Roger Pulvers - The Japan Times

July 16, 2024

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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

Dec 23, 2012

Beware the nuclear village as it readies to rear-end docile Japan again

If you remember the Pinto, dear reader, then you may be as old as the hills — or at least as old as I am.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 16, 2012

Even more than meltdowns; this election is essentially about Japan's war-renouncing Constitution

This is the 15th general election I have witnessed since coming to live in Japan in 1967, and by any standards it is the most crucial one of those for this country.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 9, 2012

Chernobyl factored in the fall of a corrupt regime — Fukushima may too

There are approximately 7,000 exhibits in Kiev's Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum. (The location of the nuclear plant that exploded on April 26, 1986 is spelled this way in Ukrainian.) Among the documents, photographs, maps and objects at this museum that opened on the sixth anniversary of the accident...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 2, 2012

Why is the potential turning point of 3/11 being allowed to slip away?

Dried Anpo persimmons from Fukushima Prefecture are famed for staying fresh and juicy. However, for the second successive autumn, 90 percent of the crop has had to be discarded due to it registering radioactive contamination levels above legally set limits.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Nov 25, 2012

First love no use when the last hope for Japan is the chance to marry

Boy meets girl. They fall in love. What happens after that ... well, it depends on the individuals, the mores of their generation and the availability of a few square meters of private space.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Nov 18, 2012

It'll take more than few fine or foreign words to make Australia Asian

Australians have always been uncomfortable with their nation's geography.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Nov 11, 2012

Heartening new film will add to rising dementia awareness in Japan

"My mother having dementia turned into a chance for us to relate to each other again and even have fun in each other's company."

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Nov 4, 2012

Beware the parallels between boom-time Japan and present-day China

Futaro Gamagori was born into a destitute household. His father was a no-good womanizing lush; his mother, unable to afford medical care, died of illness. The young Futaro sets out on a life of serious crime — thieving, raping, murdering. He eventually becomes the rich president of a big company,...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Oct 21, 2012

So, fat cats and a blue caterpillar will save Japan from nuclear hell. OK

If you visit the Alice Pavilion at the Shika nuclear power plant in the town of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, you will be happily entertained by Prof. Aomushi (Blue Caterpillar), who, water pipe in mouth, sits in the sun and, together with Alice, "teaches you about radiation."

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Oct 14, 2012

For diplomacy's sake, Japan must bring its big-city dogs of war to heel

Not many would remember the name Norris Poulson.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Oct 7, 2012

For the young to get on board, Japan's irksome business ways must change

"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" is a satirical book by American writer Shepherd Mead that was a huge best-seller in 1952 before being made into a musical that premiered on Broadway nine years later. It tells the story of J. Pierrepont Finch, an ambitious young fellow who works his...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 30, 2012

Whatever fanatics say, a nice cup of tea together beats a fight to the death

There is no doubt about it: We humans are, at best, a peculiar species. It seems that we feel obliged to display brazen hostility toward each other, to the point of engaging in violence, before we can reconcile to friendship.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 23, 2012

Evolution revelation sparks MAD inspiration to sucker the (U.S.) soul

Thank god for all things virtual.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 16, 2012

Beacons of hope and inspiration light even the darkest pits of despond

The renowned Polish-born film and television director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland has created a stunning work about life and death in the Lviv ghetto during the closing months of World War II.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 9, 2012

Putin's siege-mentality Russia now firmly in the grip of a 'cold civil war'

There is an old Soviet-era Russian joke about two rival groups of archeologists who cannot agree on the age of a mummy discovered in Central Asia. At their wits' end, they call in the NKVD — the name of the dreaded KGB in Stalin's time — to settle the dispute.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Sep 2, 2012

Prescient work of writer Sawako Ariyoshi begs for rediscovery

Aug. 30 marked the day, 28 years ago, that Japan and the world lost a writer of immense importance. Sawako Ariyoshi's works of fiction and nonfiction took up many social issues that came into prominence in the years after her death. To my mind, she is not only one of the greatest authors of modern Japan,...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 26, 2012

Should the public trust Japan's leaders when the 'big one' hits Tokyo?

No two calamities are alike, yet the needs of victims vary only in scale, not in kind.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 19, 2012

Monster parents make matters worse for their children and teachers

In the West they hover and swoop. In Japan they stalk and are known to strike. We all have them and some of us have been them. And in recent years the media, both social and antisocial, have put them under the magnifying glass of criticism.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 12, 2012

New breed of single fathers should be a model for men across Japan

He is a much maligned creature at home and abroad. Some call him good for nothing; others say he is good for only one thing: bringing home the bacon ... and, in recent years, a most lean bacon it has become. On the weekends his primary pastime is gorone, to wit, snoozing in his clothes during daytime...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 5, 2012

Japanese rice from Down Under forges new hope from historical links

"I think I can create a farming environment that can give hope to Fukushima farmers."

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

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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