Despite his enduring popularity, Godzilla is a forlorn monster. The first Godzilla movie was made shortly after an American H bomb test in the Pacific gave radiation sickness to a group of Japanese fisherman. This spawned endless remakes, as even more fantastic beasts ("Mothra", "MechaGodzilla", etc) were invented for him to ...
Manzai rules Japanese TV, and Downtown rule manzai. Their popularity owes a lot to the brilliant irreverence of Hitoshi Matsumoto (Ma-chan), whose chaotic ramblings inspire increasing disbelief in straight-man Masatoshi Hamada (Hama-chan). Friends since high-school, the duo worked their way up in Osaka's Yoshimoto Kogyo manzai company, before rising to fame ...
Actor/singer/TV star Takuya Kimura, popularly known as "Kimutaku", is a member of pop-group SMAP and Japan's biggest male star. He is regularly voted Asia's best-looking man and is a major sex-symbol in Asian gay culture. However, he is an atypical heart-throb. In his frequent acting roles, he performs his own stunts, ...
Takarazuka is an all-female theatre group which performs lavishly-staged, Western-style musical shows. Because all of the performers are women, it provides an interesting counterpart to kabuki, Japan's all-male theatre tradition. Just ...
Seiko Matsuda (real name Noriko Kamachi) found equally excessive amounts of popularity and scandal in the 1980s. In that decade, she racked up 24 consecutive number one singles and filled more column inches than anyone else in Japan. She perfected an alluring sexy/demure image that won her many male fans and ...
Rie Miyazawa, a precocious child actress, earned billions of yen from advertising campaigns before she was old enough to spend it. This success was masterminded by her domineering mother ("Rie-mama"), who set up her own talent agency to protect her control over her daughter. She brought Rie up on her own ...
Kogals (or "kogyaru"), Japan's teenage urban subculture, have become one of the country's most powerful consumer groups. Forced to wear plain high-school uniforms, they accessorise them with short skirts, Burberry scarves, and long, white, baggy socks ("rususokusu") that make their legs look like tree trunks. Although most of them don't have jobs, ...
Hello Kitty is the best example of Japanese companies' ability to turn cuteness into megabucks. Born in 1976, the white cat with a red bow is one of many popular characters created by Sanrio. These simple cartoon animals adorn products from stationary to microwaves to S&M equipment in love hotels. Of all ...
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