2007 dawned brilliant in the Kanto. I joined several thousand other people to watch the sun rise above a hill on the beach at Kamakura on the 1st.
All gazed, cameras poised, in anticipation of the ascension, and it arrived to a cacophony of oohs and aahs and whoops and wails from a spectating crowd in a netherworld of sake intoxication and sleep deprivation...

Over the past several years more and more Japanese have been lighting up their homes at the end of the year. In my Yokohama neighborhood stars twinkle in windows, glowing Santa Clauses climb rope ladders up the sides of houses, snowmen illuminate paths to homes...

Speaking in defense of the revision of Clause 2 of the Basic Education Law, which calls for "Respect for tradition and culture, and love for the nation and land that nurtured them," at a meeting of the House of Councilors' Select Committee on Education on November 22, Bunmei Ibuki, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, said...

One day 30 years ago I hopped into a cab in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and uttered a single word: "station." "You speak good Japanese," said the driver. The moral: Japanese have low, if any, expectations, for the mother tongue as rendered by non-native speakers. Which is to say they have a peculiar regard for the national language...

Japanese children are admonished not to point at a passing hearse, since to do so would bring their parents' demise. There are regional variations on this admonition. For example, in Sapporo children are taught to conceal a thumb ("oya-yubi") as a precaution against their parents ("oya") dying...

Prime Minister Abe's trip to South Korea and China breathed fresh air into the stale diplomacy of Japan. This was only a first step in the evolution of a new foreign policy, but it was an important first step ...

Prime Minister Abe has declared revision of the Constitution a goal of his administration. He and like-minded conservatives believe the present Constitution, drafted by Americans at the behest of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers after the Second World War, bears the stamp of a foreign power and is not Japanese in spirit.

Last week I met the Emperor and Empress of Japan. I regret that I'm able to describe the circumstances in only vague terms, for to be specific would violate a trust and prejudice their Majesties against returning.

Ever since reading a recent article about the under-representation of female CEOs in Japan, I've been racking my brains to find one. My first thoughts were of Tomoyo Nonaka of Sanyo Electric or Fumiko Hayashi of Daiei...

Japan's weekly magazines are racy no-holds-barred journals that attract a readership bored with the insipid fare in the mainstream press. They are where Japanese look for the rest of the story.