Dempagumi.inc's Risa Aizawa on the true power of fashion
Fashion designers can be stiff creatures, especially when it comes to divulging their history or feelings in an interview. However, Risa Aizawa is not your run-of-the-mill fashion designer. She is a member of the five-person Akihabara-born idol group Dempagumi.inc, known more for it's hard-core ...
Cast your mind back to the giddy days of 2010, when the group of subcultural artists Chaos Lounge issued its first proclamation. While its stated goal was earnest and postmodern, the output was seen as a shock to the art world as it brought ...
Music's shifting tides reveal a hunger for artistry in Japan
Music is often characterized over-simplistically as a battle between rock and pop, seriousness and fun, but the two are always in an ever-shifting balance. With this column coming to the end of its six-year run, it feels timely to cast a look back — ...
Trippy graphics and Hello Kitty: My journey into Japanese music videos
I'm a journalist from New York visiting The Japan Times this summer and for my first assignment my editor asked me to find five music videos to share with you. I fully admit, this is my first time encountering the world of Japanese music, ...
Dempagumi.inc mew-ves into the world of Hello Kitty
Anti-itch cream and Hello Kitty may seem like an unlikely pairing, but these days it seems that cat can sell anything. This time, however, she has enlisted Akihabara-based idol group Dempagumi.inc to help. The group, PokeMuhi Motta Dempagumi.inc to Hello Kitty (Dempagumi.inc that has Pocket ...
Review: Moshi Moshi Nippon at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium
Offering non-Japanese people free entry to Moshi Moshi Nippon was a risky move on the part of Asobisystem, but it seemed to have paid off. Nearly 15,000 punters showed up for the Sept. 28 event at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, and organizers say that 7,000 of ...
Tokyo Girls' Style gets glow sticks waving at @Jam Expo
The glow stick business must be booming. Sure it was a staple of 1990s rave culture, but the modern idol-pop scene has taken to them at least threefold. And Yokohama Arena was filled with them last weekend at the @Jam Expo. The country's biggest idol-group ...
Babymetal aren't the latest chapter in the 'wacky Japan' story
The British are mad, aren't they? That Kate Bush with her crazy gyrating around a cello in the video for "Babushka," that daft loon Robbie Williams with his funky skeleton costume, those kerrr-azy Tellytubbies with their wacky dance routines — what is it about ...
Fashion Week's side shows give the public a rare seat next to their runways
Next week is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo but, chances are, you’re not invited. Before that teen trauma of being excluded sets in, don’t panic — there’s a ton of alternative events to get dolled up for. The twice-yearly Tokyo fashion fest will run Oct. 14-19 ...
The cutest little whitehead, Kakusen-kun
Will this kimo-kawaii anime cause you to rethink your relationship with clogged pores?
The year in music so far has been filled with comeback albums that "hype" their way to the top. After the Twitter hashtags subside, though, such artists also seem to leave the minds of the public. (Is anyone still talking about David Bowie? Justin ...
Explore one of Tokyo's most indie neighborhoods at Shimokitazawa Sound Cruising
Tokyo's Shimokitazawa neighborhood is one of the most important places for indie music in the city. A lively suburb at the nexus between the Inokashira and Odakyu train lines, it's just distant enough from the big urban hubs of Shinjuku and Shibuya to avoid ...
