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April 30, 2024
 

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CULTURE SMASH

Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Sep 26, 2014
New markets may save Japan's manga exports
The North American manga business took a beating last decade. After peaking around 2005-06, the lethal storm of oversaturated shelves, a collapsing U.S. financial industry and the bankruptcy of major American bookstore chain, Borders, left publishers and distributors in a panic. Downsizing, restructuring and layoffs became de rigueur.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 22, 2014
Haruki Murakami's Cool Japan
I was in New York last week to host a launch event for the English translation of Haruki Murakami's latest novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage." My good friend and Murakami translator Ted Goossen, professor at York University in Toronto, joined me, as did pianist Eunbi Kim, whose multi-media project, "Murakami Music," I saw performed at Symphony Space in Manhattan last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 25, 2014
Anime enjoys summer homes in Los Angeles
For more than two decades, post-production, audio and creative studio Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Burbank, California, has been delivering the anime fix abroad. Founder and CEO Eric P. Sherman talks about how it all began.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 13, 2014
Forget Cool Japan — cute is this summer's hot global export
Summer is always high season for fans of Japanese pop culture. School's out, weather's amenable and festivals, conventions and expos shift into top gear in Japan and across the globe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
May 9, 2014
Manga becomes a major draw at Toronto Comic Arts Festival
The 11th annual Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) kicks off May 10. As its title suggests, it's less a fan-focused pop convention than a platform for comics and graphic novels as art, and for the artists who create them. It has also emerged as a great friend to manga over the past few years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 11, 2014
Anime industry reunified at expo, satellite events
AnimeJapan 2014, the rebranded and reunified annual industry trade show, exceeded organizers' expectations last month, hosting 110,000 producers, publishers, journalists, cosplayers and public visitors. What a relief.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 13, 2014
Sebastian Masuda's mission to take Harajuku art global
New York is not a city one automatically associates with the Japanese concept of kawaii — lovably, irresistibly, dependably cute. But if Sebastian Masuda, the so-called "king of kawaii," has his way, the mean streets of "Goodfellas" may one day emanate a candy-colored glow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Feb 13, 2014
The symbiotic relationship between anime and games
Japan excels at making you play. From its flower arrangements to tea ceremonies to karaoke, nothing much happens until you get into the game, and a big part of Japan's appeal to non-natives is its invitation to engage.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jan 9, 2014
Anime/manga experts hopeful for year ahead
Aside from Hayao Miyazaki's sudden departure from filmmaking in September, the anime world saw some potentially hopeful developments in 2013.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Dec 10, 2013
Shueisha manga push hard into the global market
One week before Thanksgiving on Nov. 28, readers of The New York Times were greeted by a spiky-haired, wild-eyed manga character named Monkey D. Luffy, his fists clenched and chest bare, charging forward as if the newsprint could barely contain him. Behind him in massive text screamed the words: "Hey world, this is the manga!!" above a smaller query, "Are there real adventures in this country?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Nov 12, 2013
Has anime lost its cachet in America?
I had been invited to host a Q&A with renowned "Gundam" creator and sci-fi novelist Yoshiyuki Tomino at The New York Anime Festival. But when my handler and I arrived at the designated room, we found it empty and dark. "Over here," a staffer called from across the hall. "Too many people."
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Oct 8, 2013
Backlash against Miyazaki is generational
If you haven't lived in Japan, it's hard to appreciate just how beloved are anime maestro Hayao Miyazaki and his creative hub, Studio Ghibli.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Sep 10, 2013
UrumaDelvi learn the importance of contacts
The husband-and-wife creative team known as UrumaDelvi has been cranking out quirky, quasi-psychedelic illustrations, animated shorts and music videos for over 20 years. They met in design school in 1988. Deciding that their married surname, Kobayashi, was too common in Japan to be memorable, they took the names of two of the wife's early sketches — of a boy named Uruma and a girl named Delvi — as their own, and rebranded their art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 13, 2013
Otakon celebrates 20 years of anime fandom in the U.S.
The American anime convention, Otakon ("Otaku Convention"), begins with a costume parade before it officially opens. Last week I had a bird's-eye view of the spectacle from my 14th-floor hotel room in Baltimore, Maryland. An endless army of imaginary characters trudged across the elevated concourse and down adjacent sidewalks to the Baltimore Convention Center to register and obtain entry badges. Most were instantly recognizable from anime series old and new, brandishing swords or other weaponry fashioned out of homemade materials, or wearing massive multicolored wigs, capes or sewn-on tails — or very little at all.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jul 9, 2013
Can METI's ¥50 billion fund unfreeze 'Cool Japan'?
Naysaying is almost always risk-free, especially if you do it online. If you're a cynic, you're usually right, and if you're wrong, you can just delete those errant tweets and posts and join the party.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 12, 2013
Preserving a classic Japanese art form: tokusatsu magic
Our monster is scaly, spiky, reptilian — a cross between a dinosaur and an irradiated insect that shrieks like an angry bird. Our hero is lean, faintly muscular in a rubbery skintight suit with inscrutable praying-mantis eyes. They face one another, stomping left to right like sumo wrestlers, posing karate-style. The humans below clasp their hands in hope, their city fragile as cardboard.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
May 8, 2013
Social clubbing takes off with iFlyer service
Clubbing in Japan is a kick. The country's zeal for global pop trends and its prominent club scene draws big-name DJs and performers from the international circuit. Japan's hodgepodge approach to urban planning means that clubs seem to blossom nearly anywhere — in the back alleys of unsung neighborhoods such as Tokyo's Yoyogi, with its funky music haven, Zher the Zoo, or behind nondescript docks in the Hyogo Prefecture capital of Kobe. Despite recent crackdowns on after-hours dancing, Japan's club scene continues to thrive past the midnight hour, buoyed by itinerant hipsters with wads of cash.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Apr 10, 2013
Pop tourism gains traction
Pre-flight shopping at Narita airport a couple of weeks ago, I passed a mannequin sporting a light-blue necktie and a turquoise wig with pig tails dangling down to its mini skirt. The vision spoke volumes: It was Hatsune Miku, of course, Japan's holographic, animated virtual pop star, beloved fashion icon and model for pop culture fans and cosplayers worldwide. But why was she suddenly manning the plaza concourse of Japan's busiest tourist portal, standing tall beside Uniqlo and Shu Uemura?
Japan Times
LIFE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 13, 2013
The online anime revolution has finally ignited in Japan
The first question after a panel I once chaired at an anime convention in the United States sounded innocent enough. "So, what do you guys think about Crunchyroll?"
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.

Podcast

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Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

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