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May 15, 2024
 

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J ROCK

Japan Times
CULTURE
Jun 18, 2015
A festival for every weekend of your summer
Festivals (matsuri) of all kinds are a staple of Japanese culture and summer is the premier season to experience them. In recent years, the country has seen a bit of a boom in cultural festivals, to the point that it's possible to book every weekend of your summer around them. We're here to help by highlighting the best "fests" happening over the next three months.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 17, 2015
Miyavi explores his 'Others' side on new album
Playing a sadistic real-life villain in the Angelina Jolie film "Unbroken" clearly took its toll on Takamasa Ishihara, who admits he wept and threw up as he prepared for his final scene. Now back in a more familiar role as the enigmatic musician Miyavi, the man known as the "Samurai Guitarist" is flying high once again. The 33-year-old was in a buoyant mood as he sat down with The Japan Times to discuss his experiences on set, his reaction to the film's critics and his new album, "The Others," which came out this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 13, 2015
Royal Blood reigns over British rock
The dressing room of Camden's Electric Ballroom in London is hardly the most glamorous of settings at the best of times, and for Royal Blood it is the early evening after the night before. The previous night, the blues rock duo played its biggest ever headline show at the venue and, preparing for an encore later tonight, are disgruntled at the untidy state that greets me. "I'm sorry about the mess," offers drummer Ben Thatcher (26), politely.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Dec 23, 2014
Who was music being made for in 2014?
When looking back on the year in music, the big question music fans should be asking themselves is, "Who was music being made for in 2014?" Looking at the broader picture, we can find the answers writ large across the Japanese music scene.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 3, 2014
Legendary artists rock Tokyo, raise money for charity
The Tokyo Art Foundation held a charity concert, featuring performances by its chairman Haruhisa Handa, former Toto frontman Bobby Kimball, Starship vocalist Mickey Thomas, former Journey singer Steve Augeri and former Deep Purple vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan on Sept. 26.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2014
Okinawa approves rock drilling to relocate U.S. base
The Okinawa Prefectural Government has approved the start of rock drilling off Henoko, part of land reclamation work on a replacement facility for a key U.S. military base in the prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 5, 2014
Dragon Ash, Chara impress at Rock in Japan's first weekend
The first thing you're greeted with when walking into the gates of Rock In Japan Festival is a large sign with a list of rules titled, "7 Things Rock In Japan Wants to Tell You."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 29, 2014
Two weddings and a 'Funeral' at Fuji
It's hard to know what the organizers at Fuji Rock Festival were thinking when they decided to have Jack Johnson headline the main stage on the event's last day. Not the infectious cheer and endearingly kitsch theatricality of The Flaming Lips, who performed directly before, or even the guaranteed singalong power of anthem-merchants Franz Ferdinand and Arcade Fire, who had closed out the prior two nights, but Jack Johnson — a man who presumably gets most of his airplay from people on hold to understaffed call centers.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 29, 2014
Jungle: 'When you write a song certain people want to hear ... that's when you start making crap music'
As Jungle, Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland — who go by 'J' and 'T' — produce classic soul and funk with an unmistakably modern feel to it. The duo has also been racking up fans and YouTube hits alike with a series of strikingly idiosyncratic, dance-oriented music videos. Jungle recently launched its self-titled debut album with a release party in their hometown of London.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2014
Looking back at Fuji Rock Festival 2014
A curated collection of the highlights of the Fuji Rock Festival 2014, as seen on social media
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2014
Arcade Fire returns to Japan for Fuji Rock as a bigger and happier band
Much has changed in Arcade Fire's world since the band was last in Japan. Back in February 2008, the Canadian six-piece, still propelled forward by the momentum created by its debut "Funeral," a record that attained perpetual cult status through nothing more than its sheer brilliance, was winding up promotion of its followup, "Neon Bible."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2014
