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July 28, 2024
 

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Iain Maloney
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Aug 13, 2016
Forbidden Colours
Written in 1951 and translated into English in 1968, the title of "Forbidden Colours" represents taboo desires and beliefs, most notably homosexuality and misogyny. Shunsuke is an aging writer whose vile views on women are given the opportunity for physical manifestation in Yuichi, a gorgeous young gay...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 6, 2016
The Long Defeat
In "The Long Defeat," Akiko Hashimoto explores how Japan's World War II loss has been remembered. More sociologist than historian, she does this by looking beyond political speeches and newspaper editorials and examines how memories manifest in the media, in classrooms and in the home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2016
'When I Whistle': A tale from the war between the spiritual and material
In Endo Shusaku's 1974 novel "When I Whistle," businessman Ozu recalls his youth in the days before World War II, after he happens to meet an old friend. Meanwhile, his doctor son, Eiichi, is ruthlessly advancing his career through dishonesty and some highly immoral medical practices. The novel moves...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 2, 2016
'A Quiet Place': One of Japan's great crime writers turns pale
Celebrated crime writer Seicho Matsumoto penned hundreds of works in his lifetime but so far only a handful have made it into English, which means the publication of a new novel should be cause for celebration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 25, 2016
'The Company and the Shogun': A different side to the Dutch East India Co.
"The Company and the Shogun" is an absorbing book about the relationship between Dutch traders in Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate during the 17th century. Rather than providing an overview of the period, author Adam Clulow focuses on a handful of flashpoints where the Dutch East India Co. (VOC) and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 18, 2016
Lian Hearn's newest fantasy brings "Game of Thrones"-style intrigue to ancient Japan
The second book in "The Tale of Shikanoko," Lian Hearn's four-part fantasy series, necessarily suffers from having neither a real beginning nor an end. "Autumn Princess, Dragon Child" spends most of its time picking up the pieces left over from the previous denouement and getting everybody in position...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2016
'The Translation of Love' is a vivid tale of loss set in the rubble of postwar Tokyo
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 9, 2016
'A Midsummer's Equation' takes the blood and madness out of murder
"A Midsummer's Equation," the sixth book in prolific crime writer Keigo Higashino's "Detective Galileo" series, sees physicist and amateur sleuth Manabu Yukawa relocate to a sleepy seaside town in Shizuoka Prefecture. There to act as a scientific adviser on a controversial underwater drilling project...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 2, 2016
'A Quiet Life' shows a dark, different side to Kenzaburo Oe
With Kenzaburo Oe's latest novel, "Death by Water," on the longlist of the Man Booker International Prize this year, the Nobel laureate's work is again receiving the global attention it richly deserves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 2, 2016
'Emperor of the Eight Islands' reveals a Japan populated by spirits, ghosts and gods
Under the pseudonym "Lian Hearn," Gillian Rubinstein has published six novels set in a fantastical version of Japan's past, most notably the popular "Tales of the Otori" series. "Emperor of the Eight Islands" is the first in a new four-part series called "The Tale of Shikanoko" that will be published...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Mar 26, 2016
'Somersault' shows Kenzaburo Oe tackling Japan's terror cults
Haruki Murakami has said that 1995 was the year when many of Japan's certainties were destroyed. In January of that year, the Great Hanshin Earthquake killed 6,434 people and then in March, local doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, killing 12 and injuring many others.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Feb 13, 2016
After the Banquet
Considering Yukio Mishima's reputation, it seems odd that a book as innocuous as "After the Banquet" could have had such an impact. The novel tells the story of Kazu, the owner of a restaurant frequented by the rich and powerful of Tokyo society, and Noguchi, a semi-retired politician. They marry, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 30, 2016
The Silent Cry
On the surface "The Silent Cry"— first published in 1967 — is the story of Matsu, his wife Natsu and his brother Takashi, who return to the Shikoku village of their birth to negotiate the sale of some family property to "the Emperor of Supermarkets," a Korean brought to Shikoku as a slave...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2016
Up From The Sea
March 11 this year will mark the fifth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Thus far, English-language literature has been slow to tackle the disaster. "Up From the Sea" by Tokyo-based Californian writer Leza Lowitz is, therefore, a welcome arrival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Dec 12, 2015
Bedtime Eyes
A direct influence on authors Risa Wataya and Hitomi Kanehara, Amy Yamada was part of the shinjinrui (new breed) generation that came of age in the late '70s, the first to grow up in an affluent, peaceful postwar Japan. Side-effects of prosperity included ennui and alienation from their parents, often...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 7, 2015
'The Invitation-Only Zone' is a nuanced account of North Korea's abductions
Robert S. Boynton describes his book as "extreme journalism," which he defines as "reporting on a series of events spanning several decades, in three countries, in two languages I don't speak."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2015
'The Book of Tokyo' reveals sidelined Japanese writers, but not the city itself
"The Book of Tokyo" is part of Comma Press' "Reading the City" series, though most of the stories inside could be transplanted to other Japanese cities — Nagoya, Fukuoka or Sapporo — without any noticeable difference.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 18, 2015
'A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding' frames the universal horror of atomic weapons
Nagasaki is a popular setting for novels about Japan. During the years when Japan shut itself off from the world, the port town became a door left ajar, and some of the appeal for novelists is the enduring frontier myth the city has cultivated, with its easy blend of East and West.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2015
The new face of Japanese sci-fi chases an augmented world
Japanese science fiction has a long history. The genre could be considered to stretch back as far as the eighth-century tale of time traveler Urashima Taro or 10th-century story of moon-princess Kaguya-hime, but it was the rapid changes brought on during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) that generated one of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2015
"Tokyo" is an unsettling take on the "foreigner in Japan" trope
So-called foreigner-in-Japan novels can set cliche alarm bells ringing, so when a book as exciting and original as Nicholas Hogg's "Tokyo" comes along, it takes a moment to recalibrate expectations. And it's not the last time Hogg wrong-foots his readers — this slow-boil thriller is designed to...
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

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