Hara Masato, Leading Japanese Film Producer, Dies at 89

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilm Movement has acquired North American rights to “They Say Nothing Stays The Same,” the feature film debut of Joe Odagiri, a popular Japanese actor and musician.The lushly lensed Japanese drama premiered at Venice and went on to play at Busan. Among its many accolades, the pic won best feature film at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey and was nominated for the Golden Star at El Gouana.

SEVENTEEN have dropped the first teaser for the music video of their upcoming Japanese single, ‘Not Alone’.The bright and upbeat trailer video showcases the boyband’s thirteen members on video calls with each other.

Japanese Breakfast has shared the second song from the group's forthcoming album Jubilee. "Posing In Bondage" is described by Michelle Zauner as being "a ballad about loneliness and longing." Check it out below.

In a somewhat improbable pairing, Chinese-owned video app TikTok has partnered with Japanese film studio Toho, the home of Godzilla and Kurosawa, to launch an online shortform video competition. The partners are calling the event the "TikTok Toho Film Festival 2021," although it appears much more like a marketing exercise designed to win TikTok Japanese users than anything like a traditional film festival.

Japanese Breakfast has shared a brand new song – watch the video for ‘Posing In Bondage’ below.The track is the second preview of Michelle Zauner’s upcoming album ‘Jubilee’, due out in June via Dead Oceans.The follow-up to 2017’s ‘Soft Sounds From Another Planet’ was first previewed last month with lead single ‘Be Sweet’ and now a second teaser has been shared.Of ‘Posing In Bondage’, which comes complete with a creepy video set in a supermarket and self-directed by Zauner, the singer said:

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentVideo sharing social-network TikTok and Toho, Japan’s biggest and grandest studio, are partnering to launch a film festival aimed at scouting new creative talent.The TikTok Toho Film Festival 2021 will start accepting entries worldwide on April 12, with a closing deadline of May 31.

eBay hours before it was to conclude after company executives met with Japanese American groups who called the sale “hurtful, and a degrading reminder of the mass roundup and incarceration.”“It’s seems unethical and immoral to put this artwork up on eBay to the highest bidder," said Shirley Higuchi, author of “Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration.” “When you sell artwork created during an oppressive time for money ...

Japanese scriptwriter Sugako Hashida, best known for the internationally popular TV drama series “Oshin," has died of lymphoma. She was 95.Hashida had been treated for the illness since earlier this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director Mark Gill (England is Mine, The Voorman Problem) is set to bring the life of legendary Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase to the big screen with Ravens (The Many Deaths of Masahisa Fukase). Filming is set to begin in Japan in the spring of 2022.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix has revealed its involvement with an anime adaptation of hit Japanese manga “Record of Ragnarok.” The show, about an epic fight for the fate of humanity, will premiere in June this year, and join the streamer’s burgeoning slate of anime content.The company made the announcement at Tokyo’s AnimeJapan 2021 Expo, where it also provided local fans with cast news and updates on other shows.

BTS revealed via their official Japanese fan club that a new Japanese album is on the way and available for pre-order.The record, titled ‘BTS, The Best’, will be the group’s third Japanese compilation album. It is set to release on June 16.

Monster Hunter Rise releases worldwide on Nintendo Switch this Friday (March 26th), and one Japanese company has made the day an official holiday.As spotted by Twitter user Stealth, Masaki Hiyama, CEO of tech developer Mark-On Ltd., revealed that he received a high volume of requests from employees who wanted to take Friday off to play Monster Hunter Rise as soon as possible.This is amazing…… a Japanese Company is giving employees the day off for a new holiday "Monster Hunter Rise Launch Day"

personality traits and the specific colour that corresponds with your birthday. The chart, which was created in Japan, features a collection of 366 different shades, with each colour matching a day of the year, including the extra day added to February on leap years.

Thom Yorke has remixed the solo acoustic version of ‘Creep’ to contribute to a high-profile Japanese fashion show.The 1992 Radiohead classic was reworked for Kiryū-born designer Jun Takahashi’s UNDERCOVER 2020-2021 autumn/winter collection ‘Creep Very’, which was showcased this week.Yorke has provided a variety of songs for fashion show soundtracks over the years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix is to lease two sound stages at Toho Studios in order to help the streaming platform expand its production of original Japanese content.The move was announced Thursday (local time) in a blog post by Ozawa Teiji, Netflix’s manager for production management and live action in Japan.The streamer will have access to both Stage 7 and Stage 10, and several in-studio facilities within Toho Studios, which is located in central suburban Setagaya Ward in Tokyo.

Japanese Breakfast‘s Michelle Zauner has spoken out against anti-Asian racism following yesterday’s shootings in Atlanta, Georgia in which eight people were killed.The attacks took place at two spas in the city, and at a massage parlour in the suburb of Acworth, which is located approximately 30 miles north of Atlanta (via the BBC).It has been confirmed that four of the victims were women of Korean descent, and there are concerns that the attack could have been racially-motivated.

Japanese Breakfast made her late-night TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night (March 15) – you can watch it below.The first of two performances saw Michelle Zauner deliver a one-take performance of her new single ‘Be Sweet’, featuring some familiar extraterrestrial faces that appear in the song’s video.She also shared an online performance of her track ‘Jimmy Fallon Big!’ from her 2017 album ‘Soft Sounds From Another Planet’.Originally written after a bandmate from her old

Japanese Breakfast was the musical guest on Monday night's episode of The Tonight Show. This gave Michelle Zauner the opportunity to perform new song "Be Sweet" as well as revive "Jimmy Fallon Big!" a song from her 2017 album Soft Sounds From Another Planet that references the show's host.