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November 25, 2024
 

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Jeff Kingston
Jeff Kingston lives in Tokyo, teaches history at Temple University Japan and has been contributing to The Japan Times since 1988. "Contemporary Japan" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) is his most recent book.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 6, 2011
Japan at a crossroads
CONTEMPORARY JAPAN. Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo. Mind the Gap: Stratification and Social Inequalities in Japan. Editor Florian Coulmas. Volume 22. Number 1/2. De Gruyter, 2010, 221 pp., (hardcover) The launch of this journal is cause for celebration by anyone interested...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 23, 2011
Why did Japan crash as Asia's lead goose?
ASIA'S FLYING GEESE: How Regionalization Shapes Japan, by Walter Hatch. Cornell University Press, 2010, 304 pp., $24.95 (hardcover) As we slog into the third decade of the Lost Decade, the enigma of Japan is why, given dire developments, change and reform happen so slowly, if at all.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2010
Final word on the year's best reading
This mesmerizing novel is set in Indonesia just before the coup and massacres of 1965 where the pain, love and hopes of an intriguing cast of characters are evoked captivatingly by a gifted young Asian novelist. This is a story of those who don't belong, don't want to belong or think they fit but don't....
CULTURE / Books
Dec 12, 2010
Wartime Japan celebrates
In 1940, amid war in China and growing tensions with the United States, Japan celebrated the 26th centennial of the founding of the Empire of Japan and the "unbroken" imperial line.
LIFE
Nov 14, 2010
Bali beckons 'literary tourists'
Ubud, an enchanting town in tropical Bali's undulating hills, has arrived with panache on the global literary scene.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 3, 2010
Mao's famine was no dinner party
There are many books on the Great Leap Forward (GLF) that detail the horrific suffering inflicted on the Chinese people, and the instigating role of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is well known, so why yet another?
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 26, 2010
Recruit founder revisits a scandal that shook the nation
Remember the infamous Recruit scandal of the late 1980s that brought down a government, tarnished the reputations of Japan's movers and shakers and left the public convinced that the government was rotten to the core?
CULTURE / Books
Sep 26, 2010
Caught in the jaws of Japan's justice system
The Recruit scandal dominated the media in the late 1980s and has become a notorious symbol of money politics in Japan. The image of "government for sale" undermined public faith in politicians while raising questions about values in a society uncomfortable with the unbridled materialism associated with...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2010
Glass ceiling has not budged for many of Japan's working women
As we enter the third decade of the "lost decade," there is much to despair about the state of Japan. There has been a sharp increase in the number of working poor, mostly due to the spread of nonregular employment, which now involves 34 percent of the workforce, nearly double the level of the asset-bubble...
LIFE
Aug 22, 2010
Korean-Japanese history in modern times
The following is a chronology of the key points in modern Korean-Japanese history.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2010
Wartime confessions
Donald Keene, the foremost scholar of Japanese literature, mines the wartime diaries kept by some of the most prominent writers and intellectuals of the day in a book brimming with insights. Readers discover a gold mine of personal observations that deepen our understanding of what life was like when...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 18, 2010
Whitewashing history the Japanese bureaucrat way
Putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen coop is asking for trouble. In relying on Japan's Ministry of Education to implement education reforms during the Occupation (1945-52), U.S. authorities ensured that their good intentions would come to naught.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 11, 2010
Liberated gentleman out of time and place
This meandering tale of an interesting man's life spanning the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras helps readers understand the ferment of the times while serving up some gems of social history.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2010
America's man from Japan
Edwin O. Reischauer, U.S. ambassador to Japan (1961-66), set the bar very high for all of his successors. Born and raised in Japan by missionary parents, when U.S. President John F. Kennedy called him into diplomatic service, he was already a prominent scholar who pioneered Japanese studies in the U.S....
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2010
An epic slog through history
This doorstopper of a book focuses on American and Soviet rivalry in post-World War II Asia while providing an overview of dramatic developments in 14 nations across Asia over the past century or so. This is an ambitious agenda, one that proves too much for the author and, one might add, any weary reader...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2010
Whaling whoppers debunked
Ever wonder why landlocked nations such as Mali, Mongolia and Laos with no tradition of whaling are members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)? According to Jun Morikawa, the Japanese government sponsors the membership of third-world countries in the IWC to boost support for Japan's pro-whaling...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 11, 2010
Enduring effects of social class
This is a great collection of essays by sociologists and anthropologists who have convincingly brought class back into our understanding of contemporary Japan. In doing so they expose the myth of the ubiquitous middle class popularized by Ezra Vogel and also reject Chie Nakane's argument that workers'...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 28, 2010
Australian forces, occupational hazards
The presence of Australian servicemen in the U.S.-dominated occupation of Japan (1945-52) is little known, an oversight that is overcome in this vivid and entertaining book. Some 20,000 Aussies served for over six years in Hiroshima and environs, doing their part in the demilitarization, democratization...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 3, 2010
Tale of toxic morality
Minamata disease was named after a fishing port on the island of Kyushu where it was discovered in 1956. Chisso Corp. had been dumping methyl mercury directly into the bay since before World War II, but sharp increases in production in the early 1950s increased the flow of contaminating effluent. People...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2009
No defense for policy born of prejudice
THE TRAGEDY OF DEMOCRACY: Japanese Confinement in North America, by Greg Robinson. Columbia University Press, 2009, 408 pp., $29.95 (hardcover) This is a superb history about one of the more shameful chapters in U.S. history. Given all the books and articles about the internment of over 120,000 Japanese...
Taiwan stuns Samurai Japan to capture Premier12 title
Japan starter Shosei Togo reacts after allowing a three-run home run against Taiwan in the fifth inning of the Premier12 final on Sunday.
Woman dies after train collides with car in Tochigi
A Moka Railway train car
Japan beats Taiwan ahead of rematch in Premier12 final
Keita Sano celebrates with his teammates after scoring on Kotaro Kiyomiya's two-run triple against Taiwan during their Premier12 game at Tokyo Dome on Saturday.
Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
'Kohaku' still matters for J-pop bragging rights
Emerging Gen Z J-pop group ME:I will perform on this year's "Kohaku Uta Gassen," national broadcaster NHK’s New Year's Eve spectacle.
Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”

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