Hugh Cortazzi - The Japan Times

November 22, 2024

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Hugh Cortazzi

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Hugh Cortazzi

Hugh Cortazzi was posted to British Commonwealth Air Forces in Japan in 1946, and he joined the British Foreign (later diplomatic) service in 1949. After retiring, he worked in the city of London and was an adviser to a number of Japanese companies. He was chairman of the council of the Japan Society from 1985-1995. Since 1983 he has researched and written a number of books about Japanese culture and history and has edited and compiled a series of books on personalities active in Anglo-Japanese relations.

COMMENTARY

Sep 8, 2006

Recovery from failed policy

LONDON -- Some U.S. and British politicians argue that to tackle terrorism effectively human rights must be subject to increasing limitations. In wartime Britain (1939-45), human rights were curtailed and some innocent people were locked up. The British accepted this at the time as necessary to combat...

COMMENTARY

Aug 26, 2006

Politicians in fantasyland

LONDON -- Our leaders would do well to reread "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll. If they can suppress their vanity for a moment, they should recognize that they have much in common with the White Queen. When Alice declares that "one can't believe impossible things," the queen retorts...

CULTURE / Books

Aug 20, 2006

Japan: Never quite closed and still opening now

THE OPENING OF JAPAN 1853-1855: A Comprehensive Study of the American, British, Dutch and Russian Naval Expeditions to Compel the Tokugawa Shogunate to Conclude Treaties and Open Ports to Their Ships, by William McOmie. Folkestone: Global Oriental, 505 pp., 2006, £65 (cloth). The assertion that Commodore...

COMMENTARY

Aug 3, 2006

Blair is wrong on Lebanon

LONDON -- Opinion polls show that a large majority of Britons believe that the British government should have sided with the U.N. secretary general and other countries in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. There is also increasing disquiet in Britain at the way Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly...

COMMENTARY

Jul 27, 2006

Pols undermining Britain's civil service

LONDON -- The British civil service has prided itself on being politically neutral in providing unbiased advice to ministers. It has also largely avoided being corrupted by political cronyism. Sadly these traditions are being undermined by British politicians.

COMMENTARY

Jul 3, 2006

A public-relations disaster

LONDON -- Politicians and officials are sometimes their countries' worst enemies. Some politicians and officials behave ineptly and tactlessly in ways that damage the national interests of their country.

CULTURE / Books

Jun 25, 2006

A love forbidden can never be forgotten

KAWADA RYOKICHI -- JEANNIE EADIE'S SAMURAI: The Life and Times of a Meiji Entrepreneur and Agricultural Pioneer, by Andrew Cobbing and Masataro Itami. Global Oriental, 2006, 288 pp., £35 (cloth). FALLING BLOSSOM: A British Officer's Enduring Love for a Japanese Woman, by Peter Pagnamenta and Momoko...

COMMENTARY

Jun 15, 2006

Soccer, flags and nationalism

LONDON -- All over England, on houses, cars and vans, you will see the cross of St. George waving in the wind. Prime Minister Tony Blair has been persuaded that the English flag should be flown at his residence on days when the English team are playing in the World Cup.

COMMENTARY

Jun 12, 2006

Needed: new energy sources

LONDON -- Naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough used to be skeptical about how far climate change could be ascribed to human actions. He has now declared he is convinced that what we are doing or failing to do has had seriously damaging effects on the climate, and he has been demonstrating...

COMMENTARY

May 12, 2006

Fixing the freedom to move

LONDON -- Recent marches in the United States by Latin Americans calling for some 12 million illegal immigrants to be given the right to reside and work in "the land of the free" are the most striking manifestation of a problem that affects every advanced country, although the issue is disguised in Japan....

COMMENTARY

Apr 27, 2006

Has Japan changed for better?

LONDON -- Some people complain that Japanese society has deteriorated with the ending of the lifetime employment system and the replacement of seniority-based promotion systems with ones based on performance.

CULTURE / Books

Apr 23, 2006

Ronald Searle's sketchbook of prisoner-of-war horrors

TO THE KWAI -- AND BACK: War Drawings 1939-1945, by Ronald Searle. Souvenir Press, 2006, 208 pp., £25 (cloth). Ronald Searle, one of the ablest and most famous British cartoonists, and the creator of the girls of "St. Trinians" strip, was a prisoner of war of the Japanese from February 1942 to August...

COMMENTARY

Apr 20, 2006

Scandals over political funding

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has recently been accused of "selling" peerages that give the holder the right to a seat in the House of Lords, Britain's Upper House, which is not elected. The police have reportedly begun investigations into these allegations, which if proven...

COMMENTARY

Apr 13, 2006

Polish Japan's image abroad

LONDON -- Japan's image abroad ought to be better than it is. The Japanese economy has largely recovered. Reform continues. Democratic processes are working. Japanese educational standards and technical abilities are admired. Each of these statements can and no doubt should be qualified, but the overall...

COMMENTARY

Mar 16, 2006

How effective is local rule?

LONDON -- An elected representative cannot consult all constituents on every issue of importance and, in theory, at least should vote according to his own conscience. If electors are dissatisfied, they can turn him or her out at the next general election.

COMMENTARY

Mar 8, 2006

Can monarchical systems survive?

LONDON -- Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has recently claimed that his copyright was infringed by a popular newspaper that printed extracts from his diary about the handover of power in Hong Kong in 1998. The diary revealed the prince' distaste for the Chinese leaders whom he described as...

COMMENTARY

Feb 20, 2006

The 'freedom' to disrespect

LONDON -- The furor over cartoons published in a Danish paper last September mocking Islam has not yet ended. One was of the prophet Muhammad wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, implying that Islam was a terrorist organization. Muslims were outraged because they saw a false image of Islam conveyed...

COMMENTARY

Feb 3, 2006

Avoiding energy ultimatums

LONDON -- The recent break in energy supplies to Georgia after a natural gas pipeline and power pylons were blown up inside Russia near the border with Georgia came during a bitter cold wave, causing considerable hardship and the risk of death from hypothermia for some.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jan 29, 2006

Understanding, visiting and living in North Korea

NORTH KOREA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: An interpretative Guide, by J.E. Hoare and Susan Pares. Global Oriental, 2005, 253 pp., including index, references/bibliography, b/w illustrations, £14.95 (paper). Jim Hoare opened the British Embassy in Pyongyang in 2001 and was the first British diplomat and charge...

COMMENTARY

Jan 19, 2006

Still plagued by sleazy politics

LONDON -- There is understandably a great deal of cynicism about politicians in every country. Their reputation is probably now lower than that of any other profession because they have so often been exposed as liars and/or as corrupt.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.

A boom for business tourism in Japan?

By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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