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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 / 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...
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."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 17, 2013
Hiding from strangers in the global village
In his 1993 novel "Hanauzumi," Junichi Watanabe pictures a prosperous farming village in Saitama. The year is 1868. The Meiji Restoration has just occurred. The shogun has been overthrown. The teenage Emperor Meiji has been conveyed from the ancient imperial capital of Kyoto and installed in Tokyo. Great...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 10, 2013
The evolution of Japan's turn away from Confucian ideas
'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,” writes political thought scholar Hiroshi Watanabe of the University of Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 4, 2013
'Abenomics' will either make or break Japan's economy
This story is concerned with money, vast sums of it, amounts quite beyond most people's imagination. The operative word is chu014d (u5146, trillion).
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 3, 2013
Constitutional revision may bring less freedom
Article 18 of Japan's Constitution states, "No person shall be held in bondage of any kind. Involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, is prohibited."
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.
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.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

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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