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July 19, 2024
 

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COUNTERPOINT

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 17, 2011
In charting their life's course, today's youth might better stay foolish
Why is this generation of young people in Japan so self-absorbed and seemingly unconcerned, to the point of distracted apathy, about the social and political dilemmas facing their country today?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 10, 2011
With Japan at a crossroads, it's instructive to recall the Hidaka affair
Exactly 30 years ago this month, I had an encounter with a man who became innocently involved in an international incident. That incident may be all but forgotten now, but it's worth recalling here because it highlights the struggle of an individual of conscience to have the truth revealed.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 3, 2011
Murakami puts a bomb under his compatriots' atomic complacency
"The Japanese will someday outgrow their nuclear allergy." I've never forgotten futurologist and Cold War military strategist Herman Kahn saying this to me on his visit to Japan in 1969, when I was his guide and occasional interpreter.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 26, 2011
Hearn the Westerm misfit finally found himself at home in Meiji Japan
What does it mean to be an expatriate, particularly when you feel more at home and assimilated in an adopted country than in your own?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 19, 2011
All hail the Constitution's vacuous guarantee of freedom of thought
Fifty years ago this month, I faced an agonizing personal dilemma. As president of the student body at my Los Angeles high school, I was obliged to lead my fellow students, teachers and staff in reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance," the oath of loyalty to the United States of America, at our graduation...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 12, 2011
Barber's cutting comment denies others' humanity — and hers, too
It's depressing, I must confess.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 5, 2011
Doomed self-obsessive remains iconic to some in the Japan of today
"It's not that I'm weak, it's that the suffering weighs down on me too heavily."
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...
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."
Triple whammy takes Japan bankruptcies to decade high
More Japanese firms have gone bankrupt in the first half of this year due to soaring costs, labor shortages and the end of pandemic-related support.
With eye on China, Japan deepens ties with Pacific islands at Tokyo summit
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Cook Islands' Prime Minister Mark Brown shake hands during 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting on Thursday in Tokyo.
Say cheese: Japanese scientists make robot face 'smile' with living skin
A researcher at the University of Tokyo shows a face mold covered in human skin tissue at its lab.
Rainy season ends in Tokai and Kanto regions
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district on Thursday. The rainy season appears to have ended in the regions of Tokai and Kanto, including Tokyo, on Thursday, according to the Meteorological Agency.
India’s envoy in Japan calls for boosted supply chain and defense cooperation
Indian Ambassador Sibi George says one of his main tasks in his post is to boost Japanese public and private investments the South Asian powerhouse.
After Tokyo Olympic disappointment, Nadeshiko Japan look for redemption
Japan's Hikaru Kitagawa dribbles past a defender during an Olympic qualifying match against North Korea at National Stadium in Tokyo in February.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

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Longform

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