for 10 years now.
CULTURE / Stage
National Ballet of Japan takes its 'Giselle' to Royal Opera House in London
First staged in 2022 to celebrate the NBJ’s 25th anniversary season, Miyako Yoshida's production is revived for the first time with several Tokyo shows in April.
CULTURE / Stage
K-Ballet Tokyo marks 25 years of passion and perseverance
The dance company celebrates a milestone anniversary with an extended lineup including a revival of the vibrant pirate-story ballet "Le Corsaire."
From her early love for "Cardcaptor Sakura" and "YuYu Hakusho" to her rise on "RuPaul’s Drag Race," Rock M. Sakura’s anime inspirations are central to her drag persona.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 25, 2025
When anime meets drag: The manga-inspired world of Rock M. Sakura
By Kat Joplin
A drag queen who merges manga, anime and queer culture, Rock M. Sakura's persona resonates deeply with fans worldwide.
Yamanote Jijosha has a long history of staging Shakespeare plays, and in celebration of its 40th anniversary, the company will present “Othello” and “Macbeth.” Previously, it toured productions like “Titus Andronicus,” which premiered in Tokyo in 1999, saw multiple revivals and had a homecoming in 2015.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 21, 2025
Directing is never a monologue at the experimental Yamanote Jijosha theater company
By Kris Kosaka
To mark its four decades of existence, the company stages two Shakespearean tragedies for a triumph.
Drag queen Becca D’Bus plays Dido, the forlorn queen of Carthage, in a drag version of “Dido and Aeneas."
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 30, 2024
Divas and diversity: Opera meets drag in ‘Dido and Aeneas’
By Zoria Petkoska
Becca D’Bus, one of Singapore’s most popular drag queens, and Tokyo’s voguers and queens team up for a grand show at the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting.
Students from Agatsuma’s butoh workshop, also part of Sumi-Yume, will be joining her and professional butoh dancer Tomoshi Shioya for this weekend’s shows.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 8, 2024
Butoh dances to the sounds of Hokusai’s hometown
By Zoria Petkoska
Performances of the avant-garde dance form are part of a program dedicated to the revered artist and celebrating the local community in Sumida Ward.
Wozme, founded by dancer and choreographer Wakaba Kohei, is composed of Kana Kitty, Ami Ishii, Akane Watanabe and Natsuki. Its aim is to inject elegance and beauty, traits traditionally associated with femininity, into the sometimes grotesque art form of butoh dance.
CULTURE / Stage / Longform
Sep 29, 2024
Wozme, an all-women dance troupe, wants to move the needle in butoh
By Zoria Petkoska
The art form’s younger dancers are experimenting with long-standing approaches to the choreography, marketing and image of this captivating piece of Japanese culture.
Adriana Torres performs her monologue during the closing of a stand-up comedy workshop at the El Buen Pastor women's prison in Asuncion.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 29, 2024
Comedy offers new routine for women prisoners in Paraguay
By Hugo Olazarfirst
Inmates took part in a two-month workshop run by the Corazon Libre NGO, which uses comedy to help convicts prepare for life on the outside.
Set in a village in the Swiss Alps, Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “La Sonnambula” centers on an orphan named Amina who is unknowingly frightening the locals with her nightly sleepwalking, and they believe there is a ghost among them.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 26, 2024
'La Sonnambula' offers a modern take on a dubious happy ending
By Kris Kosaka
Director Barbara Lluch scrutinizes gender expectations and patriarchal societies that thrive on polarizing views in her production of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera.

Global militaries to study India-Pakistan fighter jet battle
The Indian Air Force's Rafale fighter jets. India and Pakistan aircraft engaged in a dogfight on Wednesday.
Escalation fears rise in Japan following Chinese moves near Senkakus
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of the Uotsuri islet, one of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. Concerns are growing in Tokyo after a Chinese government helicopter violated Japan's airspace around the uninhabited islets.
Ishiba vows Japan will stand its ground, demanding U.S. lift auto tariffs
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a Lower House committee meeting on Friday.
As prices soar, Zen-Noh ships just 32% of government-stockpiled rice
A customer walks past a display of rice, with a sign apologizing to shoppers they must be limited to one bag each due to market conditions, at a branch of Japanese discount retailer Don Quijote in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on April 21.
Emperor emeritus diagnosed with silent myocardial ischemia
Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 91, rides in a car with Empress Emerita Michiko, 90, after he was discharged from the University of Tokyo Hospital on Saturday following an examination for suspected myocardial ischemia.
Sculpted waves, sleek updos: Showa hairstyles are back in fashion
The larger-than-life hairstyles of Japan's Showa Era are unmistakable — and they're making a comeback.
In China’s ‘Michelin Guide,’ Tokyo leads overseas listings with 30 entries
China's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its award ceremony overseas for the first time, picking the dining capital of Singapore to promote its brand to an international audience.
Who could become Japan's next prime minister?
Clockwise from top left: Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi
With a new Shibuya studio, Apple Music bets big on Japan
Apple Music personalities (from left) Ebro Darden, Kentaro Ochiai, Zane Lowe and Mino came together for a special recording in late April to discuss music and celebrate the newly opened Apple Music studio in Tokyo.
Kazuki Nagasawa's sustainable designs are rooted in tradition
For centuries, artisans have unraveled strands of the fibrous bark of "shuro" trees to create a medley of everyday objects. Designer Kazuki Nagasawa is now transforming the traditional material into ethereal contemporary pieces.

Podcast

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

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

Latest News

More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
11 mins ago
Japan’s stocks slow rally as investors assess U.S.-China trade talks
24 mins ago
15-year-old arrested for killing elderly woman
28 mins ago
Japanese universities expanding female quotas in science
39 mins ago
Escalation fears rise in Japan following Chinese moves near Senkakus
1 hour ago