September 22, 2021
American photographer Eugene Smith (1918-1978) showed the world the truth about Minamata disease. On Sept. 23, a film about him titled “Minamata” and starring Johnny Depp will be released in Japan...
An exhibition featuring works by photographer Mika Ninagawa opened Thursday at the Ueno Royal Museum in Taito Ward, Tokyo.
Organized by The Yomiuri Shimbun, “Mika Ninagawa — Into Fiction/Reality...
An exhibition featuring Japanese swords from historic temples and shrines started Wednesday at the Suntory Museum of Art in Minato Ward, Tokyo.
“The Sword: The Soul of the Warrior” exhibition, w...
Paul Schrader has created one of the most compelling and enduring careers in Hollywood by continually returning to his cardinal character: “God’s lonely man,” traversing an alienated and sometim...
As diligent students of the indie-pop form and expert practitioners, few modern bands have remained as durable and beloved as England’s SaintEtienne. While most acts from the 1990s have gracefully d...
“I wondered if there was a way to make a documentary film that portrayed the ‘truth’ of the war years, as well as compassion for my father.”
Chonosuke Ise (1912-74), the father of film dire...
Pop-rock quartet Official Hige Dandism’s latest album, “Editorial,” was released last month.
Affectionately known as HigeDan, the group has garnered a tremendous following from fans of all age...
The globally renowned creatures of the Pocket Monsters franchise, better known as Pokemon, are appearing in a new outdoor adventure attraction at Yomiuriland amusement park, which straddles the cities...
Fashion schools in Japan can be said to have created the history of fashion in the country. Now, 76 years after the Pacific War, if there is anything wrong with the direction Japanese fashion is headi...
Sota Fujii, 19, the youngest-ever holder of two major titles in the world of shogi, defeated Takuya Nagase, 28, in the second match of a best-of-three series on Monday in Tokyo to determine the challe...
The Shiki Theatre Company’s new musical production, “Frozen,” finally had its opening day on June 24, overcoming the long “winter” that was its postponement amid the novel coronavirus disast...
Sports-themed comics in Spain have been exhibited at the Spanish Embassy in Minato Ward, Tokyo, to coincide with the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Spanish footballer Andres Iniesta, who current...
With the breeze weaving through the amazing geometric patterns of their threads, works of string art are perfect for the hot summer season.
String artists hook colorful threads onto nails attached t...
Popular dance and vocal group J SOUL BROTHERS III (JSBIII) are on an unstoppable roll after marking their 10th anniversary last November. With singles “Kick & Slide” and “JSB In Black” out, th...
One of the finest sequences in “Respect,” a biopic about Aretha Franklin starring Jennifer Hudson, is when the singer and producer Jerry Wexler (Marc Maron) are in the legendary Fame recording stu...
Kaho Nakamura has been heralded as a genius for her freewheeling, genre-defying vocal stylings that have earned the singer-songwriter a growing following since she first came to attention for her live...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Start the countdown. An Amazon series inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” novels will premiere in September 2022.
The date was announced...
The world is full of all manner of mysteries, according to a character in “The Green Knight.” And the film — based on a 14th-century Arthurian tale of anonymous authorship that is considered a m...
Even though the pandemic has kept us from going out to enjoy live performances, Ayaka Hirahara’s newest album may make listeners feel as though they were front and center at one of her concerts.
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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 ...
