On Japan Category (103)
Time Warp
Time Warp
Nijubashi, Imperial Palace
AMONG the most photographed spots in Tokyo is the entrance to the Imperial Palace. Every day thousands of people stand here, their backs to the castle, their legs slightly apart, to have themselves photographed. The stately stone bridge, the old castle gate, the traditional turret and the many trees make for an iconic photo.
Garrity's Japan
Garrity's Japan
Japanese Conformity
ANYONE who has spent time in Japan starts to notice something strange about the country. After a while, the strangeness becomes apparent — there is a great deal of conformity. Children wear uniforms to school. Tradesmen wear uniforms to identify their line of work. In fact, a uniform is a sign of status, which is a very important part of Japanese culture.
Tokyo Street Fashion/Harajuku
Tokyo Journal Street Photographer Malgorzata Dittmar hits the streets with her lens to see what's hot in Harajuku
The complete article can be found in Issue #276 of the Tokyo Journal. Click here to order from Amazon.
Tatsuya Nakadai Featured
Tatsuya Nakadai
Sixty years of Film, Television and Theater
Tatsuya Nakadai is a shining star of post-war Japan. Still active in the entertainment business as an octogenarian, the legendary actor’s work in film and theater has been acknowledged worldwide. The films he has appeared in have won awards at the Oscars and the “Big Three” film festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Nakadai’s career defies easy categorization because of the wide variety of characters he has portrayed in films and plays. His dynamic performance on screen is unforgettable, especially his work with Japan’s cream-of-the-crop film directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi and Kon Ichikawa. His appearances in Kurosawa films such as Kagemusha and Ran have etched his name into the history of world film and in 2015 he was awarded the Order of Culture by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie sat down with Tatsuya Nakadai at his acting school, Mumeijuku, to hear about his career and experiences working with Kurosawa.
Performer Yusuke Onuki
Performer Yusuke Onuki Reflecting on Dorian Gray, Dancing, Singing and Acting
Photo courtesy of HoriPro
Interview by Miyuki Kawai
TJ: How did you first get into dancing? What styles of dance have you trained to do?
ONUKI: My mother is a dancer and runs a dance studio, so I naturally started to learn dancing. I started with jazz and modern dance. But when I was a primary school student, I saw “Rave2001,” a TV dance program, and got interested in street dancing. I began taking dance lessons and was into street dancing in junior high and high school. And gradually I started to be interested in contemporary dance and ballet.
Doing Business in the U.S. and Japan
TJ: Have you noticed any difference in the corporate cultures or management styles between Japanese- and American-owned companies?
LACHNER: Definitely. But I think it’s dangerous to classify all Japanese companies as the same. I think they are as diverse as American companies are. I spent five years at Sony before coming to Clarion. Of course, working for Sony I thought I was working for a Japanese company. Then I came to Clarion and I realized that Sony was a very different experience than it is at Clarion. Sony is a very Western Japanese company in their management, thinking and strategic planning, whereas Clarion is a more traditional Japanese company. Having only worked at two, I can’t generalize. But I can say that Clarion, as big as it is with 10,000 employees and $2 billion in sales, has a real family feel. It helps that almost all of the senior management in Japan have come through Clarion Corporation of America at some point in their career, so a lot of the folks in Clarion are well-known and liked here and do understand the American model.
Dance Music King: Steve Aoki Featured
International Electronic Dance Music King: Steve Aoki
From the All Night Party to One of the World’s Highest-Paid DJs
Steve Aoki is a Japanese American electro-house producer and musician whose global earnings must be music to his ears. Forbes listed him as the world’s fourth highest-paid DJ in 2018, with his concert schedule of over 200 shows around the world, in addition to his Las Vegas residency earning him $29.5 million. Forbes estimates that he also earned four million dollars in endorsements for Japan’s largest airline, ANA, and French wine Luc Belaire. Then there’s his men’s luxury streetwear line, Dim Mak Collection, and his videogame gambling machine that debuted in casinos in 2017, Steve Aoki’s Neon Dream. He became a musical millionaire with little radio support — and without the financial support of his famous father, Rocky Aoki, the former wrestler who created the Benihana restaurant empire. Born in 1977 in Miami, Florida and raised in Newport Beach, California, Steve Aoki graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with bachelor’s degrees in sociology and feminist studies. In 1996, he founded his own record label, Dim Mak. His performances on tour, including throwing cake and spraying champagne bottles at fans, acrobatic crowd surfing and riding rafts on the dance floor, have earned Aoki huge college support. He has collaborated with producers and vocalists, such as Snoop Dogg, will.i.am, LMFAO and Linkin Park. Aoki and his Billboard-charting studio albums have won numerous industry awards and nominations. The Steve Aoki Foundation supports organizations focusing on regenerative medicine and brain preservation, as well as animal rights and disaster relief. In September 2017, he donated $30,000 to Hurricane Harvey relief and challenged other musicians to match his contribution. The heart-thumping and heart-wrenching documentary on Aoki, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, was released in 2016 and is available on Netflix. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Steve Aoki about his multifaceted career.
Hanayashiki, Asakusa
Hanayashiki, Asakusa
By Kjeld Duits
A MAJOR tourist attraction in Tokyo is the Buddhist temple of Sensō-ji in Asakusa. Every year nearly 30 million visitors pass through the huge entrance gate, and many people are surprised to find a long row of shops on the temple grounds. It actually takes a while to reach the temple buildings.
Some visitors never make it to the temple. Their progress is stalled by the delicious and interesting items for sale. The shops even made an impression on American scholar Alice Mabel Bacon, the first western woman to live in a Japanese household. She visited the temple grounds in 1889 and wrote:
“When we had come as near to the temple as the kurumas (rickshaws) were allowed to approach, we got out to walk the rest of the way; but we had to pass a line of small shops, in which every conceivable variety of toy is kept, and so attractive was the display that we succumbed to the temptation, spent all our time at the toy-shops, and did not reach the temple at all.”
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