japanamerica

  LETTER FROM TOKYO, OCTOBER 2021: GINGKO GOLD September still feels like late summer in Tokyo, with stretches of sunbaked days and lingering cicadas and humid stillness. But by October the air crispens and the leaves go vibrant. October coaxes forth the city’s magnificent foliage, blanketing its far-flung hillsides and spreading colorful canopies across its parks and university campuses.  This year, the humidity got siphoned away overnight and evenings grew chilly fast. But for someone like me, raised in the northeastern US and north-central Japan, the shift to windbreakers and warmer bedclothes is welcome. Wherever I am, that transition in temperature feels like home. Speaking of overnight: Have any other Olympic Games dissipated so quickly? No disrespect to the athletes, medalists and their retinue, but the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, held less than three months ago in 2021, almost feel more ancient today than the first Tokyo Olympics in 1964.  Things here have changed, ...

I was interviewed by the BBC for a smart show about Japan's post-Olympic doldrums and political ossification. Many of the questions were excellent, and I was honored to appear alongside Sophia University prof Koichi Nakano, Seijiro Takeshita from the University of Shizuoka, and SOAS University of London scholar Sarah Parsons.  Now that the election is over and the LDP firmly back in control, this panel feels prophetic. "Meet the new boss ..." Audio is here  and below:

Honored to participate on the BBC's "World Questions: Tokyo" panel with the politicians Rui Matsukawa (LDP) and Hiroe Makiyama (CDP), and economist/professor Sayuri Shirai (Keio University). We discussed Japan's future — including the nation's low birth rate, women in politics and the labor force, the immigration dilemma, the constitution's 'pacifist' Article 9, and the 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Olympic Games. You can hear the entire program online  here .

Live event info & tix here . Broadcast, Oct. 5 . BBC

With Audie Cornish for NPR's "All Things Considered."