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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 Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 18, 2018
Heian literature: Is all fair in love and no war?
There's nothing quite like Japan's Heian Period (794-1185). Almost four centuries of peace and a governing aristocracy of culture set it apart.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 11, 2018
Solitude appears to have an image problem in Japan
"Is solitude an illness?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 21, 2018
Learning to live with a vulnerability to violent actions
Nature bursts its bounds. People seethe and erupt.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jul 14, 2018
Japan was slow to drive its pigs to the market
Ancient Japan appears to us as a land of warriors, priests, aristocrats, artists, poets, lovers, peasants — but one group is missing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 7, 2018
Exploring the bare difference between a truth and a lie
"Kill one man, and you're a murderer. Kill millions, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2018
Marriage is not always the bed of roses it's supposed to be
Whenever you read about people doing things you yourself would never dream of doing, you naturally wonder: Is it a warped individual nature that is to blame? Is it the nature of the time, the place, the circumstances?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 16, 2018
Japan's gods: More benevolent than fearsome
The most violent episode in Japanese mythology is the rampage through the Sun Goddess' rice fields by her unruly brother Susano'o, the Storm God.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 9, 2018
Communication difficulties continue to torment Japan
If communication is measurable in terms of number of words, we are the greatest communicators in the history of our species. Question: Who's listening?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 26, 2018
You can't plan for bad luck in the long winter of life
Wisdom is age and age is wisdom. Confucius, summing up his life, said, "At 70 I followed my heart's desire without overstepping the line." It's as good a definition of wisdom as any.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 19, 2018
Watanabe Kazan: Too open-minded for Edo
Imagine living in a 'closed country.' Japan was such for over two centuries, from the anti-Christian hysteria of the 1630s to the incursion in the 1850s of the American 'Black Ships.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 12, 2018
Japan redraws its line in the sand for poverty
If an income of ¥10 million a year can't save you from poverty, what can?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 28, 2018
Confronting the definition of a 'moral education'
How can people be taught to be good? What does "good" mean? "Moral education," the education ministry explains on its website, "aims to develop a Japanese citizen who will never lose the consistent spirit of respect for his fellow man; who will realize this spirit at home, at school and in other actual...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 14, 2018
Japan faces up to the prospect of losing a middle-class war
Modern middle-class life, you could reasonably argue, generates more happiness among more people than any other ever conceived. It has been extravagantly derided — as bourgeois, soulless, spiritless, narrow, boring, mindlessly acquisitive and so on. But back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 14, 2018
Ando Shoeki: He who dared anger the gods
A mind like Shoeki Ando — bold, mischievous, unconventional, borderline crackpot, one might almost say — is worth probing, if only for those qualities, let alone for his ideas, which leave the mainstream so far behind that the word 'evil' has been attached to him.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 31, 2018
Too much of an education could be bad for your future
While school rucksacks in Japan may be getting heavier, the prospects for the over-educated may be getting bleaker.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 24, 2018
World debates what action to take over North Korea
Nine years after then-U.S President Barack Obama committed America to the pursuit of "a world without nuclear weapons," nine months after the U.N. adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and five months after the Nobel Peace Prize Committee conferred one of the world's highest honors...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 17, 2018
Till death do us unite: Japan's dark tales of love
Has ever a civilized people lived in greater intimacy with death than the Japanese?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 10, 2018
Confusing power with powerlessness
"We're all terrified. It's like living in a mass grave." It's an underground shelter. "No water, no food, no ventilation, no toilets. Explosion after explosion. It never stops."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 24, 2018
What's to become of humanity when AI replaces us all?
Humanity is turning a corner. The signpost is marked "AI." Everyone knows what it stands for. Who knows what it means?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Feb 17, 2018
Heroism and the changing state of morality
Every age breeds its own morality. One era's good is another's evil. Today's virtue is tomorrow's vice, today's wisdom tomorrow's stupidity, today's sanity tomorrow's madness.
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.
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.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
Amid same-sex marriage ban, LGBTQ couples opt for 'photo weddings'
A lesbian couple, consisting of a 35-year-old woman (left) and 40-year-old woman, cover their faces with bouquets as they pose for wedding photos in Yokohama on Nov. 1.
China and Russia conduct joint Pacific military patrol
The Russian corvette Gromkiy enters the Chinese port of Zhanjiang as part of a joint China-Russia naval exercise on Saturday.
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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