japanamerica

The sort of stuff that helps me finish the next book.  Thanks.

Happy Holidays from Japan & America -- and to each and every one. Egg nog, Boston, 2012 Osechi, Tokyo, 2012 Hanukkah, Los Angeles, 2012   Singalong, Brooklyn, 2012 Chocos, Manhattan, 2012 Brandy

Hatsune Miku Goes Highbrow By ROLAND KELTS Special to The Japan Times On her own, Japanese pop superstar Hatsune Miku can't sing. Nor can she rap, dance or DJ. She is drug- and alcohol-free because she can't indulge in either, and she can't have affairs or engage in offstage shenanigans fit for YouTube scandals or tabloid headlines. Now entering her sixth year as a beloved idol with a global fan base, she looks as youthful and demure as she did when she debuted. She can't even get old. Itoh, CEO of Sapporo-based Crypton Future Media, is a software developer and so-called meta-creator, whose goal is to aid others in realizing their artistic endeavors. In 2007, he asked a graphic artist named Kei to create an anime-inspired digital avatar, the kind of cartoon-company mascot common in Japan, to represent both Crypton and its virtual-voice program for Yamaha's Vocaloid software — a singing-voice synthesizer. Vocaloid enables its users to create songs by typi...

Writer Evelyn Anderson won the jackpot by becoming the first guest contributor to the Japanamerica blog. Herewith, her take on Japanese hip-hop.  Move over, PSY. Hip-hop in Japan: Carbon Copy of America or Japanese take on an American Movement? Hip-hop is arguably one of the most influential subcultures in the world. It has caused teenagers all over the globe to don baggy clothing, wear their caps back to front and slip pieces of urban American slang into their conversations. It is therefore no surprise that the youth of Japan has been heavily influenced by this movement, with young people emulating the fashion, vernacular and musical tastes of the US ghetto. There are now over three hundred shops selling hip-hop clothes in central Tokyo alone and it is commonplace to see young men dressed in the ‘b-boy’ style that was popular amongst American rappers during the ‘80s. However whereas in the past, Japanese hip-hop fans imitated their American counterparts without adding ...

By Dan Grunebaum, from The Christian Science Monitor : It’s been 50 years since Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki Song” became a worldwide smash. The only other Asian artist to replicate the feat? Psy, from rival South Korea, with his viral hit “Gangnam Style.” Even as Korean tech giant Samsung turns Sony into a has-been, Japan’s erstwhile colony is also beating it in the pop culture sphere: A decade after journalist Douglas McGray famously calculated “Japan’s Gross National Cool” and awoke the country to the potential of capitalizing on the global infatuation with its anime, games, J-pop, and manga, the concept of “Cool Japan” is under assault. Artists whose work drove the trend are distancing themselves from the commercialized moniker. “Dear ad agencies and bureaucrats,” tweeted renowned artist Takashi Murakami earlier this year. “Please stop inviting me to ‘Cool Japan’ events.... I have absolutely no link to ‘Cool Japan.’ ” But others say a more nuanced drive to deploy Japan’s nati...

Townshend: Japan, U.K. took same postwar path By ROLAND KELTS Special to The Japan Times Who guitarist and composer Pete Townshend originally wanted to call his memoir, "Pete Townshend: Who He?" His publisher, HarperCollins, settled on the less cheeky, more digestible, "Who I Am" — though a better title might be: "Who I Was." Townshend has long been rock music's most articulate interviewee, a multi-syllabic spokesman for a style of music that thrives on immediacy and rhythmic simplicity. As a writer friend a few months ago in New York said, "Sometimes I enjoyed his interviews more than his music." In interviews, Townshend could be both bombastic and eloquent, veering from the personal to the political to the literary in one or two comments. The narrative of his digressions was driven by his confusion — the thoughts of an individual earnestly trying to trace the convergences in his mind while sustaining a world-famous rock ba...

Latest travel column on returning to China to speak at The World Economic Forum and meeting a new friend en route. For Paper Sky magazine.