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May 02, 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
Dec 14, 2008
Stone Age Japan
This story spans 10,000 years, yet presents few recognizable individuals. Here's one:
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 18, 2008
Keeping a close eye on the neighborhood news
You can live for years in a major city without knowing such a thing exists, but in more tranquil, less distracted settings, an unexpected ring of the doorbell as likely as not signals a neighbor bringing the kairanban (回覧板), an irregularly circulated newsletter put out by the local neighborhood association. It reminds us — whether we like to be reminded or not — that we are not merely individuals but part of a community.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008
Cipangu's landlocked isles
Thirteenth-century Japan has this in common with early 19th-century Japan: a land culture paying scant heed to the sea until the sea, as though in outrage, rises up and compels attention.
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008
Japan's sea view through the ages, in poetry, prose and plain speaking
At Tafushi Cape / Those gracious men of the court / gather seaweed. — "Manyoshu" (7th century)
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008
Was the 'Japanese Renaissance' lost at sea?
Last week, Japan celebrated Umi no Hi (Marine Day). First observed as a national holiday in 1996, Marine Day marks the anniversary of the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido on July 20, 1876.
LIFE
May 25, 2008
Sonoko
"You're a strange girl!" muttered my mother, shaking her head.
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007
One missionary's 'swamp' is another's 'religion allergy' challenge
"For 20 years I labored in the mission. The one thing I know is that our religion does not take root in this country."
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007
Japan's 'Hidden Christians'
"It is 12:30 p.m. in Nagasaki, on March 17, 1865. Father Bernard Petitjean, a priest of the French Societe des Missions Etrangeres, hears a noise at the back door of his little chapel. On opening he is surprised to find a group of 15 middle-aged Japanese men and women — surprised because all native- born subjects of the Mikado are strictly forbidden to associate with Christians and his chapel has been declared to be reserved only for foreigners."
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007
From Bliss to blood
Some scholars say Japan's Christian history began long before the so-called "Christian century" (1549-c.1640). Their claim takes us all the way back to 7th- and 8th-century Nara, where Nestorian Christians from Persia are said to have built churches, operated a leper hospital and even converted the Empress Komyo, wife of the devout Buddhist, Emperor Shomu (reigned 724-749), to Christianity.
LIFE / Language
Dec 4, 2007
Translating full of judgment calls, compromises
Second of two parts
LIFE / Language
Nov 27, 2007
New translation vividly depicts postwar Tokyo
Shishi Bunroku (the pen name of Iwata Toyoo) is a writer who deserves to be better known. His novel "Jiyu Gakko (School of Freedom)" was a best seller when it first appeared in 1951, and gives as vivid a picture as we're likely to get today of what daily life was like in postwar Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007
Japan's Paradise Lived
It's a strange world we're about to enter.
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007
Has another society of such superlatives ever existed at all?
The fascination of the Heian Period (794-1185) lies in the fact that in all world history there is nothing quite like it. It would be hard to imagine a culture more exclusive, more fastidiously refined, more smugly incurious about the unknown, more unwarlike, more tearfully melancholic, more sensitive to beauty, more closed to the outside world, more morally ambiguous — the list of superlatives goes on and on. Perhaps none has ever existed, writes Michael Hoffman.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 29, 2007
Japan's love affairs with sex
Michael Hoffman delves deep into the carnal history of these islands from the Age of the Gods to the lovelands and soaplands of today
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 28, 2007
The Courtship
Insight, fate and human frailties intermingle in this love story for winter from the pen of MICHAEL HOFFMAN
LIFE / Language
Jan 23, 2007
Translations blunted by discarded 'somethings'
One of the great pleasures of life in a country not your own is savoring its literature in the original language.
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006
A man in the soul of Japan
This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006
Confucius and his 'golden age'
Is what Confucius said true? Can music, poetry and decorum govern the world? Do rulers, by cultivating benevolence in themselves, plant benevolence in their subjects, and harmony in the polity?
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006
East and West echo the sage: 'The ideal society is like a family'
This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 30, 2006
On the road to . . .
"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, . . . Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages . . . ''
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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