japanamerica

From NIKKEI . Oscar-nominated 'Minari' upends Asian immigrant stereotypes Actress Esther Moon on playing Mrs. Oh, a Korean immigrant who finds peace in rural America TOKYO— A little over a year after Bong Joon-ho's coruscating satire of class conflict, "Parasite," became the first foreign-language movie to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, another film with a Korean lead cast, plenty of translated subtitles and dogged money woes is up for the same top honor. "Minari," directed by Korean American Lee Isaac Chung and based partly on his childhood, follows the Yis, an immigrant family of four, as they move from Los Angeles to rural Arkansas to start a new life on a farm. While Chung's script and direction are far more restrained than Ho's, the reception to his film has been anything but. Released in the U.S. during an alarming spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, "Minari" won Best Foreign Language Film at February's Golden Globe Awar...

Terribly well-timed to the rise of anti-Asian hate in the US, I will be talking about this brave and important new book, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in WWII , with author Daniel James Brown in Boston. The event is hosted and sponsored by Boston Public Library , GBH , Japan Society of Boston and New England Historic Genealogical Society . This is a critical time to reexamine the Japanese American experience of WWII—incarcerated in the camps at home, and fighting for the US overseas. We hope you'll join us. Daniel James Brown with Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II Virtual Event: Wednesday, May 12 at 6 p.m. ET / 11 p.m. UK / Thursday, May 13th at 7 p.m. JST • Register here Moderator: Roland Nozomu Kelts , author, journalist, editor, and lecturer Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library, the Japan Society of Boston, and GBH Forum Network From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Boys...

I was recently interviewed in Tokyo by Darren Paltrowitz of Hype Magazine . He was in New York City, my former hometown.  We talked about my gig hosting the Japan Cats doc, but also a lot of stuff I hadn't planned to discuss, like pandemic work, my forthcoming Blade Runner book, the novel, the other books, my Who T-shirt and interviews with Pete Townshend, the shows "Better Call Saul," "Westworld" and "Barry"—and my cat.  Darren's opening gambit disarmed me.  Vid's up at YouTube:

This month, Netflix and WIT Studio ("Attack on Titan") opened the WIT ANIMATOR ACADEMY, a scholarship-only training school at Tokyo's Sasayuri Video Training Institute. Despite massive commercial success, the anime industry is in crisis because there aren't enough skilled artists in Japan, and even fewer who are learning how to draw. I interviewed the main players behind the program for NIKKEI . Netflix-sponsored anime school goes back to basics New training academy for budding anime artists is surprisingly old school in its goals TOKYO -- For Japan's anime industry, the best of times could soon augur the worst. Never before have Japanese studios been so flush with contracts, licensing deals and cash. And never before has their talent pool been so shallow. The global market for anime hit a record $24 billion in 2019, according to the Association of Japanese Animations -- and that was before the 2020 pandemic sent audience numbers for streaming anime through the ro...

I was hired to host this short documentary film about the central role cats play in Japanese culture. "Japan Cats,"  directed by Academy Award nominee Geoffrey O'Connor and shot in Wakayama and Tokyo, was a lot of fun to make, and I remain honored to be a small part of it. No 'weird Japan' clickbait memes, but a rich look at the deeper connections, spiritual and personal, between the Japanese and their cats. Yes, there's Natsume Soseki's "I am a Cat," Hello Kitty, Doraemon, nearly everything written by Haruki Murakami, Maneki Neko ("Lucky Cat"), Bakeneko ("shapeshifting cat") and plenty more. But there's also Tama, the stationmaster cat , and her successor, Nitama (Tama 2), whom you'll meet here, along with cat cafes and memorials. Thanks to AMV BBDO for producing, and SHEBA for supporting. Hope you enjoy the show.

Wonderful review of our panel on "Japanese Pop Culture's Successes in Covid-19" for The Japan Society and The Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth, featuring William Tsutsui, Aki Nakanishi, Seio Nakajima and me. Demon Slayer, anime vtubers, Evangelion, record-breaking sales in anime and manga, and the virtues of lockdown/isolation helped Japan's pop culture industries innovate and flourish against the odds. "The panel includes a history lesson on Japanese isolationism in the past, plenty of talk on Demon Slayer, Japanese and Western co-productions, and how the pandemic might affect Japanese entertainment in the future, among other things. At just under an hour and twenty minutes, it gives interesting insight and perspective on the issues." Thanks to Danica Davidson for the great story. Watchable here:

Fukushima: A photographer's 10-year journey through wreckage and recovery Photographer Ko Sasaki drove me through the Fukushima evacuation zone in the summer of 2016. I had been there twice before to record programs for National Public Radio and NHK, but I was hired by both to report post-disaster stories of resilience and show what had changed since the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Sasaki was showing me what hadn't. Sasaki's photographs appear in The New York Times, Forbes magazine, Wired and other mainstream publications. But his obsession with Fukushima and its people comes from a personal commitment: He feels that the region is still being exploited, mistreated and misrepresented by Japan's government and corporate officials, who cling to tatemae (public face and behavior, or "keeping up appearances"), he says, without a hint of honne (genuine inner sentiment and emotional truth). 2011 He is galled by the government's plan...