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July 28, 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.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 5, 2013
The right to die: letting individuals make the choice themselves
It was not the most elegant way to launch a national conversation about the right to die, but this past January Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, 72, certainly drew attention to the issue of terminal patients. Unfortunately he did so by saying that old people should "hurry up and die" to unburden the nation's...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 28, 2013
Abe-history: Premier again seems set on stoking controversy and ire
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is no stranger to historical controversy. Back in 2001 he pressured national broadcaster NHK to revise a documentary about the judgment of an international people's tribunal regarding the war responsibility of Emperor Hirohito (posthumously known as Emperor Showa). And in 2007...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 21, 2013
Saving Japan: promoting women's role in the workforce would help
Christine Lagarde, director of the International Monetary Fund, believes women can save Japan. Some would argue they already are, taking on as they do all sorts of responsibilities ranging from mother, wife and caregiver for elderly relatives to employee, volunteer and household finance minister.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 14, 2013
Myanmar's unrest: Colonial legacy undermines nascent democracy
Alarming outbreaks of sectarian violence pitting Buddhists against Muslims in Myanmar cast an ominous cloud over that nation's democratic transition from military rule.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 14, 2013
Digging for insights on foreigners living in Japan from some of the most prominent figures
Donald Richie, prolific author of more than 40 books and longtime contributor to The Japan Times, died in February at age 88. April 17 was his birthday, so this review pays tribute by sharing some of the insights he passed on during an interview, one of 12 in this book, conducted four years ago.
COMMENTARY / Japan / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 7, 2013
Abe-phoria: A national punching bag morphs into a popular leader
There is an irrational exuberance about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe evident in his 70 percent public-approval rating, a soaring Nikkei stock average and the Japanese media cheerleading the same man it hounded out of office in September 2007.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 31, 2013
An account of POWs 'in hell'
CAPTURED: The Forgotten Men of Guam, by Roger Mansell. Edited by Linda Goetz Holmes. Naval Institute Press, 2012, 288 pp., $33.95 (hardcover)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013
The rising of a nation
This superb book charts the improbable rise of South Korea from the devastation of war and impoverishment to rapid development and prosperity, and from brutal dictatorship to the most vibrant democracy in Asia. It is 'impossible' in terms of its economic and political achievements, 'the most unlikely and impressive story of national building of the last century,' Daniel Tudor writes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013
Nuclear dispute shapes fight over future of fading town
This superbly told tale about the waxing and waning fortunes of Kaminoseki town over the past four centuries presents some interesting local counterpoints to the more familiar national narrative.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013
Gold rush: Japan Inc. flocks to Myanmar
Political reforms are happening because the military/political leaders wanted to end their nation's isolation and benefit from having a more prosperous economy.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013
Military is key to emerging democracy
After five decades under military rule, Myanmar faces many challenges in building a robust democracy. The election of Aung San Suu Kyi and 41 other members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in parliamentary by-elections last April has stoked a degree of euphoria tempered by grim realities still...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 10, 2013
Future leaders stress 'politics of the daily'
In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's current president, Thein Sein, will both turn 70, so a great deal depends on future leaders. On a recent visit I caught up with two promising aspirants who focus on the "politics of the daily."
CULTURE / Books
Feb 3, 2013
Japan's medical system skewed toward men in treating depression
DEPRESSION IN JAPAN: Psychiatric Cures for a Society in Distress, by Junko Kitanaka. Princeton University Press, 2011, 264 pp., $29.95 (paperback) Twenty-first century Japan is in the throes of a depression epidemic. Until the late 1990s, mental depression was not widely diagnosed or treated in Japan,...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013
Nanjing remembers; disputes fester
Young Chinese marking the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre are baptized in battles over war memory that shape bilateral relations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012
Revisiting Asia's past, present
"From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia" (Allen Lane) by Pankaj Mishra. This is the story of the Asian intellectual's response to Western imperialism. It is an intelligent and rewarding read that crisscrosses time and space, helping readers better understand the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 16, 2012
The revenge of Asia against the West
FROM THE RUINS OF EMPIRE: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia, by Pankaj Mishra. Allen Lane, 2012, 356 pp., ￡20 (hardcover) The story of Asia's awakening and response to Western imperialism is well-trodden ground, but Pankaj Mishra masterfully retells this story by focusing on the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2012
Shedding light on problems with Japan's psychiatric care
MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN JAPAN, edited by Ruth Taplin and Sandra J. Lawman. Routledge, 2012, 148 pp., $155 (hardcover) This collection of seven chapters makes for grim reading because it details the miserable state of mental health care in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 11, 2012
Giving voice to the survivors of the unprecedented 3/11 disaster
STRONG IN THE RAIN: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, by Lucy Birmingham and David McNeill. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 256 pp., $27 (hardcover) This is a riveting story about Japan's March 11 cataclysm told uncommonly well by two veteran Japan-based journalists...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2012
Heterodox views enter mainstream
RETHINKING JAPANESE HISTORY, by Yoshihiko Amino, translated by Alan S. Christy. Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2012. 317 pp., $20 (paper) It is a testimony to Yoshihiko Amino's influential legacy that his once iconoclastic views regarding Japanese history have now become mainstream....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2012
An undeclared war: the Japanese-Soviet battle that decided the outcome of WWII
Nomonhan 1939: The Red Army's Victory That Shaped World War II, by Stuart D. Goldman. Naval Institute Press, 2012, 288 pp., $31.95 (hardcover) T he battle of Nomonhan between the Japanese Imperial Army and the Soviet Army is a little known confrontation that had a significant impact on both countries...
Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Ahead of the Olympics, Japan is still talking about the gymnast who won't be there
Japan's Shoko Miyata withdrew from the gymnastics team herself over her drinking and smoking, although it had already appeared as though the association was prepared to send her home from the team’s training camp in Monaco.
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
‘Crazy’ yen rally is at risk of shattering as soon as Wednesday
Some investors are warning that a yen rally is fragile, as was on show this week when the yen rapidly retraced an advance after Thursday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth figures.
Japan's average life expectancy rises for first time in three years
A decline in COVID-19-caused deaths likely helped boost the average life expectancy for Japanese men and women to rise for the first time in three years in 2023.
The Japanese Olympians looking to shine in Paris
Rim Nakamura, who is attempting to win Japan's first Olympic gold medal in cycling, will be one of the top Japanese athletes to watch at the Paris Games.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan eyes gold — and the future — as Olympic men's soccer campaign begins
Japan midfielder Yu Hirakawa controls the ball during a match against the United States in Kansas City, Kansas, on June 11.

Podcast

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

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

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