I feared the crush of the rush, but now my commute completes me
Everybody knows that it is hard to make a good living from writing alone. However, every aspiring writer I've met has thought they might end up as that one-in-a-million exception to the rule. Most learn the hard truth in their 20s, but some have ...
Do the elderly and disabled people in Japan want robots to look after them?
What appears to be lacking are detailed surveys and studies, asking questions of the elderly and disabled people whose quality of life Japan's new legion of robots are supposed to improve.
Can five Little Japans defuse one big demographic time bomb?
What about if Japan split into a confederation of five semi-autonomous "regions," each delineated roughly by geography and population?
Gaijin Day: How an event in Hamamatsu about unity proved to be divisive
Referring to Nikkei Brazilians and Peruvians as "gaijin" was at the very least inaccurate and, at most, deeply offensive.
Japan's diverse bunch of disaster volunteers are primed for a warming world
In these polarized times, crises bring together people from a range of backgrounds to spread the word about perils linked to climate change.
Japanese and Israelis could make a killer yin-and-yang combo
Israel and Japan are the yin and yang of countries. And yet, despite — or maybe because of — their differences, they have much to offer each other.
The incoherent, divisive dogma of cultural appropriation outrage
Clueless online crusaders risk doing real harm to the very cultures they claim to represent
Until real change is achieved, LGBTQ people in Japan have no reason to be grateful
When the first same-sex partnership was recognized in Shibuya in 2015, the mayor called it "a first step." So why, nearly three years later, are we still taking first steps?
Fans of Japan and East Asia are reinventing Orientalism with a friendlier face
The Western entertainment industry presents a distorted image of Asia. But it also inspires hordes of fans to learn more.
Can the success of Alex Ferguson's 'kids' and Arsene Wenger's 'Invincibles' be linked to Buddhist philosophy? It's worth a try.
Pick up a secondhand book in Japan and unearth a mystery
Perhaps the greatest pleasure to be derived from shopping at secondhand book stores in Japan comes from never knowing what might turn up between their pages.
The Japanese lessons of a 'plastic Paddy'
A Briton of Irish stock finds the "Irishness" he seeks not on the Emerald Isle itself but in the expat pubs of his adopted land.
