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 David McNeill

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David McNeill
David McNeill is a Tokyo-based writer from Ireland. He writes for several international publications and teaches political science at Sophia University. His new co-authored book is "Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster."
For David McNeill's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Christopher Nolan's film about the creator of the atomic bomb, "Oppenheimer," was released in theaters worldwide this summer and received mostly strong reviews. However, distributors still have not announced whether the film will be shown in Japan's cinemas.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2023
Will Japan ever see 'Oppenheimer' screened in its cinemas?
Christopher Nolan’s film about the creator of the atomic bomb still doesn't have a Japan release date. There’s more than one possible reason for that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 26, 2021
Mapping the cyber-activism of Japanese rightists
Jeffrey J. Hallu2019s "Japanu2019s Nationalist Right in the Internet Age" brings academic rigor to exploring how neo-nationalist groups use the internet to bypass the mainstream media.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 12, 2018
Don't worry about slipping up in spoken Japanese, you're only carrot after all
Come commiserate with perpetual learners of the language over a shared ability to fill an everyday conversation with gaffes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 10, 2018
'Liv': The truth of war in a pair of cornflower-blue eyes
In the landmark Western "The Searchers" (1956) directed by John Ford, John Wayne plays embittered Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards, in obsessive pursuit of Comanche Indians who have kidnapped his niece. Such is Edward's hatred for Native Americans we spend the movie convinced he will murder, not rescue, his niece for falling into their clutches. Wayne, said one critic, was an American gone mad; in chasing the beast he had become the beast himself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 22, 2017
Defiant Cambodia Daily is down but not out
Tokyo-based publishing family hopes to resurrect paper that was forced to shut last month amid claims it owes Cambodia a huge tax bill.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 29, 2017
Strategic approach: Washington's shifting nuclear policy in the Asia-Pacific region is putting Japan in a difficult position
A global ban on nuclear weapons was approved earlier this month at the U.N. headquarters in New York. A total of 122 countries signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. None of the signatories, however, possesses a nuclear bomb.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 13, 2017
In Fukushima, a land where few return
The evacuation orders for most of the village of Iitate have been lifted. But where are the people?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 22, 2016
Nationalism: a long shadow over Asia's precarious future
In 1945, year zero for "Nationalism in Asia", most of the region it describes was impoverished, backward and exhausted. After the calamitous Pacific War, China, India and Indonesia were in a final showdown with the great European colonial powers that had exploited them for decades. Korea had shrugged off Imperial Japan but was sliding toward a civil war that would divide the peninsula into two bitterly opposed, dirt-poor enemies. Japan was humiliated, in ruins and under occupation, brought so low by its defeat in World War II that few believed it could ever rise again.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Aug 20, 2016
Inside Japan's racehorse breeding empire
Harry Sweeney has his hand up a horse's backside. The mare looks put out by this intrusion. Her eyes dart about nervously and she shifts her weight before accepting five thick human digits probing her insides. After feeling the uterus and the swelling of the ovaries, Sweeney's arm, slick with mucus and excrement, reemerges. He doesn't even need to look at the monitor. "She's pregnant," he confirms, smiling.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
May 28, 2016
Shooting the messenger: journalism under siege in Japan
Journalists who refuse to toe the official line are under pressure, experts say
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 16, 2016
Travesty of justice: legal reform unlikely despite erroneous convictions
Two elderly men fighting for decades to clear their names are poised to receive high-profile retrials in 2016 and yet their ordeals are unlikely to trigger wide-ranging reform to the countryu2019s justice system, experts say.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 15, 2015
Growing influence of Japan Conference reflects resentment at Tokyo's postwar settlement with Washington
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress — the first by a Japanese leader — that lauded deepening trade ties and the military alliance with the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 26, 2015
Nous ne sommes pas Charlie: Voices that mock authority in Japan muzzled
Why is there no equivalent of Charlie Hebdo, "The Daily Show" or "Monty Python" in Japan?
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2014
Elderly Henoko activists injured in base relocation protest
Two elderly protesters have been hurt trying to block trucks from entering Camp Schwab in Okinawa Prefecture, near the construction site of a bitterly contested American base.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014
Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles
Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing defeat" (gekiha) of the enemy. What was he thinking?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 14, 2014
From Yokosuka rape to U.S. court victory, 'Jane' commits her 12-year ordeal to print
Rape victim Catherine Fisher reveals the story behind her 12-year fight with the U.S. military and Japanese authorities in her new book, "I am Catherine Jane."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2014
Mei Shigenobu's words continue the fight for her mother's cause
On her 8th birthday, Mei Shigenobu's mother sat her daughter down and told her that she was the leader of the Japanese Red Army Faction, a group of revolutionary Marxists fighting to violently overthrow global capitalism. It was part of a very unconventional childhood.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 28, 2014
Tooling up for war: Can Japan benefit from lifting the arms export ban?
The Paris-based Eurosatory is one of the world's biggest defense and security industry trade shows, drawing specialists from nearly 90 countries to view the latest in military hardware. Among the tanks, drones, military helicopters and police riot vehicles that were exhibited last month, 13 Japanese companies set up shop for the first time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 10, 2014
Stakes high as ailing U.S. Navy sailors take on Tepco over Fukushima fallout
If successful, this U.S. court case opens up the possibility of Fukushima-related claims from not just American military personnel and their dependents but potentially thousands of Japanese who experienced the fallout.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 22, 2014
Noam Chomsky: Truth to power
Often dubbed one of the world's most important intellectuals and its leading public dissident, Noam Chomsky was for years among the top 10 most quoted academics on the planet, edged out only by William Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Aristotle.

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