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.
Abexit – How Much Would It Matter?
Japanese scandals are never about what they appear to be about. To quote a proverb, “the hidden side has a hidden side of its own.”
Trump’s Path to the Nobel Prize
Beijing ordered dramatic cuts in fuel, food and maintenance supplies to North Korea earlier this year
Trade Wars: The Prequel
The best we can hope for might be the economic equivalent of the Cold War doctrine of “Mutually Assured Destruction”
Inflation on Mars: the Global Implications of Corbynomics
The assumption that low inflation and interest rates are here to stay would be discredited – not just in the UK, but globally
Back to the future for the Yen
Currencies are inherently political and the history of the yen-dollar rate reflects the twists and turns of the US-Japan relationship…
Not Dead Yet: TPP.2 Could Be Bigger and Better
Autocrats everywhere will have been inspired by Xi Jinping’s recent move to tear up the rulebook and set up a dictatorship.
Sun-dancing Kuroda Merits Another Term at the BoJ
The long gloomy years of deflationary stagnation, sometimes known as the lost decades, appear to be ending
Hail, King Kazu: an Iconic Footballer Ages with Passion and Style
He travelled alone to Brazil at the tender age of 15… finally becoming a first-team choice for Santos, home of the immortal Pele.
Video Letter: Terayama / Tanikawa
In the early 1980s, home video was in its infancy… the result is a punky, DIY aesthetic that manages to be both simple and moving