Akira Takayama

is a Japanese director. He is the leader of the theatre unit Port B, which he founded in 2003 to create site-specific performances. Life, career, and style Takayama was born in 1969 and spent several years in Germany studying theatre and linguistics. He returned to Japan in 1999 where he started initially making German-influenced productions, such as an adaption of a Brecht Lehr-stücke. His projects are now characterized by their use of the identity or history of a certain locale, such as the Sugamo area of north Tokyo, and the interaction or involvement of the "audience". He looks at contemporary issues, such as the rising numbers of working poor in Japan, and also makes extensive use of social and digital media. Takayama's unit, Port B, is a loose team of artists, scholars and activists from different backgrounds. The name "Port B" is a reference to Portbou, the Spanish border town where Walter Benjamin committed suicide in his failed bid to escape the Nazis in 1940. Benjamin is an influence on Port B.