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March 07, 2026
 

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Patrick St. Michel
Patrick St. Michel is a Tokyo-based writer with a focus on Japanese music. He runs the blog Make Believe Melodies, which has focused on Japanese independent music since 2009. Besides The Japan Times, he also contributes to MTV 81 and The Atlantic.
Evan Call¡¯s score for anime series ¡°Frieren: Beyond Journey¡¯s End¡± is built around European folk instrumentation with subtle orchestration choices that carry emotional weight.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 6, 2026
For Evan Call, every melody is a conversation
The "Frieren" composer builds anime's fantasy worlds with folk-infused scores.
Takuya Chigira, the CEO of Japanese talent agency Cloud Nine, is launching Zipangu, a Stateside festival devoted to Japanese culture. Chigira and Cloud Nine are working closely with American promoter Goldenvoice, best known for Coachella.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 26, 2026
What is Zipangu? Inside J-pop¡¯s first-of-its-kind Los Angeles festival
A new Stateside event tests whether viral success can become a lasting international presence.
Fujii Kaze, seen here performing in Kuala Lumpur in 2024 during his Asia Tour, is one of the domestic acts set to perform at this year's Fuji Rock Festival.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2026
Fujii Kaze, Massive Attack among Fuji Rock Festival 2026 performers announced
Among the 66 acts unveiled, are also Khruangbin, The xx, Asian Kung-Fu Generation and more.
College students Jun Kim (left) and Rihito Mizoguchi are the co-founders of Login.jp, a project launched in February 2025 to ¡°archive the Japanese experience through music.¡±
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2026
Login.jp spotlights everyday Japan, one DJ set at a time
The student-led project brings club sounds into fish markets, barbershops and corner stores, reframing everyday Japan through music.
Aina The End¡¯s rock single ¡°Kakumei Dochu ¡ª On the Way¡± was the singer¡¯s surprise breakthrough last year, surpassing 100 million streams on Spotify and spreading rapidly across TikTok.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2026
Aina The End is more than just anime's opening act
The singer reflects on breakthrough hit "Kakumei Dochu ¡ª On the Way¡± and embracing her husky vocals.
American rockers The Strokes will perform at the 25th edition of Summer Sonic, one of Japan¡¯s biggest summer music festivals.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2026
Summer Sonic marks 25 years with expanded 2026 festival
To mark its quarter-century milestone, the music festival is stretching to three days and featuring major acts such as The Strokes, Jennie, Jamiroquai and L¡¯Arc-en-Ciel.
Pop trio Mrs. Green Apple was joined by tuxedo-clad dancers for its glee bomb of a track, ¡°Good Day,¡± toward the end of NHK¡¯s annual New Year¡¯s Eve music contest, ¡°Kohaku Uta Gassen.¡±
CULTURE / Music
Jan 5, 2026
NHK¡¯s 76th ¡®Kohaku¡¯ was over the top and oddly comforting
With pyrotechnics, celebrations for major milestones and a sea of dancers, the year-end music bonanza went all in on excess and reminded viewers why it still matters.
??AiScReam emerged as a special unit made up of three performers and voice actors from the mixed-media ¡°Love Live!¡± franchise ¡ª (from left) Ai Furihata, Wakana Okuma and Aguri Onishi.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2025
The year¡¯s most viral song was about more than ice cream
The hyper-cute J-pop track "Ai Scream!" became an unlikely global hit by inviting listeners to fill in the blanks ¡ª and join in the chorus.
Netflix Japan¡¯s newest reality-dating experiment ¡°Badly in Love¡± follows self-identified delinquents as they try to find romance.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 16, 2025
¡®Badly in Love¡¯: Netflix Japan¡¯s most chaotic dating show may be its most honest
Netflix Japan¡¯s ¡°Badly in Love¡± turns delinquent bravado into surprisingly earnest, character-driven reality television.
Rock trio Mrs. Green Apple celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, and did so by largely dominating the nation¡¯s music space. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Kenshi Yonezu¡¯s ¡°Iris Out¡± broke Spotify Japan¡¯s record for most streams by a song on its release day.
CULTURE / Music / 2025 IN REVIEW
Dec 12, 2025
J-pop found new ways to diversify in 2025
Anime, social media and ad campaigns help, but can they take you global?
Yumi Matsutoya began her decades-long career under her maiden name, Yumi Arai, but Japanese fans might know her better as ¡°Yuming.¡±
CULTURE / Music / Longform
Dec 1, 2025
Yumi Matsutoya¡¯s human touch in an AI age
Even as she experiments with AI, Yumi Matsutoya returns to the craft, memories and instincts that shaped her long career.
¡°Last Samurai Standing¡± centers on a mysterious fighting event in which participants must hack and slash their opponents apart to collect enough wooden tags to win a big-money prize.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle
Nov 21, 2025
The secret to 'Last Samurai Standing'? Treating live action like anime.
Netflix¡¯s wild new samurai series embraces cartoonish chaos ¡ª and it works.
Members of Band-Maid combine heavy riffs and maid-inspired visuals in their latest project, "Rock Is a Lady¡¯s Modesty."
CULTURE / Music
Nov 18, 2025
How Band-Maid brought anime energy into the hard-rock sound of ¡®Scooooop¡¯
