Shades of Mori Arinori
Recently the Japanese Diet has been debating several competing bills to revise the Fundamental Education Law of 1947. One of the most contested issues is an ef...
Category: Current/Recent Events
The Return of Uwano Ishinosuke
Japanese World War II military stragglers are still showing up on the newswires six decades after the end of the conflict. This past week, Japan has been capti...
Our Future, more or less
The head of the Japan Foundation (to whom I, like so many, owe thanks) has made some comments on the state and future of Japan Studies. It’s his job, afte...
Monumental Repatriation
A Korean stone memorial commemorating victories over Hideyoshi’s armies has been returned [via] After decades of negotiations, the Bukgwan Victory Monumen...
A Break With Tradition
I’m going to break with Frog In A Well tradition this once, and comment here on something that has almost nothing to do with Asian history. I could easily...
Data: Personal v. Historical
A recent initiative in the US to limit access to birth and death records [via] along with other personal data would severely limit the ability of historical and...
Academia/Books and Articles/China-Japan/Current/Recent Events/English/International Affairs/Japan/Memory/Nationalism/Politics/昭和
Colonialogy
I think we need a new word for the study of colonialism, imperialism and the post-colonial discourses, pro and con. Pro? Who’s in favor of it? Well, this ...
It’s not an institution if it doesn’t have rules….
Via World Press Review, an interesting account of undercurrents of opposition to changing the Imperial Household Law to allow female emperors or emperors descen...
Revision and Revisionism
Deep in the middle of a roundtable about constitutional revision and neo-nationalism in Japan, comes a bit of discussion of historical revision and popular beli...
Semantics and History: Did Japan “Invade” Korea?
Well, the obvious answer to that question is yes, but that’s not the invasion we’re talking about. Over on the Korea side, there’s a lively di...
“The Apprentice”
I recently learned [29 October 2005 show, round 3] that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, recently indicted for his role in, at the very least, the coverup ...
Hitler Watch: Koizumi
Is Koizuimi Junichiro another Hitler? One former LDP’er thinks so, and Chinese academician Feng Zhaokui agrees [via]: Feng’s Fear History They both ...
Open Thread: Election Results
Lots of folks are pretty sure that the success of Koizumi’s rejuvenated LDP in yesterday’s elections [here’s a good summary] means something. ...