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July 08, 2025
 

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Michael Hoffman

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Michael Hoffman
Michael Hoffman is a fiction and nonfiction writer who has lived in Hokkaido by the sea almost as long as he can remember. He has been contributing regularly to The Japan Times for 10 years. His latest novel is "The Naked Ear" (VBW/Blackcover Books, 2012).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jul 26, 2014
Long, Long Autumn Nights: Selected Poems of Oguma Hideo, 1901-1940
Some truths only a poet can utter. "Oh, God! / Give me talent / For insult and profanation / To revile You / and my enemies!"
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 19, 2014
'Leaving the world' to gain freedom
A challenge: Scan Japanese history in search of freedom fighters. You won't find many. Not freedom but submission was the proud Japanese ideal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 12, 2014
The high cost of peace and quiet
Peace and quiet! How rare it is, how precious. Why rare? Because a full-blooded modern economy is no monastery, no "ancient pond" into which a frog may jump, producing the hushed "sound of water" immortalized by the haiku poet Basho (1644-94).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 28, 2014
A life of lettuce has its benefits
Lettuce. Let us raise a glass to lettuce.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 28, 2014
When a physical wasteland bred a moral wasteland
He lived by fire and he died by fire. He was vile — coldblooded, amoral, ruthless. He was the man his time called for, and the man his time called forth — a vile time, by most standards. Its name is Sengoku Jidai, a period of prolonged civil war. Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) is its most representative...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 21, 2014
Advances in robotics present singular worry
'Singularity' is an odd word. Originally it meant peculiarity. Then 20th-century physicists got hold of it and situated it at the very boundary of space-time, to the eternal bafflement of the lay mind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 7, 2014
Japan's salarymen are bored to tears
It seems odd to be talking about boredom in such interesting times. Are you bored? Almost certainly you are, if Spa! magazine's insights are reliable. Polling 2,052 mid-career (age 35-45), moderately prosperous (annual income ¥4 million-¥6 million) businessmen (sic, men only), it found no fewer than...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 24, 2014
Will Japan be a country that welcomes all?
"A nation of immigrants." Japan? The leading proponent of that vision has been Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, current executive director of the private think tank he founded in 2007, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 17, 2014
'Japan is back' but small business isn't
The old Japan is dying. Is a new Japan being born?
JAPAN / History
May 17, 2014
Wrong to judge early imperialist Japan too harshly?
"Korea turned out to be this nice, laid-back place..."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 10, 2014
Convenience stores give our nation pride
Japan's prime minister is an unabashed patriot, as outspoken in his love for his country as in his desire to instill that love in his compatriots. Are his compatriots receptive? Opinion polls on attitudes toward pending revisions of long-standing interpretations of the pacifist Constitution, prologue...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 26, 2014
Mini-revolutions may add up to a change
1949. The war was over. Slowly, a numbed populace rose from the dead. That year, 2.7 million babies were born — a record high, never surpassed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 19, 2014
How should a civilized nation treat women?
In 1872, a Peruvian ship transporting Chinese coolies docked at Yokohama for repairs. One of the coolies jumped overboard and sought refuge, complaining of gross ill-treatment. What to do?
JAPAN / History
Apr 19, 2014
Taking a maiden stab at expansionism in Taiwan
Taiwan is Japan's forgotten colony.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 12, 2014
'Big Pharma' manipulating the market? Now that's depressing
You're the entrepreneurial type, let's say, ambitious but a little unsure of yourself. What field is ripe for your energy and enthusiasm?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 29, 2014
The truth is, we have gotten too used to lying
Philosophers love truth — that's a truism. What about the rest of us? Do we love truth or falsehood? Truth, we naturally affirm. So why are we swimming in falsehood?
JAPAN / History
Mar 22, 2014
The sloughing of Japan's corporate skin goes on
"Man is born free and is everywhere in chains."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 15, 2014
Japan's future may be stunted by its past
Is time carrying us forward, or backward?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 1, 2014
Why marry, or worry, when we can be alone together in ohitorisama Japan?
As people increasingly choose to live and do things alone, is Japan evolving into an 'ohitorisama' nation? Time will tell.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2014
A tale of two Abes: PM's rosy view jars with life of toil seen in poison case
Did the frozen-food poisoner have some obscure notion of 'justice' in mind? Might it have been his way of saying to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 'Japan is not back; Japan won't be back until working for a living does not entail the sacrifice of all human dignity
Heatstroke alert issued for 19 prefectures as Japan enters 'once-in-a-decade' heat wave
Japan will experience a heat wave through mid-July on a “level only seen once in a decade,” the Meteorological Agency said on June 30.
Japan braces for more quakes as authorities dismiss doomsday hype
Evacuees from Akuseki Island, located in the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima Prefecuture, arrive at Kagoshima Port on Friday.
Foreign nationals' presence in Japan emerges as key issue in Upper House poll
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a campaign speech next to a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the Upper House (top center left) in Yokohama on Sunday.
Hidden AI prompts in academic papers spark concern about research integrity
Waseda University is one of 14 institutions in eight countries found to have used hidden prompts in research papers.
China’s housing crisis is worse than it seems
Residential buildings under construction in Shanghai in July 2022. The Chinese government risks long-term decline by repeating Japan’s policy mistakes in handling its real estate and demographic crises.
Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste
A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead
Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
From Hokusai’s Great Wave, shinkansen to One Piece: a cultural treasure box for Lego Japan
Michael Ebbesen, general manager of Lego Japan, says Lego bricks based on Japanese culture have a rich global appeal and are sellable around the world.
With farmed fish, RelationFish swims against the tide in fine dining
Chef Hideaki Matsuo (middle) and the staff of Oseto Suisan Fisheries prepare to check on their sustainably farmed fish.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
By Alex K.T. Martin

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