Commentary / Japan | japan since the Meiji Restoration Nov 26, 2018
by Tetsuya Murai
Beset by an aging, shrinking body, Japan must find the means of rebuilding its "character" if it is to survive the challenges ahead.
Commentary / Japan | japan since the Meiji Restoration Nov 19, 2018
Reconjuring the vision of the Meiji Centennial
by Ryota Murai
Japan has thus far succeeded in preserving its national character while fulfilling its growing responsibility toward the international community.
Commentary / Japan | japan since the Meiji Restoration Nov 13, 2018
Meiji 150 as the end of an era
by Yuichi Hosoya
When Japan was a young nation-state 150 years ago, its leaders charted a course through trial and error. Now we are in need of a new vision, identity and strategy for the next 150 years.
Commentary / Japan | japan since the Meiji Restoration Nov 5, 2018
A contextual look at the Heisei Era
by Taizo Miyagi
To lament the 'fall of Japan' during the Heisei Era, as some pessimists do, misses the big picture.
Commentary / Japan Oct 29, 2018
Mass media and democracy in prewar and postwar Japan
by Kazuo Komiya
Now, more than ever, the free press must avoid the perils of populist pandering and fulfill its responsibility as one of the key pillars of democracy.
Editorials Oct 23, 2018
The process of the Meiji Restoration looks all the more relevant at a time when Japan is facing an uncertain and uncharted future.
National / History Oct 23, 2018
Historical jury still out on Japan's Meiji Restoration
by Reiji Yoshida
On July 27, 1853, the Tokugawa shogunate was in crisis. Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi passed away from what today is believed to be heat exhaustion at Edo Castle in the heart of Edo, present-day Tokyo. Abe Masahiro, the top samurai bureaucrat under the shogun, had an ...
Commentary / Japan | japan since the Meiji Restoration Oct 22, 2018
Lessons from diplomatic and constitutional history
by Kaoru Iokibe
The 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration presents an opportunity to make a sweeping assessment of Japan's political and diplomatic trajectory over the ensuing years.
Books Jul 28, 2018
Old photos illuminate a Japan now 'lost'
by Martin Laflamme
In "Lost Japan," Rosella Menegazzo brings talented daguerreotype photographer Felice Beato and his previously overlooked photos of daily life in Meiji Era Japan into the foreground.
National | KANSAI PERSPECTIVE Apr 22, 2018
For foreign nationals over 150 years ago, Kyoto’s Fushimi was end of the line
by Eric Johnston
Just before reaching Chushojima Station on the Keihan Line heading into Kyoto from Osaka, or just after crossing the Uji River on the almost parallel Kintetsu train that runs between Kyoto and Nara, two towers that look old and of European design flash briefly ...
National / History | THE LIVING PAST Feb 17, 2018
Heroism and the changing state of morality
by Michael Hoffman
Every age breeds its own morality. One era's good is another's evil. Today's virtue is tomorrow's vice, today's wisdom tomorrow's stupidity, today's sanity tomorrow's madness. For 700 years, from the late 12th to the mid-19th centuries, Japan's highest ideals were embodied in the samurai. Unflinching ...
National | KANSAI PERSPECTIVE Dec 24, 2017
Kyoto to mark 150th anniversary of Meiji Restoration with series of events
by Eric Johnston
Kyoto's long history is one of great prosperity (the Heian Period of a millennium ago, when the arts flourished) and great tragedy (the 1467-1477 Onin War devastated the city). But in more modern times, 1868 was something of an annus horribilis. The year that kicked ...