Category Archives: japan

Festival/Tokyo 2012: Japan’s marquee theater fest defends free speech post-3/11

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“In recent Japanese media… we can see a critical and dangerous increase in one-sided denunciations of risk-taking artists and art,” says program director Chiaki Soma in her notes for F/T12. To combat what she sees as a “nonchalant oppression,” Soma cobbled together a hard-hitting lineup of political theater for the fest’s fifth edition.

Metropolis, Oct 11, 2012

Dance Triennale Tokyo 2012: Shock of the new at Japan’s top contemporary dance fest

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“At the other end of the spectrum from classical ballet, Tokyo possesses one of the world’s busier contemporary dance scenes. In contrast to the starkly uniform, white-painted bodies of Japanese butoh dancers, Japan’s contemporary dance community is a motley lot. Productions vary from the dystopian creations of Yoko Higashino’s Baby-Q company to the satirical pop revues of Ryohei Kondo’s Condors, reflecting Tokyo’s absorption and redefinition of diverse Western contemporary dance forms.”

Metropolis, Sep 11, 2012

Patti Smith: Don’t Call Her a Survivor

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“I was deeply concerned about the people and their morale,” Smith says by phone from Amsterdam, where she’s set to play the city’s famous Paradiso. “Lenny [guitarist Lenny Kaye] and I wanted to write a song but we didn’t want to write specifically about the disaster. Lenny was working on some chords and the words just came to me. It’s a simple song based on 16th-17th century Japanese literature. It’s a prayer to the mountain to shelter the people.”

Metropolis, Aug 17, 2012

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Drama in the Wake of Disaster

‘‘There won’t be a simple yes or no vote on nuclear power. But I want to ask, ‘From where should the discussion begin?’’’ says the director Akira Takayama.

The New York Times, December 1, 2011

Japan’s New Wave of Protest Songs

A small group of Japanese songwriters takes an unusually political stand on the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The New York Times, June 30, 2011

Cool Japan Is Out of Breath

Is Japan losing its cool? (Japanese version)

Newsweek Japan cover story, June 13, 2012