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May 16, 2025
 

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JAPANESE FILM

Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time” won the award for best film at the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2025
‘A Samurai in Time’ wins top prize at Japan’s premier film event
This country’s answer to the Oscars also saw awards go to “Oppenheimer” and “Faceless.”
“Ravens” stars Tadanobu Asano as Masahisa Fukase, a real-life figure who was known for his photos of the psychedelic party scene of 1960s Shinjuku, portraits of his wife and images of the ravens of his home prefecture of Hokkaido.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2025
‘Ravens’ is a portrait of art, love and inner demons
Director Mark Gill brings the turbulent life of celebrated photographer Masahisa Fukase into focus in his new film.
Masao Adachi’s “Escape” is a fictionalized biopic about fugitive Satoshi Kirishima, played by Rairu Sugita (left) and Kanji Furutachi (right).
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2025
‘Escape’: Masao Adachi’s fugitive biopic salutes a kindred spirit
The 85-year-old director keeps his revolutionary fire burning with a respectful portrait of a wanted terrorist who spent nearly half a century on the run.
College roommates Yumi (Shiori Kubo, left) and Ruka (Yuna Taira) become close friends despite being as different as night and day in “Nemurubaka: Hypnic Jerks.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2025
‘Nemurubaka: Hypnic Jerks’: Opposites come together with quips and dry humor
“Baby Assassins” director Yugo Sakamoto swaps action for emotion in his coming-of-age film centered on two college roommates with different levels of ambition.
A welfare caseworker (Takumi Kitamura) heads down a dangerous path despite trying to do the right thing in “A Bad Summer.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2025
‘A Bad Summer’: A scorching drama of simmering rage and its consequences
Hideo Jojo pushes into forbidden territory and navigates the darker currents of his latest film with assurance.
Globally, women are severely underrepresented among leading roles in cinema, with female directors accounting for just over 10% of the industry in Japan. Achieving gender equality on-set would have far-reaching consequences for the whole of society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2025
Without women behind the camera, equality stays out of the frame
Cinema isn't only about what stories are told, but who tells them. Overcoming severe underrepresentation, women are reshaping the film industry and cultural narratives.
A group of talentless noiseniks are sent away on a year-long retreat to the countryside to write a hit song in “The Gesuidouz.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2025
‘The Gesuidouz’ flips the bird at viewers
Kenichi Ugana’s horror-fixated punk-rock slacker comedy is one of the director’s laziest films to date.
Koichiro Ito, a producer of the hit Japanese anime film "Your Name," has been convicted of "violating laws on child prostitution and pornography" as well as non-consensual sex and the filming of indecent images, a Wakayama District Court spokesperson said on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2025
'Your Name.' anime producer jailed over obscene acts against minors
Koichiro Ito was reportedly accused of paying a 15-year-old girl money in return for sex, and demanding that another teenager take and send him explicit photos of herself.
A scene from Satoko Yokohama's "Umibe e Iku Michi" ("Seaside Serendipity")
CULTURE / Film
Feb 23, 2025
Japanese movies win accolades at Berlin International Film Festival
"Futsu no Seikatsu," an animated movie directed by Yoriko Mizushiri, was awarded the Silver Bear Jury Prize for a short film at this year's Berlin International Film Festival.
“Yasuko, Songs of Days Past” centers on a real-life love triangle between poet Chuya Nakahara (Taisei Kido, left), actor Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose, center) and literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (Masaki Okada).
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2025
‘Yasuko, Songs of Days Past’ puts overlooked star in the spotlight
Kichitaro Negishi’s drama, based on a real-life love triangle among notable figures of the Japanese literati, captures the flavor of a bygone era.
“Hypnosismic — Division Rap Battle — Movie” centers on groups of male rappers from neighborhoods around Tokyo and Japan at large.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2025
‘Hypnosismic — Division Rap Battle — Movie' lets viewers remix the narrative
Armed with LED-lined gloves and their smartphones, audiences take control of the action for Japan’s first interactive movie.
A 45-year-old widow (Takako Matsu) repeatedly travels back in time to meet her future — and late — husband (Hokuto Matsumura) in “First Kiss.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2025
‘First Kiss’: Time-traveling romantic drama isn’t afraid of a few wrinkles
Ayuko Tsukahara’s high-concept love story has wit and wisdom to spare with an endearing screen couple at its center.
