japanamerica

I just wrote my last 2021 "Letter from Tokyo" for The Japan Society of Boston about the differences between Japan's Bonenkai "forget-the-year" year-end parties and Christmas parties in Western countries, and the placid Japanese New Year's week (Oshogatsu) versus the Western NYE one-night blowout. Openly cribbed Joan Didion, with respect, and not a little reverence.  LETTER FROM TOKYO, DECEMBER 2021: BONENKAI BLUES “It is easier to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.” That’s the first line of “Goodbye to All That,” one of the most widely read personal essays by American author Joan Didion, who died this month, two days before Christmas. The sentence is deceptively simple and seductive, like a Zen koan, but it takes on added weight when you actually come to the ends of things—like another year. In Tokyo, the year usually starts ending in November, with elaborate light displays cropping up in the city’s shopping and strolling centers, pre-...

"The Inland Sea" by Donald Richie is among the finest books ever written about Japan (some would say it's the finest) and we're celebrating its 50th Anniversary on DEC. 8th with a live Zoom event. I'll be discussing the book with renowned Japan scholar John Nathan, translator of Mishima, Oe, Soseki and others, and a great filmmaker to boot. Our talk will be moderated by Peter Grilli, president emeritus of The Japan Society of Boston. Registration is free here . The book is still in print, beautifully so, and will be sold at discount during the event by Stone Bridge Press . Please join us for this landmark evening hosted by The Japan Society of Boston . I'm really looking forward to this one.

‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ reinvents neo-noir nods to Japan When the first anime series in the “Blade Runner” franchise premieres on cable TV’s Cartoon Network and online streamer Crunchyroll Nov. 13, it will close the circle on nearly 40 years of cultural cross-pollination. British director Ridley Scott’s 1982 original, a Hollywood live-action movie set in a futuristic Los Angeles, features several neo-noirish nods to a dystopian urban Japan. Signs in Japanese flash above neon-lit alleyways lined with cramped standing food stalls. Snatches of Japanese dialogue are heard on the streets and from the radio in Los Angeles police officer Gaff’s hovercraft (the brilliantly designed “spinner”), and in the voiceover accompanying an indelible image of a geisha, popping a pill on a gigantic skyscraper video projection. Even today, seeing Japanese culture embedded so deeply in the mise-en-scene of a mainstream Hollywood film is startling. In 1982, it must’ve been revolutionary. It didn’t go unn...

This was a whole lot of serious fun: My roundtable chat with author, historian, and dear friend Charles Solomon to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the "Lupin the 3rd" anime franchise, one of the world's longest-running animated series. Of course we talked a lot about "The Castle of Cagliostro," Hayao Miyazaki's first feature film as director, a charmed and stunning work that is often a gateway for non-Japanese to the Lupin universe.  Our roundtable is for Sentai Filmworks  and TMS Entertainment . 

  LETTER FROM TOKYO, OCTOBER 2021: GINGKO GOLD September still feels like late summer in Tokyo, with stretches of sunbaked days and lingering cicadas and humid stillness. But by October the air crispens and the leaves go vibrant. October coaxes forth the city’s magnificent foliage, blanketing its far-flung hillsides and spreading colorful canopies across its parks and university campuses.  This year, the humidity got siphoned away overnight and evenings grew chilly fast. But for someone like me, raised in the northeastern US and north-central Japan, the shift to windbreakers and warmer bedclothes is welcome. Wherever I am, that transition in temperature feels like home. Speaking of overnight: Have any other Olympic Games dissipated so quickly? No disrespect to the athletes, medalists and their retinue, but the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, held less than three months ago in 2021, almost feel more ancient today than the first Tokyo Olympics in 1964.  Things here have changed, ...

I was interviewed by the BBC for a smart show about Japan's post-Olympic doldrums and political ossification. Many of the questions were excellent, and I was honored to appear alongside Sophia University prof Koichi Nakano, Seijiro Takeshita from the University of Shizuoka, and SOAS University of London scholar Sarah Parsons.  Now that the election is over and the LDP firmly back in control, this panel feels prophetic. "Meet the new boss ..." Audio is here  and below:

LETTER FROM TOKYO, AUGUST 2021: CICADA CRY I caught cicadas in my grandparents’ garden when I was five years old. This was in Morioka City in August, the first full month I lived in Japan before attending kindergarten. It was hot. I used a lightweight long-necked net to capture them and kept them in a green plastic cage my grandfather had bought for me. The cicadas seemed huge and powerful and I loved looking into their eye bulbs with the little black dots in the middle. When you held them from behind by the tips of their wings, their legs clawed at the air then stopped. Their faces looked like they could have been dangerous insects, biting or stinging, but at the last minute decided not to be. So they just stared back at you. There is the famous Basho haiku about cicada cries hiding the nearness of their death but I didn't know anything about that then. I just loved their eyes and wings and the perfect ghost husks they left behind, clinging to the trees as if they were still aliv...

 

LETTER FROM TOKYO, JULY 2021: THE GAMAN GAMES One hot July day I was invited to give a TED Talk in Tokyo about “Japanamerica”  and “Cool Japan,” the government’s campaign to capitalize on the international appeal of Japanese popular culture. But I didn't feel cool at all, and I didn't want to speak again about manga and anime, so instead I gave a talk about gaman : the virtue of enduring adversity with patience and dignity, and without whining. Every July in Tokyo puts gaman to the test. The rainy season evaporates and the sun reclaims the sky, blasting over the city’s concrete with a vengeance. Tsuyu ’s misty speckles on your brow turn to smears of sweat. Venturing outside of your air-conditioned cave is a trial. And after only a few 100-degree days, you know you're in trouble when sitting on your veranda at midnight feels nearly as stultifying as a lunch-hour stroll at high noon. This July, Tokyo has the added trials of a fourth Covid-19 “state of emergency” until Sept...

