Sunset on the Lake of Lion’s Tears: Terayama and Shinoda in the Early 60s
Our hero is disengaged, transgressive and filled with a restless energy that makes him dangerous – rather like his creator
Buraikan: Sex and Booze and Samisen
Imagine that the counter-culture of the late 1960s was transposed to the last decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
When will an Asian Country Win the World Cup?
By prioritizing football, China may have found a weakness in American soft power that it can exploit
Aum & Japan: 23 Years On
Highly educated people often lack a grounding in reality and are suckers for the certainty of cult-like intellectual systems
No Love for Value: Markets at Extremes
“We believe we understand the past, which implies that the future should also be knowable. But in fact we understand the past less than we believe we do”
From Beijing to Bicester: Surviving the Era of “Overtourism”
Nobody is going to complain about the tourists because there is nobody around but tourists.
Review: Ryoma!
A rebel, a pragmatist, a patriot, a red-blooded hombre who gulps down saké like tea, yet also embraces his feminine side; within him “radiates a being like the goddess Kannon”
Isle of Dodgy Stereotypes: Hollywood’s Japan Problem
We have met these dogs before and we like them. They are funny, brave and trustworthy. They are, effectively, Americans.
Betting the Pharma: Japan’s Misdirected M&A Boom
According to Japanese comedian and cinéaste Beat Takeshi, “crossing on a red light is not scary when everyone does it together.”
Stranger in a Strange Land: Ian Buruma’s Japan
The “Cool Japan” of Michelin-starred sushi shops and Pokemon Go lay far in the future. This Japan was warm, wet and chaotic.