Roger Pulvers - The Japan Times

May 17, 2024

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Roger Pulvers

Roger Pulvers is an author, playwright, theater director and translator who divides his time between Tokyo and Sydney. He has published more than 40 books. His latest book in English is "The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn."

For Roger Pulvers's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

May 29, 2011

Japanese genius shines eclectic in its extravagant simplicities of style

"Live your era, surmount your era!" With these words, written in 1935, the young woodblock artist Yoshio Fujimaki gave out a cry for genius. Certainly his words apply to the genius of Bob Dylan (whose 70th birthday was celebrated on these pages last week), since both he, Fujimaki and others of genius...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

May 15, 2011

Recalling a generation, and more, sold out by the U.S. masters of war

Next month there will be a celebration in Los Angeles that I very much regret having to miss. It is a reunion of my high school graduating class of 1961.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

May 8, 2011

Hisashi Inoue's great legacy is just the ticket to inspire our best efforts

A beautiful cherry-blossom tree stands right beside the sento (public bath) I religiously go to, and its top branch hangs over an opening in the roof. In early April, petals were falling from the branch down into the water, which comes out of the ground the color of strong coffee.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

May 1, 2011

It is time to target who calls the shots in Japan when disaster strikes

Why did it take so long for any Japanese Cabinet ministers to make their presence felt on the site of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant — and what does this tell us about the decision-making process in Japan?

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 24, 2011

Fantasy really is reality in many aspects of Japanese life and culture

People around the world are bewitched by Japanese fantasy. From East, Southeast and South Asia to Europe east and west, the United States and Latin America, it is now mostly anime and manga that draw young people to the study of Japan and the Japanese language.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 17, 2011

In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery

The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 10, 2011

Could Japan's tragedy help forge some overdue reconciliations?

The Tohoku-Kanto earthquake and tsunami of March 11 has altered the relationship between Japan and its neighbors, particularly the relationship with China. Given the sympathy for the plight of hundreds of thousands of residents of the Tohoku region of northeast Japan, the Chinese media's old "bash Japan...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Apr 3, 2011

Japan's reaction to Fukushima may point to a better way of living

One day in September 1923, the great writer and poet of the Tohoku region, Kenji Miyazawa, went into woods not far from his hometown of Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture to chop down a tree. Suddenly rocks broke away from the cliff, rocks he called "assassins." But he was not surprised or shocked. "After...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 27, 2011

Japan's crises spark wide alarm and some unlikely sympathizers

The outpouring of goodwill toward Japanese people since the triple calamities of March 11's earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear crises has overwhelmed the nation. There is generally so much indifference to — and criticism of — Japan in the West and parts of Asia, that the Japanese...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 20, 2011

This awful tragedy will show Japan's true character to the world

Some people look for moral lessons in disasters, concentrating on a baby pulled out of the rubble of an earthquake days after it struck and calling it a "miracle." But a tsunami of the scale that crashed against the manmade seawalls along the Pacific Coast of the Tohoku region in northeast Japan left...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 13, 2011

Must young Japanese live the nightmare of old people's dreams?

Not long ago, I came to loathe a particular word. The word — which I used to believe in and cherish — is now, perhaps, the most misused of all those in the Japanese language. It is yume (dream).

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Mar 6, 2011

Japanese families' nutritional values pay dearly for 'progress'

Last year, a gut-wrenching book by Nobuko Iwamura was published by Shinchosha titled "Kazoku no Katte Desho!" ("It's My Kitchen and I'll Do What I Like in It!"). Gut-wrenching because it describes, with the help of 274 highly unpalatable photos, the kinds of breakfasts, lunches and dinners ordinary Japanese...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 27, 2011

All hail the wonders of Japanese cuisine — if not what Japanese eat

Ask almost any Japanese living overseas what they miss most and they are more likely to say the food than their relatives. Ask virtually any tourist what excites them most about Japan and you are apt to be told "Japanese food."

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 20, 2011

Remember Takuboku: A model to rouse today's thwarted youth

Social change is a volcanic phenomenon. The first rumblings may not be widely seen or heard; then there is an eruption that takes society unawares. All of a sudden — or so it seems — a new generation with new needs and demands is born. Until that happens, society often outwardly appears placid,...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 13, 2011

Japan's cull of once-loved pets cries out for German-style controls

An early riser, I am generally on one of the first trains out of my local station and walking across the sprawling university campus by 6 a.m.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Feb 6, 2011

Ailing Japan Inc. must combine tradition with a new world view

One of the clearest memories I have of my Los Angeles childhood revolves around a car. By the early 1950s, my parents had managed to eke their way into the middle class; and for Los Angelenos, nothing signified that social status more than the automobile. For my dad, the symbol of this par excellence...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jan 30, 2011

Voters have their apathy to blame for Japan's dire farce at the top

Here's a fable about Japanese politics circa 2011.

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jan 23, 2011

Is 'Galapagos-thinking' Japan back at its evolutionary dead end?

There are expressions that buzz like busy little bees and ones that don't buzz anymore. One of the dead-bee buzzwords in Japan is shimaguni konjo, meaning "island mentality." As for a buzzword for 2011, you'd be hard put to find one more busily doing the rounds than garapagosu, which references the Galapagos...

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Jan 9, 2011

Let's hope China doesn't fall into the same traps that Japan once did

The overriding question that should be on everyone's mind in this new, second decade of the 21st century is: What is going to happen in China?

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Dec 26, 2010

Who are the oldies to fault young people's various social skills?

Haragei is a word you don't hear very much anymore. Literally "belly art," haragei refers to the variety of persuasive communication that is done not with words but with the silent force of personality. Think of being stared down by a man sitting like a pot-bellied stove in front of you. But to be a...

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

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

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