Muneo Suzuki hits the comeback trail

TOKYO - It wasn’t a prank, and neither is his comeback.

Flashbulbs popped and cameras rolled for Muneo Suzuki’s speech entitled “Ethics In The Japanese Political World” on April 1st at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

“I actually thought that I was being set up for a joke,” said the Diet member from Hokkaido of the fact that he asked his secretary to confirm that he was indeed invited to speak on April Fool’s Day. He didn’t mention the irony within the speech’s title.

Politics and ethics make for a sizeable contradiction in Japan, and former ruling Liberal Democratic Party member Muneo Suzuki ought to know. Once the ultimate symbol of greed within Japan’s political world, he is now set for a comeback. His speech was light on political morality, but it made two things clear: He has done nothing wrong and Japan hasn’t seen the last of the man with the eternal smile. Read more

Avex axes Globe releases following Komuro scandal

TOKYO - Record label Avex has canceled two upcoming singles by pop act Globe following a scandal involving the band’s founding member, producer and songwriter Tetsuya Komuro.

Komuro, who has produced albums and singles for numerous Avex groups, was arrested along with two others on Tuesday for attempting to sell intellectual property rights he did not own.

“Avex understands that he was arrested,” said an official statement from the label that has now replaced the band’s official Web page, “but we are unsure of the details. It is a very regrettable situation, and we will monitor the the investigation as it continues in the future.” Read more

Kabukicho ‘girl’s bar’ busted in sofa snafu

TOKYO - A female employee at a specialty hostess club was arrested over the weekend for sitting next a customer.

The infraction occurred when a 24-year-old lady staffed at “girl’s bar” Double, located in Tokyo’s red-light district of Kabukicho, was found to be sitting next to a male patron on a sofa just before 2 a.m. on Saturday morning.

The girl’s bar is a nightlife trend whereby casually dressed young women serve drinks and make conversation from behind a counter - and not while seated next to a customer, as is standard practice in a conventional hostess club. This orientation is an attempt to circumvent the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses, which prohibits entertainment of customers after 1 a.m. Bars only for drinking, however, are not classified as entertainment. Read more

‘Green’ film fest to feature four world premieres, close with ‘Wall-E’

TOKYO - The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival, which kicks off on October 18th, will feature four world premieres in its main competition and screen a digitally restored Akira Kurosawa classic, organizers announced last week.

The Feng Xiaoning disaster film “Super Typhoon,” Tetsu Maeda’s “School Days with a Pig,” the love story “Claustrophobia, by first-time Hong Kong director Ivy Ho, and “Echo of Silence,” the debut pic by actor Atsuro Watanabe, will premiere and compete with 11 other films for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix, the top prize.

As reported previously, John Woo’s $80 million historical epic “Red Cliff” will open the fest, which is touting an environmental theme. “Wall-E,” the Andrew Stanton (”Finding Nemo”) fantasy film produced by Pixar, will close the event on October 26th. Read more

Comedy film festival holds preliminary events in Ueno

TOKYO - Stand-up comedy and film events were held in Tokyo’s Ueno district on Sunday in preparation for the upcoming First Old Town Taito International Comedy Film Festival.

At a stage near Ueno Park, fourteen comedy acts attempted to coax laughs with three-minute skits, including a vignette inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono from the duo Two Rice, before a panel of media industry representatives and tourist association members. Six of the acts will be selected to perform at the film festival, which runs between November 21st and 24th at theaters and halls in Taito Ward’s Ueno and Asakusa areas. Read more

Kiyoshi Kurosawa comes home with ‘Tokyo Sonata’

TOKYO - With a reputation garnered over the past decade as the “Godfather” of the horror genre, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa finds himself settling down with “Tokyo Sonata,” a drama centered around a struggling family and winner of a jury prize in the Un Certain Regard category at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

At a press luncheon last week, the 53-year-old director of such thrillers as “Cure” and “Charisma” implored that he was reluctant at first to tackle a plot line focused on the troubles of a family.

“I felt that dramas centered around the home basically had the family unit as the stage with the problems and issues taken up being internal issues,” he said. “But then I realized that I didn’t have to necessarily restrict myself. The family unit could be a place where both internal problems and external problems clash vividly.” Read more

Box office bust: ‘The Dark Knight’ dives in Japan

TOKYO - Not even the Joker can manage a grin: Japanese audiences have been underwhelmed by Warner Bros.’ worldwide smash “The Dark Knight,” the latest installment in the “Batman” series.

Now in its third week of release in Japan, the Christopher Nolan film, which sees the caped crime-fighter battling underworld figures and crooked cops in Gotham City, grossed a mere $1.6 million in its second weekend in Japan to bring its cumulative total to only $8.7 million. By comparison, it has already accumulated $14.3 million in takings over the same period in the smaller Korean market.

Industry observers believe the picture’s overly lengthy 152-minute running time, lack of the “Batman” name in the title, and dark theme are possible explanations for the disinterest by Japanese film fans.

“The story is very pessimistic,” explains Chika Minagawa, a film critic. “It has a dark and gloomy texture that Japanese movie fans do not find appealing in a ‘comic hero’ film.” Read more

NHK to launch 24-hour English programming

TOKYO - Public broadcaster NHK today announced the launch of Japan International Broadcasting Inc. (JIBtv), a company that will transmit 24-hour programming in English via the Internet and satellite.

The service, which will be a first for Japan and begin in February of next year, expects to reach 110 million households in North America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and other areas of the world. Newly elected president and CEO Hatsuhisa Takashima wants to increase Japan’s international presence. Read more

‘Anti-Emperor’ group to protest at Yasukuni Shrine

TOKYO - The left-wing group Anti-Emperor Activities Network said this week that it will once again hold a protest march near the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th, the anniversary of the conclusion of World War II.

The group, which takes a firm anti-war stance, will provide an opposing view to the nationalist celebrations that take place on that day at the central Tokyo shrine, said the group’s representative, Tomoyuki Nomura.

“On this day, many events are held, such as memorial rites for the war dead,” said Nomura in an email dispatch to The Tokyo Reporter. “Most of them glorify the Emperor system and old Japanese military traditions. Yasukuni has become an important symbol for those who support these political points of view.” Read more

John Woo’s ‘Red Cliff’ to open Tokyo fest

TOKYO - Organizers for the 21st Tokyo International Film Festival announced yesterday that Hong Kong director John Woo’s “Red Cliff” will kick off the event on October 18th.

The period epic, which tells the story of Chinese clans battling on the Yangtze River at the small town of Red Cliff near the end of the third century, is Woo’s first Chinese film since 1992’s “Hard-Boiled.” The director has in recent years focused on such Hollywood films as “Mission Impossible: II” and “Paycheck,” a picture based on a novel by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Read more

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