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September 11, 2025
 

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GO AYANO

Elementary school teacher Seiichi Yabushita (Go Ayano) is taken to court for allegedly driving one of his students to attempt suicide in Takashi Miike’s “Sham.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025
‘Sham’ flirts with ambiguity, then picks a side
Takashi Miike’s legal drama draws from a real-life incident and makes a clear but frustratingly simplified case.
A nefarious fraudster (Etsushi Toyokawa, left) and his protege (Go Ayano) engineer a multibillion-yen property scam in Netflix’s “Tokyo Swindlers.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 25, 2024
Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ is this summer’s guiltiest pleasure
The flashy new series about real estate scammers is a ridiculous treat to watch.
A yakuza member (Go Ayano, right) enlists a teenage choir leader (Jun Saito) to teach him how to sing in "Let's Go Karaoke!"
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2024
‘Let's Go Karaoke!’: Unlikely duo's friendship hits a comic sweet spot
The chemistry between Go Ayano as a gangster and newcomer Jun Saito as a young choir leader makes their characters’ relationship shine.
An out-of-work porn director (Go Ayano, right) goes on a drunken trip down memory lane with one of his dead lover’s former partners (Tasuku Emoto, left) in “A Spoiling Rain.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2023
‘A Spoiling Rain’: A boozy, rueful requiem for love and porn
Based on a novella, Haruhiko Arai’s drama keeps the melancholy core of its source material but expands it into a personal ode to the erotic film industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2021
‘Homunculus’: You need to see this like you need a hole in the head
Takashi Shimizu's adaptation of a manga series about a man who gains psychic powers after having a hole drilled in his head manages to be tasteless and timid at once.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 27, 2021
‘A Family’: This sentimental ode to yakuza life ignores reality
Michihito Fujii's yakuza film waxes nostalgic about the old-school days of gangsterdom with soggy sentimentality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2020
'Beneath the Shadow': Too obscure for its own good
Keishi Otomo's latest film looks at two colleagues whose blossoming bromance threatens to turn into something more mysterious.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2019
'Family of Strangers': An admirable ode to the institutionalized
Hideyuki Hirayama's latest feature, filmed in a real psychiatric hospital in Nagano Prefecture, tells the story of three residents of an institution who form an unlikely bond
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2019
'The Promised Land': Zeze's latest is far from heaven-sent
Takahisa Zeze unveils his latest feature, an ambitious film based on two short stories by best-selling author Shuichi Yoshida
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 14, 2017
Kendo drama 'Mukoku' takes a stab at Showa Era sports spirit
One of the attractions of Asian martial arts for many Westerners (including this one) is the promise of self-improvement that goes beyond better street fighting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2016
'Twisted Justice': Gangster black comedy is a shade off
In 2003, a Hokkaido cop named Yoshiaki Inaba was sentenced to nine years in jail, on charges including drug use and possession with intent to supply. During his trial, the former police inspector revealed that his impressive career record had involved an unhealthy degree of collusion with contacts in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2016
'Six Four': Japan held hostage by the Showa Era
'Don't you understand what is to have a child taken from you? How could you be a policeman and not understand that?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
Painful love in decaying Hokkaido port town
My interview with Mipo Oh, the director of the turbulent new love drama 'Soko Nomi Nite Hikari Kagayaku (The Light Shines Only There),' did not begin smoothly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2014
Trial by media, conviction by word of mouth
Yoshihiro Nakamura makes movies that puzzle, surprise and illuminate their themes both cleverly and literally (the fireworks of "Golden Slumber," the comet of "Fish Story"). Everyone's heard of the "butterfly effect" — how a small action in one place (a butterfly flapping its wings in a South American...
Workers say corporate South Korea was warned about questionable U.S. visas before Hyundai raid
Activists holding signs that reads "No one is illegal!" protest against a huge immigration raid last week in the U.S. state of Georgia, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Tuesday.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Goldman sells Tokyo office area to JR East for over ¥50 billion
GranTokyo South Tower (center). East Japan Railway has bought the 14th to 18th floors of the office building at a price of more than ¥50 billion from Goldman Sachs Group.
Ed Sheeran teams up with Tokyo’s Oedo Line
The “Oh! Ed! Collaboration Campaign,” launched on Tokyo's Keio Line to celebrate the Friday release of Ed Sheeran’s latest album, “Play,” includes a eight-car train dedicated to the pop star's music and trivia related to his career
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.
Search is on for loopholes in Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick argues that U.S. President Donald Trump has sole authority to invest Japan's promised $550 billion.
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight
By Mai Yoshikawa

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