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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:
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Dec 2, 2009
Aki aki: fed up with Japan and seeking a new start
"Can I help you, young man?"
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Nov 4, 2009
Gokai: The more I know Japan, the thicker the fog
What a strange dream! The city was engulfed in a wave of random murders (musabetsu satsujin, 無差別殺人), and when my doorbell rang it was not the murderer (satsujinhan, 殺人犯), as I'd feared, but a high police official come to coax me out of retirement (taishoku, 退職) and put my detective...
LIFE
Oct 11, 2009
Fake names were to the fore in many a rise from humblest to highest
Here's a beguiling irony: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), architect of Tokugawa Japan's rigid class structure and the author, in 1587, of a firm ban (not firmly enforced) on surnames for commoners, was himself born without a surname.
LIFE / Language
Oct 11, 2009
What's in a (Japanese) name?
"How do you do, my name is Saito Ichiro Sama-no-kami Minamoto-no-Ason Tadayoshi."
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 11, 2009
The long road to identity
A striking fact regarding modern Japanese surnames is their sheer number. There's no precise count, but the consensus is that there are more than 100,000.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Oct 7, 2009
Sometimes everything just seems to go wrong
"Well, uncle, what did you think of him?（Ano hito no koto dō omotta? あの人のことどう思った?)"
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Sep 2, 2009
Conservativism: hoshushugisha or hankakumeisha
"Professor Keyes, you're drunk (yopparatta, 酔っ払った)! Ha ha!"
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Aug 5, 2009
Heisei kids: a generation that struggles to dream
"Dad?"
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 12, 2009
Land of the Sun Goddess
The sun was mortally offended — with good reason.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Jul 1, 2009
Is boorish behavior a symptom of swine flu?
"Where's grandmother?" The little girl, just home from school, flings off her randoseru (ランドセル, school bag).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Jun 3, 2009
Back to basics: The choice of seihin or kinben
"You're up very late," says Reiko.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
May 6, 2009
A legal lesson: Taking on the (school) system
"Reiko, this is so unlike you! (Reiko-chan-rashikunai, レイコちゃんらしくない)."
LIFE
Apr 26, 2009
A literary loner
In Tokyo and even in the Occident, I have known almost no society except that of courtesans. — Nagai Kafu There's not much left of Kafu today. Among the major Japanese writers of the early 20th century, he scarcely ranks as a survivor. Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki are...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Apr 1, 2009
Being a sukebe na sensei is tougher than it looks
"Why don't you get a divorce? (早く離婚したら, Hayaku rikon shitara?)."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Mar 4, 2009
Mothers-in-law: Our place or an ubasuteyama?
Wonderful, wonderful! Outside, the world as we know it is on the brink of collapse, but here in my study it is snug and warm; my books surround me, the coffee is hot and fresh . . .
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 22, 2009
Refuge . . . of a sort
The main character of the one-act play that follows is loosely based on the few known facts concerning a Russian nobleman-refugee named Semyon Nikolaevitch Smirnitsky. Born in St. Petersburg in 1879, Smirnitsky fled the Russian Revolution in 1919 and spent the rest of his life in Japan, mostly in Otaru,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
Feb 4, 2009
Offensive compliments: A drinker's sober lesson
Of all the stupid, idiotic . . . sumimasen. Stuart Keyes is my name. I'm not in the best of moods, though you mustn't judge me by that. I'm good-humored enough most of the time, but . . .
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 7, 2009
Modern childhood holds many a lesson for adults
The reader is invited to accompany me on a trip (return, not one-way) to second childhood. Those of us who learned Japanese as adults missed out, after all, on a vast store of linguistic experience. Is it irretrievable? Maybe not. The child's world is laid out in children's books. Leave your adulthood...
LIFE / Lifestyle / 2008 MEDIA ROUND-UP
Dec 28, 2008
Making sense of the strange changes of 2008
Every year, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation selects a "kanji of the year." This year's is "hen," meaning "change" or, equally, "strange, peculiar."
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 14, 2008
Mystery shrouds the ancient Oshoro circle
In 1861 at Oshoro, southwestern Hokkaido, a party of herring fishermen, migrants from Honshu, were laying the foundation for a fishing port when they saw taking shape beneath their shovels a mysterious spectacle — a broad circular arrangement of large rocks, strikingly symmetrical, evidently man-made....
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 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.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there
Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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