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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
Jul 13, 2013
Gender bending in Japan
Do our genitals define us? Increasingly, they do not. Is sexuality more complicated than male/female? Increasingly, it is.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 6, 2013
Pity the generation that can't retire before 80
"What if my wife and I die? What if we get dementia? How will our son live?"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 30, 2013
Smartphones are killing the art of conversation
If our age is rich in anything, it is, one would think (wrongly), rich in things to talk about. How can anyone nowadays be at a loss for words? What excuse is there for awkward silence? The merest glance at a newspaper furnishes conversational fodder for a lifetime — reminding us, if anyone is in danger...
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 23, 2013
The 'barbarians' were coming — like it or not
'Sonnō jōi!": "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 16, 2013
Occasionally Japan's glass ceiling is smashed
Someday people will look back in astonishment at the way society treated women.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 9, 2013
Scrutinizing identity through one's family
Lucky great-grandfather Julius. This first member of the Helm family to settle in Japan was "as rooted in his German identity as an old oak tree." For his mixed-race descendants, life would not be so simple.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 2, 2013
Society no longer shuns solitary pursuits
"A solitary cloud wafted by the wind." Thus the 17th-century wandering haiku poet Matsuo Basho described himself. Not an ordained priest, he nonetheless wore priestly garb on his journeys and was steeped in the principles of Zen Buddhism, among which solitude ranks high. Japan's days as a Zen country...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 2, 2013
Taking anime too seriously
'Why study anime?' the author of this study of anime asks himself. Good question, thinks the reader. Why indeed 'study' a pop art whose appeal is less to thought than to mass, unreflecting, spontaneous enjoyment?
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 26, 2013
History shows one man's rape is another's wooing
"The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 26, 2013
The rarely, if ever, told story of Japanese sold as slaves by Portuguese traders
The subject of this slim volume is “a series of events that are essential in understanding Japanese history” — events “totally unknown, incredible, and unpleasant to read.”
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 19, 2013
Trimming the fat from Japan's problems
Why do people disagree?
Japan Times
LIFE
May 12, 2013
'Beauty' as beheld in Japan through the ages
In July 2006, Shinzo Abe published a book titled 'Utsukushii Kuni e' ('Toward a Beautiful Country'), but what does he mean by 'beautiful country'?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 5, 2013
The first kiss of death for a single society
Let us pause for a moment to consider ... the kiss.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 28, 2013
Disaster long lurked amid Japan's isolation
"The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 21, 2013
Fearing the worst if Japan joins the TPP
Here is Shukan Josei magazine's nightmare scenario of a typical Japanese salaryman's TPP future, if in fact Japan joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement currently being negotiated among 12 countries. After a genetically-engineered, chemical-drenched breakfast, he hops into his American-made...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 7, 2013
Men cry discrimination as women's status rises
Japan, it seems, is forever discriminating against someone. Women, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, lifestyle minorities, the disabled, part-time workers — all have made claims against a state and a national psychology that define acceptability very narrowly relative to most other developed societies....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 31, 2013
Life is too short for an undesirable satori
The wise have always inveighed against materialism. But most people are not wise, and it remains a material world. The economy dominates the news, an indication of where our strongest interest lies. Our spirits rise or fall with the stock market, the unemployment rate, the value of the yen, the consumer...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 17, 2013
Japan needs to humor its old teacher: China
Is it true, as the American philosopher George Santayana famously remarked just over a century ago, that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"? If it is, is the reverse necessarily false? Imagine he had said — his eye, for example, on the current discord between Japan and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 4, 2013
Tense times in Japan's relationships with its neighbors
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 3, 2013
Solution to bullying lies in 'resetting' culprits
"The biggest problem in Japanese education is the idea that you can eliminate bullying by reforming the system."
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

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

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