EDITORIAL FEATURES & REVIEWS (34)
2016 OC Japan Fair Featured
2016 OC Japan Fair
A Japanese Cultural Experience in Southern California
By Tokyo Journal Intern Michael Tang
On September 9th and 10th, 2016, the OC Japan Fair returned for another amazing festival showcasing Japanese culture in Orange County, California. This year’s event was located at the Phoenix Club of Anaheim. The OC Japan Fair featured an exhibit hall where vendors sold various Japanese related goods, from anime merchandise to traditional Japanese kimonos. There was an area for children to play kingyo-sukui, the fun and sometime stressful game of catching goldfish with a paper scooper.
Akira Kurosawa’s Legacy Featured
Akira Kurosawa’s Legacy Impacts a New Generation of Filmmakers
Hisao Kurosawa Shares his Father’s Legacy with Young Filmmakers Throughout the World
AKIRA Kurosawa, one of the most influential directors in the history of film, will once again shape a new generation of filmmakers through a medium that Kurosawa himself might only have imagined: an online MFA program in digital filmmaking. Like celebrated moviemakers before them, aspiring filmmakers will learn their craft by studying with experts in the field. In addition, they will view hours of never-seen-before footage of Kurosawa himself on the set, allowing students to go behind the scenes and learn visual articulation directly from the master.
Caroll Spinney
The Man Behind Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch
“I Am Big Bird” screened at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival. Tokyo Journal talked with the co-director of the documentary, Dave LaMattina, and Caroll Spinney, the 80-year-old Emmy and Grammy Award-winning puppeteer behind the iconic “Sesame Street” characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. The two discussed the documentary as well as the legacy of the beloved TV program and its characters.
Dancing on Air
Dancer Adam Young Defies the Odds Battling Cystic Fibrosis
Adam Young is a 32-year old ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary dancer from California with cystic fibrosis (CF) who received a double lung transplant at UCLA in May 2013. He began dancing at the age of six in Riverside, California and won national competitions in the U.S. and Australia at the age of 17, as well as the Kennedy Center Emerging Young Artist Award Scholarship at age 18. He was offered a full scholarship to the renowned Julliard School and the Ailey School in New York but was unable to relocate due to CF complications. Graduating from the University of California, Irvine with honors on full scholarship as a dance major in 2003, he went on to dance with the Nashville Ballet for two seasons. He trained at the National Conservatoire de Paris and has danced, judged and taught throughout the United States and performed internationally in France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Mexico. His professional career was put on hold in 2006 when cystic fibrosis caused his lung capacity to fall below 40%. Adam’s determination to overcome an addiction to pharmaceutical drugs through a 12-step program in 2010 allowed him to receive his 2013 lung transplant, which has given Adam a chance to return to the stage and continue pursuing his passion for dance. TJ talked to Adam about his inspirational story.
Dancing On Air - III
Dancing on Air - III
Adam Young's Inspirational Story of Dancing - Cystic Fibrosis & Drug Addiction Brings TEDx Audience to their Feet
The following is Part III of a series of interviews with Adam Young, a 33-year-old award- winning ballet, tap, jazz, and contemporary dancer from Riverside, California, who has cystic fibrosis and received a double lung transplant at UCLA in May 2013. His professional career was put on hold in 2006 when cystic fibrosis caused his lung capacity to fall below 40%. Adam’s determination to overcome an addiction to pharmaceutical drugs through a 12-step program in 2010 allowed him to receive his lung transplant in 2013, which has in turn given Adam the chance to return to the stage and continue pursuing his passion for dance. On October 16, 2014 Adam shared his inspirational story at TEDx Riverside, receiving a standing ovation. Tokyo Journal talked to Adam about the experience.
Dancing on Air II
Dancing on Air II
Dancer, Adam Young, Defies the Odds, Battling Cystic Fibrosis
The following is Part II of a series of interviews with Adam Young, a 32-year old ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary dancer from California, who has cystic fibrosis (CF) and received a double lung transplant at UCLA in May 2013. He began dancing at the age of six in Riverside, California, and won national competitions in the United States and Australia at the age of 17, as well as the Kennedy Center Emerging Young Artist Award Scholarship at age 18. He was offered a full scholarship to the renowned Juilliard School and the Ailey School in New York but was unable to relocate due to CF complications. Graduating from the University of California, Irvine with honors on full scholarship as a dance major in 2003, he went on to dance with the Nashville Ballet for two seasons. He trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and has danced, judged and taught throughout the United States and performed internationally in France, Germany, Australia, Canada and Mexico. His professional career was put on hold in 2006 when cystic fibrosis caused his lung capacity to fall below 40 percent. Adam’s determination to overcome an addiction to pharmaceutical drugs through a 12-step program in 2010 allowed him to receive his lung transplant in 2013 – which has in turn given Adam a chance to return to the stage and continue pursuing his passion for dance. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor, Anthony Al-Jamie, talked to Adam about his inspirational story.
