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July 16, 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."
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

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Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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