TOKYO — A U.S. Marine has been arrested on suspicion of killing and robbing a Japanese woman in Okinawa, officials say, prompting Tokyo to lodge a protest with the United States on Sunday. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, is accused of killing Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel Saturday, police told Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK. Ballard has denied the allegations, a spokesman said. Source link
The Tokyo International Film Festival has revealed its full competition lineup for the 39th edition of Asia‘s largest film event. As ever, the lineup is a mix of new features from Asia’s best auteurs, a sprinkling of Hollywood movies and projects from up-and-coming filmmakers. As previously announced, the festival which runs from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, will open with Zeze Takahisa’s music drama Sukiyaki and close with Yeon Sang-ho‘s zombie action horror film Colony. Sandwiched between those two gala screenings will be the centerpiece screening of Takashi Yamazaki‘s Godzilla Minus Zero. Other gala screenings include Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, Michael Showalter’s Verity, Hiroshi Ando’s A Bouquet of Light for You, Sabu’s Arrested Memory, Kazuya Shiraishi’s Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar, Gavin Lin’s Sunshine Women’s Choir, Wayne Wang’s Diary of a Mad Old Man, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, Yukiko Sode’s All the Lovers in the Night, Ryutaro Nakagawa’s Your Story – Kimi No Hanashi and Yoshiro …
The Tokyo International Film Festival will honor filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mipo O with its Kurosawa Akira Award at the event’s 39th edition next month. Named for the Japanese master, the award recognizes directors whose work has made an impact on cinema and who are expected to help shape its future. It was revived in 2022 after a 14-year hiatus with support from Capcom. Last year’s recipients were Chloé Zhao and Lee Sang-il. This year’s honorees were selected by a committee comprising filmmakers Yoji Yamada and Lee Sang-il, cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama. Rasoulof, one of Iran’s leading dissident directors now living in exile in Europe, won Berlin’s Golden Bear for There Is No Evil (2020), while The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) received a special prize at Cannes before earning an international feature Oscar nomination as Germany’s submission. The committee singled out the two films for “their humanist perspective, which portrays even those who perpetrate oppression as ordinary citizens.” It also praised Rasoulof’s “unwavering commitment to creative expression despite …
Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer will serve as president of the international competition jury at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The Tasmania-based iconoclast has spent more than four decades directing work that spans drama, black comedy and political engagement, building a reputation as one of Australian cinema’s most singular auteurs. His 1993 cult classic Bad Boy Bubby won the Special Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at Venice, while four of his films have since screened in Cannes’ official selection, including Ten Canoes, which won the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize in 2006. “For any of us attending the Tokyo International Film Festival, it is a privilege. For me, as a filmmaker, it is even more so,” de Heer said in a statement. “The more films I manage to make, the fewer films I manage to see, especially on the big screen. But as a part of this jury, I have the duty, the obligation, to see at least 15 films and talk about them with other filmmakers! And not just any old 15 …
The Tokyo International Film Festival has unveiled the Gala and Animation selections for its 39th edition, bringing a mix of recent festival standouts, star-driven international titles and high-profile Japanese animation to the Japanese capital next month. The festival’s 15-title Gala Selection includes Martin McDonagh’s soulful black comedy Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi; Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, with Pedro Pascal and Olivia Wilde; Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve; Michael Showalter’s Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity, led by Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson; and Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. The section will also feature several prominent Asian titles, including Japanese filmmaker Sabu’s Taiwan-set Arrested Memory, which stars Ethan Juan and Wayne Wang’s Tokyo-set Diary of a Mad Old Man, starring Lily Franky and Fan Bingbing. The lineup also includes Yukiko Sode’s Cannes standout All the Lovers in the Night, Kazuya Shiraishi’s Bye Bye Love: Detective Is in the Bar and the feature adaptation The Tiger and Her Wings The …
Basel Social Club, an adventurous initiative that has provided counterpoint programming to the spectacle of Art Basel week in Switzerland since 2022, will launch a Japanese edition for Art Week Tokyo in November. Dubbed the Tokyo Jazz Club, the project will transpire in an eight-story former capsule hotel in the bookshop-intensive Jimbocho district of the city, with dates listed as November 1-8. As reported by the Italian publication Artribune, “Inspired by the cross-pollination of fields and attitudes that marked the creation of Basel Social Club, Tokyo Jazz Club seems to seek to bring together visual arts, jazz and music in general, gastronomy and dining, leisure and nightlife. … It aims to offer a new platform alternative to the more traditional routes of the art system, bringing together artists, galleries, performers, and musicians under the same roof, with a particular focus on conviviality through a curated food and drink offering.” Related Articles A spare post on Basel Social Club’s Instagram account promises “Art. Performance. Music. Gathering. Improvisation. Listening. Collective presence.” An accompanying video features frenetically edited …
It took just 10 seconds for thieves to steal $1.2 million worth of luxury watches from a Tokyo shop in broad daylight, police investigating the incident say. Now they’re trying to hunt down those responsible. Published On 26 Aug 202626 Aug 2026 Share Luxury watches worth $1.2 million stolen from a popular mall in Tokyo on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Source link
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Sakhalin Region Governor Valery Limarenko in Kurilsk on the Iturup Island, the largest of the Kuril Islands of Russia’s fareast, on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin hide caption toggle caption Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made his first visit to the Kuril Islands, a Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that also is claimed by Japan, which voiced a diplomatic protest over the trip. Putin visited a fish plant, a hospital and a school on Iturup, one of the volcanic chain’s southern islands. He also briefly spoke to local residents and met with the governor of Russia’s Sakhalin region, Valery Limarenko. Japan asserts territorial rights to the four southernmost islands of the chain, which it calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them from Japan in the final days of World War II, and the dispute kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities. Decades of diplomatic efforts to negotiate a settlement haven’t produced any visible …
TOKYO, Aug 3 : Japanese trading house Itochu will buy 50 per cent of U.S. aircraft leasing business Aviation Capital Group (ACG) from Tokyo Century for $1.946 billion, it said on Monday, expanding its aviation operations on expectations of continued growth in the leasing market. • Itochu said the deal will also give it a role in the management of ACG, which is wholly owned by a Tokyo Century subsidiary. • Itochu leases more than 90 aircraft and engines to airlines worldwide. • Itochu has identified aviation as a key growth area and expects the acquisition to accelerate the expansion of related businesses and establish aviation as a new earnings pillar, Chief Financial Officer Hiroyuki Naka told a news conference. • The company aims to boost profit from its aviation-related business to 50 billion yen ($319 million) within five years, from an expected 16 billion yen in its 2026 financial year, Naka said. • The deal is scheduled to complete in the third quarter of the current financial year. ($1 = 156.7300 yen) Source link
Tokyo isn’t one city. It’s many cities, and each is its own universe. Occasionally — at a certain subterranean bar big enough for only seven people, or a sushi counter on the fifth floor of a random office building — I feel as if I’m stepping into another time or dimension. Finding your way to any of the millions of restaurants, cafes, bars and shops (some are micro-businesses in an alley in a village in the city) can be like figuring out a many-layered puzzle. Like Tokyo, each experience is dense. Use these handy dining guides for all of your summer travel, near and far. The Japanese word for hospitality is omotenashi. But its meaning goes far beyond just customer service. Even the translations “wholehearted, selfless hospitality” or “flawless care” don’t cover all of the philosophies that make up omotenashi: magokoro (“true heart” or “sincere feeling”), ichigo ichie (“one time, one meeting”) and kuuki wo yomu (“reading the air”). The last refers to the intuitive ability to anticipate guests’ needs before they ask — an …
