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November 22, 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 Times
LIFE
Jan 28, 2007
The Courtship
Insight, fate and human frailties intermingle in this love story for winter from the pen of MICHAEL HOFFMAN
LIFE / Language
Jan 23, 2007
Translations blunted by discarded 'somethings'
One of the great pleasures of life in a country not your own is savoring its literature in the original language.
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006
A man in the soul of Japan
This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006
Confucius and his 'golden age'
Is what Confucius said true? Can music, poetry and decorum govern the world? Do rulers, by cultivating benevolence in themselves, plant benevolence in their subjects, and harmony in the polity?
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006
East and West echo the sage: 'The ideal society is like a family'
This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 30, 2006
On the road to . . .
"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, . . . Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages . . . ''
Japan Times
Features
Jan 29, 2006
Cultures combined in the mists of time
Adopt "a correct view of history," China and South Korea demand of Japan. Fair enough. We can all agree on the merits of a "correct view" of anything. The difficulty is to define "correct.''
Features
Sep 25, 2005
Shinobazu Pond
"Listen," said Nishizawa-san.
Japan Times
Features
Dec 26, 2004
Men or monkeys in 2004?
A year is a novel that writes itself. The plot may be incoherent and the main characters disappointing, but the overall effect never fails to be riveting.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003
Face to face from worlds far apart
The miracle is no blood was shed. On the contrary, the Americans and the Japanese rather liked each other. That too is something of a miracle.
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2003
Shaking off the shogun's shackles
"The world is wider than we can imagine," said the novelist Iharu Saikaku (1642-93). It's a pregnant thought under a regime doing its utmost to narrow the world. A contemporary of Basho's, Saikaku shows us a restlessness of spirit quite different from the monkish poet's. "There's nothing," declared Saikaku,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2003
Moon over Matsushima
"God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse . . ."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 30, 2003
Lock & key
KAZUYOSHI UEHARA -- not the Kazuyoshi Uehara -- rang the doorbell. He sensed a pause, a hesitation, an interrupted action -- his imagination no doubt -- and tensed slightly as approaching footsteps grew audible.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 2, 2003
The lady explorer who took a native interest in Hokkaido
"Mori is a large, ramshackle village . . . a wild, dreary-looking place with a number of . . . disreputable characters . . . a forlorn, decayed place." Yubetsu "looks like the end of all things, as if loneliness and desolation could go no farther."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 2, 2003
The Great North
"It is Japan, but yet there is a difference somehow.'' -- Isabella Bird, 1878
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002
Love in a lovelorn land
Once upon a time, at a temple where homeless families were sheltering after a fire, a girl and a boy fell in love. Months passed. The burned-out neighborhood was rebuilt. The lovers were separated. Oh, misery! Oh, fleeting, unreal world!
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002
Did Plato's Republic find a spiritual home in Japan?
Four hundred and two years ago this week, a battle was fought near the village of Sekigahara, 40 km northwest of Nagoya. Though short -- it was over soon after lunchtime -- the battle was decisive, ushering in . . . Plato's Republic?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2002
The unbearable enlightenment of being
Bells. Lights. The sound of -- an earthquake? Galloping horses? No -- I'm oriented now. It's monks running through the corridors.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2002
All and nothing
"Just so, Subhuti, I obtained not the least thing from unexcelled, complete awakening, and for this very reason it is called 'unexcelled, complete awakening.' "
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2002
Quiet after Otaru onsen storm
OTARU, Hokkaido -- Otaru Onsen Osupa is not a natural setting for the airing of great issues. It is a faded child's-birthday-cake of a building on a windswept highway skirting the Sea of Japan, some 5 km from the center of town. In the lobby are game machines and a fruit stall. Upstairs, last Thursday...
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.

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