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July 16, 2024
 

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Michael Hoffman

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Michael Hoffman
Michael Hoffman is a fiction and nonfiction writer who has lived in Hokkaido by the sea almost as long as he can remember. He has been contributing regularly to The Japan Times for 10 years. His latest novel is "The Naked Ear" (VBW/Blackcover Books, 2012).
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 20, 2014
Can simplicity survive contact with complexity?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 13, 2014
Women express pride in remaining a virgin
"The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2014
The Journey
On most lists of great 20th-century Japanese writers, Jiro Osaragi's name does not figure. He was popular and respected in his own day (1898-1973), mostly as a writer of historical fiction, but literary immortality has eluded him. So?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 30, 2014
Tokyo's robotic eyes are everywhere
You are not alone.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 23, 2014
The well-off families who are feeling unwell
We're not living right. It's obvious, though whose fault it is may not be, and what to do about it is certainly not.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2014
The Nobility of Failure
Who hasn't at one time or another suspected that failure is nobler than success? Here the late British historian Ivan Morris celebrates Japanese heroes who refused to make the tawdry compromises success all too often demands. They fail, but fail gloriously, reaping the posthumous reward of deathless...
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 16, 2014
The awakening of a nation permanently at peace
There's something to be said for national isolation. Peace, for example. The very few foreigners allowed into Japan during its 250-odd years of almost total seclusion, from the early 17th century to the mid-19th, were awed by the spectacle of a nation permanently at peace.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 9, 2014
Ah, vaginas! In defense of taboos
Two words have been let loose on society by an artist who, for better or worse, may find the rest of her life and career inextricably bound up with them, "vagina" being one and "taboo" the other. The artist herself needs no introduction. She is (or briefly was) the most famous woman in Japan, thanks...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 26, 2014
Is Japan sinking further into 'Aum-ification'?
The world — this insignificant little spinning rock we call home — is nearing its end. Armageddon lies ahead: violence, upheaval, horror. The normal human mind shrinks from the mere thought, but "higher consciousness" embraces it. Higher consciousness sees things in a wider perspective. Where...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jul 26, 2014
Long, Long Autumn Nights: Selected Poems of Oguma Hideo, 1901-1940
Some truths only a poet can utter. "Oh, God! / Give me talent / For insult and profanation / To revile You / and my enemies!"
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 19, 2014
'Leaving the world' to gain freedom
A challenge: Scan Japanese history in search of freedom fighters. You won't find many. Not freedom but submission was the proud Japanese ideal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 12, 2014
The high cost of peace and quiet
Peace and quiet! How rare it is, how precious. Why rare? Because a full-blooded modern economy is no monastery, no "ancient pond" into which a frog may jump, producing the hushed "sound of water" immortalized by the haiku poet Basho (1644-94).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 28, 2014
A life of lettuce has its benefits
Lettuce. Let us raise a glass to lettuce.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 28, 2014
When a physical wasteland bred a moral wasteland
He lived by fire and he died by fire. He was vile — coldblooded, amoral, ruthless. He was the man his time called for, and the man his time called forth — a vile time, by most standards. Its name is Sengoku Jidai, a period of prolonged civil war. Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) is its most representative...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 21, 2014
Advances in robotics present singular worry
'Singularity' is an odd word. Originally it meant peculiarity. Then 20th-century physicists got hold of it and situated it at the very boundary of space-time, to the eternal bafflement of the lay mind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 7, 2014
Japan's salarymen are bored to tears
It seems odd to be talking about boredom in such interesting times. Are you bored? Almost certainly you are, if Spa! magazine's insights are reliable. Polling 2,052 mid-career (age 35-45), moderately prosperous (annual income ¥4 million-¥6 million) businessmen (sic, men only), it found no fewer...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 24, 2014
Will Japan be a country that welcomes all?
"A nation of immigrants." Japan? The leading proponent of that vision has been Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, current executive director of the private think tank he founded in 2007, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 17, 2014
'Japan is back' but small business isn't
The old Japan is dying. Is a new Japan being born?
JAPAN / History
May 17, 2014
Wrong to judge early imperialist Japan too harshly?
"Korea turned out to be this nice, laid-back place..."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 10, 2014
Convenience stores give our nation pride
Japan's prime minister is an unabashed patriot, as outspoken in his love for his country as in his desire to instill that love in his compatriots. Are his compatriots receptive? Opinion polls on attitudes toward pending revisions of long-standing interpretations of the pacifist Constitution, prologue...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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