Keiji Inafune Stays Ahead of the Game

From CAPCOM to comcept

Keiji Inafune has been named one of the top 10 game creators in the world. The video game concept developer and designer had a stellar 23-year career at CAPCOM as head of the production, research & development and online development divisions. He oversaw over 900 employees and produced over 60 game titles including CAPCOM’s bestselling hits Mega Man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Lost Planet and Onimusha. In 2010, he went on to found comcept Inc. and in 2013 the company successfully raised over $4 million in funding from 70,000 backers through Kickstarter for his newest project, the Mighty No. 9. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with Keiji Inafune at Anime Expo 2014 in Los Angeles to find out more about this innovator.

Eric Garcetti became the 42nd mayor of the City of Los Angeles in 2013 after serving as city councilmember since 2001 and president of the city council from 2006 to 2012. Holding a B.A. in political science and urban planning and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, he also studied as a Rhodes Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford and at the London School of Economics. In November 2014, Mayor Garcetti led a 12-day trade mission to China, South Korea and Japan–L.A.’s number one, two and three trading partners, respectively. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with the mayor at Los Angeles City Hall to discuss the trip and his experience living, studying and working abroad.

Saving the World from Self-Destruction

Linguist, cognitive scientist, philosopher, logician and political commentator– all of these have been used to describe Noam Chomsky, one of the greatest minds in the world today. Born in 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Avram Noam Chomsky studied linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He was later appointed as a professor of foreign languages and linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He became a pioneer in the field of psycholinguistics, helping to establish a relationship between linguistics and psychology. Today, he is one of the world’s most highly influential academic figures, being cited in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index more often than any other living scholar between 1980 and 1992, influencing such fields as mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, logic, cognitive science, music theory and analysis, political science, programming language theory and psychology. Outside of academia, Chomsky is internationally recognized as a political activist for his writing and speaking on U.S. foreign policy, capitalism and the mainstream news media. In 2005, he was named the most important public intellectual in the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers poll conducted by Foreign Policy magazine. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Professor Noam Chomsky about his views on Japan and some of the greatest threats to the survival of the human race.

X Japan Rocks New York's Madison Square Garden

Japan’s Greatest Rock Band Takes a Bite out of the Big Apple

Interview by Anthony Al-Jamie

On October 11, 2014, X Japan did what most Japanese bands and performers have only dreamt of doing for decades. They played the most revered concert venue in the United States–Madison Square Garden–on the stage that has been graced by the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Who, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Michael Jackson. X Japan is one of the most successful Japanese rock bands in history with more than 30 million albums, songs and videos sold. They sold out the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome 18 times, and in fall of 2014, just prior to their historic Madison Square Garden concert, the band returned to their old stomping grounds for a two-night stint at Yokohama Arena. X Japan pioneered an entire musical genre known as visual kei, fusing glam rock, punk rock and heavy metal with wild hair, androgynous makeup and flamboyant costumes. Formed in 1982, X Japan was one of the first Japanese bands to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label. In their three-decade career, they have released five studio albums, six live albums, eleven compilation albums and numerous videos. They’ve had their share of drama with the tragic deaths of their beloved guitarist HIDE and bassist TAIJI. At HIDE’s funeral in 1997, more than 50,000 fans came out to mourn his passing. At the same time, lead singer Toshi was struggling with the beginning of a horrific 12-year experience of being abused and taken advantage of by his wife and her co-conspirator as described in his alltelling autobiographical book Brainwashed. After X Japan’s breakup in 1997 and reunion in 2007, fans around the world have been eagerly awaiting a new album and another world tour. What’s in store for X Japan? The following is a series of interviews carried out by Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie with X Japan, including a pre-Madison Square Garden New York interview with the entire band and pre- and post-MSG interviews with the individual band members. These interviews with bandleader Yoshiki (drums and piano), Toshi (vocals), PATA (guitar), HEATH (bass), and SUGIZO (guitar and violin) took place while the band members were in Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo.

From Model to Actress to Author, Garcelle Beauvais Does it all

Haitian-American model and actress Garcelle Beauvais has appeared on the big and small screen in productions like The Jamie Foxx Show, NYPD Blue, Wild Wild West with Will Smith and Flight with Denzel Washington. She began her career as a model for such clients as Avon, Mary Kay, Clairol, and Calvin Klein, and has modeled for Playboy. In 2014, at the age of 47, she was selected for People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful Women issue. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Garcelle about her career, charity work and new book.

The One and Only Yoshiki

The popularity of Japanese music has been growing at an accelerated rate thanks in part to X Japan’s Yoshiki who keeps setting the bar higher and higher. He has created an entire genre of music (visual kei), inspired a generation of Japanese musicians (see the interviews with One Ok Rock and NIGHTMARE) and grown a worldwide fanbase. He has toured the globe as both the hardcore drummer for X Japan and as a classical pianist whose 2014 world tour packed airports with fans and filled concert halls in Southern California, San Francisco, Mexico City, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Taipei, Tokyo and Osaka. X Japan are revving up for their October 11th concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden. See our special feature in upcoming Issue #276.

Far More than the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time

Interview by Anthony Al-Jamie

It's little wonder that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been called the greatest basketball player of all time. After a record-breaking college career under the great John Wooden at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the 7'2" history major made history himself during 20 seasons from 1969 to 1989 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) playing center first for the Milwaukee Bucks and then the Los Angeles Lakers. He continued to break record after record as the all-time leading scorer in NBA history, a six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and a 19-time NBA All-Star, reaching the finals with eight NBA championship teams (six as a player and two as an assistant coach). Born in New York City on April 16, 1947 as Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, the basketball hall of famer, who was known on the court for his trademark "skyhook" jump shot, is also known off the court as an actor, martial artist, historian, philosopher, public speaker, businessman, philanthropist, education advocate and as a best-selling and highly regarded author.  Kareem has traveled the world for his sport and was appointed as a U.S. global cultural ambassador by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with living legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to explore his remarkable life both on and off the court.

JAPAN’S beloved manga and anime character Doraemon has made it to Disney! The TV and film series “Doraemon” is being broadcast in the United States for the first time after playing to a huge following in Asia over the past four decades. Disney XD, a children’s channel available in 78 million households, began broadcasting 26 English-dubbed episodes five times a week in July 2014.

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.

OMOCAT Creator of Cute and the Surreal is Changing People's Views of Anime

Tokyo Journal met with OMOCAT, an anonymous illustrator inspired by anime and video games, who has not only art under her belt, but a fashion line and video game to boot. She specializes in animated illustrations (gifs), doing a wide variety of work ranging from comics, shirt designs, and typography. Learning her trade mainly online, as well as learning illustration and design in college, this young entrepreneur has broken into the Japanese and American markets all from the comfort of her Californian home. She has self-published six books to date and her most recent project of creating the surreal psychological horror roleplaying video game OMORI was successfully funded $203,300 through 5,910 backers on Kickstarter on June 5, 2014, far surpassing her goal of $22,000.