Japan: Culture
The pandemic helped anison group JAM Project realize the dream wasn’t over
Growing up beside Japan's huge animation industry, a music scene based on creating and performing the theme tunes and hit songs of popular anime works ...
Diversity and Netflix dominate Golden Globes
Movie and director prizes for "Nomadland" increased the profile of the film ahead of nominations in March for the Oscars.
‘The Committed’: Viet Thanh Nguyen writes unreliable narrators because he is one, too
Like his Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, "The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen's new novel, "The Committed,” hinges on questions about individual and collective identity and memory.
How stories from 3/11 inspired Yu Miri’s ‘Tokyo Ueno Station’
Author Yu Miri based her prize-winning novel in part on the memory of the major natural disaster that struck northeastern Japan 10 years ago and ...
‘Spirited Away’ to debut on the stage next year
The stage production of the 2003 Oscar-winning film will have its world premiere at Tokyo's Imperial Theater in February 2022.
‘My heart is sick’: Lady Gaga offers $500,000 for stolen dogs
Lady Gaga has offered half a million dollars for the safe return of her two pet dogs, saying her "heart is sick" after they were ...
Director Kentaro brings an auteur’s touch to a soulful road movie
The 'Under the Turquoise Sky' director mixes realism, fantasy and comedy in his visually stirring feature debut about a Japanese man who goes on a ...
For Tracy Hyde balances idyllic nostalgia with political unease on ‘Ethernity’
Guitarist Azusa Suga based part of the sound for the Tokyo rock band's new album “Ethernity” on American suburbia and pop culture from the 1990s.
‘Aristocrats’: Power performances capture the world of Japan’s elite
Yukiko Sode’s insightful drama about Japan’s ruling class and the masses stars Kiko Mizuhara and Mugi Kadowaki as women who find common ground despite their ...
‘Heisei no Oto’: A sonic trip to the golden age of CDs
Osaka record store owners Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato have unearthed some musical treasures from 1989-96 for this bright and buoyant compilation.
Beat Generation beacon Lawrence Ferlinghetti dies at age 101
Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco became a West Coast literary haven for Beat Generation writers like Jack Kerouac ...
Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen: The latest podcast duo
Former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are liberal icons, vacationing friends and rhapsodists about the dreams and travails of everyday Americans.Now they are also ...
A daughter reclaims her mother’s heritage in ‘Speak, Okinawa’
Elizabeth Miki Brina’s memoir reveals how country and culture are connected to identity by weaving her narrative with the history of Okinawa.
Dive into rural Japanese life and get comfortable working with your hands
Part memoir, travelogue, ethnography and cookbook, “Water, Wood, and Wild Things” explores the intricate connections of new and old in a town in balance.
Stephen Snyder: Distilling the essence of a literary work
In recent years, Japanese literature has earned a reputation abroad for its edgy, socially-conscious fiction, which translator Stephen Snyder, 63, has had a hand in ...
Celebrities turn to podcasts to hang on to fans during pandemic
With Hollywood largely shut down because of the virus, stars are finding other ways to stay in the limelight.
Kim Kardashian files for divorce from Kanye West
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce from rapper Kanye West after almost seven years of marriage, her publicist said Friday.The mega-celebrity couple's ...
‘Under the Open Sky’ depicts what lies between good and evil
Director Miwa Nishikawa’s latest film stars Koji Yakusho as a hardened ex-con trying to restart his life after spending 13 years behind bars.
‘Yabuhara Kengyo’ shows audiences that justice isn’t always blind
Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke IV takes on the role of Suginoichi, the cunning antihero of Hisashi Inoue's play about social oppression.
‘The Murders of Oiso’: A whodunnit in search of a crime
Takuya Misawa’s stylish and enigmatic murder mystery centers on a quartet of friends thrown into disarray after a sudden death in their town.