Tokyo Sky Tree: Room with a view

TOKYO (TR) – Tall, steel-framed television transmission towers are not generally thought of as being attractive neighbors.

Yet real estate firm Sky Court is hoping that Tokyo Sky Tree, now under construction in the capital’s eastern Sumida Ward, will convey a different image.

The company has taken out newspaper advertising space to promote the units within its Sky Court Oshiage Ichibankan complex as investment properties due to their proximity to the future 634-meter-tall structure, which will make it the world’s tallest free-standing tower when it is completed next year.

“With a location in the center of the city and nearby public transportation, there are positive prospects for further developments in the area targeting single people seeking a lifestyle centered on convenience,” said company representative Tsutomu Sugiura in a dispatch to The Tokyo Reporter. Read more

Michelin Tokyo guide turns to local inspectors, tops Paris for three-star awards

TOKYO (TR) – After France-based tire manufacturer Michelin targeted Tokyo with its famous culinary guide and three-star evaluation system for the inaugural 2008 edition, the response was swift on two fronts. The book shipped a whopping 300,000 copies in five weeks yet simultaneously raised a prickly question within the local media: How are foreigners able to competently evaluate traditional Japanese restaurants?

Michelin’s response for 2010? They probably aren’t — yet that is true of the 22 other countries it covers as well.

The day before the release of the third edition for Tokyo, Michelin Guide director Jean-Luc Naret told a press luncheon at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan that the company seeks to place local food inspectors on the ground in each of the 23 countries it covers. Read more

‘Tokyo Vice’ author was offered $500,000 to cut liver transplant scoop

TOKYO (TR) – The shocking revelation that Japanese yakuza gangsters received liver transplants in the U.S. over a four-year period might not have ever come to light had crime reporter Jake Adelstein accepted a six-figure compensation payment to kill the story, the writer said Wednesday at a press luncheon.

The upper echelon of the gangster organization involved was worried that the transplant scandal, which involved a top yakuza executive making a back-door deal with the FBI, would create chaos within the group once the story went public.

Adelstein, author of the recently released memoir “Tokyo Vice,” an account of his 12-year stint of working the crime beat for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, first broke the story in the Washington Post in May, 2008. But prior to its publication he met with members of a gang affiliated with the organ recipients and explained his intentions. He was subsequently given an offer that he could refuse: a $300,000 pay-off — later upped to one-half million — if he would not file the article.

“I would say that I thought about it for the length of a clove cigarette,” said Adelstein at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “But I said no, because you don’t want to be owned by these guys.” Read more

Lost gaijin: Damon and Naomi return to Japan

TOKYO (TR) – As the title “Lost Gaijin Tour 2009″ might imply, the folk-pop duo Damon and Naomi are aiming for something a little different during their upcoming slate of live shows that will extend up and down Honshu over the next week.

Guitarist and vocalist Damon Krukowski explained during an email interview that he and his wife, bassist Naomi Yang, once comprising two-thirds of the legendary indie-rock band Galaxie 500, have been performing as a duo quite often, in part because it is simple and inexpensive to travel to places that bands do not normally go.

“The idea for this tour was to travel further north and south than we do usually,” said Krukowski. “And since we have a lot of musician friends in Japan, we have invited different ones to join us onstage in different areas, for a few songs each night. It should be a very relaxed, intimate kind of show.” Read more

Tokyo film fest to emphasize eco theme, screen controversial ‘The Cove’

TOKYO (TR) – The 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival will continue its push for environmental awareness and screen the controversial documentary “The Cove,” a film which shows the butchering of dolphins in a small Japanese fishing town.

Fest chairman Tatsumi “Tom” Yoda said at a press luncheon on Thursday that it is very important for the festival to not only screen high-quality films from around the globe but to also educate the world about environmental issues.