Donald Richie Interview by Pat Carome
The following interview with Donald Richie first appeared in the April 1992 edition of the Tokyo Journal
DONALD Richie seems at home in the quiet confines of Roppongi’s International House, a scholarly association where he recently accompanied a silent film showing on the piano.
Our small table in the coffee shop straddles two dimensions: the din and clatter of the lunchtime crowd on one side, the carefully pruned garden outside the window on the other.
Richie is credited with bringing Japanese film to the eyes and ears of the outside world. Hanging on the walls of his home next to his shelves of books are among other honors, the U.S. Citation of the National Film Critic’s Society and the San Francisco Film Society Award.
Of his 3o books, 11 are about film. Four are novels and one is a collection of profiles of Japanese. “I don’t know exactly what to call it.” He says. “I find it in the strangest places in bookstores.” He’s also presented career retrospectives of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals.
In his beige tweed jacked worn over a navy blue shirt and a narrow brown tie, he looks every bit the part of someone’s kind uncle. But he has definite concerns about the accuracy of how he’s presented. “Make sure you get the chronology straight,” he insists.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Dr. Sanjay Gupta: A Real Life Superhero
From Mild-Mannered Reporter to Lifesaving Neurosurgeon
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who can be seen on the ground reporting from sites of natural disasters and wars around the world, discretely changes from suit to scrubs on Monday mornings to perform neurosurgery on patients’ brains, spinal cords and other parts of the nervous system. Dr. Gupta is CNN’s multiple Emmy award-winning chief medical correspondent. In addition to hosting CNN’s Vital Signs, he has reported on topics ranging from health care reform to brain injury, medicine, HIV/AIDS, fitness and dis- aster recovery. Dr. Gupta advised First Lady Hillary Clinton as a White House Fellow and authored three New York Times best-selling books. He is currently the associate chief of neurosurgery at Atlanta, Georgia’s Grady Memorial Hospital and a member of the staff and faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is so committed to the profession of neurosurgery that to continue his work as a practicing neurosurgeon he withdrew his name from consideration for the position of Surgeon General of the United States. If all of this isn’t enough to qualify him for superhero status, then add being named as one of the sexiest men alive by People magazine and one of the most influential celebrities by Forbes. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on December 3, 2014 for an update on the Ebola outbreak and insight into medicine, health and the multifaceted doctor’s extraordinary career.
Food Allergy
Educating the World about the Deadly Danger of Food Allergies
Interview with Food Allergy Research & Education CEO John Lehr
Potentially deadly food allergies affect one in 13 children in the United States, or roughly two in every classroom. Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) is a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of the 15 million Americans with food allergies, including those at the risk of life-threatening anaphylaxis (an extreme and often life-threatening allergic reaction to an antigen). Tokyo Journal International Editor Anthony Al-Jamie met with FARE CEO John Lehr.
Japan's Seven Int'l Samurai Featured
Vol. 31, Issue #270's Feature Story identifies Japan's 7 most influential international trailblazers, many of whom have been overlooked by the Japanese public.
Japan's Most Influential Trailblazers
Japan has produced many outstanding individuals throughout its very long history, which dates back to 660 B.C. Visionaries and innovators have throughout history forwarded the efforts of this tiny island nation and due to these contributions, Japan has played a significant role in the region for many centuries. Pioneers such as Takatoshi Mitsui (1622-1694), advanced the way Japan did business through innovation after innovation in the textile sales industry. In the late 1800s, it was the first President of Mitsui & Co., Takashi Masuda, who sought out a global vision for exporting Japanese rice and other goods to Europe.
It is the efforts of global visionaries and innovators of post-World War II Japan that have made Japan a major contributor to the world in the fields of business, technology, film, animation, engineering, architecture, philosophy, art, music, and even athletics. The brand “Made in Japan” has become synonymous with quality, and in this article “Japan’s Seven International Samurai”, we identify Japan’s seven most influential, international trailblazers. These modern day samurai have set themselves apart from the crowd through their global influence and have helped to change the way the world perceives Japan.
It will not go unnoticed that many of Japan’s leading business figures and domestic heroes were left off the list. This is because they did not meet all of the criteria. The seven that were chosen were selected for their courage to enter unchartered waters, their desire to compete on an international scale, and their ability to be one of the best in the world at what they do.
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