Contributors

HIROSHI URUSHIDO ("Switched On") is a singer/musician/ composer/arranger and one half of the J-pop duo, Cousin. After early successes there were a few quiet years, when the other half (naturally enough, his cousin) took time out to have a baby and Hiroshi, among other things, designed postcards. 2002 projects include a new Cousin album, a trip to the Afghanistan border to front a TV documentary and hand over money raised for Afghan refugees and, surprisingly, writing and arranging enka singer Yoshimi Tendo's single in her 30th anniversary year.

JOHN CAIRNS ("Final Showdown") is managing director of Monolith Technologies ( www.monotec.com ), a media technology services firm. He also serves as executive producer for its entertainment and commercial division, Monolith Films ( www.monolithfilms.com ).
He has an MFA in film production from Syracuse University and a BA in film and philosophy from the University of Iowa and the Paris Center for Critical Studies. He was previously a columnist on the Japanese entertainment industry for Tokyo Pop magazine.

RYAN SKELTON (also "Final Showdown") lives in Tokyo and makes his living as a visual media consultant for Monolith Technologies. He's a graduate of the American Studies & Japanese Language programs at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and is a filmmaker and videographer with a background in performing arts. His academic interests concern interstices of American culture with other cultures. He has shuttled between his home country, New Zealand, and Japan since studying in Matsue, southern Honshu, as a teenager.