• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Japan Subculture Research Center

A guide to the Japanese underworld, Japanese pop-culture, yakuza and everything dark under the sun.

Kaori Shoji

Kaori Shoji is a film critic for the Japan Times and write about fashion and society as well. 欧米の出版物に記事を執筆するフリーランス・ジャーナリスト。The Japan Times、The International Herald Tribune、Zoo Magazineへ定期的に記事を寄稿している。
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  • Intimate Strangers: Mothers Without Sons—new suspense film explores the depths of human connection

Intimate Strangers: Mothers Without Sons—new suspense film explores the depths of human connection

Intimate Stranger is about a woman with a missing son, who connects with a 17-year old boy during a mask-clad, pandemic stricken winter in Tokyo. The woman works in a…

A Farewell To Japan’s King of Toxic Masculinity: Shintaro Ishihara

Ishihara hated outspoken women and liberal men; he had no kind feelings for the US and refused to be enthralled or intimidated by western culture. Ishihara reserved his most acidic…

Driving In Winter With Haruki Murakami… and Why We Still Need Him

Murakami's story is part of a compilation titled Men Without Women, a fate which, in the Murakami scheme of things is akin to death by torture. Men cannot exist without…

My Brushes With the Yakuza – Reflections of Life in Akasaka, Tokyo

My first encounter with the ‘yakuza’ or the crooks and gangsters of Japan’s underworld, happened when I was 14 years old, on my way home from cram school. It was…

In the shadows of Hiroshima: Director Kurosaki takes on the story of Japan’s own WWII top-secret nuclear arms plan

And now a Japanese movie is saying we could have been the perpetrators of the world's first nuclear bomb attack? That's an incredibly heavy load to process, and still more…

Japan’s Monster Mermaid Amabie is Here To Save You From COVID19! (Maybe)

Though the typical Japanese yokai is often grotesque and loves to play pranks on humans, the Amabie is a beach chick that emerges from the sea to foretell epidemics. If…

Woman Under The Sand (short story)

Kimie felt as if her insides had dried out and her blood vessels were clogged with sand. Did the woman in the novel die in the end? Kimie couldn’t remember…

Japan’s Death Wish Resurges Like A Plague

Suicides in Japan are like wildfires in California: tragic, inevitable and seemingly unsolvable. According to the National Police Agency, 1805 people killed themselves in September and suicides amongst women were…

The Imperatrix of Tokyo Reigns Forever: Koike is here to stay

Ishii calls Koike "a monster" but from Koike's point of view, that title may have just as well have gotten her re-elected. Koike has thrived on negativity, in particular the…

Singing The Terrace House Blues In Japan

The truth is that at this point, the nation needs many more Hana Kimuras–brave enough to express anger and negative feelings without fear of being punished for it. Hopefully, we…