RECENT WRITING AND ACTIVIY
From January 2008
Half . . . or Hana's Story The Japan Times, December 30, 2007
Oh, to be American ? with God on Your side The Japan Times, December 23, 2007
'Kyoko' shines on as the true star she was The Japan Times, December 16, 2007
A moment of opportunity for Australia's new PM The Japan Times, December 9, 2007
A country of consumers who salivate over swank The Japan Times, December 2, 2007
Nature Boy: Kenji Miyazawa FCCJ Blog, December, 2007
Salvation Skype's out for a state of despair The Japan Times, November 25, 2007
How well do you really know Japan? The Japan Times, November 18, 2007
Why trust the self-serving United States anymore? The Japan Times, November 11, 2007
Who'd trust conservatives to conserve the countryside? The Japan Times, November 4, 2007
A rough guide to avoiding ethnocentric cloddery The Japan Times, October 28, 2007
The power of telling tales versus making apologies The Japan Times, October 21, 2007
To embrace political renewal or cling to continuity The Japan Times, October 14, 2007
Disparate values may still a democracy make The Japan Times, October 7, 2007
Bilingual blanks are nothing to kobosu your guchi about The Japan Times, September 30, 2007
Homes is where the native languages are The Japan Times, September 23, 2007
Is it right to judge creativity by its 'correctness'? The Japan Times, September 16, 2007
Americans share blame for Bush's 9/11 'devil' The Japan Times, September 9, 2007
Garnish your Japanese with some 'humble pie' The Japan Times, September 4, 2007
Cultural affinity bodes well for growing ties with India The Japan Times, September 2, 2007
To maintain your honor, keep your pecking up The Japan Times, August 26, 2007
APEC 'circus' precedes main Aussie drama The Japan Times, August 26, 2007
Can justice possibly 'flower' in Japan's new courts? The Japan Times, August 19, 2007
Forsake not the elderly, for they bear a great bounty The Japan Times, August 12, 2007
The Making of eBest Wishes for Tomorrowf No.1 Shimbun, August 7, 2007
Tojo and Bush: Trumpeting delusion on their way to defeat The Japan Times, August 5, 2007
Erring voyager roots for Japanese courtesy that can't be beat The Japan Times, July 29, 2007
Outsiders, or not; that is the question The Japan Times, July 22, 2007
Former foes find common ground in court together The Japan Times, July 15, 2007
'Propaganda is the soul of every struggle' The Japan Times, July 8, 2007
Food for thought \ and a writ to go The Japan Times, July 1, 2007
Maj. Gen. Okada: a rare leader who took the blame The Japan Times, June 24, 2007
Stand by your language \ but not as a nationalist icon The Japan Times, June 17, 2007
In Japan, show reverence where it's due (or not) The Japan Times, June 10, 2007
Class rifts widen as Japan's flag-wavers wax patriotic The Japan Times, June 3, 2007
'Containment' time warp sours hopes that Yeltsin spawned The Japan Times, May 27, 2007
Buzzwords trying to find own linguistic niche The Japan Times, May 22, 2007
An exemplar of where the war-crimes buck stops The Japan Times, May 20, 2007
Cliches energize conversation in any language The Japan Times, May 15, 2007
Daisuke's graduation The Japan Times, May 13, 2007
New clarities set to cloud smoke screens of ambiguity The Japan Times, May 6, 2007
Spare a shudder in memory of an American 'ism' that lives on The Japan Times, April 29, 2007
Who dares take the 'Q' out of Japan's 5-star kyushoku? The Japan Times, April 22, 2007
It was 40 (very different) years ago today . . . The Japan Times, April 15, 2007
Seeing yourself through the literary ways of others The Japan Times, April 8, 2007
Words to win hearts and minds the Japanese way The Japan Times, April 1, 2007
There's a world of languages Japanese too can learn The Japan Times, March 25, 2007
As London shows, assimilation is what migration's about The Japan Times, March 18, 2007
What will happen to all that Japanese boomers' cash? The Japan Times, March 11, 2007
What is becoming of my grandfather's wisdom? The Japan Times, March 4, 2007
Will strategic retreat soon signal Australia's tardy advancement? The Japan Times, February 25, 2007
Whose Japan deserves youth's patriotism now? The Japan Times, February 18, 2007
Mammon and myopia: Japan's governing '70s legacy The Japan Times, February 11, 2007
Whatever befell Japan's heady '60s hopes? The Japan Times, February 4, 2007
[Bilingual] Euphemisms may mask ruder instincts -- or not The Japan Times, January 30, 2007
More than money was found wanting in "the lost decade" The Japan Times, January 28, 2007
Ah, those good old bad old '80s days The Japan Times, January 21, 2007
Perish the thought that Japan may have god on its side The Japan Times, January 14, 2007
Japan is 'beautiful' -- and don't you dare disagree The Japan Times, January 7, 2007
