author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Roger Pulvers

Meta

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
Nov 1, 2009
Japan's sea change should signal a new course for the media, too
The relationship between the government and the press in Japan has, during the past 50 years, been a volatile one of give and take: The government gives the press what it wants it to know, and the press gladly takes it. But this has not always been the case.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 25, 2009
'Mao's Last Dancer' inspires with his leaps and honest grounding
I was down in Sydney a few weeks ago and managed to catch the world premiere of Australian director Bruce Beresford's film, "Mao's Last Dancer." It is a beautiful story, beautifully told, in a film that combines the personal and the epic in an era of traumatic change for China.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 18, 2009
Obama exclusive: Soda-pop war looms in Americans' best interests
A couple of days ago I decided to bite the bullet and get in touch with U.S. President Barack Obama. It wasn't him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that gave me the audacity of hope to speak with him. It was an article in the Oct. 8 edition of the International Herald Tribune.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 11, 2009
Musical hails a messenger killed for exposing Japan's dread trinity
When the Special Higher Police, the dreaded Tokko, returned his body to his mother and brother, it was hard to believe their official report that he had died of "a heart attack."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2009
Japan's gender equality may be 'insufficent,' but it's surely coming
As the vast majority of societies worldwide are male dominated, one of the most contentious issues they face as they evolve centers on the status of women.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2009
Japan's gender equality may be 'insufficent,' but it's surely coming
As the vast majority of societies worldwide are male dominated, one of the most contentious issues they face as they evolve centers on the status of women.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 27, 2009
Is it better to end in 'beautiful madness' than quicksands of banality?
On the morning of Sept. 18, 1939, a man and a woman walked into a woodland that was then in eastern Poland. They took a cocktail of drugs. When the woman woke up several hours later, the man was dead. He was buried the next day not far away.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 23, 2009
How to lose your temper in Japanese
Sometimes you just want to wring someone's neck (kubi wo hinetteyaru (首をひねってやる). Oh, only figuratively, I mean. And having wrung — verbally, that is — you feel like a new man or woman, totally refreshed. This may even clear the air, or, in Japanese, sukatto suru (すかっとする),...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 20, 2009
Now suicide has become a political issue, how will Japan address it?
Without a doubt the grimmest statistic coming out of Japan today concerns the number of suicides, which have exceeded 30,000 annually for 11 years in a row — engendering indescribable tragedies for so many families.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 13, 2009
Tanikawa: A master of foreign ways and Japan's most accessible poet
"We must try to explain everything we think to children. . . . Words that are really rooted in the bones of the Japanese people: Those words are accessible."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 6, 2009
Nosaka's 'Dugout' captures war trauma through a child's eyes
No postwar work of Japanese literature expresses the pity and misery of war for children quite like Akiyuki Nosaka's story of a brother and sister left orphaned and homeless, "Hotaru no Haka" ("Grave of the Fireflies"). Published first in 1967, this novella, which won the prestigious Naoki Prize, was...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 30, 2009
Japan at a crossroads of government and of its citizens' values
Charles de Gaulle, the magisterial president of France from 1959-69, was inordinately fond of the phrase, "Moi ou le chaos" — "Me or chaos." It was not much of a choice.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 23, 2009
Obama hails Lincoln — but is he on course to fail the LBJ way?
"Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. . . . It was the government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible, and the job...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 16, 2009
Japanese attacks provoked a seismic 'me-too' shift Down Under
"On 27 December [1941], with his government a mere 12 weeks old, [Prime Minister John] Curtin stood Australian foreign policy on its head by declaring that the country now 'looked to America' for protection from the Japanese. Until this ringing pronouncement, Australia, in truth, barely had a foreign...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 9, 2009
Humor may be universal, but Japan's is largely its smut-free own
Swedes crack jokes about Norwegians, Poles knock the Russians, and though everyone likes a good Italian joke, they're less funny than they used to be thanks to the genuinely grotesque antics of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 2, 2009
Comparing and contrasting to plumb the heights of Japanese humor
Of all the absurd things that foreigners have said about the Japanese, the assertion that they are lacking in a sense of humor takes the cake.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 2, 2009
Comparing and contrasting to plumb the heights of Japanese humor
Of all the absurd things that foreigners have said about the Japanese, the assertion that they are lacking in a sense of humor takes the cake.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 26, 2009
Myth-buster points the way to Japan's role as 'credit-crunch' pioneer
T here are five myths circulating the globe regarding the financial crisis that has it in its grip. This is the view of Pavel Minakir, director of the Institute of Applied Economic Research in Khabarovsk, Russia. His fascinating and sobering assessment of these myths appeared in a recent issue of the...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 19, 2009
To be human in today's Japan, is it best to be 'no longer human'?
On June 22, playwright and novelist Hisashi Inoue appeared on national broadcaster NHK's television program, "Close Up Gendai." The occasion was the centenary of the birth of the novelist Osamu Dazai.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 12, 2009
Crimes happen, but are the criminals 'one of us' or 'one of them'?
Crime may not pay like it used to, but the way it is described in the media has not changed much throughout the millennia.
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.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER