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April 17, 2025
 

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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 / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 8, 2014
Determining good and evil, with the kids
What is "moral education"?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 8, 2014
Zen and Japanese Culture
This is one of those books you read to the last page without ever finishing; you keep going back for more — and finding it.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 25, 2014
The romantic notion of rural relocation
Yu Iwamoto began adult life working in the slums, refugee camps and precarious schools of Afghanistan. Had he even heard, back then, of the Oki Islands off the coast of Shimane Prefecture?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2014
From Race to Ethnicity
The first known Japanese in Hawaii were shipwrecked fishermen circa 1806, unwitting forerunners of a diaspora they can scarcely have imagined.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 18, 2014
Getting to the heart of Murasaki's 'Tale of Genji'
"If any society in the world can be described as unique," wrote historian Ivan Morris, "it is that of Heian Kyo in the time of Murasaki Shikibu."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 11, 2014
The horrific act that connects Islamic State to a few Japanese schoolchildren
Beheadings. Dismemberings. The world is turning into a horror movie.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 27, 2014
Tales from the city show cracks in the system
Why are people unhappy? Think back to just about any historical period you like, from the remote past to times within living memory; imagine people then looking at us now and saying, "How dare you be unhappy? You haven't earned the right!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Sep 27, 2014
Japan — A short Cultural History
If there's room in your life for just one general history of Japan, let this be the one. In the hands of a master, history becomes art. British scholar-diplomat Sir George Bailey Sansom (1883-1965) was such a master.
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 / 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 you...
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).
In a first, Japan issues cease-and-desist order against Google
The Google logo is seen at the company's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Japanese authorities on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order to Google over an alleged violation of the country's anti-monopoly law.
Japan to give India E5 and E3 shinkansen for free
A rendering of East Japan Railway's E10 series of bullet trains
China’s new bridge-forming barges offer new options for Taiwan invasion
This satellite image taken on March 25 shows three Chinese barges connected via extendable bridges in waters off Zhanjiang, in southern China's Guangdong province. Experts say the new barges could be used to land heavy equipment and thousands of personnel in a possible invasion of Taiwan.
Four arrested over obscene AI images in Japan first
The suspects used free AI software to create images of naked adult women, who do not exist in the real world, using prompts that included terms such as "legs open," according to NHK.
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
Privacy and transparency clash in debate over bill on artificial insemination
Sachiko Ishizuka, who was born via artificial insemination by donor (AID), tells her story to lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on April 9.
Why Ishiba became the first prime minister to hold talks with Rengo in 16 years
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Japanese Trade Union Confederation chief Tomoko Yoshino in a meeting Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office
In a first, Japan issues cease-and-desist order against Google
The Google logo is seen at the company's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Japanese authorities on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order to Google over an alleged violation of the country's anti-monopoly law.
Sumo's throwback regional tours offer glimpse into sport's heart and history
Kirishima (behind) battles Atamifuji during a regional tour event in Hyogo Prefecture in 2023.
China’s new bridge-forming barges offer new options for Taiwan invasion
This satellite image taken on March 25 shows three Chinese barges connected via extendable bridges in waters off Zhanjiang, in southern China's Guangdong province. Experts say the new barges could be used to land heavy equipment and thousands of personnel in a possible invasion of Taiwan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

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