“We live in this world together, and those of us in the film industry count on the environment — that is the message we want to send,” said Yoda at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

Kicking off the event on October 17 is the documentary “Oceans” by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud. TIFF’s week-long run will feature roughly 130 films at theaters in the Roppongi entertainment district of Tokyo. The closer will be Pixar’s “Up,” an animated adventure up in the sky directed by Pete Docter. Read more

Gundam director likens giant robot replica to Statue of Liberty

TOKYO (TR) – Yoshiyuki Tomino, the director of the popular robot anime television series “Mobile Suit Gundam” believes that the 30th anniversary commemorative statue erected on Tokyo’s man-made peninsula of Odaiba will become a symbol of hope in these uncertain times.

Tomino was overwhelmed by the eighteen-meter giant robot during a visit prior to the opening of the Green Tokyo Gundam Project on Saturday. “I felt tremendous strength and power,” he said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan last week. “I believe that the Odaiba Gundam will serve the same purpose as the Statue of Liberty — something to instill hope and inspiration in people.” Read more

‘Giant Torayan’ on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo

TOKYO (TR) – “Giant Torayan,” sculptor Kenji Yanobe’s 7.2-meter-tall robot that emits flames from its mouth, is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo until August 2 — a chance for visitors to see this symbol of the challenging and difficult times at present, says curator Hiroko Kato.

With a baby’s face, the aluminum, steel, brass, and Styrofoam creature features an on-command, activation device that differentiates the voices of adults and children, the only people to whom it will respond. “Giant Torayan dances and sings, just like children,” she explains. “Yet by also spitting flames, it also symbolizes the never ending loop of destruction and creation that exists in our society.”

Yanobe’s works often include robots or other creations of industrial design. In fact, Giant Torayan is accompanied by a number of miniature figures in brightly colored protective suits affixed with Geiger counters — ostensibly the life of children in a post-nuclear world. Read more

Former IT entrepeneur calls Japanese judiciary a ‘hostage system’

TOKYO (TR) – Known for his fondness for t-shirts and shaking up Japan’s business world, Takafumi Horie, founder of Web portal Livedoor, last week resurfaced at a press luncheon where, three years after his arrest for falsifying financial reports, he denounced Japan’s legal system.

“I think the justice system in Japan is a hostage system,” said the 36-year-old dot-com pioneer at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “The public prosecutors are out of control and I think something should be done.”

In March of 2007, he was found guilty of falsely reporting a 300-million-yen loss as a 5-billion-yen gain on the Livedoor books. Last year he lost his appeal on his two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He subsequently submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court. He is now out on a 600-million-yen bail. Read more

‘Roppongi Art Night’ to rejuvenate nightlife quarter

TOKYO (TR) – A one-night event taking place later this month intends to highlight the city’s artistic attractions while assisting in transforming the image of one of Tokyo’s more notorious nightlife centers.

“Roppongi Art Night,” beginning on March 28 and continuing for 32 hours, will “fuse art with the urban landscape” with visual and performance displays at three museum spaces: The National Art Center, Tokyo, the Suntory Museum of Art, and the Mori Art Museum.

Organizers believe that with the establishment of these art institutions over the past six years in Roppongi, in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, the area should be recognized as a center of art in the metropolis. Yet the scope of the event is to focus on Tokyo as a whole. “We think the Roppongi area is the most suitable place to promote Tokyo as a ‘city for the creation of art and culture,’” explains Yoshinao Matsushima, a representative of the event. Read more

The Wedding Present return to Tokyo

TOKYO (TR) – The Wedding Present will arrive in Tokyo next week for the first time in 16 years to play a series of five shows featuring selections from their eighth album, last year’s “El Rey.”

David Gedge, guitarist and singer/songwriter for the band which first carved a niche for itself in the mid ’80s with its distinctive guitar pop sound and witty, lost-love lyrics, has fond memories of that first visit to Japan.

“The audiences were extremely friendly and very enthusiastic and we had a great time,” says Gedge in an email interview with The Tokyo Reporter. “We felt like popstars. Fans were waiting for us in the lobbies of hotels as we checked out. They followed us around to give us presents and get autographs and photographs. As I understand it, this is quite common in Japan, but it was quite alien to us.” Read more

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