Free Thinking

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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Anne McElvoy

Islam Issa

Fiona McLean

Free Thinking: Tokyo Idols and Urban life

Tokyo Idols and Urban life

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Tokyo Idols and Urban life

Tomoyuki Hoshino, Suzanne Mooney, Mariko Nagai and Kyoko Miyake on representing city life.

Novelist Tomoyuki Hoshino, photographer Suzanne Mooney, writer/photographer Mariko Nagai and filmmaker Kyoko Miyake look at life in the city for the Heisei generations.

Tokyo used to be presented as the ultimate hyper-modern city. But after years of economic recession the Tokyo of today has another side. A site of alienation and loneliness, anxiety about conformity and identity, it is a place where self-professed 'geeks' (or 'otaku'), mostly single middle-aged men, congregate in districts like Akibahara to pursue fanatical interests outside mainstream society, including cult-like followings of teenage girl singers known as Tokyo Idols. 

Novelist Tomoyuki Hoshino, photographer Suzanne Mooney, writer/photographer Mariko Nagai and filmmaker Kyoko Miyake look at life in the city for the Heisei generation. Presented by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. 

Director Kyoko Miyake has made a film called Tokyo Idols which looks at the obsession of middle aged men with superstar teenage girls who make a living online.
Suzanne Mooney's photographs depict the urban landscapes of Tokyo.
Novelist Tomoyuki Hoshino's latest book to be translated into English is called ME. It's about rootless millennials and suicide. 
Mariko Nagai is an author and photographer who has written for children and adults. Her books include Instructions for the Living and Irradiated Cities. 

The translator was Bethan Jones and the speakers were all in the UK to take part in events as part of Japan Now - a festival at the British Library in London, and in Manchester, Sheffield, Norwich. Programmed by Modern Culture in partnership with the Japan Foundation and Sheffield University. 

Producer: Luke Mulhall 

Main image: Tokyo Summit A by Suzanne Mooney (c).

You can find a playlist of Radio 3 programmes exploring different aspects of Japanese culture from the Tale of Genjii to Godzilla, Kenzaburo Oe to Yoko Tawada, the sound of jazz to rain on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0657spq

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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