author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 28, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Iain Maloney
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2017
'The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia': A look at Okinawa's distant past
On May 15, Japan will mark the 45th anniversary of the return of Okinawa. For 27 years prior, the U.S. administered the islands, a continuous period of occupation that began after the Battle of Okinawa in June 1945. This makes the new translation of Mamoru Akamine's 'The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia' both welcome and timely.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 8, 2017
'By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific since 1783': Timely lessons from history
"By More Than Providence" is an overview of U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific region since 1783. Michael J. Green first examines the rise of the U.S. in this arena from independence to Theodore Roosevelt. He then turns his attention to Japan in the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union during...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 25, 2017
'Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet': Unpacking ancient poetry wars
Teika lived from 1162 to 1241, and was a highly influential Japanese poet. Paul S. Atkins' new study of his work aims to reintroduce him to a non-native audience and to analyze why his verse had such a large impact on the trajectory of Japanese poetics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 18, 2017
'Kappa': Akutagawa's masterpiece blunted by time but still fascinating
Ryunosuke Akutagawa is probably best known outside Japan for "Rashomon" but "Kappa" is considered to be his masterpiece by fans and scholars. Narrated by a "mental patient" and introduced as a tale overheard directly by the author, "Kappa" is a fantastical satire in the "Gulliver's Travels" mold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 18, 2017
'Blue Light Yokohama': Crime fiction that sinks under the weight of its cliches
"Blue Light Yokohama" is optimistically billed as the first in a new crime series. While the plot twists are of the caliber required for successful crime fiction, this debut is riddled with cliches, errors and inconsistencies. Anyone familiar with Japanese culture or crime fiction will struggle to reach...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 4, 2017
Sawako Ariyoshi's 'The River Ki' explores characters who swim against life's current
When we read Japanese history it's easy to forget that the revolutionary changes that washed through the country from the 19th century into the 20th all took place within a single human life span.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 4, 2017
'Pachinko': Min Jin Lee writes the struggle of an ethnic Korean family in Japan
Min Jin Lee's second novel, "Pachinko," charts the fortunes and misfortunes of four generations of a Korean family.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 25, 2017
'A Dark Night's Passing': Naoya Shiga sounds the depths of rootlessness
It takes a brave writer to make their main character as unlikeable as Kensaku Tokito. It is even more startling because Naoya Shiga was consciously writing within the 'I' novel tradition, where the author deliberately draws on their life story for source material.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 11, 2017
'Into a Black Sun: Vietnam 1964-65': Takeshi Kaiko turns his reporting experience into fiction
Journalist Takeshi Kaiko covered the Vietnam War for the Asahi Shimbun, later fictionalizing his experiences in this novel about a Japanese journalist in Saigon and the Vietnamese jungle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 4, 2017
'The Sound of Waves' stands alone in the sea of Yukio Mishima's works
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 4, 2017
'International Relations and the Origins of the Pacific War' draws troubling analogies across history
Ko Unoki's overview of Japanese-U.S. relations from 1853 to 1941 is written for a general reader and as such is easy to read. However, the bulk of the book is disappointing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 28, 2017
'Turning Pages': How magazines reflected the 'new woman' of the 1920s
The Taisho Era (1912-26) was a period of change and opportunity. It saw the birth of the so-called atarashii onna ("new woman") — the socially liberated, modern young woman, previously unseen in Japan. As this inquisitive individual moved into the job market, a number of magazines appeared that were...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 14, 2017
'The Hunting Gun': the story of a tragic love triangle set in postwar Japan
Yasushi Inoue's debut novel, "The Hunting Gun," was published in 1949, a year before he won the Akutagawa Prize for his second novel, "The Bullfight." The story — which adopts a similar structure to Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Rashomon" — consists of three letters sent to Josuke, a married man...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 31, 2016
'Tokyo Poetry Journal': an experimental space for Japan's English-language poets
The third issue of the "Tokyo Poetry Journal" takes music as its central theme and, rather in the manner of the Nobel Committee for Literature, has chosen to blur the lines between poetry and songwriting. The first half of the new volume features song lyrics accompanied by QR codes that, once scanned,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 29, 2016
'Countdown to Pearl Harbor': A different view of Japan's entry into World War II
In "Countdown to Pearl Harbor," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Twomey vividly retells and reappraises the events leading to the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 15, 2016
'Japan Rising': The round-the-world trip that changed Nippon forever
The Iwakura Embassy, led by Foreign Minister Iwakura Tomomi, departed Japan in 1871 on a two-year fact-finding mission around the globe to collect information and expertise. Its aim: turn feudal Japan into a modern industrial nation. The embassy's 108 members sailed east, crossed America, traveled across...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2016
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches: Basho's enduring collection of poetry and travel writing
With only a few words, a Haiku master can paint a picture so vivid it's as if the reader is standing beside them — great travel writers have similar abilities. Matsuo Basho was both.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2016
The epic Japanese fantasy 'Tale of Shikanoko' comes to a bloody close
The final installment of Lian Hearn's "The Tale of Shikanoko" series delivers on the promise of the previous three books, tying up loose ends and dispensing justice on the deserving. Tom Stoppard famously defined tragedy as "the bad end unhappily, the good unluckily," and it would perhaps be more fitting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 3, 2016
'The Pure Land': The story of Thomas Blake Glover, the 'Scottish Samurai'
Thomas Blake Glover, the "Scottish Samurai," arrived in Japan in 1859 and over the next 52 years made and lost more than one fortune. He helped set up Mitsubishi and Kirin, developed shipbuilding and coal-mining in Japan and arranged for the first steam train to be shipped to the country. He also supplied...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 3, 2016
'Lord of the Darkwood': The third book in Lian Hearn's epic fantasy series
In tetralogies, the third book is perhaps the most difficult. A master storyteller, like a chess player, must move their ensemble cast toward an endgame, but the strategy for getting them there should remain obscure to the reader.
Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Ahead of the Olympics, Japan is still talking about the gymnast who won't be there
Japan's Shoko Miyata withdrew from the gymnastics team herself over her drinking and smoking, although it had already appeared as though the association was prepared to send her home from the team’s training camp in Monaco.
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
‘Crazy’ yen rally is at risk of shattering as soon as Wednesday
Some investors are warning that a yen rally is fragile, as was on show this week when the yen rapidly retraced an advance after Thursday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth figures.
Japan's average life expectancy rises for first time in three years
A decline in COVID-19-caused deaths likely helped boost the average life expectancy for Japanese men and women to rise for the first time in three years in 2023.
The Japanese Olympians looking to shine in Paris
Rim Nakamura, who is attempting to win Japan's first Olympic gold medal in cycling, will be one of the top Japanese athletes to watch at the Paris Games.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan eyes gold — and the future — as Olympic men's soccer campaign begins
Japan midfielder Yu Hirakawa controls the ball during a match against the United States in Kansas City, Kansas, on June 11.

Podcast

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

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives
JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER