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July 21, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 22, 2003
Common: "Electric Circus"
By Jason Jenkins
Hip-hop and Hollywood share at least one thing in common: Star-studded lineups never guarantee a work of art. In fact, some material's strength is often diluted proportionately to the number of egos featured.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 22, 2003
Roy Haynes: "Love Letters"
By Michael Pronko
With his steady stream of work stretching back nearly six decades, it's hard to think of a jazz figure drummer Roy Haynes has not played behind. He started out with Lester Young, then switched over to Charlie Parker. After that, he played with Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan. Then from the '60s through the...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jan 19, 2003
Independent music was the smart alternative in '02
By Steve McClure
2002 was not a vintage year, to put it mildly, for the Japanese music industry. Sales of CDs were down for the fourth straight year, and just one single -- female vocalist Ayumi Hamasaki's "H" (Avex) -- topped the million-sales mark during the year, compared with five in 2001.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 15, 2003
Bembeya Jazz: "Bembeya"
By Michael Pronko
The Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon has spread to Africa, but with a difference. Re-emerging African bands also spent years in recording exile, but returned less with a sense of unclaimed historical import than with a readiness to hit the dance floor. The latest rediscovery is the intense Afropop...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 15, 2003
You've got to give a little
By Tom Bojko
Tamao Kubota, the founder and lead singer of Apple Beat, has a powerful, slightly husky voice and carries herself with an attractive air of unself-conscious defiance. She sounds as good belting it out like an impassioned R & B singer as she does slow, quiet and personal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 15, 2003
The Sea and Cake
By Jason Jenkins
Post-rock seems to have been born a genre already approaching middle age. While rock 'n' roll swaggered and screamed, this reticent cousin of indie-rock purposefully strode away from the testosterone. Post-rock's aim was a departure from rock's basic instincts, placing mood and texture over guitar hooks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 15, 2003
Toshinori Kondo: "Nerve Tripper"
By Tom Bojko
Among his many accomplishments, trumpeter and electronic music programmer Toshinori Kondo has won the friendship of the Dalai Llama, played on Herbie Hancock's influential album "Future Shock" and produced the World Festival of Sacred Music in Hiroshima.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 15, 2003
Talent-laden 'festival' to bring back a pinch of that old magic
By Philip Brasor
Once upon a time, rock shows were long, drawn-out affairs, with two or three opening acts who could be counted on to play as if they were headliners. Magic Rock Out, an event that will be held in Kobe and Tokyo in early February, is too limited in scope to be called a "festival" (only one stage), and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 15, 2003
hoggboy: "Or 8?"
By Philip Brasor
The British rock press has declared the Sheffield band hoggboy the official scapegoat of the inevitable garage-rock backlash in England, where The Strokes first made a splash and, therefore, the place where their star has been fading most rapidly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jan 12, 2003
Countdown to a 4/4 beat
By Michael Pronko
On New Year's Eve, while thousands of celebrants packed Tokyo's shrines and temples to hear the 108 bells ringing out the sins of mankind, many others crowded into Tokyo's jazz clubs to hear musicians offer their own prayers. For these ritual yearend jam sessions, the doors remain open all night so people...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 8, 2003
Ladytron: "Light & Magic"
By Rowan Hooper
'They only want you when you're 17. When you're 21 you're no fun." This song, "Seventeen," the first single from their new album "Light & Magic," sums up what Ladytron are all about. Their lyrics can be cruel and direct ("Seventeen" is an indictment of the Lolita values of modeling agencies), but they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 8, 2003
Joshua Redman
By Michael Pronko
Since winning the Thelonius Monk 1991 new jazz player's competition, Joshua Redman's career has been on fast-forward. His rise in popularity was propelled by a contract with Warner Brothers, his greatly noted graduation from Harvard, critical praise from the jazz press and collaborations with a long...
Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
Polls open for key Upper House election that could shake Japanese politics
People vote during Japan's Upper House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
Sunken WWII Japanese warship Teruzuki found off Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands. A team from the U.S. nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust has discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki on the deep seabed off the Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
Japan team finds ancient ocean full of squids
The ancient ocean was full of squids, whose population exceeded that of fish or ammonites, a Japanese research team mainly from Hokkaido University has found through a new method using technology.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
‘Noto Democracy’ and the slow work of civic change
Yukio Iokibe’s “Noto Democracy" centers on Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher who publishes a handwritten newspaper every month to encourage the residents of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to engage in local politics.
In microbes we trust: Embracing the nature of fermented food
You don't need an oven to make Kenji Morimoto's easy and delicious Miso Sticky Toffee Crepe Cake.
Touring the Silk Road — without leaving Tokyo
One of the entrances to Pao Compound, a nine-story Silk Road-inspired complex in Tokyo's Higashinakano neighborhood

Podcast

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

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
By Alex K.T. Martin

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