Abe Still Holds The Strong Cards
Rather like a Zen master shattering the preconceptions of his acolytes, he shocked the markets by doing precisely nothing…
Can Japan Survive Mass Tourism?
How will people react when they find their favourite sushi place filled with foreigners squirting ketchup on the maguro?
At the Sharp End of Global Restructuring: Terry Gou’s Gamble
Sude Honke, Japan’s oldest sake brewer, has being going since 1141 and Hoshi Ryokan, a hot springs hotel, since 718.
Tangled Up In Tokyo: the Japanese Side of Bob Dylan
In the late 1960s, there was a ramshackle coffee-shop called Dylan in Osaka’s Namba entertainment district which served as a meeting-place for musicians, hippies, theatre people and student radicals.
Abe’s Next Move: Doubling Down on Growth
The yen has acted as a financial version of the “wind of the gods” – the fortuitous typhoon that destroyed the fleet of Kublai Khan
Three Women, Three Rear Windows
She refused to repudiate the yakuza boss who had acted as a father-figure since her earliest days in show-biz.
Why No Trump-san? Japanese Lessons on Populism
Japan is less liberal than most Western countries, but more democratic.
Rebelling Against Reality: Jodorowsky vs. Terayama
Jodo’s father is a Stalin-worshipping sadist who insists his son bear the pain of tooth extraction without anaesthetic
Democracy: Ask an Expert, or Maybe Not
To adapt Bob Dylan, for both countries “the future is already a thing of the past.”
Beware The Psycho
Back in 2002 Ben Bernanke recommended the deployment of “helicopter money” – meaning a broad-based tax cut financed by the central bank – as the best cure for deflation.