News On Japan

Marunouchi TOEI Theater Closes After 65 Years

TOKYO - The long-running Marunouchi TOEI movie theater in Tokyo’s Ginza district, a beloved venue directly operated by major film studio Toei since its opening in 1960, closed its doors on Sunday.

The venue, located within the Toei Kaikan building—which also housed Toei’s headquarters—ceased operations due to the aging structure and outdated facilities. Plans have been made to demolish and redevelop the entire building. Toei’s corporate offices have already been relocated to a new commercial complex in Kyobashi.

A final message was delivered at the closing ceremony: "Thank you so much for everything up to today," followed by warm applause from the audience. One staff member added, "Though this theater's run ends here, we hope you’ll continue enjoying Toei’s films at other cinemas."

Source: Kyodo

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Two typhoons are moving across the Pacific east and southeast of Japan, with both expected to change course around the weekend and remain well away from the main Japanese islands, though high waves and stronger winds could affect some areas. Typhoon No. 28, a strong storm, was moving west near Wake Island at about 45 kilometers per hour as of 3 a.m. on October 7, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

A core member of the international ransomware group Qilin was detained in Japan and handed over to German authorities, according to people familiar with the case, as Japanese companies and institutions face a growing wave of cyberattacks that has exposed nearly 15 million pieces of personal information this month alone.

New Year postcards for 2027 arrived at post offices across Hokkaido on October 6, with designs featuring sheep for the upcoming Year of the Sheep as Japan's traditional New Year card market continues to shrink.

A first-of-its-kind sleep competition was held in Tokyo on October 5, with contestants competing for a 2.22 million yen top prize by trying to achieve the deepest, fastest and most stable sleep during a 90-minute session.

Japan brought the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games to a close on October 4 with a record 83 gold medals and 269 medals overall, finishing second behind China after 16 days of competition that produced historic victories in swimming, athletics, judo, wrestling, softball and other sports, while a closing ceremony in Nagoya marked the end of the first Asian Games held in Japan in 32 years.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Entertainment NEWS

Entertainer Tamori and two other prominent figures were named Honorary Citizens of Tokyo on October 1 in recognition of their contributions to the capital's development and the lives of its residents, with an award ceremony held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters on Tokyo Citizens' Day.

Japanese director Tomoki Misato's stop-motion animation Candy Caries has won the Grand Prize in the children's category for ages 7 and up at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Canada, one of the world's three major animation festivals.

Makoto Usui, the composer of "Shiawase Hakoberu Yoni," a song written in the aftermath of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that has become a symbol of hope for disaster survivors across Japan and overseas, died in July at the age of 65, leaving behind a musical legacy that his former students are determined to carry forward.

While millions of people across Japan enjoyed this year's five-day Silver Week holiday, workers at Kyoto's Toei Uzumasa Eigamura film studio theme park and a 24-hour smartphone repair service faced packed schedules, with some working late into the night to keep holidaymakers entertained and respond to emergencies.

Japan's oldest record company is turning to artificial intelligence to reshape one of the country's most traditional musical genres, unveiling an AI-generated enka singer as part of a new label combining the technology with the distinctive vocal style of Japanese ballads.

Tsunaki Mihara, a guitarist who rose to fame in the 1960s with the Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets and remained active in music for decades, died of kidney cancer at a Tokyo hospital at 9:02 a.m. on September 11. He was 80.

Switching from an iPhone to an Android device, or playing on both at different times, turns something as simple as buying PokéCoins into a surprisingly confusing errand.

In this video, we cover the performances taking place this month at the Kabuki-za theatre in Tokyo!