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April 30, 2024
 

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CULTURE SMASH

Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Feb 3, 2019
The story behind anime localization
'The structure of Japanese storytelling does not adhere to a strict three acts. At times, the story meanders and takes the viewer on a seemingly unrelated path. ... Characterizations are richer, deeper, darker. Plots are often complex and convoluted, serving primarily as vessels to display incredible visuals.' — Mary Claypool, anime localization expert
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 6, 2019
Second chance for Japan's manga museum
While official Japan may be slow to act on the appeal of its otaku mavens, the rest of the world appears keen to embrace manga and anime.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Dec 23, 2018
Hayao Miyazaki: The never-ending story
In September 2013, animator Hayao Miyazaki said: 'Through the years I have frequently talked about retiring, so many of you are perhaps wondering if this time I am really sincere. I am.' But was he?
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 25, 2018
Netflix anime welcomes the dark side
As manga artist Go Nagai celebrates the 50th anniversary of 'Shameless School,' first published in the debut edition of Shonen Jump magazine, Netflix releases his 'Devilman Crybaby' as an anime series.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 22, 2018
Motherhood in modern anime
'I still feel the loneliness of being hikikomori. Maybe I'm successful, maybe not. I can't tell. But I still feel the loneliness. The only difference now is that I can express my loneliness, my pain, and all those feelings in my writing. They don't go to waste.' — Screenwriter, author and anime director Mari Okada
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 24, 2018
Can Japanese 'light novels' remain publishing heavyweights?
Two years ago, light novel publisher Kadokawa added Thailand to its list of foreign publishing investments, which already includes Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and the United States. Now there are signs that English-language readers are catching on.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 27, 2018
Will digital piracy ruin the future of manga?
Author and manga translator Frederik L. Schodt once pointed out to me that many of Japan's cultural products are embraced abroad just as they are declining at home. Ukiyo-e prints became the rage in Europe in the late 19th century, nearly 100 years after they'd peaked in Edo and Kyoto. Sake sales have been climbing steadily in overseas markets, with the value of exports doubling over the past five years and hitting a record in 2017, as they continue a decades-long slide in Japan. And now: manga?
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 22, 2018
Japan's pop culture and literature drive soft power
Anime, manga and Haruki Murakami may form an unlikely trinity, but outside of Japan they're responsible for filling Japanese Studies departments and sprawling convention halls with generations of the devoted.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Feb 25, 2018
Netflix is animated about anime
Netflix's director of anime, Taito Okiura, tells me he feels like a local baseball player who got drafted into the U.S. Major Leagues. Except, he doesn't play the sport.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Dec 24, 2017
Foreign anime artists still face a long haul
In an interview with Buzzfeed two years ago, American animator Henry Thurlow, who had moved to Tokyo from New York six years earlier, summed up his dilemma. "When I was working as an animator in New York, I could afford an apartment, buy stuff and had time to 'live a life,'" he said. "Now (in Japan) everything about my life is utterly horrible, (but) the artist in me is completely satisfied."
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 26, 2017
Diana Garnet sings the praises of anime
It has become one of the most common questions I'm asked after talks at anime conventions in the United States: How can I get a job in the Japanese pop culture industry — not here, but in Japan?
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Oct 22, 2017
Anime tourism invites overseas fans to join festivities
Yuwaku Onsen is a 1,300-year-old hot-springs resort tucked between mountains along the Asano River south of Kanazawa. Ten mid-size traditional inns line its slim main street, leading to a small hillside shrine and a man-made pond.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Sep 24, 2017
IOEA: The grass-roots gospel of otaku culture
The International Otaku Expo Association (IOEA) could be the title of one of those self-referential, po-mo anime shows that is as much about fandom as it is made for fans (think "Genshiken," an entire series about a college otaku fan club). But it's the real thing, headquartered in Tokyo's Yushima neighborhood and founded by three self-proclaimed otaku a little over two years ago — and now it's getting props from Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), which is helping the IOEA spread the otaku gospel worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 23, 2017
Crunchyroll takes anime to a live level
Summer is high season for live celebrations of Japan's pop culture exports. The two largest events in the West, Japan Expo in Paris and Anime Expo in LA, drew hundreds of thousands earlier this month. August will see the U.S. East Coast's biggest anime convention, Otakon, move from Baltimore, Maryland, into more spacious environs in Washington, D.C., and later, the California debut of Crunchyroll Expo, a convention hosted by the most popular dedicated anime streaming service outside of Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 25, 2017
Director Sunao Katabuchi shares his corner of this world
Last summer saw the release of what would become the highest grossing Japanese animation film to date, Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name.," which was also the country's top box-office draw of 2016. The surprise hit's main characters are a pair of body-swapping teenagers. A survey conducted by the Fields Research Institute earlier this month revealed, unsurprisingly, that its commercial success was driven by the nation's teenagers — over 30 percent of whom said they bought tickets, compared to 4 percent of those 65 and older.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 23, 2017
Anime gives Japanese bands a new route to potential fans
"Retro" was the theme at this year's Anime Boston, the largest anime convention in the Northeastern United States, and that idea extended to the event's featured musical acts: veteran pop duo Puffy AmiYumi and 1960s-styled rock quartet Okamoto's.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 18, 2017
Breaking the comic book glass ceiling
Four years ago, Chinese-American writer Marjorie Liu had a simple but persistent idea: create an epic fantasy comic book series about a classic Japanese kaijū (strange beast) movie monster that has a connection to a girl.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 21, 2017
Japanese folklore meets anime in Kyoto
The colors were jarring. Beneath the vermillion torii gates of Kyoto's Shimogamo Shrine and surrounded by the olive broadleaves of Tadasu Forest was a pool of furry, bright yellow ponchos, decorated with the brown facial features, rounded ears and bulbous oblong tails of the tanuki, or Japanese raccoon dog.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 16, 2016
Anime discovers a rural outpost
For the past few years, the beginning of July has found me on a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles to attend Anime Expo (AX), the largest annual North American convention devoted to Japanese popular culture, and its related industry-only event, Project Anime (PA). Both continue to break attendance records. This year, AX tallied 100,420 unique attendees, while PA brought together 102 international anime convention organizers with studio executives and their staff from Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 18, 2016
Drawing on the past of Osamu Tezuka
In 1977, American author and translator Frederik L. Schodt and three friends formed a manga-translation group in Tokyo, with the then-quixotic dream of introducing Japanese comics to a global readership. Schodt had arrived in Japan in 1965, courtesy of a father in the United States Foreign Service. He returned in 1970 to attend university after a short stint in the U.S. At the time, manga were everywhere in Japan, he says, and a lot more fun to read than textbooks.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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