Tag - haru

 
 

HARU

Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 2025
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Haru Nemuri’s “ekkolaptomenos” fuses philosophy, pop and protest, confronting Japan’s politics while navigating visa fears and DIY touring.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 29, 2022
Haru Nemuri: Rock, rebellion and a bit of Rage
The musician's new album 'Shunka Ryougen' gives voice to Japan's Gen Z.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 9, 2021
‘Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me?’: A piercing look at marriage through manga
Takahiro Horie's slickly plotted drama about two married manga artists offers a fresh take on marital strife and what makes a relationship survive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 19, 2020
'All About March': A love story that puts years on you
While some people end up finding the right partner, others spend their whole lives wondering why they didn’t shack up with their high-school crush instead. “All About March” follows the fortunes of a pair of schoolmates who were clearly made for each other, even if it will take them half a lifetime...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 9, 2019
News outlets' coverage of abuse cases can make the situation worse
In her 2017 book, "Thinking About Child Abuse,” Haru Sugiyama describes her correspondence with Yukihiro Saito, who is serving a lengthy sentence for causing the death of his 5-year-old son, Riku, in the mid-2000s through neglect. In his letters, Saito expresses regret, but also says his memories about...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2018
Haru Nemuri's rapping and roaring speaks to the zeitgeist of 2018
Haruna Kimishima knew her music had found an audience overseas when her Twitter DMs began to fill up with English.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2018
'Every Day a Good Day': The wonder of tea with Kirin Kiki
I attended my first tea ceremony decades ago, as part of a company orientation. Kneeling on the floor, I sat in the formal seiza position, stumbled through the motions and sipped the thick green tea. Just as the pain in my legs was reaching a crescendo, I bowed to my host and hobbled out. I had next...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2018
'Still Life of Memories': An erotic drama that perpetuates the male gaze
Hitoshi Yazaki goes slightly overboard with visual innuendo in an otherwise artistic film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2017
'To Each His Own': Every wage slave needs a friend like this, but who is he?
Izuru Narushima's 'To Each His Own' is a serious treatment of the theme of 'black companies' that flirts with fantasy in its first half but shades to heart-warming melodrama in its second.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2016
A new wave of Japanese filmmakers matches the old
Nearly two decades after the Japanese New Wave of the 1990s, the directors who led it, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase, are still the local industry's most prominent faces abroad. But this year a new generation of filmmakers has finally started to make itself heard, with...
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Mar 29, 2016
Hakuho's best days are behind him
The time has come for yokozuna Hakuho to look in the mirror, recognize the person looking back at him as head and shoulders above all others the greatest sumo wrestler that has ever lived, but to then accept that it is now time to retire, to call it a day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 14, 2016
Takehiro Hira steps into a 19th-century affair in the award-winning 'Kaku Onna'
Tokyo was bathed in warm sunshine in the run-up to 2016, and when Takehiro Hira meets me at a rehearsal studio his smile is beaming just as brightly — while in his arms he's carrying a box of mikan (mandarin oranges) to share with the rest of the team as they prepare for this month's rerun of Ai Nagai's...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Mar 26, 2015
Hakuho showing no signs of letting up
When Hakuho won his 33rd Emperor’s Cup in January, he was widely acknowledged as the greatest ever grand champion in the history of the sport.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2015
Can idol group Momoiro Clover Z learn to act?
The typical Japanese movie about the travails and triumphs of a high school club follows an upward arc, as the audience cheers on the heroes to their foregone triumph over setbacks and defeats. The actualities of how they become more accomplished swing musicians, as in "Swing Girls," or choral singers,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 15, 2014
This special Horse Year kabuki's a real winner
Most kabuki plays have at their core a dramatic historical episode. Around this, there's generally a colorful, oft-times melodramatic and action-packed confection of intrigues, loyalties, romances, self-sacrifice and villainy founded on varying degrees of fact — or simply fashioned as pure fiction....
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Apr 3, 2013
Hakuho sets records, Harumafuji only raises questions
As was expected before the recent Haru Basho in Osaka, both yokozuna, on the back of too little practice, and too many public engagements started the tournament less than convincingly.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2011
India's Look East policy in top gear
India hosted the leaders of Myanmar and Vietnam in early October, underscoring once again the seriousness with which it is pursuing its Look East policy as it forges close economic and security ties with two significant nations in East and Southeast Asia and counters China's penetration of its neighborhood....

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’