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November 06, 2025
 

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PUNK

American musician and visual artist Kim Gordon released her second solo album, “The Collective,” earlier this year, and it’s a bona fide banger.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2024
Ahead of her Fuji Rock set, Kim Gordon weighs in on punk and U.S. politics
The former Sonic Youth bassist, guitarist and vocalist is in Japan for the first time in over 10 years to promote her latest album, "The Collective."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2020
Phew alternates between jagged noise and soft vocal elements at a dizzying pace on 'Vertigo KO'
Phew takes inspiration from the pandemic and her punk roots on 'Vertical KO.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2020
Stiff Little Fingers' 'Inflammable Material' is still the definitive political punk album 40 years later
Stiff Little Fingers bring 'Inflammable Material' to Tokyo for two shows, letting fans hear the album, which deals with Northern Ireland's 'troubles,' in its entirety.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 15, 2019
A boy no longer, 'Kid' Reid has come of age
Duncan Reid, formerly of British punk group The Boys, brings his latest band to Japan for a series of high-energy live shows
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2019
The Outcasts: Forty years after their debut, Japan finally beckons
For a small country, Northern Ireland has produced a lot of punk.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 28, 2019
Gang of Four's fluctuating degrees of animosity, 40 years on
British post-punk pioneers Gang of Four didn't come to Japan until 2005, nearly 30 years after the band formed. If guitarist Andy Gill had his way, it would have happened a lot sooner. "I clearly remember a conversation in the '80s about going to Japan," Gill says, sitting among an array of equipment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2019
Chai's 'Punk' is an irrepressibly upbeat victory lap
For a band that made its name by bucking kawaii conventions, Chai can be awfully cute. On its second album, misleadingly titled "Punk," the quartet takes the giddy sugar-rush of 2017's "Pink" and distills it into a mixture so potent, it should probably come with a health warning attached. They ought...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2018
'Punk Samurai Slash Down': An audacious adaptation that may look better on paper
One of the frequent complaints lodged against the Japanese film industry is that producers are reluctant to bankroll anything that isn't based on an existing novel, manga or TV series. There's a lot of truth in the criticism, but not every screen adaptation of an existing property is a product of bet-hedging....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 10, 2018
'I can only speak my own truth': Otoboke Beaver rocks tunes not politics
More than 100,000 people are expected to attend this month's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the Southern California desert. While heavyweight North American pop stars such as Beyonce and The Weeknd are grabbing the most attention, the lineup also features dozens of noteworthy names — including...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2018
The films and the fury of punk moviemaker Gakuryu Ishii
Last year's release of "Blade Runner 2049" and this year's Netflix series "Altered Carbon" have rekindled interest in the futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic, though those works were decidedly more "cyber" and less "punk."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2017
Nuclear issues aren't a problem for Hiroshima's punk acts — politics are
"Adults are stupid," says Shinji Okoda, who is better known in Hiroshima as "Guy," the vocalist for hardcore punk band Origin of M and owner of Disk Shop Misery and Bloodsucker Records. At 52, he certainly appears to have some authority in the matter.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Apr 22, 2017
Tsubasa Watanabe: Model mixes punk with fashion on the runways of New York
At her first test shoot in Los Angeles, Tsubasa Watanabe was surprised by the outfit the photographer was asking her to wear: Hanging from the fingers of his outstretched hand was a pair of thong underwear.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017
Punk: How cinema ignored something so loud
Once upon a time, Hollywood was good at co-opting and selling youth culture. When rock 'n' roll and biker gangs came along in the 1950s, the studios came up with generational totems like "Blackboard Jungle" and "The Wild Ones." Beatlemania spawned "A Hard Days Night" and "Yellow Submarine," while the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 5, 2017
Never Again celebrates 20 years with a punk round robin
In the shadow of Hiroshima's Atomic Bomb Dome, where dimly-lit music venues sit atop the ashes of a former atomic wasteland, the spirit of punk clings like stale smoke after a bar show.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 4, 2016
Beijing rock dies before it gets old with latest club closure
Mao Live House, a legendary live rock music venue in Beijing, shut its doors on the weekend, the latest closure to hit China's music scene.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2016
'The Decline of Western Civilization' is a punk masterpiece
The Sex Pistols played their final gig at San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978. About a year later, Sid Vicious died from an overdose, and so did punk rock — according to the music magazines. The Pistols' chaotic tour of America, however, had dropped like a stone in a still pond, and the ripples...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 6, 2015
Punk survivor Phew changes direction on 'A New World'
Even as a child, Phew realized she was a bit different. "When I was at school, if the teacher told a joke and everyone else in the class laughed, I was always the one who couldn't see what was funny," she says. "I've always been like that."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2014
Turtle Island's bringing the whole gang to Asagiri Jam
Organized each fall by Fuji Rock promoter Smash, Asagiri Jam is a much more laidback affair than its famed older sister. It features two stages and the music wraps up early each night. And while Fuji Rock has some 200 plus bands, Asagiri Jam only invites two dozen, which means a lot less running around...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 2, 2014
Startline hopes to tap into Japan's punk love
In the 2000s, Gumx was one of South Korea's top-tier punk acts. With that band on indefinite hiatus, though, Gumx drummer Gun Choi is now looking to achieve similar success with Startline, a punk trio he formed in March of last year.
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.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
Takaichi leads first ministerial meeting on policies regarding foreign residents
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a ministerial meeting on policies regarding foreign nationals and immigration on Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office.
ChatGPT nickname and Trump tariffs nominated for Japan’s buzzword of 2025
Women hold toys depicting Myaku-Myaku, the official character for the 2025 Osaka Expo, during a media day ahead of the event's public opening day in Osaka in April.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slumps 4%, led by losses in tech sector
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock average index briefly tumbled more than 2,000 points on Wednesday morning following a downbeat session on Wall Street fueled by fears of a bubble in the artificial intelligence sector.
Across borders and screens, Tokyo film festival finds humanity in migration
“Mother Bhumi” takes place in a multiethnic rice-farming community where Chinese, Thai and Malay lineages intertwine.
Takaichi’s balancing act: Supporting Taiwan and stabilizing China ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi shakes hands with Lin Hsin-i, Taiwan’s presidential adviser, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday in this image posted to Takaichi's official X account.
From 1973 to 2025: A Japanese American skater’s long ride to recognition
Judi Oyama at Winchester Skatepark in San Jose, California, in January 1979. The Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee and Guinness World Record holder still skates and hopes to inspire older women.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
Young Indonesians in Japan find their political voice
Indonesian students at Hiroshima University hold posters of the 17+8 Demands, demanding transparency and action from their homeland’s government.

Podcast

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

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

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