Culture
- Japan, World cinema, Drama films, Society, Law, Assisted dying, Death and dying, World news, Asia Pacific, Culture, Film
Plan 75 review – life is terminated at 75 in melancholy anti-euthanasia drama
To combat an ageing population, a future Japan passes a law to pay older citizens to sign up for an easeful de…
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When 75 is time to die: the horrifically plausible film imagining state-run euthanasia in Japan
Japan’s ageing and lonely population is reaching crisis point. What’s the solution? The director of Plan 75, a…
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Crossing the lines: photography without frontiers at Kyotographie 2023 – photo essay
With borders as its theme, the 11th edition of Kyoto’s citywide festival explores a range of issues including …
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Junk Head review – astonishing stop-motion trip through a nightmarish future
Existential quandaries meet expressionist monsters in Takahide Hori’s dystopian worldEnvisioning a dystopian f…
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Former J-pop idol alleges sexual abuse by late music mogul Johnny Kitagawa
Kauan Okamoto says Kitagawa evaded justice because victims knew speaking out would end their careersJohnny Kit…
- Music, Pop and rock, Japan, Electronic music, World news, Asia Pacific, Classical music, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Experimental music, Culture, Film
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese pop pioneer and Oscar-winning composer, dies aged 71
Sakamoto was one of Japan’s most successful musicians, acclaimed for work in Yellow Magic Orchestra as well as…
- Japan, Drama films, Haruki Murakami, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman review – Murakami’s surreal tales around a Tokyo earthquake
The seductively quirky sad-serious tone of the author is evident as a constellation of characters try and save…
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20th century Japanese poster art – in pictures
At a new exhibition at Poster House in New York, a range of wartime and postwar posters are being celebrated, …
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Kenzaburō Ōe obituary
Nobel prize-winning writer whose novels linked the personal and political in exploring fatherhood and the lega…
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Dreaming an Island review – an eerie tour of planet Earth’s depopulated future
This documentary about a small Japanese island, a once thriving mining outpost that now has only 100 residents…
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Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel prize-winning Japanese writer, dies aged 88
Fiction and essays tackled subjects including militarism and nuclear disarmament, innocence and traumaKenzabur…
- Music, Japan, Society, Rape and sexual assault, Law, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, Television, Culture
Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop review – a breathtaking look at Japan’s paedophile boyband ‘god’
As young stars smile brightly and declare their love for him, this documentary about a music svengali’s grueso…
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TV tonight: the secret sexual abuse allegations in Japanese pop
This harrowing documentary investigates Johnny Kitagawa, media mogul and the maker of J-pop superstars. Plus, …
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Bad City review – retro homage to 80s Japanese thrillers is elegantly pulpy
A taskforce of honest cops is assembled to tackle the gangsters menacing Kaiko City. Many punches are thrown i…
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Anime, Festivals, Comedy films, Culture, Animation in film, Comedy, Berlin film festival, Berlin film festival 2023, Film
Suzume review – Makoto Shinkai’s charming modern Alice in Wonderland
The Your Name director’s mythic and comic new animation is an absorbing, intriguing and bewildering workHere i…
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Found in translation: how Like a Dragon brings Japan to the rest of the world
The game series formerly known as Yakuza has been an inroad to modern Japan for its legions of overseas fans. …
- Japan, Animal Crossing, Tetris, Wii, Xbox, Life and style, Games consoles, World news, Technology sector, Pokémon, Nintendo, Games, Culture, Super Mario
‘Get something that’s fun to play, then think about the story’: how Nintendo keeps levelling up
With 100m sales of its Switch console, a new Mario movie and even a California theme park, the Japanese tech g…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Games, Culture, Film
Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night review – dungeon-crawler drama
The latest outing from the multimedia franchise finds its heroes still trapped inside an RPG, where they learn…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Film, Film adaptations
That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond review – high-spirited anime
This playful tale about an ogre samurai, a poisoned queen and a demonic pool of talking slime has a lot of con…
- Japan, Environment, Endangered species, Wildlife photographer of the year, Conservation, Animals, Wildlife, Rivers, Asia Pacific, Photography, Culture
The plight of the Japanese giant salamander: ‘23m years of DNA might die out’
No one knows how many of these elusive and mysterious creatures are left but time is thought to be running out…