Compromise and Conceit
Infernal adventuring…
Category: Japan
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Today we heard word of a scandal overtaking the modern Tokyo phenomenon of AKB48. Their 14th most popular member, Minegishi Minami, was caught by a journalist leaving the house of a “boyfriend,” a 19 year old member of some random boy band (compared to AKB48, the boy band in question is largely irrelevant). The pictures…
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I want to start this rant with a quote from the British chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. In discussing a review of the alternatives to the UK’s trident missile program, he announced We are in a position where the costs of the Successor have to be paid for from within the MoD budget.…
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It’s election season here in Japan, and this morning the full listing of competing parties fell through my mailbox. This multi-page, newspaper-style document lists the major parties and their main candidates, along with a very brief statement of their agenda. It’s a useful summary of the state of policy debate in Japan, I suppose, though…
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Last night I went to a work-related dinner with foreign guests, and my students did the stereotypical ’80s Japanese thing of subjecting the foreigners to every gross food that Japanese people eat, without warning. Uterus, raw octopus with horseradish, frogs legs, stewed guts, grilled chicken skin, pickled plums, some kind of tiny fish that tastes…
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Or both? Last night I had the pleasure of watching Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwojima, which is a superb and beautiful movie with a genuine sensitivity to both Japan’s sad war history and to its wartime culture. It’s all the more impressive for having been directed by an American (and from a generation not renowned…
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I watched this movie on the plane returning from Germany, a situation so desperate that even watched two thirds of Battleship. Needless to say, Thermae Romae was much better. Thermae Romae is a Japanese comedy about an ancient Roman public bath (thermae) designer, Lucius Modestus, who somehow slips through time into a modern Japanese bathhouse…
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I have been collaborating on some research to assess levels of internal exposure to Cesium in residents of Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture, and today the results have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (paywalled), along with news reports in the Washington Post amongst other media outlets. Minamisoma is a small town located…
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The Olympics finish tonight in the UK, and if the 66kg men’s wrestling goes well Japan will equal Australia in gold medals and beat Australia in total medals. Japan has already achieved its best Olympic result for 38 years, and 80% of its current gold medals (5 out of 6) are in combat sports; if…
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Twelve days into the Olympics and 75% of Japan’s gold medals are due to women winning combat sports: one judo and two wrestling. One female wrestler, Kaori Icho, has completely dominated her sport for the last 12 years – she is the first Japanese woman to win three gold medals in a row, has won…
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I don’t often think about being a “migrant” in Japan, or about racial politics much at all, though I suppose having been here five years and with at least another four years on the cards it’s time I started conceiving of myself as something more than a tourist. It’s not often discussed here amongst the…
Compromise and Conceit 