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July 19, 2025
 

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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.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 5, 2001
Space Shower
By Suzannah Tartan
Space Shower TV, the homegrown version of music television, has been instrumental in promoting what might be best called Japanese pop, as opposed to J-pop. These groups may not make the upper reaches of the chart -- they are either too raw or too offbeat -- but they are also too accessible or too popular...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 5, 2001
Nils Petter Molvaer: 'Solid Ether'
By Philip Brasor
Being a respected regional musician has its good points and its not so good points. Nils Petter Molvaer, who was born in 1960 and raised on an island off the northwest coast of Norway, eventually made his way to Oslo in the early '80s and became the most acclaimed trumpeter in the city's burgeoning jazz...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 5, 2001
The Strokes: 'Is This It'
By Simon Bartz
Let's put our hands up and admit it, right. We are all sick of the aging rap-rock racket of Limp Bizkit and their ilk, the punk-lite of Blink-182, etc. and the overblown histrionics of mainstream British rock. We need a feisty new band to kick down the door, spray the establishment with aural bullets...
Living conditions index hits lowest level in 15 years in Japan
The share of respondents to a Bank of Japan quarterly survey in June who said they have become worse off came to 61.0%, up 5.1 percentage points from the previous survey.
Tokyo emerges as a top market for global tech talent
Tokyo ranks among the world's top tech talent hubs alongside Beijing, the San Francisco Bay Area, Bengaluru, Paris, New York and Dublin, according to Colliers' newly released global tech markets report.
From stalking to death threats, female candidates still face harassment
Mayu Ushida, a former NHK newscaster running for election in the Tokyo electoral district on the Democratic Party for the People ticket, signs an autograph for a voter after a public rally at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Tuesday.
CDP leader criticizes ‘Japanese First’ policy and calls for inclusive society
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda said it is obvious that Japanese society could not function without the help of foreign workers in manufacturing, health care, construction and public transportation.
JSA’s 100th anniversary event is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for sumo fans
Egyptian wrestler Osunaarashi has some fun with children during a special Japan Sumo Association event in 2017.
Japan's rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi’s policies
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
From stalking to death threats, female candidates still face harassment
Mayu Ushida, a former NHK newscaster running for election in the Tokyo electoral district on the Democratic Party for the People ticket, signs an autograph for a voter after a public rally at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Kawaii Lab redefines idol pop for the TikTok generation
Misa Kimura is the main producer for Kawaii Lab, a project by entertainment agency Asobisystem whose groups have found success by pairing a social media-first strategy with a fresh perspective on traditional idol-pop tropes.
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.

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After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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