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa’s filming style — naturalistic, intimate and unobtrusive — proved essential to portraying anime powerhouse Hayao Miyazaki as a man as flawed and human as he is a visionary artist in “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2025
Two decades of unparalleled access into the world of Hayao Miyazaki
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa has spent years filming the anime powerhouse to reveal the man beyond the myth.
Gensho Yasuda’s “Make a Girl” follows an inventor whose relationship with the robot girlfriend he builds becomes increasingly complicated as she develops an unexpected sense of independence.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
Indie animator Gensho Yasuda paves his own way with a DIY spirit
With “Make a Girl,” the young Japanese creator takes the leap from short videos to full-length films.
“The Rose of Versailles” centers on the real-life Marie Antoinette (voiced by Aya Hirano) and the fictional Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Miyuki Sawashiro) a few years before the French Revolution.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
‘The Rose of Versailles’ opts for empty opulence
Riyoko Ikeda’s seminal manga that tackled themes of political and sexual revolution gets a film adaptation that lacks the depth of its source material.
A young couple (Ryuya Wakaba and Mai Fukagawa) fulfill a lifelong dream of moving to the countryside, only to find their new community may have sinister intentions toward them in “Welcome to the Village.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
‘Welcome to the Village’: Tradition takes a twisted turn in the countryside
The ancient tradition of “murahachibu,” ostracizing community members as punishment, gets a contemporary twist in Hideo Jojo’s slow-burn thriller.
Strange things are afoot in Ryota Kondo’s “Missing Child Videotape” as Keita (Rairu Sugita) investigates the 13-year-old disappearance of his younger brother.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2025
‘Missing Child Videotape’: Subtle chiller may leave J-horror fans underwhelmed
Ryota Kondo’s eerie ghost story debut goes for ambient dread rather than jump scares.
Reality and dreams begin to blur for a former French literature professor (Kyozo Nagatsuka, front) after he receives a cryptic message in “Teki Cometh.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2025
‘Teki Cometh’ slides in and out of a hypnotic dreamworld
Kyozo Nagatsuka gives a finessed performance as an elderly gentleman who is not as gentle as he seems in Daihachi Yoshida’s drama.
A keen fisherman from Tokyo (Masaki Suda) moves to a tight-knit community in Miyagi Prefecture during the COVID-19 pandemic in “Sunset Sunrise.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2025
‘Sunset Sunrise’: Rom-com finds pathos in peak pandemic setting
Yoshiyuki Kishi’s film delivers a deliciously uplifting story with humor and heart in a tight-knit community impacted by disasters.
A masterless samurai in 15th-century Japan (Yo Oizumi) leads a popular uprising against the authorities in “Muromachi Outsiders.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2025
‘Muromachi Outsiders’: Yo Oizumi commands attention in rebellion tale
The actor convincingly breaks the mold of his comedy persona to inhabit the role of a sword-wielding folk hero in Yu Irie’s period epic.
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
Japanese retailers turn to California rice for cheaper alternative
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass eats California rice at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday along with Mitsuko Tsuchiya, vice president of retailer Aeon.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Two crew feared dead after ASDF training jet crashes in Aichi
Self-Defense Forces personnel collect apparent parts of an Air Self-Defense Force T-4 training jet from a reservoir in Inuyama, Aichi Prefeture, on Thursday. The jet crashed shortly after takeoff a day earlier.
Historian Rob Fitts discovers earliest ever reference to baseball in Japan
Japan's Shohei Ohtani carries the Japanese flag onto the field before the start of the World Baseball Classic final against the United States in Miami on March 21, 2023.
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
Sumo title contenders already emerging in early stages of Tokyo meet
Onosato (left) battles Abi on Day 3 of the Summer Basho in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japanese automakers looking at a ¥1 trillion hit from Trump tariffs 
Cars on display at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday. The automaker posted a massive annual net loss and confirmed that it plans to cut thousands of jobs worldwide.
Tokyo Stock Exchange wants stocks to be affordable for the average investor
The Tokyo Stock Exchange building in Nihonbashi. The exchange wants companies to lower the entry cost of investing in their shares.

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SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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