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April 30, 2025
 

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CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2001
Girl's night out! OI! OI! OI!
By Simon Bartz
Tokyo-based Lolita No. 18 is billed as the headliner of the "Wild Wacky Party Asia" tour, and they're probably the craziest bunch of rock chicks you'll ever see. They are party animals (vocalist Masayo Ishizaka lists alcoholism as her favorite hobby) and nothing if not extreme. They've even started wearing...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 19, 2001
Bob Dylan: 'Love and Theft'
By Philip Brasor
You can tell how much the critical establishment needs Bob Dylan by the praise heaped on his last studio album, 1997's "Time Out of Mind," which contained five excellent songs, five pretty good ones and one 161/2-minute bore. Music critics decided the album was all about death, and as this was, after...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 19, 2001
Kodo: 'Mondo Head'
By Steven Shayman
For some, that Kodo is based on Sado Island might encourage the stereotype of the Japanese master taiko drum troupe living and working in splendid isolation fully dedicated to its traditional Japanese art. But what Japanophile types may not realize is that Kodo, perhaps uniquely among its peers, has...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 16, 2001
Good things come in simpler packages
By Christopher Y. Blasdel
A Ministry of Education and Science directive that takes effect next spring will require public schools to teach a Japanese instrument in junior-high-school music classes; up to now the focus has been entirely on Western music.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 16, 2001
Gone but no longer forgotten
By Terry Wilson
A psychological opera composed in the shadow of World War I, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's long-neglected "Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City, or Shi no Miyako)" has this year been brought to the stage three times: once in a revival of the New York City Opera's 1975 production and twice in new stagings.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 12, 2001
Rachid Taha
By Philip Brasor
Algeria's indigenous pop music, rai, which gained international attention in the 1980s, was, like many popular music forms, the result of city slickers adapting music from the sticks for their own purposes and enjoyment. Originally ribald, rai became pointedly political after young people in the '60s...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 12, 2001
The White Stripes: 'White Blood Cells'
By Simon Bartz
Detroit duo The White Stripes seem a very confused couple. Jack (guitar, vocal) and Meg White (drums) can't seem to decide whether they are brother and sister or husband and wife. Jack insists it's the former -- and that they started the whole rumor that they were married for nothing more than a laugh....
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 12, 2001
You ain't nuthin' but a henjin
By Steve McClure
What a wacky guy Junichiro Koizumi is. When he's not battling bureaucracy or trying to revive the ailing economy, Japan's unprecedentedly popular prime minister likes nothing better than to chill out and listen to the music of the King: Elvis Presley.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 12, 2001
Kakraba Lobi
By Suzannah Tartan
Kakraba Lobi is a virtuoso master of the gyil (pronounced JEEL or JEE-lee), the traditional instrument of the Lobi people of Ghana, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. After stints as a cab driver, farmer and just about every occupation in between, Lobi realized his calling as a gyil player, becoming,...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 12, 2001
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown: 'Back to Bogalusa'
By Michael Pronko
Louis Armstrong once said: "All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song." If any disc ever deserved the "folk music" label it would have to be Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's most recent release, "Back to Bogalusa," with its incredibly rich variety of American styles.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Sep 9, 2001
Kichijoji ain't nuthin' but a jazz thang
By Michael Pronko
Kichijoji offers more jazz per tsubo than almost any place in the city. Not only are rents cheaper than inside the Yamanote Line, but small-niche businesses seem to thrive here. Teeming with shops, restaurants and clubs, it is dynamic without being overwhelming. With clubs presenting live jazz every...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 5, 2001
Welcome to the 'real' world
By Steve McClure
"Utada Unplugged" -- it has a nice ring to it. Hikaru Utada is the latest artist to get the MTV Unplugged treatment, and this correspondent was one of a small group of media folk invited to the taping of the diminutive diva's MTV Japan "Unplugged" special.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
China seizes disputed reef near key Philippine military outpost
China Coast Guard officers unfurl a national flag on Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in disputed waters of the South China Sea this month in this screen shot taken from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Shohei Ohtani's example could change Japan's views on paternity leave
Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka announced the birth of their first child on April 19.
Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
Nearly half of workers in Japan engage in ‘quiet quitting’
"Quiet quitting" is most common among the younger generation, with 46.7% of respondents to a survey in their 20s identifying with the practice, reflecting a less-motivated workforce more focused on work-life balance.
U.S. secretary of the navy weighs ‘dual-use’ shipbuilding with Japan
John Phelan at a Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. secretary of the navy in Washington in February
Expo '25 gives the world a masterclass in mascots
2025 Osaka Expo mascot Myaku-Myaku dances on the stage during the event's official opening ceremony on April 12.

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

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
By Alex K.T. Martin

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

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