Test where you stand on 'shared Japanese values The Japan Times, December 31, 2006
Ongoing Vietnam tragedy revives ghosts of a Christmas past The Japan Times, December 24, 2006
McSato et al prompt mastication over whose 'real' is really real The Japan Times, December 17, 2006
What remains 'Japanese' in such climates of change? The Japan Times, December 10, 2006
Dying traditions open up new choices after death The Japan Times, December 3, 2006
Dealing with death the Japanese ways The Japan Times, November 26, 2006
When in Rome, do hug granny as the Romans do The Japan Times, November 19, 2006
Political piper moves to call some of NHK's editorial tunes The Japan Times, November 12, 2006
Conspiracy of complacency costs countless lives on the roads The Japan Times, November 5, 2006
A Hero's Journey The Japan Times, October 29, 2006
Something 'beautiful' that leaders may not see from on high The Japan Times, October 22, 2006
Lafcadio Hearn, Chronicler of Americal FCCJ NUMBER 1 Shimbun, October 2006
Article of faith draws ire at the highest level The Japan Times, October 15, 2006
Beware a 'beauty' that would deceive the nation The Japan Times, October 8, 2006
Age-old 'naked friendships' lay bare new bathhouse concerns The Japan Times, October 1, 2006
Be warned: we're talking rather rude Japanese(Part II) The Japan Times, September 26, 2006
Japan's hordes of hoarders still look to their navel nest eggs The Japan Times, September 24, 2006
Rougher language behind face-value meanings(Part 1) The Japan Times, September 19, 2006
Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past The Japan Times, September 17, 2006
War's heroes and villains: Two sides of the same coin The Japan Times, September 10, 2006
Toeing the line may take a name-change for the LDP The Japan Times, September 3, 2006
An underclass returns -- and with it, what? The Japan Times, August 27, 2006
A nation of animal lovers -- as pets or when they're on a plate The Japan Times, August 20, 2006
Shouldn't talking, not killing, be 'the name of the game'? The Japan Times, August 13, 2006
Many happy returns to my Tokyo village past and present The Japan Times, August 8, 2006
Time-capsule Tokyo along a street where I lived The Japan Times, July 30, 2006
TokyoWhen muzukashii means more than 'difficult' The Japan Times, July 25, 2006
Dark chronicler of a dubious Jewish uniqueness The Japan Times, July 23, 2006
Fractured families bode ill for Japan's gray army The Japan Times, July 16, 2006
Home from home from home The Japan Times, July 9, 2006
Hedge your bets: Conform, but don't act like you belong The Japan Times, July 2, 2006
What's in it for them to return us to 'prewar values'? The Japan Times, June 25, 2006
To Whom It May Concern: The Japan Times, June 18, 2006
Can art be judged apart from its creator? The Japan Times, June 11, 2006
Will ghostwriters face 'treachery' from post-Koizumi Japan? The Japan Times, June 4, 2006
Japan sleepwalks by design toward peace-renouncing poll The Japan Times, May 28, 2006
Opening up to difference: The dialect dialectic The Japan Times, May 23, 2006
Will Japan's 'positive influence' persist as it didn't before? The Japan Times, May 21, 2006
Beware the muted enemy within remilitarizing JapanThe Japan Times, May 14, 2006
Japanese being ensnared in ill-suited U.S. trappinThe Japan Times, May 7, 2006
When in doubt . . . dust off a fervor so infamously fatal The Japan Times, April 30, 2006
'Folkways' school ban puts 'stateways' to democratic test The Japan Times, April 23, 2006
'Conspiracies of silence' feign sympathies largely unfelt The Japan Times, April 16, 2006
Who out there cares about 'Cool Japan'? The Japan Times, April 9, 2006)
A torso squeaks -- but what does it say about the media? The Japan Times, April 2, 2006)
One nation's icon carries a torch of conscience for all The Japan Times, March 26, 2006)
Stirring time spent among rebellious free spirits The Japan Times, March 19, 2006)
California dreamin' and the way the world's wheels could now be The Japan Times, March 12, 2006)
Doomed voice of truth screams out still against evil The Japan Times, March 5, 2006)
Has America's conscience fallen victim to 9/11?The Japan Times, February 26, 2006)
Winners are losers, too, in the lingering ledger of warThe Japan Times, February 19, 2006)
Building scandals expose society's uncaring foundationThe Japan Times, February 12, 2006)
Rule of the people, by our people, for our peopleThe Japan Times, February 5, 2006)
With Horie's downfall, who can young Japan look up to?The Japan Times, January 29, 2006)
Realities dictate that this loyal retainer should take the reinsThe Japan Times, January 22, 2006)
'Fighting on the beaches peels away Aussie veneer of toleranceThe Japan Times, January 15, 2006)
'Sayuri' by any other name is still a sexist whitewash-The Japan Times, January 8, 2006)
