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December 22, 2024
 

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Michael Hoffman

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Michael Hoffman
Michael Hoffman is a fiction and nonfiction writer who has lived in Hokkaido by the sea almost as long as he can remember. He has been contributing regularly to The Japan Times for 10 years. His latest novel is "The Naked Ear" (VBW/Blackcover Books, 2012).
The Allied Occupation of Japan after World War II brought an end to the country’s brothels, which resulted in the Prostitution Prevention Law of 1956.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Oct 19, 2024
Edo Japan's morals pose a debate for the modern age
Can we judge what’s right or wrong across centuries? Edo’s morals of sacrifice and duty distinctly clash with our own modern ethics.
The conduct and business of love in Japan’s Edo Period (1603-1867) was rough, and nowhere was it rougher than in the pleasure quarters of the capital city.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Sep 29, 2024
Good or bad, both or neither: Edo Japan and the moral conscience
The era's warrior class and its martial virtues were redundant but lived on — overshadowed by the pursuit of pleasure.
Only two other class of persons were treated with anything like the merciless ferocity meted out to lovers: subversives and Christians.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Aug 17, 2024
Love was a most subversive affair in Edo Japan
As the shogunate required order in society, love was seen as a threat to rational thinking — something that you might die for.
As childish as Ryokan may have been, human suffering wrung his heart. A portrait of the monk and calligraphy by him are shown here. (Ink on paper; early 19th century; replica before 1970)
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jul 21, 2024
Ryokan and us: 'How wide! How boundless!'
The Edo Period monk could see the world through a child's eyes, maybe even those of a child from our modern era.
A statue of Santoku Taneda stands at Hofu Station in Hofu, Yamagata Prefecture, where the Zen monk was born in 1882.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jun 14, 2024
The joy of Zen — Part 2: Poetry
Ryokan and Santoka lived in different times, connected by a knack for words but polar opposites when it came to the monk's life they both chose.
A monk practices "zazen" (seated meditation), a practice that the monk Dogen said would help one cast aside the world in service of the Way.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
May 17, 2024
The joy of Zen — Part 1: Prose
The writings of the monks Eisai and Dogen sought to determine the proper way to live on this Earth, in harmony with the Way.
"Great Japan History Briefing Session, the 15th Empress Jingu." Expedition in Korea. The legendary Empress Jingu setting foot in Korea. Painting by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi in 1880.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Apr 18, 2024
What would Sigmund Freud have thought of Japan’s largely peaceful history?
In an exchange of letters, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud discussed human nature when it comes to why people go to war. How does Japan fit in?
Chojuro Kawarasaki plays Kuranosuke Ooishi in Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1941 film “Genroku Chushingura” (The 47 Ronin). The story, sometimes told with 46 retainers, has fascinated Japanese audiences since first being performed as a puppet play in 1748. 
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 15, 2024
Edo samurai spirit: From the battlefield to the stage
Life under the Tokugawa shogunate wasn't exactly freedom but neither was it constant war. The Japanese instead sated their bloodlust with theater.
An ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniteru depicts the assault of Asano Naganori on Kira Yoshinaka, an incident that triggered the tragedy of the 47 Ronin and one that was re-created in the play “Chushingura.”
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 8, 2024
Revenge: A dish seldom served in Japanese history but still cold as ice
When Confucius was asked, "Should we kill those who are evil?" The response came, "What need is there for you to kill?"
Sunset at Cape Puyuni in Hokkaido, Japan. The northern island is home to the indigenous Ainu.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jan 21, 2024
To Bird, a savage. To Chiri, alive and aglow.
When given a pen, Yukie Chiri wrote about the Ainu in ways outsiders never tried to understand.
There are no villains in Saikaku's stories … just people caught more or less helplessly in life's vortex.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Dec 17, 2023
Tales of a Closed Country: Part 3
There are no truly evil villains in Ihara Saikaku's stories, just people caught helplessly in life's vortex.
Many moods come and go, inspiring our art. Though love could be fleeting, it proved the most inspirational of all.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Nov 27, 2023
Tales of a Closed Country: Part 2
Even Japan's "sakoku" policies couldn't deter the lovers, artists and poets from their muses. After all, we humans tend to look for beauty where we can.
Was Japan's "sakoku" a prison? What else, when rulers were absolute, and law a weapon in the hands of high against low.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Nov 24, 2023
Tales of a Closed Country: Part 1
Long before COVID-19 was known, the gates to Japan slammed shut. It was an era of "sakoku," the closed country, but was it a prison?
History recorded the thoughts and actions of rulers and warlords, but what did the average folk think in that time? Were their days filled with angst, passion or poignancy?
JAPAN / History
Sep 17, 2023
Writers find a new muse in the 20th century: the ordinary person
The past at its very best spread its benefits thinly, leaving the masses to make the best of things beyond the reach of civilization’s light.
The wedded rocks of Meoto Iwa in Mie Prefecture.
JAPAN / History
Aug 20, 2023
Good and evil defined by God … or gods
Much of our understanding of good and evil can be traced to definitions created by religion. Which religion (and definition) depends on where you live.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 16, 2023
Japan’s Nero? The shogun who dabbled in art while Kyoto burned
As Kyoto tore itself apart, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa busied himself with art in his sanctuary. His indifference may have birthed today's Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 18, 2023
Artistic beauty in the eye of a Neolithic beholder
From Neanderthal funeral rites to the temples of the Nara Era, art has been a part of our lives. At what point was beauty considered for its own sake, though?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 23, 2023
Hell is a crab cannery ship in industrial Japan. The way out? Russia.
Stories of brutality from the era of industrialization are testament to the sacrifice of former generations, sacrifices that resulted in what we take for granted today.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 16, 2023
Democracy in half measures? Then let violence come.
Did the toiling masses give up on Japanese democracy ahead of the war because it was coming from the mouths of the upper classes who exploited them?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 18, 2023
When Emperor Meiji opened Japan, a little democracy sneaked in
Inspiration was drawn not from liberal Britain but from authoritarian Germany. The parliament was partly appointed, partly elected — by an electorate of wealth.
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
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