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December 22, 2024
 

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Roger Pulvers

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Roger Pulvers
Roger Pulvers is an author, playwright, theater director and translator who divides his time between Tokyo and Sydney. He has published more than 40 books. His latest book in English is "The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 16, 2023
In Mikhail Shishkin’s Russia, 'hate is a disease, culture is the treatment'
The Russian author's book provides a sweep through the nooks and crannies of Russian history, while delivering a forceful defense of literature as the weapon to overcome past wrongs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2023
My friendship with Ryuichi Sakamoto
Roger Pulvers writes about his relationship with the late musician, recalling the time he introduced Sakamoto to David Bowie.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 7, 2021
The founding father of Japanese seismology
Aikitsu Tanakadate was a leading light in Japan's early research into earthquakes, and urged the government to get involved in damage control measures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 4, 2020
‘What is Japanese Cinema?’ review: A deft and engaging history of Japanese film
This book is healthily nonjudgmental concerning which films are “good” and which are not. Instead it steps back — far back — to gaze carefully at and analyze the bigger picture: the role that cinema has played in reflecting and altering Japanese consciousness and Japanese reality over the span of a century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 7, 2018
'Patient X' by David Peace: An intensely profound portrait of a writer's life and death
There is an astounding authenticity permeating Peace's writing on Japan, as if he is painstakingly recreating the biography of an entire nation and age.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2018
Seeking solace in Tohoku's poets of old
On Oct. 11, 2011, seven months to the day after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku region, I stood beside the sole surviving pine tree from a 350-year-old forest of approximately 70,000 similar trees on the coastline of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture. In the months following the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 26, 2017
'Ghosts of the Tsunami': Richard Lloyd Parry's recounts 2011 tsunami and what came after
Fifty-one minutes after the earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, a massive wall of water inundated the grounds of the Ishinomaki Municipal Okawa Elementary School in Miyagi Prefecture, killing 74 pupils, 10 staff and the school bus driver.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2017
Polish film director Andrzej Wajda represented the voice and conscience of a nation
"I stood here just after the end of the war," Polish film director Andrzej Wajda said. "I was only 19 years old. The entire area was flattened, just rubble. The Stare Miasto (Old Town) was one big gaping pit that I stared into."
CULTURE / Music / David Bowie in Japan
Jan 15, 2016
Ground control to Major Jack
I first met David Bowie in August 1982 in Auckland, New Zealand, where the crew of Nagisa Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" had come together for the flight to the film's location in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. From the outset he came across as a man of great personal warmth, devoid of any pretence....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2016
Nagisa Oshima: 'You have to tell the truth about your country, whatever it is'
Jan. 15 marks the third anniversary of the renowned film director's death. Roger Pulvers, who knew him for more than 30 years and was his assistant on “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” discusses the man and his work
JAPAN / History
Jul 11, 2015
Chiune Sugihara: man of conscience
Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, awoke on the morning of July 18, 1940, to a disturbing sight. He peered through the curtains of his bedroom window just before 6 a.m. Sugihara and his wife had been living in the consulate building since their arrival at the end of August 1939, just...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 6, 2015
Inspiring story of 'the only woman in the room'
"My father came to Tokyo from Karuizawa to meet me," wrote Beate Sirota Gordon in a message to me, which she sent several years before her death in 2012 at age 89. "He looked gaunt and undernourished. ... My mother did not come because undernourishment had caused her to swell up, and she was ill in bed....
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 11, 2015
Takuboku Ishikawa: engaged observer
The society of Takuboku Ishikawa's era was in dramatic political flux, and its complex issues became his personal obsessions. After his death, Takuboku's preoccupations came to be seen as a symbol of the social and emotional upheavals of his times.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 20, 2014
Lafcadio Hearn: 'Japanese Thru and Tru'
A small cage was opened at Lafcadio Hearn's funeral, setting birds into the air, the soul of the deceased presumably taking flight with them. His coffin was draped in chrysanthemums and fragrant olive, adorned by a laurel wreath. Seven Buddhist priests read the sutras at Kobudera (now Jishoin Enyuji...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 28, 2014
Mori classic was the epitome of Meiji style
There has been no period in the history of modern Japanese society so dramatic and so remarkably tumultuous and fluid as the Meiji Era (1868-1912), and no single work of fiction more revelatory in its depiction of that period than Ogai Mori's "The Wild Goose." Now we have, in Meredith McKinney's just...
COMMUNITY / Voices / Fiction
Jun 21, 2014
Rice: Connecting two nations that are natural friends
Haruko Harrison tells her story
COMMUNITY / Voices / Fiction
Jun 14, 2014
Rice: 'Get away from us. We are like poison'
Sachiko the nurse reads the diary of Haruko Harrison's mother
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 7, 2014
Kengo Kuma: 'a product of place'
Renowned architect's new book, 'My Place,' reflects an awareness of humanity's close affinity to the world around us.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Fiction
Jun 7, 2014
Rice: Sowing the nascent seeds — my upbringing
Haruko Harrison begins her story
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 1, 2014
Masako Shirasu: woman of the world
"If you use beautiful things every day, you will naturally cultivate an eye for beautiful things without giving it a second thought. In the end, you will be repelled when you encounter the ugly and the fake. If only all Japan would come to see this, how much more joyous our lives would be and how genial...
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Ride-hailing restrictions to be eased during 2025 Osaka Expo
A venue for the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka
Foxconn's interest in Nissan said to be on hold amid Honda merger talks
Foxconn’s pause in its pursuit of Nissan is the latest development in the unexpected emergence of two suitors for the ailing Japanese carmaker.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.
With rare Asia carrier deployment, France seeks greater interoperability
The flight deck of the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier during a stop at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in May 2019

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