The World is not Flat
Even in a wealthy G8 country the primitive urges of the limbic brain are a match for cold economic calculations
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
Yoshida’s fibs were meat and drink to foreign journalists eager to emphasize the uniqueness of Japan’s depravity….
Japan’s Scottish Option
Was there a racist assumption that Japan was inherently more aggressive than the countries that produced the Nazis and Mussolini? Or was it a question of geopolitical strategy?
The Dark Side of Womenomics
The genetic upper class would be tall, intelligent and creative, while the underclass would consist of tubby, dim-witted goblins.
Terayama’s Mama
Two of Shuji Terayama’s maternally-themed tanka poems from the early 1960s.
What the World Cup Says about the World
India and China are not rising superpowers. On Planet Football, they hardly exist at all. Instead of BRICs, we have the BICCs: Belgium, Ivory Coast, Chile and Columbia.
Shuji Terayama TV Commercial
We’ll be talking about Terayama at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London on May 30th
Stranded in the Jungle
The woman, Kazuko, is a newly-wed emigrant from Okinawa who soon discovers the power of her sexuality and exploits it to the hilt…
Historical Fiction
Herr Schmidt was quite mistaken in his view that Japan is the Billy No Mates of Asia
Tokyo’s New Guv’nor
Ishihara’s legacy includes exterminating thirty thousand crows and ordering the removal of the Tsukiji fish-market, much loved by tourists…