Merry Christmas -- whether rendered as a fact or notThe Japan Times, December 25, 2005)
Sinister stats suggest southpaws should swap sidesThe Japan Times, December 18, 2005)
Judicial execution: the way to a better world? The Japan Times, December 11, 2005)
Read at your peril: Blair blasts Bush's al Jazeera 'joke' The Japan Times, December 4, 2005)
Democracy's foes are both within and without The Japan Times, November 27, 2005)
Love letters speak volumes from beyond a war graveThe Japan Times, November 20, 2005)
Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in clicheThe Japan Times, November 13, 2005)
Say 'cheese' and snap out of such fanciful thinkingThe Japan Times, November 6, 2005)
Speaking volumesThe Japan Times, October 30, 2005)
What lies beneath the myth of middle-class consciousnessThe Japan Times, October 30, 2005)
Best to dig deep and study language from its rootsThe Japan Times, October 23, 2005)
Havin' a talk with 'God' and his Oval Office croniesThe Japan Times, October 16, 2005)
America's war criminals pass the buck to underlingsThe Japan Times, October 9, 2005)
A stinging voice of conscience who told it like it isThe Japan Times, October2, 2005)
America's chip off the old block can't promise potatoes forever The Japan Times, September 25, 2005)
Japan in the doldrums needs a lot more than hot air The Japan Times, September 18, 2005)
What price social equality since the ventriloquists' putsch? The Japan Times, September 11, 2005)
Selective thinking devalues the V-word's worth The Japan Times, September 4, 2005)
Intelligent Design: One chance encounter explains it all The Japan Times, August 28, 2005)
All together now, as yesterday's no-no becomes the status quo The Japan Times, August 21, 2005)
Chiune Sugihara: His conscience gleams out of the darknessThe Japan Times, August 14, 2005)
Learning a foreign language is a cultural journey, tooThe Japan Times, August 7, 2005)
Only the names change as U.S. policy blunders on(The Japan Times, July 31, 2005)
Strangelove encounters of a MAD scientist kind(The Japan Times, July 24, 2005)
All hail the Land of the Free -- or else! (The Japan Times, July 17, 2005)
New horizons beckon as Train Man heads nowhere fast(The Japan Times, July 10, 2005)
Detractors have a whale of a time as Japan flounders on(The Japan Times, July 3, 2005)
Opportunities go begging as the blind follow dissembling blind(The Japan Times, June 26, 2005)
Media conspiracy of concealment costs social progress dear(The Japan Times, June 19, 2005)
'Woe is me' nation awaits return of its sadsack heroes(The Japan Times, June 12, 2005)
Will Japanese inertia never be the same again?(The Japan Times, June 5, 2005)
Causes and effects can encompass far more than 'specifics'(The Japan Times, May 29, 2005)
Last laugh to the lizards, and fair play for frogs an' all(The Japan Times, May 22, 2005)
Spaghetti with chopsticks makes a mess of Mishima image(The Japan Times, May 15, 2005)
Serial stereotyping only serves others' brazen hubris(The Japan Times, May 8, 2005)
Memories are made of . . . history managed and manipulated?(The Japan Times, May 1, 2005)
Thirty years on, have no lessons been learned from Vietnam?(The Japan Times, April 24, 2005)
It's time Japan jumped on its cultural bandwagon(The Japan Times, April 17, 2005)
The God Gap: Japan and the clash of civilizations(The Japan Times, April 10, 2005)
Does language 'difficulty' speak of a sense beyond mere words? (The Japan Times, April 3, 2005)
An Interview with Sakate Yoji(Performing Arts Network Japan, February 23, 2005)
Mrs. Matsui(The Japan Times, October 10, 2004)
Revealing eThe Japanese Sensibility': Humanism(The Japan Times, December 26, 2004)
Revealing eThe Japanese Sensibility': Iconoclasm(The Japan Times, December 19, 2004)
Revealing eThe Japanese Sensibility': Innocence(The Japan Times, December 12, 2004)
Revealing eThe Japanese Sensibility': Intimacy(The Japan Times, December 5, 2004)
Revealing eThe Japanese Sensibility': Modernity(The Japan Times, November 28, 2004)
A Blade of Light(The Japan Times, October 10, 2004)
Disillusioned bard of a bygone Japan(The Japan Times, September 26, 2004)
No winners of losers in "the Face of Jizo"(The Japan Times, August 4, 2004)
Upside down at the bottom of the world(Shukan ST, February 27, 2004)
Lost in Translation(Shukan ST, January 23, 2004)
All hell and damnation(Shukan ST, December 12, 2003)
All at Sea(Look Japan, November 2003)
An artist in a land of ice and snow(The Japan Times, October 29, 2003)
The New USSR(Shukan ST, October 24, 2003)
Rebel with a cause(Shukan ST, September 26, 2003)
Terayama Shuji: Betting on Zero (2)(Direct English, September, 2003)
It's better if I'm not there(Shukan ST, July 4, 2003)
Terayama Shuji: Betting on Zero (1)(Direct English, August, 2003)
Sakaguchi Ango: War and a Man(Direct English, July, 2003)