Tokyo

Finance Politics

Austerity Fatigue: LePen & Hash-ism

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The road to fiscal hell is sometimes paved with the best intentions. As Europe’s politicians seek to win electorates round to brutal budget cuts, they would do well to look to the experience of Japan.

Culture Fiction Reflections

North Korea’s Dear Leader Assassinated By A Japanese Yakuza?

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That’s the theme of my most recent book, Maximum Target, published under the pseudonym of Martin Gower.

Articles Business Culture

Olympus The Movie

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If Hollywood were making the movie, the imminent confrontation between Michael Woodford, the former CEO of Olympus, and the directors who…

Articles Business Culture

Going Back To Tohoku

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I scan my memory, jumbled and blurred by hangover, jetlag, lifelag. Got it – he’s a media figure, fronts up current affairs programs, TV and radio. A real pro, and a nice guy too. “You’re looking well,” I respond.

Articles Politics

After The Quake – Too Much Love

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Disaster reveals national character in the starkest possible way. Japan’s response to the unprecedented triple blow of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown has demonstrated both its strengths and weaknesses – to the world and perhaps to the Japanese themselves.

Articles Culture

New Lessons From Japan

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“When my mother was 10, she was evacuated to Sendai and saw the whole town get bombed flat. My father experienced the big air-raids on Yokohama. Their generation started out when there was nothing left of Japan but smoking ruins. Don’t worry about us – we’ll definitely recover this time too.”

Articles Culture

The Day Of The Quake : The Catfish Breaks Free

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Long-term residents of Tokyo tend to be blasé about earthquakes, but this one felt different right from the start. It announced itself with a thunderous jolt

Articles Finance

China Gets Japan Wrong

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By orchestrating a massive appreciation of the yen in the mid 1980s, the US condemned Japan to decades of stagnation and ended the challenge to its own economic hegemony.  Effectively Japan was forced to commit financial hara-kiri.

Articles Culture Finance Politics

A Hedge Fund Manager Hits Back

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John Veals is the villainous hedge fund manager in Sebastian Faulks’ best-selling credit-crunch novel “A Day In December.” He is a man with no friends, no culture, no interest in anything other than making money. His nefarious machinations lead to the failure of a major British bank, enabling him to make huge profits from his short positions. Other characters in the novel include Gabriel Northwood, a virtuous lawyer, and Roger Malpasse, a retired banker of the old school.

Articles Culture

I Am A Digital Cat – A Story Of The Future

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I am a digital cat. I was designed in Mumbai and manufactured in Shenzhen. Where I live digital cats outnumber children. That’s because they are much cheaper. If you cannot afford the latest version, you can buy a second hand product at a shop called CATOFF.