Books
BOOK REVIEW | ‘How Human is Human? The View from Robotics Research’ by Hiroshi Ishiguro
This is the translation of a book published in 2014. Except for a three page epilogue written in 2019, […]
Author Archives for Earl Kinmonth
Earl H. Kinmonth is professor emeritus at Taisho University. Before moving to Japan in 1997, he was reader in Japanese Studies at the University of Sheffield (1989-1997) and professor of history at the University of California-Davis (1977-1989). His research is in the history and sociology of Japanese education from the Meiji period to the present, with an emphasis on 1930s-1940s Japan. He is a Japanese citizen and writes commentary in English and Japanese, and does Japanese English translation. He is currently writing a book on foreign media coverage of Japan under the working title Japan in the Foreign Imagination.
[Mythbusters] NYT Reporter Goes Round and Round Looking for Ways to Denigrate Japan
Shortly before the Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo closed on August 31, Motoko Rich expressed an interest in the [&h
Culture
It’s a Perfect Time for Sightseeing Kamakura and Enoshima
The COVID-19 epidemic has nearly eliminated foreign tourists from Japan. While this means economic loss for tourism o
Culture
Toshimaen Amusement Park: Yet Another Bit of Classic Tokyo Disappears
On Monday, August 31, Toshimaen, a “retro amusement park” in Tokyo, ended 94 years of operation. A […]
Culture
[Mythbusters] If You Want to Understand Fertility Rates, Stop Focusing on Japan
After more than a decade of creeping up from a historical low of 1.26 in 2005, the Japanese fertility […]
[Mythbusters] Tokyo Re-elects a Woman, Yet Foreign Media Sticks to Stereotyping ‘Backward’ Japan
On July 5, Yuriko Koike, the first female governor of Tokyo, won re-election by a wide margin. As widely […]
慰安婦問題を扱った映画をめぐる法廷闘争 問われる日本の大学の研究倫理
新型コロナウイルスによる緊急事態となるまで、北米や欧州各地で上映されていた慰安婦問題の映画がある。 『主戦場－The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue（慰安婦問題の主戦場）
[Mythbusters] Voting in Japan: Pencils-and-Paper System Isn’t Broken, Don’t Fix It
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign commentators have been ridiculing the Japanese people for reliance on retro
Culture
[Mythbusters] Reporting — and Exploiting — the Tragic Death of Hana Kimura
On May 23, Hana Kimura, a member of the cast for the Fuji Television series Terrace House distributed […]
[Mythbusters] Paper Jam: Foreign Reporting is Short on Facts About Fax in Japan
In the two decades I taught my course “Japan in the Foreign Imagination” at Keio and other Japanese universities, [&he
【神話を斬る】独善的な外国特派員が人々を不快にさせる自由を要求する
日本外国特派員協会（以下、FCCJ）は5月21日、会報誌『ナンバーワン新聞（NUMBER 1 SHIMBUN)』4月号の表紙に掲載したデザインをウェブサイトから削除すると発表した。このデザインは東京五輪の大会エンブレムと新型コロナウ
Court Battle Over Comfort Women Film Taints Japanese University’s Research Ethics Record
Until countries went into various levels of lockdown, a film dealing with the comfort women issue was being screened [