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November 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."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 10, 2007
In Japan, show reverence where it's due (or not)
Japan is the country that I feel most at home in. Yet, despite having arrived in 1967, and living here for the better part of the intervening 40 years, I still see myself as the odd man out in one particular aspect. I just can't "act Japanese" — if you will excuse the generalization — when it comes...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 3, 2007
Class rifts widen as Japan's flag-wavers wax patriotic
Why can't Japan cope with poverty?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 27, 2007
'Containment' time warp sours hopes that Yeltsin spawned
Nearly 60 years ago, in July 1947, American diplomat George Kennan published what was to become the single most influential article in modern American diplomatic history.
LIFE / Language
May 22, 2007
Buzzwords trying to find own linguistic niche
Buzzwords belong in the category of catchwords and catch phrases. Like cliches — though not always as long-lived as cliches — they capture the imagination of a nation and are used in many contexts. In Japanese, buzzwords are called hayarikotoba and, as such, often do hayarisutari (pop into, then...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 20, 2007
An exemplar of where the war-crimes buck stops
Over the coming months in this column, I will return a few times to a film titled "Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)." I have been very fortunate to be able to write the script for this together with its director, Takashi Koizumi, whose last film, "Hakase no Aishita Sushiki (The Professor...
LIFE / Language
May 15, 2007
Cliches energize conversation in any language
First of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE
May 13, 2007
Daisuke's graduation
The first two e-mails that I sent to my ex-wife went unanswered. That came as no surprise. I had become used to the silent treatment from her since our return from our honeymoon in Hawaii 12 years ago. But this time I was not about to put up with being ignored.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 6, 2007
New clarities set to cloud smoke screens of ambiguity
Last month, on April Fool's Day to be exact, I revealed some terms and expressions appearing in the forthcoming Japanese government publication, "The Dictionary of All-Too-True Japanese Words and Phrases." Actually, there is far more than meets the eye in this groundbreaking, earthy volume.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 29, 2007
Spare a shudder in memory of an American 'ism' that lives on
This coming Wednesday, May 2, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of a venal and cowardly man, a true antihero of the 20th century.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 22, 2007
Who dares take the 'Q' out of Japan's 5-star kyushoku?
Is one of the great institutions of Japanese cul- ture succumbing to a slow, gnawing attack? It may be. I tell you, if this icon is lost, all we'll have left of the culture will be a few cartoons and some rusting karaoke machines.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 15, 2007
It was 40 (very different) years ago today . . .
The re-election last Sunday of Shintaro Ishihara as Tokyo governor has demon- strated once again that the people of Japan's capital city remain attracted to the policies of this outspoken author-turned-politician.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 8, 2007
Seeing yourself through the literary ways of others
With the 2007 academic year now about to begin in Japan, it's a good time to take a look at English-language teaching in the nation's universities. Yes, the tides are indeed running there. The emphasis is shifting determindly toward the utilitarian: English as a tool for Internet communication; English...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 1, 2007
Words to win hearts and minds the Japanese way
Over the years, the Japanese language has been called many things: inscrutably ambiguous, frustratingly vague and positively untranslatable.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 25, 2007
There's a world of languages Japanese too can learn
It seems to be conventional wisdom -- if "wisdom" is the word -- that Japanese people do not excel at mastering foreign languages. Some surveys of the results of international English-proficiency tests have them occupying the murky depths, below even the likes of North Koreans. Does the "Dear Leader,"...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 18, 2007
As London shows, assimilation is what migration's about
LONDON -- I have been coming to this city every few years for more than four decades, and this visit, of 10 days' duration, has, in some ways, been the most startling. Not that the mid-Sixties weren't. The Beatles, with every challenge to staid British routine that they personified, were in the ascendancy...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 11, 2007
What will happen to all that Japanese boomers' cash?
Hurry! Don't miss out! Yamaha, the giant musical-instrument manufacturer, is offering three-month ukulele courses! Or, the more adventurous can avail themselves of the services of travel agents at JTB who are promoting a six-day tour -- or an eight-day rongubakeeshon (long vacation) tour of Hawaii, where...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2007
What is becoming of my grandfather's wisdom?
These days it's tough to be a journalist. This may sound like a whinge, but whinges may sometimes reflect a real situation. Oh, it's fine if you agree with the line of thought acceptable to governments, religious organizations or interest groups. But if you dare hold up a mirror to them, you may run...
LIFE / Language
Feb 27, 2007
Wisdom, logic behind sayings strikingly alike
On my first trip to the former Soviet Union in 1964, I heard the Russian proverb, "A word is not a sparrow. Having flown out, you cannot catch it."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 25, 2007
Will strategic retreat soon signal Australia's tardy advancement?
Apolitical wrangle, with Prime Minister John Howard as the prime wrangler, has begun in the rodeo ring of Australian politics -- and it certainly looks as if someone is going to take a spill.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 18, 2007
Whose Japan deserves youth's patriotism now?
'I for one, cannot believe that love of one's country must consist in blindness to its social faults, in deafness to its social discords, in inarticulation of its social wrongs. Neither can I believe that the mere accident of birth in a certain country or the mere scrap of a citizen's paper constitutes...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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