Tag - miyazaki

 
 

MIYAZAKI

An F-35B stealth fighter jet deployed to the Air Self-Defense Force's Nyutabaru base in Shintomi, Miyazaki Prefecture, on Thursday
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2025
In a first, Japan deploys F-35B stealth fighters to ASDF base
The deployment is expected to bolster the defense of Japan's southwestern remote islands amid China's growing maritime assertiveness.
A musical genius (Takeru Satoh, second from right) recruits an unknown rookie drummer to play with Japan’s hottest band in “Glass Heart.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Aug 7, 2025
'Glass Heart’: A flashy rock fairytale scrubbed of grit
Netflix’s drama series about a musical genius forming Japan’s hottest new band is glossy, shallow and strangely sanitized.
The Shinmoedake volcano straddling the prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima on June 28
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2025
Japan unable to present volcanic activity outlook for Shinmoedake
Increasing volcanic activity has been observed since late June at the mountain in the Kirishima range straddling the prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima.
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2025
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
A new show at Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills Gallery explores the painstaking process of the late “Grave of the Fireflies” and “Pom Poko” director.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025
Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators
Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.
Vice president of events and exhibitions for Studio Ghibli, Kenichi Yoda (right), and director and Ghibli Park creative development manager, Goro Miyazaki (left), pose at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival before receiving an Honorary Palme d'Or.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2025
Studio Ghibli marks 40 years, but future looks uncertain
A look into the legacy of the beloved anime studio.
Former Deputy Wakayama Gov. Izumi Miyazaki, who won Sunday's Wakayama gubernatorial election, speaks in Wakayama the same day.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2025
Miyazaki elected Wakayama governor for first time
Voter turnout stood at 39.86%, the same as in the previous Wakayama gubernatorial election in 2022.
Goro Miyazaki joined Studio Ghibli in 1998 and directed films including 2006's "Tales from Earthsea" and 2011's "From Up on Poppy Hill."
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2025
AI may be coming for anime, but Hayao Miyazaki is irreplaceable, son says
Goro Miyazaki says that though nothing can replicate the depth of his father's work, new technology brings "great potential for unexpected talent to emerge."
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025
For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli
ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 2, 2025
Ghibli effect: ChatGPT usage hits record after rollout of viral feature
The viral trend saw users from across the globe flood social media with images based on the hand-drawn style of the famed Japanese animation outfit.
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2025
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
The agency warned that large volcanic rocks could reach areas within 4 kilometers of the crater of the volcano, which is located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures.
A screenshot of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Ghibli-style profile picture on X
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 28, 2025
Copyright questions loom as ChatGPT's Ghibli-style images go viral
The images raised questions about copyright infringement by OpenAI, which already faces lawsuits regarding the use of source material without permission.
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.
A mirror reflects a collapsed house in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 10, nearly one year after a major earthquake struck nearby on New Year's Day in 2024.
JAPAN / Explainer
Jan 14, 2025
Miyazaki quake falls short of triggering Nankai Trough megaquake advisory
Though Monday's temblor struck a similar area to one in August that sparked the first advisory, no such alert was issued.
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck southwestern Japan at 9:19 p.m. on Monday evening
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2025
Strong quake strikes southwestern Japan
The quake measured a lower 5 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale.
A hole, several meters wide, on the edge of the tarmac at Miyazaki Airport in Miyazaki, after an unexploded World War II U.S. bomb blew up less than a minute after a passenger jet taxied past on Oct. 2
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2025
Timed detonator from dud shell likely behind airport blast
Experts have identified a bomb that detonated at Miyazaki Airport as one of the explosives dropped by U.S. forces during World War II.
Tomoko Yamashita, head of the NPO that runs Park. Youth & Books & Design, says she wants to make the facility a place where older teens can feel secure.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Dec 23, 2024
New facility offers truant high school students a place to feel at home
Himitsukichi, a nonprofit group, has renovated an old, vacant house to turn it into a site for older teens.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
CULTURE / Film / 2024 in Review
Dec 20, 2024
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
International collaborations and indie risk-takers steered the film industry in a fresh direction in 2024.
“Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" provides an in-depth look into the octogenarian auteur’s creative process and personal reflections.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2024
‘Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron’ documentary meditates on auteur's creativity and legacy
Filmed with unparalleled access to Studio Ghibli, director Kaku Arakawa captures the vulnerability and genius behind master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature.
Japanese creatives, athletes and activists saw their efforts recognized on the world stage in various ways this year. At the Oscars (left) Takashi Yamazaki and his team took a prize for “Godzilla Minus One,” while later in the year Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada (center) took Emmys for their work in “Shogun.” Shohei Ohtani (right) was arguably the biggest Japanese star of the year.
CULTURE / 2024 in Review
Dec 4, 2024
Japan's soft power soared to new heights in 2024
From Oscars and Emmys to a Nobel Peace Prize, it was a year of awards and triumphs in key cultural fields.

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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’