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 Oscar Boyd

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Oscar Boyd
For Oscar Boyd's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 10, 2021
Episode 81: Chocolate in Japan — from Paris to the Ogasawara Islands
As Valentine's Day approaches, Jeana Cadby, Ph.D. in specialty cacao and craft chocolate, takes us on a tour through the history and growth of chocolate in Japan.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 3, 2021
Episode 80: A shift in Japan's climate policy
Japan Times staff writer Ryusei Takahashi joins Deep Dive to discuss Prime Minister Suga's pledge to make Japan carbon neutral by 2050.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Jan 27, 2021
Episode 79: What does QAnon mean for Japan?
Bloomberg's Max Zimmerman takes us through Japan's strain of the QAnon conspiracy.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Jan 20, 2021
Episode 78: Japan's foreign residents are trapped — Part 3
Japan Times reporter Magdalena Osumi provides an update on Japan's border situation.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Jan 13, 2021
Episode 77: When will Japan get a vaccine for COVID-19?
Bloomberg reporter Lisa Du joins Deep Dive to discuss when Japan will start to distribute a vaccine for COVID-19, and why it has fallen so far behind other countries.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 30, 2020
Episode 76: So long, 2020
We hear from listeners of Deep Dive about what got them through 2020.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 26, 2020
Top 5: Food trends our critics want to see Japan embrace in 2021
Eyes (and stomachs) are already turning to 2021. Five of The Japan Times' critics share the dining trends they'd like to see the country embrace.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 24, 2020
How has COVID-19 changed Japan's pop culture? Episode 4: Rebuild
Two anime films — ”Demon Slayer” and “Violet Evergarden” — offer a dash of optimism to end 2020, as Japanese pop culture moves towards the beginning of a new era.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 23, 2020
How has COVID-19 changed Japan's pop culture? Episode 3: Adapt
Pop group NiziU's “Make You Happy” became the song of this very strange summer and the government changed its tone from stay home to Go To.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 22, 2020
How has COVID-19 changed Japan's pop culture? Episode 2: Isolate
When COVID-19 brought about a stay-at-home spring, Animal Crossing provided us with a digital island escape.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 21, 2020
How has COVID-19 changed Japan's pop culture? Episode 1: Collapse
In Episode 1 of Recultured, we look at how 2020 ground to a halt through the lens of "Terrace House," and hear from stars of the show about its dramatic ending amid the arrival of COVID-19.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 2, 2020
Episode 75: What will a Joe Biden presidency mean for Japan?
Sheila A. Smith joined us from Washington earlier this week to give her take on what a Biden presidency might mean for Japan going forward.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 25, 2020
Reimagining Japan's post-pandemic tourism industry
International travelers to Japan increased from 8.6 million in 2010 to just shy of 32 million in 2019. Then came 2020. Now, with the pandemic reducing international tourism to near zero, what's next for Japan's travel industry?
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 18, 2020
Episode 73: Japan's third wave of COVID-19
Gearoid Reidy, a senior editor at Bloomberg, joins us to discuss whether we might see a new state of emergency and the hope provided by the recent news about vaccines.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 11, 2020
Episode 72: Preserving the endangered Ainu language
The Ainu language has been declared critically endangered by UNESCO, with few people left alive today who speak it.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 5, 2020
Episode 71: CBD — Japan's path to medical marijuana?
Japan Times contributor Dan Buyanovsky explores Japan's growing CBD industry and whether it offers a path to the legalization of medical marijuana.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 28, 2020
Episode 70: Japan's got ghosts
Author, Bram Stoker Award nominee and host of the podcast “Uncanny Japan,” Thersa Matsuura joins us to share her fascination with the Japanese supernatural.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 21, 2020
Episode 69: Why we should be celebrating Japan's tattoo culture
Japan has an uncomfortable relationship with tattoos, which are associated with the yakuza and the criminal underworld.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 14, 2020
Episode 68: Naomi Osaka — seven matches, seven masks, seven names
News editor Joel Tansey discusses the impact of Naomi Osaka's support for the Black Lives Matter movement both in the U.S. and Japan, and what a new wave of activism in sports might mean for next summer's Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 8, 2020
Episode 67: 'Convenience Store Woman' and the art of translation
Ginny Tapley Takemori discusses the process of translating Japanese literature into English — a somewhat forgotten art.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces