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August 30, 2025
 

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IDOLS

LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Sep 12, 2016
Pop group SMAP to split up at year's end
Hugely popular boy band SMAP will break up at the end of the year, their management agency has announced.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 10, 2016
AKB48 management firm 'reviewing' Shanghai sister group amid 'contractual violations'
AKS, the firm that runs the all-female idol group AKB48, announced Thursday it is "reviewing" operations of its Shanghai-based sister unit, SNH48.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 25, 2015
Ladybeard: 'Once you have decided exactly what you want to do, do it with everything you've got'
Ladybeard on Cookie Monster vocals and Japanese schoolgirl sailor outfits
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 27, 2014
New idol group The Margarines sing to pay off debts
Japan's entertainment industry has become so filled with idol groups that some call this the age of the "idol war."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 10, 2014
Brush up on pop idol feuds before the exam
Last month, Meiji University's law department announced it would offer a social-psychology course on the boy band Arashi. The syllabus includes lectures about the group's individual members; its work in TV dramas and advertising; and the "culture of Johnny's Jimusho," Arashi's powerful production company....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 27, 2013
NHK drama dives into the 'idea' of idols in rural Japan
When it was announced last year that entertainment Renaissance man Kankuro Kudo would write the script for NHK's spring-summer 2013 "TV novel," a few people probably wondered how the iconoclastic writer-director-actor would respond to the broadcaster's narrative strictures. In a recent interview with...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 7, 2013
The aidoru industry seeks big bucks in numbers
They say that Japan is suffering from a major shōshika (少子化, plummeting birth rate) syndrome, but a cursory glance at the entertainment industry reveals a singular fact: The young people of this country are well and thriving, and huddled together in mass aidoru gurūpu (アイドルグループ,...
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.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2009
Popularity's dead! Rebellion against brands starts now
Recently I ran into a friend who works at a TV station in Tokyo. The conversation turned to Johnny's Jimusho, the most powerful talent agency in Japan, whose stable of male singers has dominated television for almost two decades. When I asked her if she had run into any of Johnny's stars, she said she...
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Akazawa's trip to Washington for tariff talks abruptly canceled
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, had been set to fly to Washington on Thursday.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
Virtual singer Kaf's music becomes magic in 'Kamitsubaki City Under Construction'
Virtual singer Kaf got her start in 2018 by posting songs and covers to YouTube. Now, after having performed live shows at major venues including Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, she is turning to voice acting and starring in the new anime series “Kamitsubaki City Under Construction.”
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
In pictures: Koenji Awa Odori 2025
Japan Times
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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