Category: Music

I’m not much into music but lately I have been listening quite a lot to Sakamoto Ryūichi (坂本 龍一) music, as recommended by Joi Ito. Sakamoto Ryūichi is a Japanese musician and composer that has been active for almost 40 years; he started to be internationally known during the 80s when his electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra became popular all around the world.

During the last years he has focused his career on composing soundtracks for movies like The Last Emperor or Babel. Sakamoto Ryūichi is quite active in social circles with political connections in Japan, he stands for the abolition of nuclear power plants (since the Fukushima nuclear disaster) and the reform of copyright laws that are adapted to the new digital era.

Photo by Joi Ito.

AKB48 is one of the most popular music bands in Japan. It is formed by 48 girls that are divided in 3 subgroups of 16 members each. The latest news is that the group has a new idol, but it turns out that she is NOT real; she is a virtual idol whose face has been created by parts of the faces of the most popular singers in the group.

In this picture you can see the parts of the faces that Aimi Eguchi has inherited from her real band partners.

The name of the new virtual idol of AKB48 is Aimi Eguchi and her debut was in a TV commercial for Glico (a Japanese confectionery company).

In this video you can see some of the details of how Aimi Eguchi was created:

Source: Mainichi Shinbun