JI blog
by Bruce Rutledge | February 26, 2009
Roland Kelts’ latest column on Japan’s anime industry points out an interesting development in these bleak times: A fan site — namely Crunchyroll.com — went legit this year. Instead of being a hub of illegal downloads and subtitles made on the fly, the site is teaming with Japanese anime producers to legally market the latest titles from Japan.
Anime fans around the world may not realize how little thought anime producers have put into their place in our digital culture. They make wonderful films, but they sound positively 20th century when they are asked about how to market their films overseas and online. Here’s what Roland found:
In September of 2008, I conducted a phone interview with Vu Nguyen, the site’s co-founder and Vice President of Business and Development and strategy. Nguyen recounted for me his team’s trips to Japan at the start of 2008 to obtain digital strategies directly from the front offices of Japan’s anime producers.
The result? They had none.
“So we decided to give them strategies,” Nguyen told me. “Because they’re frustrated, too.”
So a fan site that once was a portal for free and most likely illegal downloads and uploads has joined hands with the anime producers to help them find firm footing in the US market. The age of cooperation is upon us.
by Takumi Ono | January 16, 2009
The Japanese love ramen. If you ask Japanese expats, ramen is often on their list of food to eat when they return to Japan. That tells you how difficult it is to cook ramen that can satisfy the Japanese palate. But where is the best ramen restaurant located in Japan? That’s hard to say because ramen is prepared differently from region to region and from chef to chef… So that’s where Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum comes in handy. The museum is a collection of different ramen restaurants from different regions of Japan, so you don’t have to fly or take a train around Japan to try them all. The lineup of restaurants and special menus change from time to time, so it’s hard to get bored with it. There is an entrance fee on top of the cost of the ramen, but you can go in and out of the museum all day. Just drop by this museum next time you go to the Tokyo area and experience the world of ramen!
http://www.raumen.co.jp/home/
by Bruce Rutledge | December 23, 2008
There has been a slew of good Japan stories in the news recently. I share a few with you to peruse over the holidays.
The Tokyo art scene is covered in this article from Art and Antiques magazine. Although the article appeared in the October 2008 edition of the magazine, it just became available online recently.
The New Yorker features an in-depth look at cellphone novels in its latest issue.
And I was quoted in a piece by the Christian Science Monitor on the influence of Japanese pop culture around the world.
Happy reading and happy holidays from snowy Seattle!
by Bruce Rutledge | December 11, 2008
While Detroit auto executives — still reeling from a horrible Hummer hangover –have their hats in their hands in Washington DC, across the pond in London, Japanese carmakers are being featured in an exhibit called Japan Car: Designs for the Crowded Globe. Car Design News just wrote an article on the exhibit and interviewed architect Shigeru Ban, one of the people behind the show. Here’s how Ban describes the show:
Shigeru Ban explained how the automobile was chosen as the central element to the exhibition because it is a reflection of Japanese culture and tradition. “We used it as an object to explain the meaning behind it, instead of just showing it,” he said. “In Europe, cars are used as A-to-B transport devices, but in Japan they are an extension of a living room as personal space.”
by Bruce Rutledge | December 8, 2008
Takashi Murakami plans to open an anime studio in Los Angeles next summer, according to the Los Angeles Times. The artist will run the studio under the Kaikai Kiki name already known in New York and Tokyo. Here’s the full story.
by Takumi Ono | December 4, 2008
In the land of the rising sun, there is a new tribe of women trying to look like princesses from old-style Europe. “Hime Gal” is the name of the tribe, and they are supposedly in their 20s and 30s. Too bad that I didn’t run into a single one of them during my recent vacation in Japan. Their idols? Marie Antoinette and Paris Hilton. Ha!
Japan’s Latest Fashion Has Women Playing Princess for a Day
by Bruce Rutledge | December 1, 2008
As the days get shorter and colder and the holidays approach, it’s the perfect time for some soothing music like this offering from Duo En, a Seattle-based shakuhachi and koto duo. We featured half of the duo — the koto half to be precise — in our story on Elizabeth Falconer earlier this year. The CD Winter Cranes makes a great gift for people interested in Japanese music but not quite sure where to start because, while the album has some classic Japanese music on it, it also has unique renditions of Western staples such as “Silent Night,” “Greensleeves” and “White Christmas.”
by Takumi Ono | November 24, 2008
Japan is known for its investment in robotic technology, but who ever thought of having robots “act” on stage? Humanoid robots made a debut in a play at Osaka University on November 25. It’s been a year since the university developed a robot toddler to assist students in studying child development.
Robot actors to make stage debut in Japanese play
by Bruce Rutledge | November 19, 2008
Japanese baseball players have helped Major League Baseball transition from its comic-book era of steroid-bloated heroes to a more human age, where slapping a clutch single through the infield or laying down a perfect suicide squeeze is given its due. Players such as Ichiro remind us that being fit enough to play all 162 games takes a certain kind of mental and physical toughness that the oft-injured home run hitters of the last decade didn’t have. But imagine how tough Eri Yoshida has to be. She’s the 16-year-old girl who recently became the first female in Japanese pro baseball, and she’s doing it by throwing a knuckleball. Yoshida’s hero is Boston’s Tim Wakefield — another sign of our shrinking world. Yoshida still has a long way to go to get to the top pro teams — she’s playing in an independent league — but it is still inspiring to see a 16-year-old girl who is just 5 feet tall and 114 lbs. Hope she strikes out the side in her first start.
by Bruce Rutledge | October 28, 2008
The latest issue of Time has a column dedicated to sustainable sushi complete with a nifty graphic of a sushi box that shows which delicacies are being over-fished. The good news: If you like farmed bay scallops, striped sea bass and Canadian uni, you can dine guilt-free. But if you like octopus and, gulp, yellowtail, (two of my favorites), you can’t.
