Tokyo Junkie: Robert Whiting’s Japan
The government requested gang bosses to dispatch the most “unpleasant-looking” yakuza to the countryside for “spiritual training,”
Remembering 3.11: Faces and Voices of Resilience Part 2
Wanting good strong coffee and whisky and, most of all, jazz of all kinds, at full throttle, now more than ever….
Remembering 3.11: Faces and Voices of Resilience Part 1
Shoko Hashimoto’s face is a map of his life. It radiates intensity, strength, humour and boundless curiosity
Burn On, Joe! A 1960s Manga Icon Lifts Spirits Today
“Old man, I’m begging you… let me carry on… until there’s nothing left of me but white ashes,..”
Nikkei 30,000: Why it matters
As Kay and King write, “narratives change and evolve over time and need to be constantly challenged.”
The Covid Bubble: How and When will it Pop?
140 years later, comedian Beat Takeshi quipped that “it’s not scary to cross on a red light if everyone does it together.”
Dan Yergin’s “The New Map”: How Rising Asia Will Ensure the Future of Fossil Fuels
“If we stopped producing fossil fuels today, we would all die…We wouldn’t have food. We wouldn’t have transportation… We wouldn’t have clothes.”
Can Biden Do What Ikeda Did? How Japan Ended An Era of Destructive Polarisation
Japan today may seem like a placid, consensus-driven society, but it too has a history of political violence and bitter division.
Peering into 2021: Tanjiro Kamado Battles Big Tech
In the year of the coronavirus, one sixth of the entire Japanese population went to the cinema to watch Demon Slayer,
Moby BoJ: How the Bank of Japan Can Exit its ETF Trap
It would end up owning enough of the Japanese economy to gladden the heart of Karl Marx