From Japan:

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Manga Bears, Latex Pigs and Tireless Activism in Japan’s Struggle for Equality and Queer Acceptance—‘Queer Japan’, dir. Graham Kolbeins, 2019

A head-spinning tour of the many ways in which queerness manifests itself in Japan, from art-forms to infrastructure, from communities to mass media, made with affection for every featured voice

June 23rd, 2020|Country: Canada, Japan, USA|

‘The Legal’ versus ‘The Moral’; The Plight of the Family in Contemporary Japan —’Shoplifters,’ dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018

Facing crippling poverty, one family’s attempt to survive may be emblematic of wider societal problems plaguing a Japan that’s in a deep economic recession

June 2nd, 2020|Country: Japan|

A Dinner for Foodies and Cinephiles Alike: List of 5 Films About Food and Community That Pair Well With Meals

An international gourmet meal in five courses of cinema: diversity beer, weed soup, and protest tea, with plushies and spirits as guests—a tasting menu to nourish all senses

November 14th, 2019|Country: Aruba, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, USA|

Film: Mogu and Perol, dir. Tsuneo Goda, 2018

A furry chef discovers that dinner doesn't taste as good when there's no one to share it with, in this adorable short with some of the best-looking stop-motion food from the creator of Domo-kun

November 11th, 2019|Country: Japan|

Film: Human Shelter, dir. Boris Benjamin Bertram, 2018

An intimate documentary of global proportions invites into people's homes across the planet and examines how we redefine the concept of home in the age of migration, conflicts and climate change

November 1st, 2019|Country: Denmark, Iceland, Iraq, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, Uganda, USA|

7 Fresh Animated Short Films Directed by Women From All Over the World

Topless supermarkets, museum exhibits riddled with anxiety, nature-loving robots, immigrant artists and albatross soup: there’s nothing that’s out of bounds for women at Animation Block Party

October 28th, 2019|Country: Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, USA|

Food: Asian Fusion Tapas at Rabbit House, NYC

Japanese chef blends traditional izakaya fare with Mexican antojitos and a handpicked wine-list in a tiny Lower East Side spot that will soon move into a bigger location

August 30th, 2019|Country: Japan, USA|

Film: Complicity, dir. Kei Chikaura, 2018

A nuanced, deeply original take on the toll that immigration takes on individuals, centered around an undocumented Chinese migrant in Japan who starts working in a soba shop under a stolen identity

July 30th, 2019|Country: China, Japan|

Book: Akiyuki Nosaka, The Cake Tree in the Ruins, 1975

A collection of sad and brutally honest short stories that give agency to casualties of WWII in Japan from the author of the story that became the basis for the "Grave of the fireflies" cartoon

July 20th, 2019|Country: Japan|

Book: Gaston Dorren, Babel, 2018

A book of wildly entertaining and illuminating essays on the world’s top 20 languages that celebrates the planet’s differences and similarities in a new way and makes you want to learn a new language

July 11th, 2019|Country: Brazil, Cameroon, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Suriname, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tamil Eelam, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam|

Music: Tenzin Choegyal and Taro Terahara, The Awakened Heart, 2011

Calming, healing collection of mantras, both ancient and contemporary, in a collaboration between Tibetan musician based in Australia and the Japanese master of the bansuri flute

June 21st, 2019|Country: Australia, Japan, Tibet|

Film: Campaign, 2007, and Campaign 2, 2013, dir. Kazuhiro Soda

A chronicle of two election campaigns by the same Japanese politician, before and after Fukushima, which sheds light on the many political, cultural and societal aspects of Japanese society

June 7th, 2019|Country: Japan|

Book: Jose Manuel Robledo and Marcial Toledano, Tebori, 2016-2018

A tattoo artist finds himself amidst a Yakuza feud in this graphic novel

April 20th, 2019|Country: Japan, Spain|

Film: Happy Hour, dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2015

March 12th, 2019|Country: Japan|

Book: Rachel Love Nuwer, Poached, 2018

December 4th, 2018|Country: Chad, China, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Thailand, USA, Vietnam|