author

 
Menu
Search
 
April 11, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Michael Hoffman

Meta

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).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
May 6, 2009
A legal lesson: Taking on the (school) system
"Reiko, this is so unlike you! (Reiko-chan-rashikunai, レイコちゃんらしくない)."
LIFE
Apr 26, 2009
A literary loner
In Tokyo and even in the Occident, I have known almost no society except that of courtesans. — Nagai Kafu There's not much left of Kafu today. Among the major Japanese writers of the early 20th century, he scarcely ranks as a survivor. Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki are the...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Apr 1, 2009
Being a sukebe na sensei is tougher than it looks
"Why don't you get a divorce? (早く離婚したら, Hayaku rikon shitara?)."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Mar 4, 2009
Mothers-in-law: Our place or an ubasuteyama?
Wonderful, wonderful! Outside, the world as we know it is on the brink of collapse, but here in my study it is snug and warm; my books surround me, the coffee is hot and fresh . . .
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 22, 2009
Refuge . . . of a sort
The main character of the one-act play that follows is loosely based on the few known facts concerning a Russian nobleman-refugee named Semyon Nikolaevitch Smirnitsky. Born in St. Petersburg in 1879, Smirnitsky fled the Russian Revolution in 1919 and spent the rest of his life in Japan, mostly in Otaru,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Feb 4, 2009
Offensive compliments: A drinker's sober lesson
Of all the stupid, idiotic . . . sumimasen. Stuart Keyes is my name. I'm not in the best of moods, though you mustn't judge me by that. I'm good-humored enough most of the time, but . . .
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 7, 2009
Modern childhood holds many a lesson for adults
The reader is invited to accompany me on a trip (return, not one-way) to second childhood. Those of us who learned Japanese as adults missed out, after all, on a vast store of linguistic experience. Is it irretrievable? Maybe not. The child's world is laid out in children's books. Leave your adulthood...
LIFE / Lifestyle / 2008 MEDIA ROUND-UP
Dec 28, 2008
Making sense of the strange changes of 2008
Every year, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation selects a "kanji of the year." This year's is "hen," meaning "change" or, equally, "strange, peculiar."
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 14, 2008
Mystery shrouds the ancient Oshoro circle
In 1861 at Oshoro, southwestern Hokkaido, a party of herring fishermen, migrants from Honshu, were laying the foundation for a fishing port when they saw taking shape beneath their shovels a mysterious spectacle — a broad circular arrangement of large rocks, strikingly symmetrical, evidently man-made....
LIFE
Dec 14, 2008
Progress, and war, arrive
Terrified of death, having inflicted it on many, the Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang (259-210 B.C.) sent his court sage, Xu Fu, across the eastern seas in quest of the elixir of eternal life. Xu Fu's 60 ships, carrying (says one version) 3,000 virgin boys and girls, left port in 210 B.C., never to return....
LIFE
Dec 14, 2008
Stone Age Japan
This story spans 10,000 years, yet presents few recognizable individuals. Here's one:
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 18, 2008
Keeping a close eye on the neighborhood news
You can live for years in a major city without knowing such a thing exists, but in more tranquil, less distracted settings, an unexpected ring of the doorbell as likely as not signals a neighbor bringing the kairanban (回覧板), an irregularly circulated newsletter put out by the local neighborhood...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008
Cipangu's landlocked isles
Thirteenth-century Japan has this in common with early 19th-century Japan: a land culture paying scant heed to the sea until the sea, as though in outrage, rises up and compels attention.
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008
Japan's sea view through the ages, in poetry, prose and plain speaking
At Tafushi Cape / Those gracious men of the court / gather seaweed. — "Manyoshu" (7th century)
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008
Was the 'Japanese Renaissance' lost at sea?
Last week, Japan celebrated Umi no Hi (Marine Day). First observed as a national holiday in 1996, Marine Day marks the anniversary of the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido on July 20, 1876.
LIFE
May 25, 2008
Sonoko
"You're a strange girl!" muttered my mother, shaking her head.
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007
One missionary's 'swamp' is another's 'religion allergy' challenge
"For 20 years I labored in the mission. The one thing I know is that our religion does not take root in this country."
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007
Japan's 'Hidden Christians'
"It is 12:30 p.m. in Nagasaki, on March 17, 1865. Father Bernard Petitjean, a priest of the French Societe des Missions Etrangeres, hears a noise at the back door of his little chapel. On opening he is surprised to find a group of 15 middle-aged Japanese men and women — surprised because all native-...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007
From Bliss to blood
Some scholars say Japan's Christian history began long before the so-called "Christian century" (1549-c.1640). Their claim takes us all the way back to 7th- and 8th-century Nara, where Nestorian Christians from Persia are said to have built churches, operated a leper hospital and even converted the Empress...
LIFE / Language
Dec 4, 2007
Translating full of judgment calls, compromises
Second of two parts
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER