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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
May 29, 2011
Japanese genius shines eclectic in its extravagant simplicities of style
"Live your era, surmount your era!" With these words, written in 1935, the young woodblock artist Yoshio Fujimaki gave out a cry for genius. Certainly his words apply to the genius of Bob Dylan (whose 70th birthday was celebrated on these pages last week), since both he, Fujimaki and others of genius...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 15, 2011
Recalling a generation, and more, sold out by the U.S. masters of war
Next month there will be a celebration in Los Angeles that I very much regret having to miss. It is a reunion of my high school graduating class of 1961.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 8, 2011
Hisashi Inoue's great legacy is just the ticket to inspire our best efforts
A beautiful cherry-blossom tree stands right beside the sento (public bath) I religiously go to, and its top branch hangs over an opening in the roof. In early April, petals were falling from the branch down into the water, which comes out of the ground the color of strong coffee.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 1, 2011
It is time to target who calls the shots in Japan when disaster strikes
Why did it take so long for any Japanese Cabinet ministers to make their presence felt on the site of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant — and what does this tell us about the decision-making process in Japan?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 24, 2011
Fantasy really is reality in many aspects of Japanese life and culture
People around the world are bewitched by Japanese fantasy. From East, Southeast and South Asia to Europe east and west, the United States and Latin America, it is now mostly anime and manga that draw young people to the study of Japan and the Japanese language.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 17, 2011
In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery
The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 10, 2011
Could Japan's tragedy help forge some overdue reconciliations?
The Tohoku-Kanto earthquake and tsunami of March 11 has altered the relationship between Japan and its neighbors, particularly the relationship with China. Given the sympathy for the plight of hundreds of thousands of residents of the Tohoku region of northeast Japan, the Chinese media's old "bash Japan...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 3, 2011
Japan's reaction to Fukushima may point to a better way of living
One day in September 1923, the great writer and poet of the Tohoku region, Kenji Miyazawa, went into woods not far from his hometown of Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture to chop down a tree. Suddenly rocks broke away from the cliff, rocks he called "assassins." But he was not surprised or shocked. "After...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 27, 2011
Japan's crises spark wide alarm and some unlikely sympathizers
The outpouring of goodwill toward Japanese people since the triple calamities of March 11's earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear crises has overwhelmed the nation. There is generally so much indifference to — and criticism of — Japan in the West and parts of Asia, that the Japanese have...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 20, 2011
This awful tragedy will show Japan's true character to the world
Some people look for moral lessons in disasters, concentrating on a baby pulled out of the rubble of an earthquake days after it struck and calling it a "miracle." But a tsunami of the scale that crashed against the manmade seawalls along the Pacific Coast of the Tohoku region in northeast Japan left...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 13, 2011
Must young Japanese live the nightmare of old people's dreams?
Not long ago, I came to loathe a particular word. The word — which I used to believe in and cherish — is now, perhaps, the most misused of all those in the Japanese language. It is yume (dream).
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 6, 2011
Japanese families' nutritional values pay dearly for 'progress'
Last year, a gut-wrenching book by Nobuko Iwamura was published by Shinchosha titled "Kazoku no Katte Desho!" ("It's My Kitchen and I'll Do What I Like in It!"). Gut-wrenching because it describes, with the help of 274 highly unpalatable photos, the kinds of breakfasts, lunches and dinners ordinary Japanese...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 27, 2011
All hail the wonders of Japanese cuisine — if not what Japanese eat
Ask almost any Japanese living overseas what they miss most and they are more likely to say the food than their relatives. Ask virtually any tourist what excites them most about Japan and you are apt to be told "Japanese food."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 20, 2011
Remember Takuboku: A model to rouse today's thwarted youth
Social change is a volcanic phenomenon. The first rumblings may not be widely seen or heard; then there is an eruption that takes society unawares. All of a sudden — or so it seems — a new generation with new needs and demands is born. Until that happens, society often outwardly appears placid, calm...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 13, 2011
Japan's cull of once-loved pets cries out for German-style controls
An early riser, I am generally on one of the first trains out of my local station and walking across the sprawling university campus by 6 a.m.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 6, 2011
Ailing Japan Inc. must combine tradition with a new world view
One of the clearest memories I have of my Los Angeles childhood revolves around a car. By the early 1950s, my parents had managed to eke their way into the middle class; and for Los Angelenos, nothing signified that social status more than the automobile. For my dad, the symbol of this par excellence...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 30, 2011
Voters have their apathy to blame for Japan's dire farce at the top
Here's a fable about Japanese politics circa 2011.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 23, 2011
Is 'Galapagos-thinking' Japan back at its evolutionary dead end?
There are expressions that buzz like busy little bees and ones that don't buzz anymore. One of the dead-bee buzzwords in Japan is shimaguni konjo, meaning "island mentality." As for a buzzword for 2011, you'd be hard put to find one more busily doing the rounds than garapagosu, which references the Galapagos...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 9, 2011
Let's hope China doesn't fall into the same traps that Japan once did
The overriding question that should be on everyone's mind in this new, second decade of the 21st century is: What is going to happen in China?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 26, 2010
Who are the oldies to fault young people's various social skills?
Haragei is a word you don't hear very much anymore. Literally "belly art," haragei refers to the variety of persuasive communication that is done not with words but with the silent force of personality. Think of being stared down by a man sitting like a pot-bellied stove in front of you. But to be a...
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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