Arigato, Trump-san: Japan’s Wake-up Call
The end of American exceptionalism means the end of Japanese exceptionalism too. Constitutional reform is just the first step…
Review: Asia’s Reckoning
“If the Japanese had committed such an act, it would be remembered as the prime atrocity of the war, dwarfing even the Nanjing massacre”
Abe’s Next Move: Stoking a Mini-Boom
A glance at the Japanese banking system – and indeed at any bank branch, with its ranks of paper-shufflers – shows how much room there is for improvement.
“Ah, the Wasteland” : New Terayama Film
Yang gives a moving performance as the stuttering, socially inept ex-barber with the ring-name of “Barikan” (“Clipper”).
Electoral Affinities: How Abe Could Win by Losing
Abe has got himself into a pickle by agreeing to a deeply unpopular hike in the consumption tax
The Asian Missile Crisis: the Message from Machiavelli
Even by the standards of the regime’s bellicose rhetoric, threats of outright genocide are extreme…
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Japanese Surreality: Yasutaka Tsutsui
Imagine a cross between J.G. Ballard and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, with elements of Kafka, Saki and magical realism
Can Abe Get His Mojo Back?
“Opposition” does not refer to minority parties in parliament, who remain irrelevant, but hardliners in the bureaucracy and their supporters
2050: Japan’s Cultural Footprint
Just as you get the politicians you deserve, you get the works of art you deserve too.
“I M Fired” – How the Asian Financial Crisis Helped Asia and Harmed the West
The ensuing collapse in the West’s financial credibility was equivalent to the Iraq War’s effect on its strategic credibility