Meet Hikari Takara

Actress develops her career by learning English in Southern California

Tokyo Journal has zeroed in on eighteen-year-old actress Hikari Takara as a rising star in the international movie scene. Beginning her acting career at the age of twelve, Hikari has appeared in movies, TV dramas, and commercials. Following the release of her movie “Innocent Lilies,” Tokyo Journal first interviewed Hikari in fall of 2013 when Hikari moved to California to study English and do a homestay with an American host family. After a year in California, Tokyo Journal caught up with Hikari again. Hikari has her sights on being in a Hollywood movie and becoming a global star. Although she still has a long way to go, she has her acting experience complimented by her stunning appearance, height, newly founded English ability, dance skills, and some impressive martial arts moves. Prior to returning to Japan to resume her acting career, Tokyo Journal followed Hikari as she shows us some of her favorite hangouts and attractions in Southern California.

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Originally a five-piece band formed in 2005, the four-member band ONE OK ROCK now includes singer Taka (son of Japanese singers Masako Mori and Shinichi Mori), guitarist and founder Toru, bassist Ryota and drummer Tomoya. Fusing emo, rock and heavy metal with mixed Japanese and English lyrics, the band has gone from selling out shows in Japan to rocking fans overseas. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie caught up with Taka and Ryota before the band’s performance at the Pomona, California leg of the Vans Warped Tour; a two-month nationwide tour that went to 43 cities.

TJ: Can you tell me about your background? Where did you guys grow up?
TAKA: I was born in Shibuya, Tokyo. I grew up in Osaka and San Francisco.
RYOTA: I’m a bassist from Osaka. When I was six years old, I started hip-hop dancing and when I was 16 years old, I joined the band.

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NHK’s new twist on Sherlock Holmes

By Charlotte Goff

FEW could doubt that Sherlock Holmes is the world’s most famous fictional detective. Generations of readers have fallen for this master of deductive reasoning, prompting speculation as well as the fan-fiction about parts of his background not recorded by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In an imaginative twist on the classic detective stories, NHK has embarked on a new and unconventional Sherlock Holmes series – in which puppets and voice actors are the stars. From October 2014, viewers can expect plots full of the suspense that have hooked readers of the franchise for more than a century, distilled into a fresh and exciting form. Set in a 19th century boarding school, scriptwriter Koki Mitani brands the show a “racy school mystery.”

The forthcoming series’ action centers on fifteen-year-old Sherlock, whose extraordinary observational talents see him labelled a nerd and cast aside by his peers. This societal rejection leads Sherlock into the path of newcomer to the school, John H. Watson. Watson is fascinated by the very attributes Sherlock possesses that enforce his rejection. The two become friends after Sherlock turns his mind to clearing Watson of accusations leveled against him in the opening episode. Later, the pair work together to take on the challenges hurled increasingly in their direction. The school setting is a first among Sherlock Holmes TV dramatizations. It offers a setting to which the show’s target audience – Japanese high school students – can relate. More than a simple detective drama, the new series is a coming-of-age tale and a platform from which to learn about growing up, logical thinking, justice, and having the courage to defend it.

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A Revolution in Live Entertainment

SIRO-A is a performance group, originating from Sendai, that utilizes modern technology to create optical illusions, with dance set to techno music while incorporating the classic arts of mime and shadow puppetry. The group, who won the Spirit of the Fringe Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2011, finished a Japan tour in July and will be appearing at the Leicester Square Theater in London from September to January of next year. The members of SIRO-A, which means “belonging to no group and impossible to define” reside in Yokohama near their practice studio. Group member Abe Toshinori talked with Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie about the group’s art form, their comparisons to the Blue Man Group, and plans for the future.

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Kenichi Ebina is a self-taught dancer, performance artist, choreographer, and winner of America’s Got Talent: Season 8. He fuses freestyle, hip hop, martial arts and ethnic jazz, also incorporating illusions and digital theatrics into his show-stopping act, which earned him the prestigious “Showtime at the Apollo” dance title in 2007. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to Ebina after his one-man show at Pechanga Resort & Casino in California about life since winning America’s Got Talent, and his plans for the future.

