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April 08, 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 Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 19, 2021
The prince and the prophet
Their paths may be different, but the devotion to God and gods that two men display in different parts of the world changes the religious landscapes of both.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 11, 2021
What is happiness? These individuals appear to have found the answer.
Personal anecdotes suggest that happiness is a private pleasure, something that can be best enjoyed away from the chaos of the world outside.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 4, 2021
Education ministry seeks to iron out wrinkles over school history syllabus
“Modern global history” is to be made a compulsory subject in senior high schools in Japan from 2022.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 21, 2021
Loyalty before love in the tales of Saikaku’s samurai
A group of travelers comes to a river and must decide whether or not to cross. Scornful of danger, the young lord among them proceeds u2026 and samurai politics soon come into play.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 20, 2021
Yukar: The timeless oral tales that are our window on Ainu life
Civilization overwhelmed Japan's indigenous population about 100 years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 6, 2021
Does Japan breed leaders? Does it even need to?
A panel of four men at the tops of their fields discusses what it means to be a leader and comes to the conclusion that Japan doesn't necessarily breed them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 17, 2021
Saikaku pens five tales to inspire lovers in the Edo Period
Born in the mid-17th century, during the earlier days of the Edo Period, novelist Ihara Saikaku explored love in 'Five Women Who Loved Love.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 16, 2021
When the boss starts behaving like a dictator
Like a political dictator, the corporate tyrant sets things up to stay in power, according to experts. They suppress the talented and reward those who are loyal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 2, 2021
Seeing the past two years through a child’s eyes
The decade is off to a rocky start, what kind of an effect is this having on younger children and the way they process current affairs?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 22, 2021
The first chapter in a long tale of Japanese romance
From the coupling of gods to form Japan to a female samurai dying on the battlefield, stories of love have always been intertwined with history.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 18, 2021
A look at the state of our intestinal health delivers a real gut punch
The perfect body — you can't escape it in the media. Some articles on the body's imperfections, particularly of the digestive sort, point out what we should be talking about more.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 4, 2021
What makes a funny joke? Only time can really tell.
Humor has been used throughout history to alleviate the pain we feel in dealing with real-life calamities. However, at what point to the jokes themselves become the agents of harm?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 22, 2021
A tradition built on faith is put out to sea
In 1565, a temple abbot sets out on a journey at the age of 61 as is expected of him. Alone, he goes berserk and alters a tradition.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 21, 2021
Staying optimistic about the state of the world can be positively challenging
Some see the glass as half empty, but do those who see it as half full really have an advantage over them? Or are they simply caught off guard when bad things happen?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 7, 2021
The Japanese don’t sleep on trains because it’s safe — they’re exhausted!
Surveying 500 businesspeople aged 20 to 69, President found that 74.2% claimed to have trouble sleeping. This puts them at risk of exhaustion, depression, cancer and dementia.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 18, 2021
Teach a nation to write and the classics will follow
An era of “great reform” sees Japan introduced to the wonders of Chinese literature and, not so long after, produce its own masterpiece in the “Manyoshu.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 17, 2021
Time to ourselves is both a curse and a blessing
The wave of loneliness that afflicts modern Japan continues, but an athlete from Myanmar sends a warning not to take what we have for granted.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 3, 2021
Japan’s teachers are fed up with staying after school
The Japanese education system, once the envy of the West, is no longer getting the support it used to according to teachers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 20, 2021
One era’s eccentrics are another’s model citizens
Would an outcast from the Heian Period feel more at home in the Edo Period? Or are there general characteristics that unites any society's eccentrics?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 19, 2021
Read the ones about the priest, the comedian and the ostrich?
Three individuals feel they need to make a change, and laughter helps them through it.
Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
Nikkei plunges in third-biggest daily loss ever amid Trump tariff concerns
Pedestrians stand in front of an electronic board showing the numbers of the Nikkei Stock Average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in the Japanese capital on Monday.
Ride-hailing services spreading in Japan
Vehicles used for ride-hailing services in the city of Kiryu, in Gunma Prefecture
Japan digs deep to address 'national crisis' caused by Trump tariffs
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on April 1. He has said that Japan is facing a "national crisis" following the introduction of new tariffs by the United States.
'Hang tough, it won't be easy': Trump defiant on tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he walks to deliver remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled "Make America Wealthy Again" at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
‘Let’s make it practical’: NATO chief eyes greater defense-industrial ties with Japan
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte plans to visit Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday — his first to the Indo-Pacific region since taking office in October, as he seeks to implement lessons from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
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.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.

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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