NANKER'S BEST SUNDAY AFTERNOON ROCK SHOW in MORGAN SALON
Come spend the afternoon with Nanker's Best, the rock duo of Morgan Fisher (keys/vocals), who's played with Mott the Hoople, Queen, Yoko Ono, and more, and guitarist/singer Yutaro Ogida. They'll tear into classic rock hits, a few Mott favorites, and some of Yutaro's original songs. This show also features special tributes to Brian Wilson and Sly Stone.
It all happens at the Salon—Morgan's intimate, art-filled home studio and gallery. Enjoy free wine and snacks while you soak up the music. Can't make it in person? Catch the live stream on YouTube. Seats are still available, so grab one while you still can!
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Metropolis Japan
13 hours ago
- Metropolis Japan
NANKER'S BEST SUNDAY AFTERNOON ROCK SHOW in MORGAN SALON
Come spend the afternoon with Nanker's Best, the rock duo of Morgan Fisher (keys/vocals), who's played with Mott the Hoople, Queen, Yoko Ono, and more, and guitarist/singer Yutaro Ogida. They'll tear into classic rock hits, a few Mott favorites, and some of Yutaro's original songs. This show also features special tributes to Brian Wilson and Sly Stone. It all happens at the Salon—Morgan's intimate, art-filled home studio and gallery. Enjoy free wine and snacks while you soak up the music. Can't make it in person? Catch the live stream on YouTube. Seats are still available, so grab one while you still can!
Japan Times
14 hours ago
- Japan Times
The Hitobito's Megan and Ben uncover the real Japan, one video at a time
Before she ever set foot in Japan, Megan spent countless hours there — virtually. Growing up in Kansas in the early 2010s, she devoured YouTube videos by a wave of early J-vloggers such as Sharla in Japan, Kim Dao and Taylor R. 'If I saw 'Japan' in the title, I'm pretty sure I watched it,' she recalls. 'The shopping at the grocery store, doing taxes — if it was about Japan, I was in.' Now 27, Megan has become one of those creators herself — part of a new generation of content makers capturing everyday life in Japan for a global audience via her YouTube channel, The Hitobito. Alongside her partner, Ben, 25, the couple began posting videos from Awaji Island while working as English teachers through the JET Programme. What started as casual updates for friends and family quickly went viral on TikTok. Their everyday adventures snowballing into something bigger, with short-form uploads attracting thousands — and eventually millions — of views. 'We had set this goal of getting 100,000 subscribers by the end of 2024 and getting our YouTube Silver Play Button plaque ... but by September of that year we had boomed to 1.5 million or something ridiculous,' says Megan, who along with Ben asked that their full names not be published due to privacy concerns. 'We got our plaque and it was like, now what?' From fans to creators 'J-vlogging' took off in the 2010s, drawing in tourists and overseas fans like Megan who wanted a window into everyday life in Japan. It offered a first-person alternative to traditional news — grocery runs, paying bills, attending festivals — the moments that rarely make headlines. The format surged again during the COVID-19 pandemic, when homebound viewers turned to YouTube to satisfy their wanderlust. While the duo post longer YouTube videos ranging from the personal to the newsy, it's their short-form content that drives views. Their most-viewed YouTube Short centers on umbrellas being stolen and has 76 million views. 'We want Japan to be a thought-provoking place,' Megan says. 'We want people to think about the things that Japan is doing that they like — or maybe they prefer the way another country does it — and why.' Ben agrees, 'It's good to not present a country as a monolith. It's important to show that it's complex, multitiered, with a lot going on.' The challenge, he adds, is being able to do that in a minute. Known for their humor and honest storytelling, Megan and Ben offer a view of life in Japan that appeals to tourists and other foreign residents living here. | JOHAN BROOKS The Hitobito recently signed with Tokyo-based influencer agency GeeXPlus (our conversation takes place at their office in Shibuya), signaling the next step in the couple's evolution as creators shaping the bite-size future of Japan-related content. Megan's interest in Japan predates YouTube. It began with a 'Sesame Street' special in which Big Bird travels to Japan. That fascination deepened through Studio Ghibli films and the Toonami programming Meanwhile, Ben watched 'Naruto.' The two met in college in Kansas City and reconnected through social media, eventually becoming a couple. 'As an international relations major, the job market in the U.S. didn't seem so hot, so JET looked like a good way to dip my toes into diplomacy, which I was interested in,' she says. 'We were together for about a year and a half, and you were really serious about JET,' Ben says to Megan. 'I was up for an adventure.' 'You did take some convincing,' she replies with a laugh. 'That's true,' he says. 'I had to watch a lot of Japan videos. A lot of Chris Broad.' Like Broad, whose Abroad In Japan channel is arguably the most influential example of J-vlogging to date, the pair's work started as a way to document the realities of life in the countryside to those back home. There was more foresight to it, however, with Megan realizing she'd eventually need a job after JET. 