There is a very amusing skit by the late Japanese comedian Shimura Ken where he plays a befuddled high school English teacher assigned to a class full of native English speakers. When these clearly American students...
Author - Tim Odagiri
Tim Odagiri
Why Isn’t Japan Political?
I moved to Japan in part to get away from all the politics. America, in its modern incarnation, is politics on steroids. The old adage, “All politics is local,” was once linked primarily to elections, a reminder to...
Japan and the Gender Gap Information Gap
As I was browsing through some online news reports last week, I learned that Japan is an oppressive patriarchal hellscape. It’s just so sad, and so unexpected. I mean, you wouldn’t know it from wandering around the...
The Burger Kingification of Japan
Japan is great at standardizing things. Whether it is Just-In-Time manufacturing processes in an automobile factory or the shuffling of paperwork at city hall, organizations in Japan are adept at creating and adhering...
That Time Some Guy Said, “You’re Not Japan’s Emperor, I Am!”
You history buffs out there might recall that the mid-1940s was a busy time for Japan. With the empire’s defeat at the end of World War II, the Allied victors were in a position to make sweeping changes to the country’s...
The Sad, Sad Tale of a Major Japanese Bank
Once upon a time, there was a young American boy who grew up to become a handsome prince. Oh wait, this isn’t a fairy tale. That young boy actually turned into a middle-aged computer programmer with a face for radio...
Making Japanese Babies Great Again
Back in March, I posted an article about Japan’s declining birthrate, identifying the nation’s key demographic concern and offering the kind of random suggestions that you might expect from an old guy past his child...
My new credit card is here! I’m finally a somebody!
I finally received my very own credit card. This isn’t one of those fake pre-loaded cards that you have to top off every few weeks, oh no no no. It’s a real credit card, like the grown-ups have. It took several years...
Making Japanese Immigration Better
Japan is looking for new ways to woo foreigners, hoping to blunt the impact of its declining population and labor pool. Just last week, the government proposed a significant change that would expand visa opportunities...
Finding Neosporin in Japan
I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but sometimes I fall down and get boo-boos. Nothing too serious; mere flesh wounds. But scraped knees are the Archduke Ferdinand of bodily injuries, quickly triggering something...
