Tag - dempagumiinc

 
 

DEMPAGUMIINC

Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 13, 2017
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 dedication to otaku fandom than for its runway shows. Even so, she debuted her brand Memuse on the runway during the recent Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo, and the show was one of the most buzzed about of the week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 24, 2017
Japanese fashion goes pop
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 the dregs of Japanese pop culture to "white cube" galleries. While Takashi Murakami got away with it by using original characters, the aforementioned group's crime was to splice copyrighted characters and imagery into collages, which ultimately mired the group in controversy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 26, 2017
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 — and perhaps also a hopeful eye forward — over the changing state of music in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 12, 2015
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, but research has never been this fun.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 8, 2015
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 7, 2014
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2014
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 25, 2014
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 the British that makes them so totally off-the-wall bonkers?
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 10, 2013
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.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Aug 20, 2013
The cutest little whitehead, Kakusen-kun
Will this kimo-kawaii anime cause you to rethink your relationship with clogged pores?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2013
The best albums of 2013 (so far)
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 Timberlake? ... Daft Punk?) The fast-paced industry of buzz can overwhelm a music fan if he or she isn't constantly glued to a laptop, but come on — you gotta leave the house sometime!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2013
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 being absorbed by them, but close enough that it's relatively easy to access from pretty much anywhere. However, like much of the Tokyo indie scene, knowing where to go and what to see can be perplexing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 30, 2013
Dempagumi.inc: Akihabara' kawaii-guru idols
Dempagumi.inc have become the faces of a new generation of Akihabara pop music, as well as a force to be reckoned with in the fashion world.

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree