July 29, 2021
From the stately changing room of a nearly 60-year-old sento public bath in a residential area of Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, you can enjoy a majestic view of Mt. Fuji. But only through a painting. With whit...
Ikimonogakari was introduced as a “J-pop band that makes you cry, laugh, feel pain, love and a sense of nostalgia” when it debuted about 15 years ago.
The popular three-member band held the final...
If there’s one thing Nicolas Cage could always be relied on to deliver, it’s unpredictability. But in recent years, the actor has churned out a steady stream of - for lack of a better word - predi...
When Taiwanese horror game “Devotion” first published in 2019, the conversation revolved around Chinese president Xi Jinping and a meme comparing him to Winnie-the-Pooh. The Disney character had n...
A special project called “Pavilion Tokyo 2021,” aimed at showcasing modern Japanese architecture and art, recently began at various locations in the capital and will run through Sept. 5 to coinc...
Since August last year, a curious little project called The Tokyo Toilet has been underway on the streets of Tokyo. Spearheaded by the Nippon Foundation, the project plans to install 17 public restroo...
NEW YORK — To roars reaching volumes you normally hear in arenas 20 times the size, Bruce Springsteen sang Broadway back to life on Saturday night. In the first full-length performance there since t...
Last year, the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT) had to cancel all of the opera productions in the second half of its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the theater has managed to stage every s...
Erika Ikuta has a brilliant track record as a pop star. A leading member of female idol group Nogizaka46, whose very appeal sells over 300,000 copies of photobooks bearing her likeness, has also been ...
“If I didn’t feel like a song I made a year ago is terrible, I’d quit being a musician,” musical artist Vaundy said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. “I have to go beyond those songs...
The Statue of Eleven-Headed Kannon from Shorinji temple in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, is on display in Tokyo, the first time this national treasure has ever been exhibited in the capital.
Dating from...
In January, Netflix users came across a new series about a charming con man out to avenge the death of his father. The mystery thriller, “Lupin,” quickly picked up a following — despite the fact...
Singer LiSA is celebrating her 10th year in the music industry on a high note after her 2020 mega-hit song “Homura” climbed the charts, went viral and won the Japan Record Award.
And with her ne...
K-pop supergroup BTS has achieved another historic milestone, landing at No. 1 on the Billboard’s main singles chart with its latest single, “Butter.” “BTS’ “Butter” bounds in at No. 1 o...
BTS is unstoppable. The global popularity of the South Korean boy band knows no end. Their songs have reached No. 1 on popular music charts not only in Japan but also in the United States where they e...
To quote “In the Heights” itself, the streets are made of music in the first genuinely cheerful, splashy, exuberantly life-affirming movie of the summer.
King Kong might have stomped his way back...
A top-class Japanese dancer whose first name is also that of a Disney hit movie made her star debut in the movie “Dreams on Fire,” released in May.
Born on June 15, 1992, in Kumamoto Prefecture,...
I wrote in this column in March that Hermes opened a new flagship shop along Omotesando avenue in Tokyo on February 28. As if to vie with the brand, Louis Vuitton renovated and reopened its boutique a...
Tokyo is currently home to 80% of the nation’s publishing companies, while Kyoto trails far behind. But such was not always the case. Until the 18th century, it was Kyoto that was the center of the ...
Kentaro Miura, a manga artist known for his series “Berserk,” has died of acute aortic dissection. He was 54. Miura died at 2:48 p.m. on May 6, and his funeral was held by his family. His real ...
Have you ever heard of jirai meiku (land mine makeup)? It is a makeup style that makes your eyes look red and swollen as if you had been crying, and your skin look white or almost translucent. The Yom...
Time is running out for an iconic Tokyo building that, for the romantic, stands as a futuristic symbol of a bygone Showa age, and for the pragmatic, represents a decrepit eyesore well past its prime....
When I was a university student — that is, more than 40 years ago — there was a jazz bar called Peter Cat outside the south exit of JR Kokubunji Station in Tokyo. Peter Cat was a neat place servin...
Up-and-coming boy band Snow Man is riding a wave of popularity. Its nine members, who made their CD debut together last year, are currently starring in the show “Takizawa Kabuki Zero 2021” at a th...
It’s not widely known that during World War II, the director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Library, the predecessor of the Hibiya Library and Museum, coordinated the large-scale transportation of...
Performances of the ballet “Coppelia” by the National Ballet of Japan will be livestreamed for free on May 2, 4, 5 and 8 from the New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT).
The performances will be giv...
GUANGZHOU/LOS ANGELES — China-born director Chloe Zhao became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for best director for her film “Nomadland” on Sunday, but her accomplishment was bare...
Walking near Kawasaki Station after an interview the other day, I came across some impressive walls surrounding the construction site for the main building of Kawasaki City Hall.
The 3-meter-high wa...
An all-star lineup of popular characters created by the late Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) will team up to fight for peace in the universe in a new science fiction manga to be serialized simultaneously in...
“Monster Hunter” is a role-playing action game where players cooperate online and fight powerful monsters. The video game series by Capcom Co., nicknamed “Mon Hun,” has steadily built up a fan...
A daikon radish that emits sensual moans when touched, a robot wearing a mask printed with the 3D image of a human face, a mikoshi portable shrine adorned with blinking LED lights — all are just a f...
A group of rickshaw men not only offer their hospitality to tourists, they also have a hit single that reached No. 1 on the weekly Oricon hit single rankings in the enka and kayokyoku Japanese pop son...
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is becoming the norm in the fashion industry for unprofitable shops to close down and rare to see a new one pop up. However, on Feb. 28, Hermes opened a new flagship ...
Foo Fighters, the American rock band that is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee this year and has won multiple Grammy Awards, have collaborated remotely with a sake brewery in snowy Yamagata Prefectur...
The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra’s 2021-22 season program is a daring one that includes many rarely performed epics and hidden gems as well as many Japanese premieres. The orchestra will also d...
An annual flower show celebrating orchids started on Thursday at Tokyo Dome City’s Prism Hall in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo.
The JGP International Orchid and Flower Show, which is organized by The Yomiuri...
Donabe clay pots usually evoke images of a steaming yosenabe hot-pot full of ingredients just right for a winter’s evening. Recently, however, this earthenware comes with the added joy of buyers bei...
No matter their wares, retail businesses are having trouble turning a profit because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales at physical stores are in a slump as a result of recent lifestyle changes including...
Group report cards for students including novelist Osamu Dazai (1909-48) during his school days in Aomori City have been discovered, showing that he was a competent student who excelled in math.
Accor...
Hokuto Matsumura, a member of the boy band SixTONES, has been flying high since the group released their debut single last year. He also stars in “Liar x Liar,” a film that hit theaters just last ...
The graduation ceremony of the Takarazuka Music School in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, which trains aspiring members of the all-female Takarazuka Revue, took place at the school on Wednesday. A tot...
Despite some lingering diplomatic animosity between Japan and South Korea, last year saw South Korean TV drama “Crash Landing on You” streamed on Netflix becoming a huge hit in Japan. Pop girl ban...
Tap your smartphone and you get to see an infinite number of posts, both positive and negative, on social media. Haven’t you ever thought, “No, I don’t want to see them anymore” at a certain p...
An exhibition space re-creating part of the residence of novelist Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) has opened at a gallery in front of JR Mitaka Station in Mitaka, Tokyo.
The space at the Mitaka City Gallery...
More than seven years have passed since I first laid eyes on the ceramic work of up-and-coming potter and artist Takuro Kuwata at a Tokyo group exhibition. A collection of ceramic pots, cups and other...
