Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
History | THE LIVING PAST Sep 21, 2013
Ancient tales by the 'savages' of Hokkaido have lessons for today
by Michal Hoffman
Imagine living in a culture with none or very little of the following: politics, economics, property, history, time, agriculture, money, war ambition, heaven, hell, progress, writing … “They’re dogs, not men!” snapped a certain Mr. Ito upon first encountering the Ainu of Hokkaido in ...
History | THE LIVING PAST Aug 24, 2013
Only in Japan could a sword be 'life-giving'
by Michal Hoffman
Few countries have broken with their past as sharply as Japan did. That was the price it paid for modernity. Japan in the mid-19th century had a beautiful, deep, highly refined culture that reached far down the social scale — but it was an ...
History | THE LIVING PAST Jul 27, 2013
What if Columbus had reached his goal: Japan?
by Michal Hoffman
Every school child knows that in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America. Every school child knows wrongly. When the Genovese explorer’s three ships sailed westward from Palo de la Frontera, Spain, on Aug. 2, 1492, he was bound, he thought, for “the noble island of ...
History | THE LIVING PAST Jun 23, 2013
The 'barbarians' were coming — like it or not
by Michal Hoffman
‘Sonnō jōi!”: “Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!” The writing was on the wall long before the wall crumbled. Japan’s splendid isolation — splendid in its own eyes — would no longer be accepted. The outside world was growing restless. Nations were reaching out, ...
History | THE LIVING PAST May 26, 2013
History shows one man's rape is another's wooing
by Michal Hoffman
“The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish.” This gives a reader pause. Freakish? The judgment is historian Hiroshi Watanabe’s in “A History of Japanese Political Thought, ...
History | THE LIVING PAST Apr 28, 2013
Disaster long lurked amid Japan's isolation
by Michael Hoffmann
“The evolution of political thought in this relatively isolated island nation during the period in question is unique to the point of being somewhat freakish.” This gives a reader pause. Freakish? The judgment is historian Hiroshi Watanabe’s in “A History of Japanese Political Thought, ...