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November 22, 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 / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 28, 2003
Taisho Sophisticates
EXPLOITING PATENT RIGHTS AND A NEW CLIMATE FOR INNOVATION IN JAPAN, edited by Ruth Taplin. London: Intellectual Property Institute, 2003, 124 pp., £35 (paper). Intellectual property rights (IPR) is a hot issue in Japan. The government has implemented a series of related legal and institutional reforms...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003
From West to East: Ian Buruma casts his light on the making of modern Japan
INVENTING JAPAN: 1853-1964, by Ian Buruma. New York: The Modern Library, 2003, 194 pp., $19.95, (cloth). This is a satisfying hors d'oeuvre that awakens readers' intellects while whetting their appetite for more substantial fare. It is a quirky, opinionated and selective narrative redolent of what is...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003
Should Japanese history be rewritten?
HARING THE BURDEN OF THE PAST: Legacies of War in Europe, America and Asia, edited by Andrew Horvat and Gebhard Hielscher. Tokyo: The Asia Foundation & Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2003, 341 pp., 1,000 yen (paper). The legacies of war continue to dog Japan and are divisive at home and in Asia. Despite the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 29, 2003
Dishonesty in democracy
JAPAN'S DYSFUNCTIONAL DEMOCRACY: The Liberal Democratic Party and Structural Corruption, by Roger W. Bowen. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2003, 139 pp. $21.95 (paper). JAPAN'S FAILED REVOLUTION: Koizumi and the Politics of Reform, by Aurelia George Mulgan. Canberra: Asia Pacific Press, 2003, 139 pp. $36 (paper). During...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 8, 2003
Empowered by consumerism
THE NEW JAPANESE WOMAN: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan, by Barbara Sato. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003, 241 pp., $19.95 (paper). Barbara Sato's excellent analysis of changes in gender discourse and women's identity in the 1920s recasts the landscape of 20th-century women's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 1, 2003
Plagued by military politics
MILITARY POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN INDONESIA, by Jun Honna. London: RoutedgeCurzon, 2003, 300 pp., $904 (cloth). With the collapse of a fragile ceasefire in Aceh, the Indonesian government has decided on a military solution to this long-festering problem. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has fought...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 25, 2003
Anthropology through the lens
GUNMA: Life and People. by Greg Davis. Tokyo: IPJ, 2002, 107 pp., 5,000 yen (cloth). Greg Davis had lived in Japan since 1970, working as a photojournalist throughout Asia. His sudden death on May 4 of liver cancer at the age of 54 is a major loss to his profession and those whose lives he touched all...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 2003
Changes in consumer concerns
CONSUMER POLITICS IN POSTWAR JAPAN: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism, by Patricia Maclachlan. Columbia University Press, New York, 2002, 270 pp., $18.50 (cloth) This excellent study richly evokes the struggle and frustrations of Japanese consumer organizations in the post-World War II...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 27, 2003
University exam pressure
JAPANESE HIGHER EDUCATION AS MYTH, by Brian J. McVeigh. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2002, 301 pp., $25.95 (cloth) In this withering critique, Japanese universities are portrayed as an educational Potemkin village. McVeigh's excellent analysis of institutional dysfunction focuses on how learning is sacrificed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 23, 2003
Lawyers: they're not all out for themselves
HUMAN RIGHTS IN JAPAN, South Korea and Taiwan, by Ian Neary. London, Routledge, 2002, 297 pp., $95 (cloth) It's not easy being a lawyer these days -- putting up with nasty jokes, scant respect and widespread suspicions that the public interest is way down on the list of priorities. Ian Neary reminds...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 2, 2003
Modernization seen from the bottom up
A MODERN HISTORY OF JAPAN FROM TOKUGAWA TIMES TO THE PRESENT, by Andrew Gordon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 384 pp., $35 (cloth) In this superb book, by far the best in its genre, Andrew Gordon, director of the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University, provides a...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 26, 2003
First, dump the zombie debtors
JAPANESE PHOENIX: The Long Road to Economic Revival, by Richard Katz. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2003, 351 pp., $24.95 (paper) As Japan limps further into a second decade of recession, optimists about its future economic prospects are thin on the ground. In this provocative and thoughtful study, Richard...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 29, 2002
Stymied by a myopic military
THE SHADOW WARRIORS OF NAKANO: A History of the Imperial Japanese Army's Elite Intelligence School, by Stephen C. Mercado. Brassey's: Washington, D.C., 2002, 331 pp., $27.95 (cloth) This is the groundbreaking story of Japan's World War II intelligence agents, an elite cadre of approximately 2,500 men...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 24, 2002
'Dewy-eyed' U.S. no match for Japan's samurai values
BAMBOOZLED! How America Loses the Intellectual Game with Japan and its Implications for Our Future in Asia, by Ivan P. Hall. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, New York, 2002, 324 pp., $26.95 (paper) For an enjoyable and stimulating read, one could do much worse than this thoughtful polemic on what ails bilateral...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 27, 2002
The lesser of many possible evils
THE UNITED STATES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC SINCE 1945, by Roger Buckley. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002. 258 pp., $65 (cloth) This is a wide-ranging, ambitious and informative work on an immense subject. Given the vast terrain and limited space, Roger Buckley has had to resist the temptations...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 18, 2002
A monarchy for the masses
THE PEOPLE'S EMPEROR: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy 1945-1995, by Kenneth J. Ruoff. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Ma., 2001, 331 pp., $45 (cloth) This intriguing and rewarding monograph examines the manner in which the Emperor system has been reinvented in postwar Japan to reflect and reinforce...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 4, 2002
Reform by fiat and persuasion
INSIDE GHQ: The Allied Occupation of Japan and its Legacy, by Eiji Takemae. London: Continuum, 2002, 751 pp., $40 (cloth) The U.S.-led Occupation of Japan ended 50 years ago, but still casts long shadows over the country and remains hotly debated among scholars and pundits. It is indeed fortunate, therefore,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 14, 2002
An impassioned indictment of terror
SRI LANKA: The Arrogance of Power-Myths, Decadence and Murder, by Rajan Hoole. Colombo: University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), 2001, 504 pp., 8,000 rupees (cloth) During the nearly two decades of Sri Lanka's civil war, more than 60,000 people have died or disappeared, leaving behind wounded families...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 23, 2002
The courage to endure
BAD ELEMENTS: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing, by Ian Buruma. Random House: New York, 2001. 367 pp. $27.95 (cloth) Are the Chinese hard-wired for authoritarian government? Is there a cultural barrier to democracy? Ian Buruma spends more space than warranted in answering these questions with...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 9, 2002
The harbinger of a new era
JAPANESE RULES: Why the Japanese Needed Football and How They Got It, by Sebastian Moffett. London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2002, 207 pp., 10 pounds (paper) In elucidating the cultural context, symbolism and social implications of the world's most popular game as it has evolved from irrelevance to obsession...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
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