Big in Japan

Kōhaku

The Coolest Music Competition in the World

Kōhaku will blow your mind.

FOR those of you who don’t know Kōhaku, I’d like to introduce you to one of the coolest institutions of music not only in Japan but in the world. The closest comparison might be the Eurovision Song Contest, but that would be doing Kōhaku a disservice. Kōhaku is an annual New Year’s music “competition” between male and female artists. There’s no prize and the competition part is really just in good fun to give the viewers a rooting interest. The 66th annual Kōhaku was broadcast live from NHK Hall in Tokyo. What’s so cool about it? Well, it’s one act after another in rapid succession with little talk in between and no long-winded thank you speeches. Each artist’s set is unique and even more extravagant than the previous one, which seems inconceivable for over 50 acts on a live TV broadcast. Only with Japan’s superhuman work ethic, unwavering discipline and accurate-to-the-second planning could such a mammoth of a show be pulled off year after year.

Kyocera Founder

Dr. Kazuo Inamori

Entrepreneurial Innovator Blends Buddhist Beliefs with Business Practices

Entrepreneur, philanthropist and philosopher, Dr. Kazuo Inamori is a living legend of Japan’s business world. He founded Kyoto-based multinational electronics and ceramics company Kyocera and Japanese telecommunications giant KDDI. His restructuring of Japan Airlines allowed the troubled airline to go from bankruptcy protection to being relisted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Through his Inamori Foundation, he established the Kyoto Prize to recognize individuals and groups worldwide that have made outstanding contributions to the betterment of the global community and mankind. His private management school, Seiwajyuku, teaches his management philosophy to business owners and entrepreneurs worldwide. To top it off, he’s a Buddhist priest who has inspired his employees with a unique management style, which incorporates Buddhist philosophies. Tokyo Journal’s Miyuki Kawai talked to Dr. Kazuo Inamori about his fascinating views and extraordinary accomplishments.

Saving the World from Self-Destruction

Linguist, cognitive scientist, philosopher, logician and political commentator– all of these have been used to describe Noam Chomsky, one of the greatest minds in the world today. Born in 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Avram Noam Chomsky studied linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He was later appointed as a professor of foreign languages and linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He became a pioneer in the field of psycholinguistics, helping to establish a relationship between linguistics and psychology. Today, he is one of the world’s most highly influential academic figures, being cited in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index more often than any other living scholar between 1980 and 1992, influencing such fields as mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, logic, cognitive science, music theory and analysis, political science, programming language theory and psychology. Outside of academia, Chomsky is internationally recognized as a political activist for his writing and speaking on U.S. foreign policy, capitalism and the mainstream news media. In 2005, he was named the most important public intellectual in the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers poll conducted by Foreign Policy magazine. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Professor Noam Chomsky about his views on Japan and some of the greatest threats to the survival of the human race.