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April 28, 2024
 

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IDOL

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.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2014
Pop-idol group debuts in debt
It's not unusual for nine young women to form a new pop-idol group in Japan. Contrary to other groups, though, members of The Margarines were chosen for their personal indebtedness.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Sep 2, 2014
The hammer and scalpel are what's needed to subvert idol-pop culture
One new act who has been creating a buzz in music-industry circles this year is quirky singer-songwriter Seiko Oomori.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 3, 2014
Especia takes a road less traveled by idol acts
The eldest member of six-member idol unit Especia was born in 1989, so when I ask them about life during Japan's early '90s bubble era they can only imagine what it was like.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 15, 2014
Fukuoka idol group Rev. from DVL aim for the national stage
At a live venue in Fukuoka's Tenjin district, passionate fans are well prepared to record every second of Rev. from DVL's performance — cameras in one hand, notebooks on the knees and penlights in the other hand, all the while with their video cameras running on tripods.
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
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2014
Babymetal "Babymetal"
It's not surprising that Babymetal has gone viral. The trio, bringing the seemingly disparate worlds of idol pop and heavy metal together, is a visually striking project perfect for the "weird Japan" fans on the Internet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2014
Kobe's tofubeats moves from blogs to the big time
Like many kids growing up in the 1990s, Yusuke Kawai's initial brush with the World Wide Web happened in elementary school.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2013
Girl group bases style on Nikkei ups and downs
Kanon Mori, Yuki Sakura, Hinako Kuroki and Jun Amaki have been following the Nikkei 225 stock average obsessively since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December. The oldest of the foursome is Mori, but she is still only 23. The youngest is Kuroki, 16 and still in high school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2013
NMB48 "Teppen Totande!" (Laugh Out Loud Records)
Contrary to popular hemming and hawing, the big problem with Oricon chart-dominating act AKB48 isn't their music. Their discography certainly contains misfires, but producer Yasushi Akimoto and company can pen great material for the dozens-strong group. Last year, they boasted two of the best songs in all of Japan: "Sugar Rush," one of the best songs Shonen Knife never wrote, and the surging "Uza." The real problem with the AKB48 model is how thinly stretched everything is. Besides the main group, the AKB empire includes many sub-groups and sister outfits based in cities across Japan and Asia. Osaka-branch NMB48's debut album "Teppen Totande!" highlights this problem, the majority of the songs sound like recycled ideas from AKB48.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 20, 2013
Freeware has animators dancing to the Hatsune Miku beat
If you search for the acronym MMD on Niconico or YouTube — the two most popular video-sharing sites in Japan — the resulting list will have over 100,000 anime videos, most of which have 3-D anime-style girl characters singing and dancing to electronic J-pop music. What's surprising is that these (usually short) videos are not created by professional anime studios; they are mostly made by amateurs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 1, 2013
AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture
The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 18, 2012
2012 trends: consumer 'neta,' relocating and regional flavors
Trendwatchers say it will all be about keeping it 'real' and local in 2012.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 31, 2011
AKBaby invites fans to breed with their favorite pop idols
Any AKB48 fan's wet dream: the chance to have a baby with their favorite pop idol.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 19, 2011
Local hero Ryujin Mabuya to save the day
Ryujin Mabuya speask with such a strong Okinawan accent that he needs subtitles, but this local action hero is going places.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 5, 2011
Can anything stop the AKB48 mutations?
The many-limbed J-pop monster they call AKB48 is growing in more ways than one.
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.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
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.
'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.
Air China to buy 100 locally made C919 jets in $11 billion deal
A Comac C919 during an aerial display at the Singapore Airshow at Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore in February
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.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
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.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

Podcast

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Longform

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The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

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