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April 25, 2024
 

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David Williams
For David Williams's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001
Japan well-served by 'soft power' strategy
Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security, by Glenn D. Hook, Julie Gilson, Christopher W. Hughes and Hugo Dobson. London & New York, Routledge, 2001, 532 pp. $32.95 (paper). Problem child, kingmaker and political gadfly, Ichiro Ozawa has long been one of the most ambitious men in Japanese politics. He is also one of the most frustrated. An example: When Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, Ozawa rushed to the prime minister's residence in his capacity as secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, only to discover that no one was on duty. His fury at such complacency has never left him.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2001
Nakasone as No. 1 reformer
JAPANESE EDUCATION REFORM: Nakasone's Legacy, by Christopher P. Hood. London and New York: Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge, 2001. 222 pp., 50 UK pounds (cloth). When neoconservatism was riding high, a leftwing cartoonist drew a pastiche of Edward Hopper's famous painting of a sad roadside diner, and then imaginatively peopled it with three of the conservative icons of the past two decades: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. Does Yasuhiro Nakasone deserve a place in this picture?
CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2001
Revisionists open a front in China
NORTH CHINA AND JAPANESE EXPANSION, 1933-1937: Regional Power and the National Interest, by Marjorie Dryburgh. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000, 249 pp., 50 pounds (cloth). China is not only the world's most populous nation, but it is also one of the largest. In territorial reach, Russia and Canada alone outrank China. Furthermore, in the politics of nations, size has consequences. China's vastness ensures that regionalism is a force to be reckoned with in the national life of this Asian giant.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2000
A moral beacon in Japan's darkest days
YANAIHARA TADAO AND JAPANESE COLONIAL EMPIRE: Redeeming Empire, by Susan C. Townsend. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000, 296 pp., 50 British pounds (cloth). Scholarship can be a dangerous vocation. The ideological witch-hunt against Tadao Yanaihara, holder of the prewar chair of colonial policy at Tokyo Imperial University, began with a military ambush across the sea in China. The same nighttime clash that plunged Japan into war on the Chinese mainland in September 1937 also set in motion the academic ruin of one of 20th-century Japan's most remarkable intellectuals.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2000
Revealing the nation one grain at a time
THE POLITICS OF AGRICULTURE IN JAPAN, by Aurelia George Mulgan. London & New York: Routledge, 2000, 856 pp.,82 British pounds/$125 (cloth). In 1890, a young German academic agreed to evaluate a survey of landowners in the German provinces east of the Elbe River. Overcoming the limitations of biased and unsophisticated data, he brilliantly analyzed the impact of emerging market forces on the decaying structures of Prussian Junker society.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2000
It's Karl Marx vs. Jackie Chan, and the old, fat guy wins
CITY ON FIRE: Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes and Michael Hoover. London: Verso, Sept. 1999, 372 pp., $22 (paper). It began as a buzzing, multicultural confusion. The year is 1909. Hong Kong's cinema is born with a silent effort titled "Stealing the Roasted Duck." It is the handiwork of Liang Shaobo, the famous Shanghai-based director. So far, so good.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2000
U.S. pays the price for its empire
BLOWBACK: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, by Chalmers Johnson. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000, 268 pp., $26 (cloth). Is it time for the United States to withdraw from its empire? "America," "withdrawal," "empire": three words, three controversies. Tell me how you define these three words, and I'll tell you how you will answer Chalmers Johnson's question.
CULTURE / Books
May 2, 2000
'The gooks from Gardena' go to war
FROM PEARL HARBOR TO SAIGON: Japanese-American Soldiers and the Vietnam War, by Toshio Whelchel. London & New York: Verso, 1999, 203 pp., three maps, 12 photos, 16.20 British pounds (cloth). At last, a simple but moving book about the violent soul of America that almost any educated Japanese can read in the original English. This is a war story full of short tales told in short sentences. The writing is plain, the vocabulary as undemanding as the people it tells us about. There is even a dictionary of '60s' slang.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000
Fingleton deflates the New Economy
IN PRAISE OF HARD INDUSTRIES: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Technology, Is the Key to Future Prosperity, by Eamonn Fingleton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999, 273 pp., $26 (cloth). A 24-year-old Englishman with a ponytail waltzed into the offices of a London venture-capital company last month, gave a little talk and waltzed out again with a check for nearly half a million dollars. A recent graduate of Cambridge University, this young man had just made his first financial killing entirely on the strength of "a great software idea."
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2000
Southeast Asia: creature of Japan?
THE SPECTRE OF COMPARISONS: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World, by Benedict Anderson. London: Verso, 1999, 374 pp., 13.00 British pounds (paper). The Japanese invented Southeast Asia. This is just one of the pieces of intellectual dynamite that Benedict Anderson tosses into the reader's lap with this extraordinary set of essays in theoretical provocation.
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
Over 40% of Japan's municipalities at risk of vanishing, study finds
Of 1,729 local municipalities nationwide, 744 have been identified as being at risk of disappearing.
Tokyo issues strong warning on yen intervention as currency dips further
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki speaks during a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok on the sidelines of IMF and G20 meetings in Washington last week.
Princess Aiko makes debut at imperial garden party
Princess Aiko attends an imperial garden party in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan's former PM Aso meets Trump for talks on security and economy
Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Taro Aso, vice president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in New York on Tuesday. The Japanese government’s top spokesman on Wednesday played down the meeting as one conducted "in the capacity of one lawmaker" and “without the government’s involvement.”
For amateur sumo, a fresh start offers hope against time-wasting and gamesmanship
Wrestlers prepare for the start of a bout at the 2023 Sumo World Championships in Tokyo. Starting this month, placing one hand on the clay first is no longer allowed.
LDP veteran Nikai's youngest son expected to succeed him in Wakayama
Toshihiro Nikai, former secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, announced in March that he would not run in the next Lower House election to take responsibility for the political funds scandal that rocked his party and his own faction.
New workers name Shohei Ohtani as 'dream boss' for two years running
Shohei Ohtani has been overwhelmingly voted as the “dream boss” for people who started working in April, according to a survey.
A craft beer crawl through Tokyo’s top bars, brewpubs and dives
If all you drink is Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin, you're depriving yourself of some of the best craft beer Tokyo has to offer — and there sure is a lot of it out there.
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass
Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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