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December 04, 2024
 

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Damian Flanagan
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 19, 2018
Yasunari Kawabata's 'Dandelions' probes the nature of mental illness
Initially published by Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) in 22 installments between June 1964 and October 1968, and subsequently revised from his notes after his death, 'Dandelions' examines the nature of memory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 12, 2018
Kenzaburo Oe's 'Seventeen and J: Two Novels': 1960s Japan on the brink of social revolution
On the cusp of the 1960s sexual revolution and the anti-Vietnam War movement, 'Seventeen' and 'J' are intriguing primers on the seething social turbulence of the age.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Apr 7, 2018
Lose yourself in 'The Face of Another,' Abe's existentialist fantasy
Losing face and the public humiliation associated with it is something that we all dread but, in Kobo Abe's 1964 fantasy 'The Face of Another,' the metaphorical term is made real.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 2018
Haruki Murakami: Literary lightweight or global superstar?
You know you've made it as an author when there are week-long conferences dedicated to your work that attract scholars, critics and translators from all over the world and which you, the author, do not feel the need to attend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 24, 2018
'Quicksand': A racy transition from old Tanizaki to new
A young lady from Osaka begins to attend an art class and, while painting a picture of the Kannon (the goddess of mercy), substitutes the head for that of a beguiling student. Soon, she is drawn into a complex web of lesbian passion, pitted against the social norms of marriage in a deadly game that will...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2018
The Irish influence on Soseki, a pioneer of Japanese literature
St. Patrick's Day is the time of year when many raise a glass in their local "authentic Irish" pub to Ireland's literary greats, from master satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) to poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013). In Japan too, the dynamic interaction of Ireland and Japan's literary traditions is a rich...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 14, 2018
The Japanese lessons of a 'plastic Paddy'
A Briton of Irish stock finds the 'Irishness' he seeks not on the Emerald Isle itself but in the expat pubs of his adopted land.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 3, 2018
Sowing the seeds of a great Tanizaki biography
Into the world of the familial memoir steps this slim, but fascinating volume titled, 'Remembering Tanizaki Junichiro and Matsuko: Diary Entries, Interview Notes, and Letters, 1954-1989.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 3, 2018
Exploring the leaps and bounds of Japanese feminism
'Rethinking Japanese Feminisms' is a collection of short essays by 15 academics on diverse aspects of gender issues in Japan. Topics range from the androgynous eroticism in the art works of Taisho Era (1912-1926) illustrator Kasho Takabatake to reactions to the enactment of the 1999 Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 31, 2018
1970s Japanese TV series 'Monkey' had a magic that has never been matched
The news that 'Monkey' has been remade by Australia's ABC in a co-production with TV New Zealand and Netflix is likely to cause those in the know to fan two fingers in front of their mouth, Monkey-style, to summon a flying cloud.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / How the visual arts shaped Japan's modern literature
Jan 6, 2018
Yukio Mishima: Saints and seppuku
In March 1937, an official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Azusa Hiraoka, traveled to Europe on government business and acquired some guides to Italian museums.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Dec 9, 2017
'Secret Rendezvous' reveals primeval urge for knowledge and sexual satisfaction
"Secret Rendezvous" opens with an ambulance in the dead of night: The narrator's wife is taken to an underground hospital from which she vanishes. The connections to Franz Kafka's "The Trial" in the absurdist, comical and sinister world of Kobo Abe are unmissable, but Abe characteristically takes his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 2, 2017
Yasunari Kawabata's surrealist window on the world
Opening with one of the most famous lines in Japanese literature — "Emerging from the long border tunnel, they entered snow country," shifting us at speed from the darkness of the tunnel into the bright light of the snow — Yasunari Kawabata's novel "Snow Country" tells of a city-dwelling, worldly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 19, 2017
You're living in Japan — so now for something completely different
In a way, foreign residents who gravitate toward a third culture are simply following in a fine Japanese tradition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 11, 2017
'Hiroshima Notes': Kenzaburo Oe on Hiroshima and the U.S. Occupation
In 1963, 28-year-old novelist and rising star Kenzaburo Oe was sent to Hiroshima to report on the rancorous split between political groups calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / How the visual arts shaped Japan's modern literature
Nov 4, 2017
Natsume Soseki's Pre-Raphaelite dreams
In 1900, the future novelist Natsume Soseki — then a scholar of English literature — arrived in London to commence two years of study abroad. Back in Japan, his best friend, the renowned haiku poet Masaoka Shiki, had — as explained in the first installment of this series — adopted the painterly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 21, 2017
'In Search of the Way': looks for enlightenment
Richard bowring, religion, shinto , Confucianism, China, Shingo Buddhism
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / How the visual arts shaped Japan's modern literature
Sep 30, 2017
How the visual arts shaped Japan's modern literature
Early on in Natsume Soseki's 1908 campus novel "Sanshiro" — one of the most important expositions of the inter-connectedness of visual and literary art ever written — a young scientist, Nonomiya, looks up at a long, thin, white cloud floating diagonally in the sky.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 25, 2017
Buying a house in Japan can be an investment in joy
The 'return' on your investment in a home in Japan is best measured in terms of the pleasure it will yield and the doorway to the intimacies of community and the Japanese mind it will lure you into.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2017
'Devils in Daylight' and 'The Maids': The literary sleuthing of Junichiro Tanizaki
Question: Is it really the case that for a large part of the 20th century Japan enjoyed a golden age of literature? Or is this just misty-eyed nostalgia?
Japan’s 2024 buzzword of the year urges a reevaluation of past norms
Sadao Abe, who played the role of a time-traveling Showa Era teacher transported to present day in a popular TV drama, receives the 2024 buzzword of the year award for the word "futehodo," the nickname of the series.
Princess Aiko, only child of emperor, turns 23
Princess Aiko on Nov. 22 ahead of her 23rd birthday on Sunday at the Imperial Palace
Ishiba questioned on political reform, social issues and the economy
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks in the Lower House in Tokyo on Monday.
Nearly 90% in Japan and China have negative views of other
Chinese people's sentiment toward Japan is believed to be impacted by their use of social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, as well as whether they have visited Japan.
Bear that attacked Akita supermarket employee captured
A brown bear in Hokkaido. In the city of Akita, a bear that attacked a supermarket employee over the weekend was captured in a box trap on Monday morning.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?
The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Europe eyes 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine as possible peace deal option
A serviceman with the Ukrainian Army's 24th mechanized brigade fires a machine gun during an exercise, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the country's Donetsk region on Friday.
Seven strangers and an algorithm: Can this new dinner app help you make friends?
Timeleft uses an algorithm to match its users with five or six strangers in an effort to prompt “human connection” over dinner at a restaurant. It determines the attendees with the help of a simple personality quiz available when you sign up for the service. 
Don’t worry, you can still use your Japan health insurance card — for now
A My Number card reader at a pediatric clinic in Tokyo. While the government will stop issuing new health insurance cards on Monday, most people will remain unaffected by the move in the short term as existing health insurance cards can still be used for another year.
The Geisha bean is the leading lady of Tokyo's coffee scene
Discovered in the 1930s, the Geisha coffee plant came to worldwide fame in the early 2000s and now represents some of the best coffee on the planet — Tokyo's top cafes included.

Podcast

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

Longform

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?
By Tomoko Otake

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