Manic Sheep, Wedance represent overseas indie at Fuji Rock Festival
Since 2001, Fuji Rock's Rookie a Go-Go stage has spotlighted indie talents not quite ready for the festival's larger areas. Acts apply to play — this year 1,300 bands vied for 15 slots — and with the exception of Taiwan's Go Chic in 2010, all the past performers have been locals. But this summer sees Rookie a Go-Go again adding a dash of international flavor, with Taiwan's Manic Sheep and South Korea's Wedance earning invitations.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jul 23, 2014
Ochiai hoping to lift Japan's 1-on-1 profile
Japan isn't exactly a place where one expects to find world-renowned streetball players.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 22, 2014
St. Vincent sits at a crossroads of 'the acceptable and the strange'
Chatting to Annie Clark, what is noticeable is how much she differs from her artistic alter ego. The music she creates as St. Vincent — ambitious art-rock that blends avant-garde sound with melodic richness — has been refined to the point that now, four albums in, she is an artist working entirely in her own sphere. Her songs drip with anxiety, vulnerability and sexual intrigue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 15, 2014
YMO's Yukihiro Takahashi recruits Towa Tei, Cornelius, Yoshinori Sunahara, Tomohiko Gondo and Leo Imai for an impressive supergroup
One of the unspoken rules in the progress-fixated world of electronic music is that you don't get bonus points for dwelling on past glories. So when Yukihiro Takahashi — drummer, vocalist and dapper elder statesman of electro-pop — convened a star cast of musicians at Tokyo's Ex Theater Roppongi in January to perform faithful renditions of songs that he'd first recorded 30 years ago, it was, he admits, "partly tongue-in-cheek."
CULTURE / Music
Jul 15, 2014
Boowy vocalist Himuro announces plans for a hiatus
Singer Kyosuke Himuro, a veteran from the world of Japanese rock, announced Sunday he'll be taking a break from stage performances.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jul 12, 2014
Koichi Hanafusa: 'I'd like everyone to see that life is worth living'
Fuji Rock fansite organizer on music, festivals and bugs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2014
Luna Sea rockers Sugizo and Inoran talk life at 25
"I don't think of this as a reunion. We didn't break up; we just paused our activities and came back to life," says Sugizo, guitarist and violinist of rock group Luna Sea. Sitting next to bandmate Inoran, he speaks calmly and softly, his eyes looking back at me through tinted sunglasses. "Words like 'reunion,' 'business,' 'plans' . . . those things were never priorities. If we had thought about business first, then we wouldn't be doing things this way."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 17, 2014
Blonde Redhead gets comfortable with past records
Formed in 1993 by Japanese singer Kazu Makino and Italian twins Simone and Amedeo Pace, and forged in the noisy underbelly of the New York alternative scene, Blonde Redhead has charted a path that has taken it from screeching underground noise rock to fragile, glacial, minimalist melody without ever losing the essential rawness at the heart of its sound.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 7, 2014
Iki Island: the stones and stories that keep paradise from floating away
Legend has it that many years ago the pretty little island of Iki was not connected to the seafloor. Instead, it floated around at the whim of the currents, presumably bobbing back and forth between Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Yen’s fragility raises specter of a new currency war in Asia
Suspected intervention to drag the yen off a 34-year low against the dollar is already seen as unlikely to have a lasting effect if Japan continues alone.
Online booking for Mount Fuji climb to open on May 20
Visitors climb the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak at 3,776 meters. From May 20, climbers will have access to a new online booking system for Mount Fuji's most popular Yoshida trail in Yamanashi Prefecture.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.
Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
In a rare event, the Northern Lights show up in Hokkaido
The Northern Lights in Nayoro, Hokkaido, on Saturday
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.
Japan's logistics firms seek partnerships to cope with driver shortage
Japan Post CEO Tetsuya Senda (right) and his Seino Transportation counterpart Satoshi Takahashi announce their companies' agreement on joint long-haul truck operations, in Tokyo on Thursday.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.

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Longform

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By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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