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May 04, 2024
 

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Damian Flanagan
For Damian Flanagan's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 14, 2015
'Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere' with translator John Nathan
John Nathan arrived in Japan in the early 1960s and set about constantly pushing his limits, becoming the first Westerner to graduate from the esteemed University of Tokyo. And by age 25, he had published a translation of Yukio Mishima's "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 11, 2015
Let women and the world into kabuki and watch it flourish
Kabuki has the ability to enrich the imagination of the world; it should not be held back by insular vision and outmoded conservatism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2015
Natsume Soseki goes back to hell in 'The Miner'
Natsume Soseki's 1908 novel "The Miner" has often been regarded as an oddity. It stands aloof both in subject matter and style from the two great "trilogies" Soseki penned between 1908 and 1914.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 10, 2015
Lefkada's Hearn: Europe reclaims its literary 'lost son'
The Greek island of Lefkada, rising from the Ionian Sea south of Corfu, is famed for its white beaches and vertical cliffs from which the poet Sappho is said to have leaped to her death. The island is also claimed as the one of the potential sites of Homer's Ithaca, home of the great wandering hero Odysseus.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 12, 2015
Jesus Christ, the Nobel Prize and Shusaku Endo
In 1994, on the day when Kenzaburo Oe was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature — the second Japanese writer to receive the award — eminent literary scholar Donald Keene received a long-distance call from Peter Owen, publisher of novelist Shusaku Endo's works in London, demanding to know why the Swedish judges had not given the prize to Endo instead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 12, 2015
Martin Scorsese and experts analyze Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel in 'Approaching Silence'
An adaptation of Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel "Silence" — about Jesuit priests and Christian converts suffering repression in 17th-century Japan — is currently being filmed by Martin Scorsese in Taiwan and scheduled for release next year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2015
Literature critic John Nathan dissects Japan's Nobel Prize laureates
There is one critic of Japanese literature that towers above the rest: professor John Nathan, erstwhile associate of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe and Kobo Abe. But he's not only a respected critic, Nathan's extraordinary career has seen him in the roles of film director, scriptwriter, novelist and memoirist, and his translations of Oe's novels did much to assist that writer on his path to receiving the Nobel Prize in 1994.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2015
Mishima, Murakami and the elusive Nobel Prize
Will he or won't he? It's about the time of year when the Japanese media descends into a frenzy of speculation about whether Haruki Murakami will land the Nobel Prize in literature, becoming the first Japanese literary laureate since Kenzaburo Oe in 1994.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 22, 2015
Descending to the depths of Yukio Mishima's 'Sea of Fertility'
It was 45 years ago this summer that Donald Keene, a leading critic and translator of Japanese literature, visited Yukio Mishima at his summer writing retreat on the Izu Peninsula.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 1, 2015
New translation of the world's oldest novel
'The Tale of Genji," written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1,000 A.D., is regarded by many as the world's first novel and is arguably the most influential work of Japanese literature ever written, inspiring countless other works of drama, fiction and fine art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 6, 2015
'Chopsticks' sifts through the cultural mysteries of Asia's eating implements
In Q. Edward Wang's hands, chopsticks are transformed from banal, everyday objects to a means of contemplating both the unfolding of world history and the subtleties of social norms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 14, 2015
The three-cornered world of Glenn Gould and Natsume Soseki
Two years after it was published, a copy of Natsume Soseki's novella 'The Three-Cornered World' was placed in the hands of one of the world's most celebrated pianists, Glenn Gould.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
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.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
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

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Longform

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