EDITORIAL FEATURES & REVIEWS (34)
KISS's Gene Simmons
Rock ’N’ Roll Samurai
From Legendary Rock and Roll Superstar to Business Warrior, Music Business CEO Gene Simmons Conquers All
Interview by Anthony Al-Jamie
Rock star, producer, publisher, actor, reality TV star, family man, professional sports team owner, entrepreneur and all-round marketing genius: what kind of steroids must one take to master so many ventures with dynamic energy and youthful enthusiasm for over 40 years? To find out, I drove to Gene Simmons’ Beverly Hills mansion. Meeting Gene Simmons was an educational experience from the get-go. Parking on the edge of the large circular driveway to this huge mansion - the kind you only see on a reality TV show - I looked up to see the towering KISS star on top of the staircase, yelling pinpoint directions to me about where to park. Before the interview; before I’d even parked the car, I knew this was a man who was in control. I couldn’t help but feel intimidated, but as I entered his palatial estate Simmons greeted me with a kind smile and, knowing that I had lived in Japan for many years, introduced himself in perfect Japanese using all the politest forms of the language. He offered me a cup of coffee and asked me to wait in his office, which doubles as a KISS museum. It includes literally thousands of unique KISS and Gene Simmons branded memorabilia – everything from motor scooters to pachinko machines!
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.
Kyung-sook Shin
Kyung-sook Shin
Interview with the Award-Winning Author
Kyung-sook Shin is a celebrated author in her native South Korea. She made her literary debut in 1985, winning the Munye Joongang New Author Prize for her novella Winter Fables. She recently came to international attention as a result of her latest book, “Please Look After Mom,” being translated into many languages and set for distribution in 33 countries. The book is about a mother who disappears and the family’s desperate search to find her. It won the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize for 2011, the Asian equivalent of the Man Booker Prize. Both the first Korean and the first woman to win the prize, she beat celebrated Asian authors such as Haruki Murakami and Anuradha Roy. TJ’s Hong Kong correspondent David Nunan caught up with Ms. Shin at the recent Hong Kong International Literary Festival where she was a featured speaker.
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.
Yoshiki
Japan’s Rock Legend Yoshiki Rocks Classical Charts Worldwide
Visual Kei Pioneer Rock Legend and Classical Genius Gets Intimate with TJ
Interview by Anthony Al-Jamie
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30 million records sold, a 15-country world tour, 18 sold out Tokyo Dome concerts for 1,000,000 screaming fans, and Yoshiki and his band X Japan, are gearing up for another world tour. In his spare time, Yoshiki composed and recorded Eternal Melody, which remains one of Japan’s top-selling classical albums, and his most recent release “Yoshiki Classical” debuted at the top of the iTunes classical charts worldwide. He has collaborated with some of the world’s leading artists and producers including Queen’s Roger Taylor and legendary Beatles Producer Sir George Martin, performed for the Emperor of Japan, and he has created the theme songs for the World Expo and the last two Golden Globes. This classical genius is a hard rocking innovator and creator of the genre “Visual kei” – combining the styles of punk, rock, heavy metal, glam rock and classical music. In 2008, four years before Tupac’s hologram wowed Coachella, Yoshiki and X Japan brought back their deceased guitarist HIDE by hologram to perform in concert. Some may think it requires a super hero to accomplish all of this. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics founder and creator of Spiderman and the Hulk, agreed and created a superhero based on Yoshiki called “Blood Red Dragon.” What can’t Yoshiki do? Let’s find out.
Tokyo Wins 2020 Olympic Bid
Tokyo Wins 2020 Summer Olympic Bid
THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) elected Tokyo as the 2020 host city at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 7, 2013. The IOC was deciding between Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo. The Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee promoted its delivery (by demonstrating that Tokyo will provide guaranteed quality and maximum benefits), celebration (by advocating that Tokyo will be a great host of a wonderful party) and innovation (by showing that Tokyo will use all the creativity of the world’s most forward-thinking city to benefit sport and the Games.) If you think numbers speak louder than words, than here are statistics that the Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee have compiled to support their bid to host the world’s leading international sporting event.
Michael Graves
Good Design for the Quality of Everyday Life
Interview by Dr. Anthony Al-Jamie
Identified as one of the New York Five, Michael Graves is an American architect known for his contemporary building designs as well as his domestic products for such companies as Target, J.C. Penney, Disney, Philips and Black & Decker. Born in Indianapolis, he earned a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University and is the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus at Princeton University. His firm, Michael Graves & Associates, has offices in Princeton, New Jersey and New York City. Graves was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council. He has received numerous awards including the National Medal of Arts, the AIA Gold Medal, the AIA Topaz Medal and the Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. He is credited with broadening the role of the architect in society and raising public interest in good design as essential to the quality of everyday life.
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.
Remembering Donald Richie: A Living Tribute
Donald Richie, a world authority on Japanese film, culture and the post-World War II lives of the Japanese, passed away in Tokyo on February 19, 2013. He was 88. Born in Lima, Ohio on April 17, 1924, Donald grew up with a love for cinema. He moved to Japan on December 31, 1946 as part of the U.S. Occupation. During the early part of his stay in Japan, he worked as a typist and civilian staff writer for the U.S. Military newspaper, the Pacific Stars and Stripes. He returned to the U.S. and received a B.S. in English from Columbia University before going back to Japan. He went on to write several books on Japan and its cinema and filmmakers as well as other topics. He wrote for English-language publications in Japan including The Japan Times, in which he had a regular column as a film critic, and the Tokyo Journal, for which he interviewed and contributed several pieces over the years.
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.
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