'To be totally honest, I could see the AI boom starting while I was sitting at my desk, just using the internet,' she says. That realization prompted her to think about what skills might still be valuable in five years. 'Social media. It's my human story, and it can't be easily replaced.' The couple began filming from their 'dingy, little, echoey' apartment, hoping the neighbors wouldn't mind hearing them through the thin walls. After leaving Awaji for Tokyo — a journey marked by housing mishaps and soul-crushing jobs, detailed in a lengthy upload titled 'Life After Quitting My Dream Job in Japan' — they took a leap of faith into full-time content creation. 'At my old job, people would ask if I'd go full time because they saw the channel taking off. I'd adamantly say, 'No, I would never,'' Megan says, laughing. But the growth they saw in 2024 — and the fact that YouTube pays in U.S. dollars — gave them the confidence and financial security to make the jump. 'I think the experiences we had those first two years made us more confident we could put out content that people could relate to,' Ben adds. Their process hasn't changed. 'I have a big ol' Notes app of things I notice — birds chirping in the subway exits, hot-and-cold vending machines,' Megan says. 'Stuff we take for granted living here, but that is interesting to those who don't.' Sometimes, inspiration is unplanned. 'I missed the last train,' she continues. 'Instead of being mad about it, I thought, I can turn this pain into entertainment.' The resulting clip, which goes into what you can do if you too miss the last train, now has more than 30 million views. At a time of increasing AI-generated content in social media, Megan and Ben believe their human touch will continue to resonate with viewers. | JOHAN BROOKS Facing the age of AI It's not hard to see why they've attracted such a wide following. Like the J-vloggers who inspired them, The Hitobito offers a look at everyday life in Japan — the highs and lows alike. The key difference is that Megan and Ben have adapted the format for the short-form era, which has even brought them attention from the White House. 'We got this email from someone working with the U.S. Surgeon General,' Megan says, referring to Vivek Murthy, who held the post under President Joe Biden. 'He was coming to Japan and he wanted to talk to American content creators about their experience with mental health online and how they deal with it in another country.' 'He was an absolute sweetheart,' Ben says. Success brings new challenges, though, ones their J-vlogger predecessors never had to contend with. 'Recently, there's been all this AI slop, for lack of a better term, relating to Japan,' Megan says. 'So many fake accounts making up whatever about Japan. Stuff like, 'Hey girls, did you know men always pay the full bill?'' ''And they always cook and clean!'' Ben adds. 'It's scary when you see AI videos of actual human faces giving these perspectives.' Not all misinformation comes from machines. Plenty of real people lean into the same cliches — the kind that declare 'Japan is living in the future!' — but there has been a surge in uncanny content with unsettling robo voices, misleading information and outright fake images that look as if they were AI-generated. 'Tens of thousands of people believe these are real people giving real information,' Megan says. 'They can create this stuff with AI so much quicker than we can that, I don't know, nobody knows where the internet will be in five years.' The pair hope tech platforms will eventually do more to monitor synthetic content. For now, they see their humanity — their real experiences, broadcast daily — as the best way to stand out. 'The full-circle moment for us was having people tell us, 'I'm a teacher here now because I watched your videos,'' Megan says, hinting that maybe one of them will be the next big Gen Alpha influencer shaping people's minds about what it's like to live in Japan. Then she laughs, 'I'm also excited to meet the generation of AI robots that end all our careers.'
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Why Japan's 2,000-year imperial family may not survive this century
By Jeff W. Richards Japan's imperial family is the world's oldest monarchy — but it's also one of the most fragile. With only three heirs, no reigning empress allowed and billions of yen in taxpayer funding at stake, the future of the throne is anything but secure. In this episode of "Japan Today Spotlight," we look at the gender rules, succession crisis and political silence surrounding Japan's imperial system and ask what role — if any — it should play in modern society. We also examine the powerful Imperial Household Agency and the extreme control it maintains over the family and its image. What do you think? Should Japan modernize its monarchy — or move on entirely? Chapters: 0:00 Topic overview 0:53 Royals' role in society 1:51 But are the royals popular? 4:17 The age gap 5:29 No empress allowed 8:30 Remembering the war 10:37 What do the royals think? 11:57 Outro Japan Today sources: See the Japan Today Spotlight series: Join the conversation! What do you think: Should Japan modernize its monarchy — or move on entirely? Let us know in the comments. Don't forget to like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss an update on Japan's biggest news stories on our YouTube channel: Follow us for more updates: The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of the host and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of GPlusMedia, Inc. © Japan Today