The hard-rock quintet push their creativity to new extremes on latest EP, ¡°Scooooop.¡±
This year's "Kohaku Uta Gassen" will be broadcast on NHK from 7:20 p.m. on Dec. 31.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 14, 2025
Chanmina and aespa among 10 acts to debut on NHK¡¯s ¡®Kohaku Uta Gassen¡¯
The New Year¡¯s Eve music spectacle on NHK will feature first-time acts such as idol group Fruits Zipper and long-awaited returns from bands like Okinawa¡¯s Orange Range.
Kenshi Yonezu's ¡°Iris Out¡± was an instant hit when it dropped in September. Its association with smash anime "Chainsaw Man ¡ª The Movie: Reze Arc" has spread it to even more people.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 31, 2025
Kenshi Yonezu, 'Chainsaw Man' and the art of pop ubiquity
Top single ¡°Iris Out,¡± featured in the nation's top film, prove that music and movies can unite Japan ¡ª and define a cultural moment.
Fans wait to get into the Oasis show at Tokyo Dome on Saturday. While lining up in the rain, some broke into impromptu versions of the British rock group's hits.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2025
Oasis returns to Tokyo: Rain, rapture and rock
Oasis¡¯ first Japan shows since 2009 drew roughly 110,000 fans to Tokyo Dome over the weekend.
Rock band kurayamisaka¡¯s debut album has listeners debating over its ¡°shoegaze¡± classification.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2025
Japanese rock fans can't agree on kurayamisaka
The September release of the band's debut album has dominated Japan¡¯s indie-rock conversation for weeks, with listeners debating over its ¡°shoegaze¡± classification.
Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Oct 13, 2025
Inside Japan¡¯s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
A surge of new arenas from Chiba to Yokohama reveals how Japan¡¯s cities are betting big on live entertainment.
Racehorse Oguri Cap, a superstar stallion of the late 1980s, is reimagined in anime form as a teenage schoolgirl who must perform upbeat idol-pop songs after every victory in ¡°Umamusume: Cinderella Grey.¡±
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Oct 4, 2025
¡®Cinderella Grey¡¯ gallops past the other sports documentaries
Mixing real horse-racing history with idol-pop fantasy, ¡°Cinderella Grey¡± proves anime can outpace today¡¯s flat sports shows.
The process of making ¡°Baan¡± was personal and enlightening for Maneetapho, who spent years talking about anime on his YouTube channel and podcast before making the jump to becoming an anime creator himself.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2025
YouTuber Gigguk shifts from talking anime to making anime
Garnt Maneetapho, who runs the YouTube channel Gigguk, makes the jump from critic to creator with his short film ¡°Baan ¡ª The Boundary of Adulthood.¡±
Drones and missiles: U.S. Marines in Okinawa evolve for sea-denial role
Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commanding general of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, speaks to marines and sailors aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America at Naval Base White Beach in Okinawa Prefecture on Aug. 10.
Japan¡¯s national museums to implement dual-pricing system
Admission fees for the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and 11 other state-run museums are set to increase for visitors from outside Japan.
Three arrested over illegal hiring of Vietnamese workers in Japan
The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested three men over alleged involvement in employing Vietnamese nationals without work permits in Fukuroi, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Violence in sumo provokes anger but little surprise
Terunofuji pictured at Isegahama stable on Jan. 29, 2024
Netflix deal shuts out Japan¡¯s sports bars from freely showing WBC
Fans watching from Tokyo react after Japan beat the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic in March 2023.
Cherry blossom season set to begin up to a week earlier than usual
Cherry blossoms are expected to bloom earlier than usual this year, with flowering forecast to begin in Nagoya on March 17 and in Tokyo on March 19, according to Japan Meteorological Corp.
Taiwan¡¯s FM calls for Taipei to be part of 'first island chain' security framework
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung speaks during an interview last week in Taipei. Lin has called on Japan and other partners to step up cooperation in areas such as intelligence-sharing, joint exercises, defense-industry tie-ups, data links and dealing with hybrid threats such as China¡¯s gray-zone activities.
Netflix deal shuts out Japan¡¯s sports bars from freely showing WBC
Fans watching from Tokyo react after Japan beat the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic in March 2023.
¡®My hope has fear inside it¡¯: Iranians in Japan react to attacks back home
Somayyeh Mehri speaks in an interview on Monday in Tokyo. The psychological weight of watching events unfold from Japan is gut-wrenching for Mehri.
Shohei Ohtani returns to Japan as the center of attention ahead of WBC
Shohei Ohtani is back with Samurai Japan for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Ohtani was the MVP of the 2023 tournament.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

As Japan accelerates AI adoption, policymakers and corporations frame the technology as essential to offsetting a projected labor shortfall of 11 million workers by 2040.
Japan is betting big on AI. Few workers have used it.
By Eric Margolis

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