‘The castle would then become a building of the people. We want to leave a building that future generations can be proud of, and want...
Out of the way and nestled in the foothill forests of the Shima peninsula, Ise is home to the inner and outer Ise shrines. An...
It is a well-known story that Japan’s transformation from a largely closed nation, sakoku, into a powerful international presence in such a short period...
Nanshun Kyokudo is not your typical Sakamoto Ryoma fan. For starters, she only found out about the Japanese rebel while at university — much later...
(Second of Two Parts) (Read Part 1 at this link.) The second installment of this two-part report on the remnants of Tokyo’s...
Free speech is rapidly becoming a vanishing commodity worldwide. Political correctness, pandemic fake news, social media “shadow bans,” and hidebound institutional biases at universities...
In his 1952 book Die Monarchie im modernen Staat (The Monarchy in the Modern State), renowned constitutional scholar Karl Loewenstein described the institution of monarchy...
The Reiwa era has commenced, and all Japanese need to be aware of the true significance of that poetic name that constitutes a call to...
Recently, the current Emperor Heisei emerged from Ise shrine with the three sacred treasures of the Imperial regalia, known collectively as the, Sanshu-no-jingi. These...
What significance does the tenno or “emperor” have for Japan and the Japanese people? There is no easy answer to that question. Suffice it to...
No matter where you go in Japan, the past and present are encountered constantly in ways unexpected to foreigners. Nowhere is this clearer...
The Sankei Shimbun The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added Japan’s Hidden Christian...
