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Published in Japan Forward 10/9/2020
The best science fiction is never about the future, but the present. One Love Chigusa, the latest offering from British publisher Red Circle, is a case in point.
Nominally set in the year 2091, Soji Shimada’s short novel deals with highly contemporary concerns, specifically what it means to be human in a world of advanced robotics and AI (Artificial Intelligence.)
Published in Money Week 3/9/2020
As Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe leaves office, his term cut short by illness, his policies have received an unexpected endorsement. Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in history, has just disclosed stakes in all five of Japan’s major trading houses.
Published in the Nikkei Asian Review 2/9/ 2020
I hold my trusty sword in the moon stance.
With my grimacing red mask and stag’s antlers sprouting from my helmet, I almost scare myself.
Having nourished my bodily strength in the hot spring and hardened my resolve by praying at the fox’s den, I’m ready for anything.
The enemy edges towards me, the flames flickering behind him…
Published in Japan Forward 3/9/2020
I first met Shinzo Abe when Japan’s bubble economy was at its zenith. Not yet a politician himself, he was deputizing for his father as the guest of honour at the wedding of one of my colleagues.
Stuck as “it” in a game of hide-and-seek, I grow old
Who shall I seek at the village festival
From the tanka poetry collection To Die in the Country, by Shuji Terayama.
Hide-And-Seek Piece
Hide until everyone goes home
Hide until everyone forgets about you
Hide until everyone dies
From Grapefruit, by Yoko Ono.
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Published in Japan Forward 1/8/2020
Covid-19 may have deprived us of this year’s Tokyo Olympics, but there are plenty of Olympic-themed films that are well worth watching instead. They range from warm-hearted comedies to tense thrillers and dark human dramas.
Published in Newsweek Japan 21/7/2020
This time, Japan has had a “good” crisis. Not only has it experienced far fewer Covid-19 fatalities than other large developed countries, but the economic damage has been less severe too.
Published in the Nikkei Asian Review 8/7/2020
To adapt Oscar Wilde, if there’s one thing worse than hordes of tourists everywhere, it’s no tourists anywhere. Such were my thoughts as my footsteps echoed through the deserted hallways of Narita Airport one evening in late June.
Published in Japan Forward July 2 2020
Published in the Sankei Shimbun July 24 2020
Covid-19 has completed the job, already well underway in recent years, of turning the world Japanese. Almost everywhere, economies are shrinking and long-term interest rates sinking to previously unimaginable levels.
Ironically, Japan – once the poster child for deflationary stagnation – is in a good place, relatively speaking. The IMF’s forecast of -5.2% GDP growth for Japan in 2020 looks ugly until you compare it with -7.5% for the Eurozone, -6.5% for the UK and -5.9% for the US.