There is a curious and very telling phrase in Japanese to describe the feeling of hatred that people can have for family. It is kinshin-zoo, or “close-relative abhorrence.” Often in the course of human affairs — whether in social, political, ethnic or literary contexts ...

“Americans have never been particularly interested in learning other languages and are even less interested today. . . . Our government spends 25 per cent less, adjusted for inflation, than it did 40 years ago on foreign-language training at university level.” So wrote author ...

Among the many Japanese words and phrases that have fallen by the wayside of late and become shigo (obsolete), gaijin komupurekkusu (foreigner complex) is certainly among the least missed. “Foreigner complex” referred to the attitude and behavior of some Japanese people who nurtured, for ...

“From the perspective of Chinese Communist Party ideology, China was a victim of Western imperialism from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and, as a result, the Chinese tend to remember the humiliations they suffered while rarely considering their own nation to be ...

When historians look back on the Obama administration, they may deem the senatorial election in Massachusetts on Jan. 19, 2010, to have been the pivotal event determining its destiny. That day, conservative Republican Scott Brown handsomely defeated liberal Democrat Martha Coakley to become the ...

Two photographs, separated in time and context by 64 years, may symbolize, as well as anything can, the nature of the postwar Japanese-American alliance. Both in their time gave rise to uproar. The second of these was the photograph, taken on the occasion of ...

I freely admit a prejudice. It is against the concept of “national character,” or kokuminsei in Japanese. Is there really such a thing or is it merely a jumble of stereotypes, whichever is the country or culture in question? There are, most certainly, unique ...

If I had to choose a word that characterized a good deal of Japanese social behavior it would probably be jishuku. Jishuku’s English equivalent is “self-control” or, perhaps, “self-discipline.” The verb jishuku suru means “to restrain oneself” or “to keep a rein on one’s ...

‘Shying away from study in America” screamed the front-page headline of the Dec. 11 evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun. The article beneath presented facts and analysis of an unmistakable phenomenon: Japanese students are not being drawn to the United States to pursue their ...

At the end of the year — and, particularly, the end of a decade — an old man’s fancy turns, involuntarily, to nostalgia. No, dear reader, I am not lamenting the dimming of yesterday’s light, nor am I about to wax over waning powers. ...

At the end of the year — and, particularly, the end of a decade — an old man’s fancy turns, involuntarily, to nostalgia. No, dear reader, I am not lamenting the dimming of yesterday’s light, nor am I about to wax over waning powers. ...

Ten years ago, near the end of 1999, the Chinese author Wang Lixiong received a package from a young woman of Tibetan origin named Tsering Woeser. It contained several hundred black-and-white negatives. “The negatives are of pictures taken by my father, who died in ...