The Sumo Champ in the Bath
Japanese bureaucracies, like others elsewhere, react to the prospect of transparency like a vampire reacts to the coming of daylight.
The End of the Japanese Ice Age
Japan has become the region’s low cost producer in a range of industries, from shipbuilding to software engineering….
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
Piketty “Live in Japan”
Piketty’s tome was also the “least read” bestseller, with the average reader getting through just 2% of the text.
Asian Lessons from a Greek Tragedy
In terms of economic policy it is the populists that are pragmatic and the technocrats who inhabit cloud cuckoo land.
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 Oil Factor: Apocalypse Postponed
High commodity prices were a mechanism for enriching plutocrats, oligarchs and sovereign wealth funds – effectively turning global labour income into capital which was then recycled into securities, prime real estate and art…
Prepare for the Coming Japanese Boom
Asakusa, a downtown area fast becoming Tokyo’s new hipster central, is now a destination for foreign backpackers.
Abe Seals the Deal
Companies will lobby for less restrictions on immigrants. All such changes will work to dilute the corporate monoculture.
John Cleese on Abenomics
“So apart from achieving full employment and doubling stock prices in two years, what has Abenomics done for us? Absolutely nothing!”