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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
Mar 7, 2010
For humanity's sake, let's tie whaling in with animal welfare as a whole
Back in the early '90s, my wife, children and I lived in the picturesque and historical Sydney suburb of Mosman . . . well, historical by white-settler Australian standards.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 28, 2010
Feeling revulsion may signal you're finally home away from home
There is a curious and very telling phrase in Japanese to describe the feeling of hatred that people can have for family. It is kinshin-zoo, or "close-relative abhorrence."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 21, 2010
Never mind 'strategy,' a basic education involves others' languages
"Americans have never been particularly interested in learning other languages and are even less interested today. . . . Our government spends 25 per cent less, adjusted for inflation, than it did 40 years ago on foreign-language training at university level."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 14, 2010
Today's complex society in Japan spawns a new 'foreigner complex'
Among the many Japanese words and phrases that have fallen by the wayside of late and become shigo (obsolete), gaijin komupurekkusu (foreigner complex) is certainly among the least missed.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 7, 2010
To resolve its 'core issue' Beijing needs to take heed of Dalai Lama
"From the perspective of Chinese Communist Party ideology, China was a victim of Western imperialism from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and, as a result, the Chinese tend to remember the humiliations they suffered while rarely considering their own nation to be an imperial power."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 31, 2010
Checkmates and imbalances are derailing Obama's bid for change
When historians look back on the Obama administration, they may deem the senatorial election in Massachusetts on Jan. 19, 2010, to have been the pivotal event determining its destiny.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 24, 2010
For all his failings, MacArthur was a fine precursor of Obama's bow
Two photographs, separated in time and context by 64 years, may symbolize, as well as anything can, the nature of the postwar Japanese-American alliance. Both in their time gave rise to uproar.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 17, 2010
Seeking exactitude can sometimes exact a high cultural price
I freely admit a prejudice. It is against the concept of "national character," or kokuminsei in Japanese. Is there really such a thing or is it merely a jumble of stereotypes, whichever is the country or culture in question?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 10, 2010
Danger lurks when self-restraint segues into media self-censorship
If I had to choose a word that characterized a good deal of Japanese social behavior it would probably be jishuku.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 3, 2010
A world beyond the United States now beckons Japanese youth
'Shying away from study in America" screamed the front-page headline of the Dec. 11 evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun. The article beneath presented facts and analysis of an unmistakable phenomenon: Japanese students are not being drawn to the United States to pursue their studies as they once were....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 27, 2009
Decade's end abuzz and a-flutter with wist for a warm poetic past
At the end of the year — and, particularly, the end of a decade — an old man's fancy turns, involuntarily, to nostalgia.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 27, 2009
Decade's end abuzz and a-flutter with wist for a warm poetic past
At the end of the year — and, particularly, the end of a decade — an old man's fancy turns, involuntarily, to nostalgia.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 20, 2009
Stunning book speaks volumes about the ravages visited on Tibet
Ten years ago, near the end of 1999, the Chinese author Wang Lixiong received a package from a young woman of Tibetan origin named Tsering Woeser. It contained several hundred black-and-white negatives.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 13, 2009
Tragedy exposes need to care more for carers' mental well-being
Shortly after 1 p.m. on April 21, 2009, a worker at Fuji Reien cemetery in Gotenba City, Shizuoka Prefecture, discovered the body of a woman on its grounds. Nearby, a semi-conscious elderly lady sat shivering in a wheelchair.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 6, 2009
Politically incorrect maybe, but also some trenchant home truths
The world used to be one hell of a racist place. All you need do is go back a few decades to find public pronouncements that today would land you a punch on the schnozz, if not a stint in the slammer.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 29, 2009
Though elusive to all, the language of Japan surely merits a break
When I was staying in a pension in Seoul for a month in the autumn of 1967, I tried to speak some Japanese, our only common language, with its 80-year-old Korean proprietor. He refused outright until about a week into my stay, when he gave in and said, "I haven't spoken Japanese since the war and I vowed...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 22, 2009
Ozawa's sermon hardly befitted the spirit of the mount he chose
On Nov. 10, Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, dropped a bombshell in a speech he made atop one of Japan's most sacred mountains, Mount Koya, in Wakayama Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 15, 2009
Children pay the price when parents put their own feelings first
It is hard enough for a child to be shuffled back and forth for scheduled stays like a puck over the ice that separates divorced parents. Difficulty turns to tragedy when one parent takes it into their head to abduct the child and keep it out of reach of the other.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 15, 2009
Children pay the price when parents put their own feelings first
It is hard enough for a child to be shuffled back and forth for scheduled stays like a puck over the ice that separates divorced parents. Difficulty turns to tragedy when one parent takes it into their head to abduct the child and keep it out of reach of the other.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 8, 2009
Reading between the lines of Hatoyama's far-sighted 'vision thing'
The prime minister's keynote policy address in the Diet affords the nation's leader an opportunity to present their overall thinking to the people — as its name in Japanese, shoshin hyomei (declaration of convictions), would indeed suggest.
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.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
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.
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.
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.

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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