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May 17, 2024
 

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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).
For Michael Hoffman's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
JAPAN / Media
Dec 25, 2011
The aftershocks of 2011 will be felt for many years to come
We made history this year. They'll be writing about 2011 a hundred, maybe a thousand years from now, seeing it more clearly than we can. We're too close for a proper perspective. We know what it feels like — not yet what it means.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 25, 2011
Soseki leaps to defense of Japanese literature
Most people probably have a list of universally acclaimed geniuses, icons and luminaries whose greatness they simply fail to appreciate. "Am I stupid?" you wonder — or do claims of greatness tend to be inflated? Topping my personal list, as far as Japan is concerned, is novelist Natsume Soseki...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 25, 2011
The holy trinity of religions
Michael Hoffman's latest book is "Little Pieces: This Side of Japan" (VBW, 2010)."In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." — Genesis 1:1
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 11, 2011
Japanese 'good-for-nothings' heart Bhutan
Japan is in love — with Bhutan, a supposed Shangri-La of a country nestled in the Himalayas, famous for deemphasizing gross domestic product (GDP, the standard measure of well-being) in favor of a more abstract, possibly more human metric known as gross national happiness (GNH).
CULTURE / Books
Dec 11, 2011
No quick, easy path to haiku enlightenment
100 SELECTED HAIKU OF KATO IKUYA, translated with a study by Ito Isao. Chuseki-sha, 2011, 104 pp., ¥3,500 (paperback) Ikuya Kato (born 1929) is a modern haiku poet of the "free verse" school. Haiku itself is probably the shortest form of literature there is. Its classical structure is a cluster...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 5, 2011
Unknown consequences if Japan joins TPP
Japan couldn't make up its mind, so it was up to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On Nov. 13 he made it official: Japan would join multilateral negotiations aimed at forging a free-trading Kan-Taiheiyo Keizai Renkei Kyotei (環太平洋経済連携協定, Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP).
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 27, 2011
Nuke fears may spread faster than radiation
There are the measurable aspects of Tohoku's ongoing tragedy — so many becquerels or sieverts of radiation, so many million tons of rubble, so many trillion yen worth of damage and losses of various kinds, so many weeks, months, years or decades before cold shutdown, decontamination, reconstruction,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 13, 2011
Creating a future for Japan's aging society
Japan is an elderly country. Twenty-three percent of its population is 65 or over. By 2050, nearly 40 percent will be. Nothing like these demographics has ever been seen before, here or anywhere. This is well-known and much discussed, usually in terms of the grim implications for an enfeebled economy...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 7, 2011
Occupy Tokyo lacks focus but still demands change
"Tokyo wo senkyo seyo! (東京を占拠せよ！ Occupy Tokyo!")
CULTURE / Books
Oct 30, 2011
Hope found in despair of Japanese POW camp
VICTORY IN DEFEAT: The Wake Island Defenders in Captivity, by Gregory J.W. Urwin. Naval Institute Press, 2010, 478 pp., $38.95 (hardcover) An American solder mused, "We were amazed. We had always been told that [the Japanese] were inferior people. We was amazed at how well they were bombing."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 23, 2011
Rich can afford to jump Japan's sinking ship
If Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Diamond are both right, Japan is in serious trouble.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 9, 2011
Nonprofits in Japan help 'shut-ins' get out into the open
Not everyone fits into society. Dropping out, or falling by the wayside, has numerous causes and many manifestations.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 9, 2011
Women warriors of Japan
"Ah, for some bold warrior to match with, that Kiso might see how fine a death I can die!"
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 3, 2011
A short history of big gaffes by Japanese politicians
"Kokoro kara owabi mōshi-agemasu" (「心からお詫び申し上げます」 "I apologize from my heart"). The hearts of Japanese politicians must be bottomless indeed, for all the apologies that seem to ferment there. Their mouths, meanwhile, are on automatic pilot, sowing shitsugen (失言, gaffe,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 25, 2011
Praise, where it's due, for Japanese fascism
Once upon a time men were proud to call themselves fascist. "I am convinced," wrote a leading Japanese reformist bureaucrat in the early 1930s, "that from now on the spirit of the civilization and politics of mankind is fascist ideology ... Before the iron laws of historical development, the downfall...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 18, 2011
Is permanent connectedness really something we all need?
An Associated Press report of Apple Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs' resignation last month stated, "Jobs helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home." This testifies to Jobs' genius but fails to raise what seems an obvious question: Is it a change for...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 5, 2011
National child allowance threatened by rebuilding cost
Kodomo teate (子供手当て, child allowance) is a benign, beneficent social policy rooted in horror, having first seen the light of day in certain European countries that had been dangerously depopulated by World War I.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 4, 2011
These may be interesting times, yet we yearn to return to normality
"May you live in interesting times," goes the familiar curse — or as the Chinese say in a similar vein, "It's better to be a dog in times of peace than a human in times of chaos."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 28, 2011
Forgotten atrocity of the atomic age
Hiroshima was nothing. Nine years later on March 1, 1954, there occurred at Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands an atomic blast equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshimas.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 21, 2011
Now it's Japan's turn to shout 'Yes, we can!'
Two thousand eight was a dreadful year. Long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were going badly. The U.S. "subprime crisis" was strangling the global economy. Rising food prices were causing concern at best, riots at worst. The worse things got, the more helpless the world's democratic leaders showed themselves...
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.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Human bone-like objects found at Nippon Steel plant’s molten iron pot, with one worker missing
Police believe it’s highly possible that human bones found in a molten iron pot at Nippon Steel's Oita factory belong to a missing male employee.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Man suspected of using smart glasses to cheat on Waseda University exams
The Waseda University campus in Tokyo. An 18-year-old male test-taker is suspected of using smart glasses to cheat during the university's entrance exam.
Japanese billionaire sues Meta over investment scams using his image
Entrepreneurs Yusaku Maezawa (second from right) and Takafumi Horie (third from right) attend a study session on fake social media ads and investment scams at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on April 10.
Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound.
Who’s toughest on China? Biden’s tariff tactic ups ante as election looms.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about new actions to protect American workers and businesses from China's "unfair" trade practices, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.

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