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April 04, 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
Nov 16, 2020
A charm offensive in the Yoshiwara pleasure district
Life in the pleasure district was fun, if you were capable of mustering up the right amount of charm.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 14, 2020
Japan’s rocky road to gender parity
Japan’s road to gender parity is rocky and potholed. Aera magazine this month chronicles a stumbling, faltering journey.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 31, 2020
Together or alone? Yukichi Fukuzawa’s 19th-century template for beating COVID-19
Influential Japanese writer may provide an example of the virtues needed to outlast the pandemic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 17, 2020
Japan and Russia: The chivalrous war erupts
A key figure in the Russo-Japanese War, Gen. Maresuke Nogi was both a soldier and a poet.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 17, 2020
A brave new world after COVID-19 subsides?
The future alone can unveil its secrets — in its own time.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 3, 2020
COVID-19 accelerates the irritation in society we all feel
“If a married couple can't get along in a pandemic, who can?”
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Sep 19, 2020
Japan and Russia: Sharing a view of the West
There are striking affinities between Japan and Russia, noticeable even before either country was fully aware of the other.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 19, 2020
Despite pandemic, some individuals are living ordinary lives
While enormous things are currently happening in the world, we shouldn't altogether lose sight of the small things either.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 5, 2020
Trust and truth go hand in hand in a troubled year
COVID-19's most visible symbol is the mask, but 85 of 100 doctors surveyed by Shukan Gendai say masks are unnecessary in open outdoor spaces.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2020
Japan’s office worker struggles to adjust to a 'new normal'
It's tough to sing the company song at daily morning meetings wearing a mask.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 15, 2020
War ends and humanity remains resilient
Chaos, destruction u2026 humanity endures and yet, we seem stuck in repeating the same mistakes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 8, 2020
COVID-19 pandemic tests our resolve to be self-disciplined
Exercising self-control in an environment that allows more freedom is more difficult than you think.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 25, 2020
Go To Travel campaign stirs anxieties outside Tokyo
in some areas, out-of-prefecture motorists have been pelted with rocks and intimidated by reckless driving.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 18, 2020
A thousand years of walking through Japan
The act of walking was one that Saigyo, Basho and Matsuo turned into poetry.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 11, 2020
COVID-19 pulls the rug out from under workers' feet
And that may not be the worse thing that could happen to them.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 27, 2020
COVID-19 pandemic has left us all feeling a little overwhelmed
When the internet sits in judgment on perceived violators of unwritten laws, its standards tend to be those of a technologized lynch mob.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 20, 2020
Leaving the Heian: A sexual revolution in reverse
Japan's Heian Period courtiers displayed an attitude to sex unmatched in other societies of the day.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 13, 2020
What constitutes nothingness? The answer could drive you insane
If we assume that everything is something, then nothing is in fact nothing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 30, 2020
COVID-19 reminds us what everyday words such as 'viral' really mean
Will the global pandemic prompt us into changing the way we speak?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 16, 2020
Disasters like COVID-19 bring us together — if we let them
Communities might have rallied behind each other in the face of the calamitous earthquakes in 1995 and 2011, but the new coronavirus pandemic has spurred a response that is more about self-preservation than helping others in need.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
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.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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