Japan’s virtual YouTubers have millions of real subscribers — and make millions of real dollars How the pandemic mainstreamed VTubers, Japan's fictional YouTube celebrities. Rest of World/Kizunaai By ROLAND KELTS Virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI is the featured guest on Downtown DX, a decades-old prime-time variety show hosted by two of Japan’s most famous veteran comedians, Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada. Both pushing 60, the boomers joke about not knowing who or what she is, feigning ignorance. “What is this?” they ask, peering at the kinetic anime graphic, its eyelashes fluttering. “Who’s in there?”  But AI gets the last laugh. “Do you even know about us?” Matsumoto asks her, or the screen on the floor of the soundstage where she is manifesting today. “Of course I do!” AI replies in her squeaky chirp, spreading her arms, brushing away the question. “I know everyone here.” Then she beats one of the hosts at an impromptu game of rock-paper-scissors. “Do something now!” she shrie...

I'll be chatting with the Head of Content Strategy & Global Partnerships at anime streaming site Crunchyroll , Alden Mitchell Budill , this Thursday, July 8th from 2pm PST (with online access thru July 13th) at A-JAPAN — an exclusive content showcase of the hottest IP from Japan, incl. manga, TV and film. The event is hosted by Amuse Group USA, Inc. and actor-streamer Erika Ishii. Online registration is free here . A-JAPAN 2021 Teaser from Amuse Group USA on Vimeo .

LETTER FROM TOKYO, JUNE 2021: CHOOSING ONSEN OVER OLYMPICS  My favorite kind of getaway is a stay at an onsen-yado (Japanese hot springs hotel). It used to rotate among my top three, but the pandemic has edged it into first place. An onsen-yado relieves you of the burden of choice as soon as you step inside. Your shoes and luggage are whisked away. You are quietly ushered to your room. Padding through the halls, you are told when your dinner will be served and shown what you will wear: a robe, a sash, slippers—with two-toed tabi socks optional. No matching of ties to dinner jackets or puzzles over pumps or flats.  Then you soak in hot, mineral-rich water that transforms your joints into gentle friends of your body. Early June is a good time for hitting onsen. Spring holidays are over but the kids are still in school, and tsuyu ’s rainy season grays take the edges off. In Tokyo, May’s bracing sun can make everyone look hurried and feel hyperactive. June reminds you—what’s the...

I was just interviewed for the DEEP IN JAPAN podcast about growing up half-Japanese, writing  JAPANAMERICA , editing the literary magazine Monkey: New Writing from Japan , writing  "The Fifth Flavor ," reading Nabokov and Canetti ... and catching clout chasers who crib your ideas. Also chatted about my new book, the novel, my kindergarten years in Morioka, living with my grandparents and falling in love with Ultraman. Good fun all around thanks to Jeff Krueger and his team. (pic: Ultraman Taro & Mini Roland in Tokyo Tower.) Deep in Japan · Roland Kelts - On Contemporary Japanese Fiction & Japanamerica

Japan's obsession with perfection is an Olympic-sized problem  W hen clockwork does not work Japan is world-famous for its punctual and efficient customer service, and for most of the pandemic—with the country under varying states of emergency—this has been a godsend. Food deliveries arrive at your door, hot and hermetically sealed, up to 10 minutes earlier than promised. Packages sent from every corner of the country are handed to you the following morning by gloved couriers. Convenience stores really are convenient—located everywhere, well-stocked, impeccably sanitized and open 24/7, even in the smallest towns. In Tokyo, public clocks are ubiquitous. While it is true that you can set your watch to the departures and arrivals of Japan's trains, from the high-speed shinkansen to more humble commuter rails and subways, you do not really need a watch here. Yet now, when Japan does need to keep pace with global vaccinations just two months before the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympi...

Photo: Nancy Keystone Letter from Tokyo, May 2021: Tokyo’s pandemic time warp This March, Kyoto’s cherry blossoms hit peak bloom on the earliest date recorded in 1200 years. Not 120. 1200. Here in Tokyo, the sakura trees below my office began blooming on the earliest date recorded in 60 years—after a winter so mild I never wore a scarf or donned footwear heavier than sneakers. Spring this year feels like early summer. Midday temps reach the upper 70s F / 20s C. If you brave the sun without a hat, you sweat. Tokyo’s weather is accelerated and overheated. But everything else feels frozen. After another week of less-than-golden holidays hunkered at home, we Tokyoites are watching a ‘fourth wave’ of Covid infections sweep the country. It feels redundant and endless. Vaccination appointments that seem plentiful elsewhere haven’t even started here. And we’re now preparing for two weeks of Olympic Games set to begin in just over a couple months, on July 23rd of 2021—an international extrav...

I was recently interviewed by the CBC about Japanamerica and the rise of Black representation in Japanese popular culture. Investments from Netflix and other big global media companies are bringing multiculturalism to Japan's thriving creative industries. But are we ready for a multicultural Japan? (You can access the interview here .) [Excerpts] What is it about anime that makes streaming giants like Netflix so eager to invest in not only the content, but in studios and in talent? On the one hand, it crosses borders really well. Streaming services are global. They're not just located in one country or devoted to one culture. I also like to think of anime characters as anime tribes. Take a movie star in the U.S. or China and they may not be that well-known outside of their own nation, but anime characters have this unique ability — partly because they're just illustrations — to travel very, very well. So streaming services are looking for content that will appeal not only...