The Wave of the Future: Japan’s “Happy” Chinese New Year
Until recently in Japanese eyes a typical foreigner meant a white Westerner. Now the foreigners that ordinary Japanese meet in the flesh are likely to be fellow Asians
Terayama on Life, Death and Fathers
Matsu-san the sushi chef died in a car accident. Mari the hostess committed suicide and my father Hachiro died of disease when fighting in the war. My young cousin Tatsuo was stabbed to death.
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…