Kunio Hara, "Joe Hisaishi's Soundtrack for My...

The 1960s in Japan have long been understood as a period of radical political engagement. But as political movements from Old Left Communism to New Left revolts appeared to fail in their efforts to revolutionize Japanese society, artists and intellectuals came to reject the ideal ...  Show more

J. Michael Cole is a Taipei-based security analyst and writer who has spent over two decades documenting Taiwan’s political and security landscape. A former analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), he is a Research Fellow and Executive Editor with the Prosp ...  Show more

A world of sprites and spirits encountered by childhood sisters in the 1988 animated feature film by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Studio Ghibli has become a hit stage adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The original composer Joe Hisaishi worked with playwright Tom ...  Show more

Tamaki Ueda, aka Banetoriko, is a Japanese noise music artist who was born in Nara, moved to Los Angeles, and finally established herself in Osaka. Her music, composed with a self-made metal instrument named Banetek, is inspired by yokai, the supernatural creatures from Japanese ...  Show more

This week, The Cultural Frontline explores family, legacy and creativity.Studio Ghibli is one of the biggest names in animation, famous for films such as The Wind Rises, My Neighbour Totoro and the Oscar winning Spirited Away. For years, Studio Ghibli was led by its co-founder, t ...  Show more

Margaret Talbot, writing in The New Yorker in 2005, recounted that when animators at Pixar got stuck on a project they’d file into a screening room to watch a film by Hayao Miyazak ...