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Visual-Kei Stars are Living the Dream

NIGHTMARE has enjoyed huge success since the Japanese visual kei rock band started in 2000, helped in part by their contributions to anime series like “Death Note,” “Claymore” and “Moryo no Hako.” By 2007, the band of Yomi (lead vocals), Sakito (lead guitar, backing vocals), Hitsugi (rhythm guitar), Ni-ya (bass, backing vocals) and Ruka (drums, percussion) had built up a following large enough to sell out Tokyo’s Budokan arena within two weeks. Eight years on, and in the 15th year of the band, Tokyo Journal caught up with Yomi and Hitsugi, who were preparing for the June 25th release of their new single, “Taboo.”

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Here’s to the End of the World

Japanese Band SEKAI NO OWARI

Reaching No.1 with “Snow Magic Fantasy” (2014), and No.2 with both “RPG” (2013) and “Forest Fire Carnival” (2014), SEKAI NO OWARI have fast become leaders of the Japanese music scene. The band talked to Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie, charting its astronomical rise from an audience of zero to a sell-out super-arena tour.

TJ: Tell me about yourselves.
NAKAJIN: I’m Nakajin. I’m such a serious person that I almost get tired of it. I’m from the Ota ward of Tokyo.
SAORI: I’m Saori. I play the piano and do stage and general production for our live shows. I’m also from Ota. We were all childhood friends actually, so we lived very close to each other. I met Fukase when I was four.
FUKASE: I’m the vocalist Fukase. My hair has been red for a long time.
DJ LOVE: My name is DJ LOVE. I like eating.

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Virtual Singer Hatsune Miku

The World’s Leading Vocaloid Opens for Lady Gaga

Japan’s top superstar with more fans on the Internet than any other Japanese pop star is virtual. Synthesized songstress Hatsune Miku has wowed audiences around the world with an innovative ensemble of music software that has allowed her fans to create over 100,000 songs, digital animation and live 3D performances both in Japan and abroad. She also opened for Lady Gaga in the U.S. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie explored what’s behind global phenom Hatsune Miku with Crypton Future Media, the creators behind Japan’s virtual singer

TJ: Could you explain a little about what a vocaloid is? How does it work? Who uses it, and for what?
CRYPTON: “VOCALOID” is singing synthesizing technology developed by YAMAHA Corp. Hatsune Miku is software which came into the world as a result of this technology. By entering melodies and lyrics on one’s PC, the software sings them exactly as they are.

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Cuba Gooding, Jr. Academy Award Winning Actor Expands his Creative Boundaries

With his mother being a singer with the Sweethearts and his father the lead vocalist of The Main Ingredient, Cuba Gooding, Jr. was introduced to the world of entertainment from a young age. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie talked to the film star, who won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for “Jerry Maguire,” about his roles in historical civil rights films as well as his aspirations to become a screenplay writer and director.

TJ: What are you doing in New York?
GOODING: I flew in for a couple of reasons, one of which was to meet with my agents and present them with my new screenplay. I’ve been writing scripts for the past year and I’m on my next one, which I’m really excited about.

TJ: Can you tell us about that?
GOODING: Well, I think I got into writing scripts because the last eight or nine years of my career I’ve been doing a lot of independent films. A lot of the financing has been contingent on my involvement, so I wound up in a producer capacity developing these scripts – actually choosing first-time directors, working on shot lists with directors, and seeing them through the process, including the editing room and post production by putting the final product together, looking for distribution and starting relationships with distributors and financiers. I think I found that the most important part of filmmaking is the director and I think that’s now my goal – being an actor/director. I think the easiest way for me to show my capability as a director is to bring the material, so it got me to thinking…working on scripts and finally turning out a screenplay. I went to Broadway for a production of “A Trip to Bountiful” with Cicely Tyson last year for seven months. I grew so much as an actor, as a filmmaker, as an artist period. When I was in that creative headspace, it made me want to continue to create even past what I was working on then, and that was when I wrote my first screenplay. So this is just a natural progression of things. I got another idea and wrote it down and now I’m working on that second one. Eventually, I will present this to buyers and see if there is any real interest in turning it into a screenplay. But right now I’m just allowing my creative juices to dictate what I do.

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CREative teAM CREAM

The duo that are making Japanese hip hop hip

Singer-songwriter Minami and rapper/track maker Staxx T form the Japanese hip hop group CREAM. Influenced by hip hop, pop and electronic dance music, they have gained popularity through their CREAM VISION YouTube channel featuring original songs, Japanese covers of western songs, and live performances, earning over 22,000,000 views and over 68,000 subscribers. In October 2012, CREAM started a free download project “Tada Uta” on their official website where fans could download their music at no charge, and their debut album DREAMIN’ was released in January 2013.

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