The Japan Society Review

By Yu Uchiyama In this impressive study Yu Uchiyama meticulously dissects the highly successful and by Japanese standards long lived administration of Junichiro Koizumi (26 April 2001 – 26 September 2006). Since stepping down [...]

So Lovely A Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers, by Donald Keene. Columbia University Press, 2010, 216 pages including index, ISBN 978-0-231-15146-7. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi.

Dr A.M. Kanter’s Collection Laura Bordignon Antique Collectors’ Club pages 302 coplously illustrated with colour plates ISBN 978-1-85149-609-9 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi Laura Bordignon is an antique dealer who has developed a close interest in the arts and crafts of the Meiji era. Dr Kanter has collected many fine pieces of ivory carvings made […]

Watching the river flowing under Ochanomizu Bridge, we read as Akaki (our narrator) muses on bridges mentioned in the stories of Kafu, and also that of Gogol, another of his favourite authors. He’s on the bridge waiting to meet a man called Yamakawa, we follow his thoughts on Gogol and that in his student days he had a khaki overcoat, where is it now?

The Year of No Money in Tokyo, by Wayne Lionel Aponte, Watkins and McKay, 2009, 168 pages, ISBN 0982055005. Review by William Farr.

My Song Story in My Life – The Youth of the Showa Era [わが人生の歌がたり 昭和の青春], by Hiroyuki Itsuki [五木寛之], Kadokawa Shoten, 2008, 206 pages, ISBN: 978-4-04-883994-5. Reviewed by Mikihiro Maeda.

Soul Dance: Selected Poems, by Takako Arai, Translated by Jeffrey Angles, with Sawako Nakayasu and You Nakai, Mi’Te Press, 2008, 64 pages, ISBN: 978-4-9904416-0-9. Review by Adam House.

Still Walking [歩いても 歩いても], directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda [是枝裕和], 2008, 114 minutes. Review by Susan Meehan.

Japan and its worlds: Marius Jansen and the Internationalization of Japanese Studies. Edited by Martin Collcut, Kato Mikio and Ronald P. Toby. I House Press, Tokyo, 2007, 299 pages including index, ISBN 978-4-903452-08-1. Review by Ian Nish.

Yasukuni, the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan’s Past. By John Breen (Ed), C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2007, 202 pages, ISBN-10:850659079. Review by Sean Curtin.