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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
Oct 16, 2011
Don't look back, Tohoku: It's time to look far beyond the Japanese box
Iam just back from a five-day journey around Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku with an NHK TV crew.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2011
Conditions are ripe for the volcano of Japan's betrayed to erupt again
Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 2, 2011
Japan's leaders still don't get it — but whither that 'heretical' 1960s spirit?
Upwards of 2,000 demonstrators clash with riot police. Sections of trains are set alight, the fire spreads into the station and trains don't start running until late in the morning. In the middle of the night, some 450 people are arrested.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 25, 2011
Humble pie notably absent from the food fancies of worthies and others
Food is a staple fare of the media, whether in the form of recipes, restaurant reviews or photographs of meals to die for. Food is health; food is economics; food is culture; but food is also politics.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 18, 2011
Mako: the Japanese-American actor who fought racist stereotypes
Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 11, 2011
Taro Yashima: an unsung beacon for all against 'evil on this Earth'
First of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 4, 2011
As 9/11 nears, morality dictates we recall victims of America, too
In the lead-up this week to the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, it is important to keep in mind this: Dates take on a mythical significance that may mask reality.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 28, 2011
Fame may be fleeting, but warm memories of Miyoshi Umeki live on
Aug. 28 is the fourth anniversary of the passing of a woman who was an icon in both Japan and the United States. Yet her death in 2007 was barely noted in this, her home country, despite her meteoric rise to stardom in America and the fact that she remains the only East Asian to have received an Academy...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 21, 2011
Should wartime and peace allow such different attitudes to murder?
It is now nearly a month since the July 22 attacks on innocent Norwegians by the rightwing anti-Muslim terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, and aftershocks from those mass murders are still reverberating around the world. Yet massacres of innocents are everyday occurrences in wartime.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 14, 2011
Barriers to multiculturalism are as low as they've ever been in Japan
Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 7, 2011
Norway's horrors betray a bigoted ignorance of nationality's meaning
First of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 31, 2011
Timely film reiterates the 'no nukes' urgings of Barefoot Gen's creator
"Nothing has changed from the time of the atom bombs. ... It stands to reason that people are terrified of what they cannot see. I understand the hysteria. In the end, humans must not resort to the atom that they cannot control. The time has come for the Japanese people to make up their mind."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 24, 2011
What a difference a friend's tales of 'hair on the heart' can still make
"Shinzo ni Ke ga Haeteiru Wake" is the intriguing title of a book published in April by Kadokawa. The book was written by my good friend, Mari Yonehara, and its title in English would be "That's Why Hair Grows on the Heart."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 17, 2011
In charting their life's course, today's youth might better stay foolish
Why is this generation of young people in Japan so self-absorbed and seemingly unconcerned, to the point of distracted apathy, about the social and political dilemmas facing their country today?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 10, 2011
With Japan at a crossroads, it's instructive to recall the Hidaka affair
Exactly 30 years ago this month, I had an encounter with a man who became innocently involved in an international incident. That incident may be all but forgotten now, but it's worth recalling here because it highlights the struggle of an individual of conscience to have the truth revealed.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 3, 2011
Murakami puts a bomb under his compatriots' atomic complacency
"The Japanese will someday outgrow their nuclear allergy." I've never forgotten futurologist and Cold War military strategist Herman Kahn saying this to me on his visit to Japan in 1969, when I was his guide and occasional interpreter.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 26, 2011
Hearn the Westerm misfit finally found himself at home in Meiji Japan
What does it mean to be an expatriate, particularly when you feel more at home and assimilated in an adopted country than in your own?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 19, 2011
All hail the Constitution's vacuous guarantee of freedom of thought
Fifty years ago this month, I faced an agonizing personal dilemma. As president of the student body at my Los Angeles high school, I was obliged to lead my fellow students, teachers and staff in reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance," the oath of loyalty to the United States of America, at our graduation...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 12, 2011
Barber's cutting comment denies others' humanity — and hers, too
It's depressing, I must confess.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 5, 2011
Doomed self-obsessive remains iconic to some in the Japan of today
"It's not that I'm weak, it's that the suffering weighs down on me too heavily."
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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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