• Tue. Sep 26th, 2023

Japan Subculture Research Center

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  • The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし)Gone with the Gods –On Air now

The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし)Gone with the Gods –On Air now

People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be hidden by…

THE TWO CYCLE ENGINE SAAB AND SAVING THE PLANET EARTH

As you read this, you may be asking yourself why I am so fascinated by these cars with three cylinders and a two-cycle engine. Because the earth itself may be…

Tokyo Private Eye (東京探偵) the sequel to Tokyo Vice was published on March 28th 2023, with Marchialy (France). English version next year!

Clients say they want to know, but they don't They want you to tell them what they want to hear But that's not the job My job is to deliver…

“A Man” Takes Imposter Syndrome To New Dimensions

Life seems to be going incredibly well for them until Daisuke is killed in an accident. At the one-year memorial, his estranged older brother turns up from Gunma prefecture, clear…

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…

Lambda Is On The Lam In Japan

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are over but they may leave a lasting legacy in Japan: the deadly COVID19 Lambda variant; it first arrived on July 20th, when a woman in…

Was an African musician fired from the Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony because he didn’t look Japanese?

So ashamed. I feel good that I'm no longer performing at the Tokyo Olympic Opening Ceremony...Though I’ve been contributing to the Japanese music industry since 1995...They completely violate the Olympic…

Tokyo 2020 Olympics Haunted By The Holocaust

Ah, I didn't know about this skit. This is no good. It's like if you did a sketch where the joke was the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or…

The People of Tokyo Hate The Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Why do they protest?

Yesterday, June 23rd, marked one month before the opening of the “cursed” Tokyo 2020 Olympics and hundreds of residents marked the occasion by holding a protest in front of the…

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…