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May 19, 2024
 

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Jeff Kingston
Jeff Kingston lives in Tokyo, teaches history at Temple University Japan and has been contributing to The Japan Times since 1988. "Contemporary Japan" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) is his most recent book.
For Jeff Kingston's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
CULTURE / Books
Oct 29, 2006
Is the sun setting on the future of Japan?
SHUTTING OUT THE SUN: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, by Michael Zielenziger. New York: Doubleday, 2006, 352 pp., $24.95 (cloth). The strength of this book lies in its sensitive and poignant portraits of hikikomori, Japan's recluses. Their stories of withdrawal are etched with pain and anomie....
CULTURE / Books
Oct 15, 2006
The first steps to rapprochement
JAPAN'S FOREIGN POLICY 1945-2003: The Quest for a Proactive Policy, by Kazuhiko Togo. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2005, 484 pp., $49 (paper). Kazuhiko Togo, one of Japan's leading strategic thinkers about foreign policy, wrote an article in the June issue of Far Eastern Economic Review calling for a moratorium...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2006
Salarymen: a dying breed of worker?
21ST-CENTURY JAPANESE MANAGEMENT: New Systems, Lasting Values, by James C. Abegglen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 194 pp., $80 (cloth). Japan is back and its companies are leading the charge. The process of reinventing corporate Japan continues apace, but does not mean a repudiation of core values....
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006
Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll
...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 13, 2006
Arguing over history, memory and politics
THE MAKING OF THE "RAPE OF NANKING": History and Memory in Japan, China and the United States, by Takashi Yoshida. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, 265 pp., $55 (cloth). Since Iris Chang published "The Rape of Nanking" (1997), the Japanese have taken a beating about their alleged collective amnesia...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2006
Fear and loathing in Tokyo today
THINK GLOBAL, FEAR LOCAL: Sex, Violence and Anxiety in Contemporary Japan, by David Leheny. New York: Cornell University Press, 2006, 230 pp., $35 (cloth). Otto van Bismarck quipped that the crafting of laws, like sausage making, does not bear watching. Certainly both can be messy and disillusioning,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 23, 2006
Faces of terrorism
The Richman's Cafe seemed an unlikely place to meet a terrorist, but at least it was well lit and public.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 23, 2006
Democracy falters as underworld forces flourish
Kyrgyzstan is referred to as a faltering state, meaning that it is not quite failing.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2006
Magic touch in East Timor
Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, 56, is the $14 billion man. During 2005, while serving as foreign minister, he is credited with playing a crucial behind-the-scenes role in rescuing Timor Sea resource negotiations between Australia and East Timor. Talks had hit an impasse, partly owing to the abrasive style of...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2006
A bumper-car experience in Toyota-land
NOTES FROM TOYOTA-LAND: An American Engineer in Japan, by Darius Mehri. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2006, $26 (cloth). Toyota is booming, but its PR department has had its hands full with a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit in the United States -- and now this damning insider's revelations...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2006
Japan heats up whaling wars
The battle over whaling has grown more acrimonious in recent years principally because Japan has become a more vociferous and belligerent advocate for a resumption of commercial whaling. In the recently concluded meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Japan's representative browbeat and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 30, 2006
Could the fortress have been saved?
SINGAPORE BURNING: Heroism and Surrender in WWII, by Colin Smith. London: Penguin, 2006, 512pp., £9.99 (paper). Winston Churchill called the fall of Singapore, "The worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." This inglorious surrender to Japan on Feb. 15, 1942, came about largely...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 9, 2006
Could the U.N. have done more?
A NOT SO DISTANT HORROR: Mass Violence in East Timor, by Joseph Nevins. New York: Cornell University Press, 2005, 273 pp., $18.95 (cloth). This is a gripping and powerful saga rooted in the horrible atrocities and deprivation endured by the East Timorese following Indonesia's invasion in 1975. Indonesian...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 2, 2006
Accepting apologies is not so easy
JAPANESE APOLOGIES FOR WORLD WAR II: A Rhetorical Study, by Jane W. Yamazaki. London: Routledge, 2005, 256 pp., £65 (cloth). POLITICS, MEMORY AND PUBLIC OPINION: The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society, by Sven Saaler, Munich: Deutsches Institut fur Japanstudien, 2005, 202 pp., 28...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 12, 2006
Money laundering and global debt
CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, by Raymond W. Baker. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2005, 438 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Reviewed by JEFF KINGSTON The scandalous tolerance of massive money laundering by global financial institutions contributes to poverty...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 5, 2006
Japan's social norms shaped by law
LAW IN EVERYDAY JAPAN: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes, by Mark D. West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 279 pp., $19.95 (paper). This is a superb book that explores the interaction of law, society and culture over a range of intriguing topics. In seven captivating case studies, Mark West...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 26, 2006
Tales of two cities
The seeds of political tension in Xinjiang are not hard to find.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 26, 2006
Dateline: Xinjiang
Our plane looked new and well maintained, but as we headed off into the void on the atlas far, far to the northwest of Shanghai, I still wondered if I had made a mistake by not buying some of the "Air Unexpected Insurance" on offer at the airport.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 19, 2006
Decades of peace have yet to heal Vietnam's wounds
VIET NAM AT PEACE, by Philip Jones Griffiths. London: Trolley, 2005, 312 pp., £39.95 (cloth). This is the final volume in Philip Jones Griffiths' epoch trilogy on Vietnam spanning 40 years. His classic "Vietnam, Inc" (1971) and "Agent Orange" (2003) focus on war and its consequences. Here, we are...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 8, 2006
Unsparing view of Indonesia past
IN THE TIME OF MADNESS by Richard Lloyd Parry. London: Jonathan Cape, 2005, 315 pp., £12.99 (paper). This firsthand account of fin de siecle Indonesia, an era of widespread chaos and violence, takes us into the heart of darkness, searing our consciousness with images of deprivation, fear and mayhem...
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them
A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Japan passes bill to introduce 'blue ticket' fines for cyclists
A new system under which bicycle riders pay fines for minor traffic violations to escape criminal punishment is expected to be introduced in Japan no later than 2026.
Japan survey finds 30% of student interns experience sexual harassment
The proportion of recent graduates in Japan who have worked as interns have experienced sexual harassment during their internship was 30.1%, according to a labor ministry survey, up 4.6 percentage points from the previous survey in fiscal 2020.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.
Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
A new initiative rethinks old Tohoku crafts
The colored patterns of Tsuguru "nuri," made in Aomori Prefecture, are achieved by applying multiple coatings of lacquer, which are later polished down to reveal layers of colors beneath.
Xi and Putin mark ‘new era’ amid efforts to counter U.S. ‘containment’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend an event in Beijing on Thursday. During Putin's visit, the leaders showed off their growing alignment amid efforts to push back against the U.S.-led world order.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.

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