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April 11, 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).
CULTURE / Books
May 15, 2011
Natsume Soseki: mining a literary treasure
THEORY OF LITERATURE AND OTHER CRITICAL WRITINGS, by Natsume Soseki. Columbia University Press, 2009, 287 pp., $50 (hardcover) Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) is said to rank among the world's great 20th-century writers. Many consider him Japan's greatest modern novelist. His books, from the comic "I Am a...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 8, 2011
Checking the time on the Doomsday Clock
In 1902, an American science writer named Robert Kennedy Duncan wrote a magazine piece titled "Radio-Activity: A New Property of Matter." Its subject is French physicist Henri Becquerel's discovery, in 1896, of the rays that now bear his name. Duncan's tone is so radiant with hope, so luminous with the...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 2, 2011
Reading between the lines of disaster vocabulary
If you chanced to visit Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s website in mid-April, you probably saw a note regarding the utility's tsunami e no taisaku (津波への対策, tsunami policy). Clearly it had been written in more innocent times. Relax, it said in effect. The policy was iron-clad. It rested on painstaking...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 24, 2011
Office ladies, our fresh-faced saviors
Slowly the nation wakes from its nightmare. Tokyo Disneyland reopens. A semblance of normality returns, at least to areas outside the stricken zone.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 17, 2011
Shining a light on Korean sorrow in Japan
INTO THE LIGHT: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan. Edited by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, 226 pp. $22 (paper) The eight stories in this anthology span nearly 60 years, from 1939, when Korea was a resentful and mutinous Japanese colony, to 1997, when South Korea was...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 10, 2011
'Kan the Destroyer' needs his fire back
In spring 1997, the American news magazine Time published a special issue titled "The New Japan." The subtitle was "A rising generation of risk-takers and rule-breakers is stirring the country from its slumber."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 6, 2011
In a catastrophe, chitsujo serves Japan well
Something so immense has befallen Japan that it almost defies contemplation, let alone expression. It is a watershed event, shattering lives and the ground they are lived on; challenging also one of the unspoken (and unproven) assumptions underlying civilized life — that konton (混沌, chaos) is the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 3, 2011
Renewed national pride will shape Japan's future
Spring dawns on a shattered Japan. "Not since World War II" is a recurring phrase, and no wonder. Mass destruction accompanied by radiation — what other analogy is big enough?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 2, 2011
The language of revolution unspoken in Japan
Mohammed Bouazizi never lived to see the history he made. He was a Tunisian, young, educated and unemployed, and on Dec. 17, out of sheer rage and frustration, he set himself on fire. He died on Jan. 3. He was 26. Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution, seiten no hekireki (晴天の霹靂, a bolt out of the blue,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 27, 2011
Ditching materialism for the simple life
There's a new notion floating around. Perhaps you've heard of it: Danshari. Its three kanji characters signify, respectively, refusal, disposal and separation. Prosaically it means cleaning or tidying up, but there are psychological and religious dimensions, deriving in part from yoga, which suggest...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2011
The trouble with today's youth is nothing new
Here we go again. "Young people," frets Sapio magazine, "are rapidly becoming stupid." They can't read, can't calculate, can't communicate. They have no manners, no ambition, no interest in anything; no consideration for other people, no knowledge of world affairs. New technology enabling instant communication...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Feb 13, 2011
Japan's first pop culture
Pop culture. Japan's today is thriving, vibrant, spreading, turning people the world over into manga/anime freaks and costume players.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Feb 2, 2011
Can their young love survive the reality of life?
"Kimi to kekkon shitai (君と結婚したい, I want to marry you). Hontō ni (本当に, really)."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 30, 2011
The decline and fall of Japan and its sex drive
Only our descendants will know for sure, but we may be witnessing something not seen in the world since the slow demise of ancient Egypt — a nation expiring of natural causes. Nations, unlike people, are potentially immortal. When they die, it's usually violently. Japan may make history by its manner...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Jan 5, 2011
Dairokkan: sixth sense among the cedars
"When these sugi (杉, cedars) were umareta (生まれた, born), if that's the word," says Mayumi, "Japan was in its Jōmon Jidai (縄文時代, Jomon Period, c. 10,000 B.C.-c. 300 B.C.). Before bunmei (文明, civilization), before nōgyō (農業, agriculture), before sensō (戦争, war) — before...
JAPAN / Media
Dec 26, 2010
Somehow we survived a very explosive 2010
In April, much of the world ground to a halt.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 19, 2010
Marriage: A royal pain in the heart
Some outmoded institutions live on as anachronisms because enduring qualities in them continue to appeal to people. Royalty is one example. Marriage is another. Royal marriage? Well, naturally.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2010
Privacy is losing its very meaning
Words come and words go. Times change, language evolves.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Dec 1, 2010
Kako ni kampai — let's drink to the past!
"Omedetō, omedetō (おめでとう, congratulations)! A superb kōgi (講義, lecture)! Daiseikō (大成功, a rousing success!) Welcome back, Professor Keyes!"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 21, 2010
Tossing our leaders to the lions
In Tokugawa days (1603-1867), criticizing the government was a capital offense. Rulers, not only in Japan but the world over, expected to be — and generally were — not only obeyed but revered, sometimes as gods, sometimes as beings only slightly less exalted. "God," wrote the French bishop and political...
Takayasu’s latest heartbreak makes sumo history
Takayasu during the one-day Annual Sumo Tournament at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on Feb 9, 2020
Trump's tariff gambit leaves Asia stunned and scrambling
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he attends the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington on Tuesday. Trump allowed new tariffs — including a 24% levy on Japan — to go into effect as scheduled on Wednesday.
Tokyo cheers Trump’s tariff U-turn with second-biggest market gain ever
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday in Washington.
Banks freeze withdrawals for foreign nationals upon expiration of visas
Foreign residents who fail to renew their residential statuses before their expiry may find that they won’t be able to withdraw cash from their bank accounts.
Japanese badminton ace Shida blasts 'stalker' Chinese fans
Chiharu Shida of Japan in action during the bronze medal match with Nami Matsuyama against Pearly Tan and Muralitharan Thinaah of Malaysia at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France on Aug. 03, 2024
Who is Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's tariffs negotiator?
Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa, who Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has appointed Japan's tariff negotiator, is one of his closest allies and busiest ministers.
After a tumultuous buildup, a first look at the Osaka Expo
A large statue of Osaka Expo mascot Myaku Myaku sits near the east entrance of the event's venue in Yumeshima island, Osaka, on Wednesday.
Japan gets a new U.S. ambassador — and he has his work cut out for him
George Glass, U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to be ambassador to Japan, attends a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing in Washington on March 13.
Online art scene eager to go offline, at least for the moment
Digital artist Polygon1993 revels in the physicality of nostalgic technology, making art out of materials such as miniature CDs, holographic prints layered with plexiglass shards and a giant custom-made floppy disk.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.

Podcast

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

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
By Alex K.T. Martin

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