For a long time, the bureaucracy–in all its elitist, meritocratic glory–has taken a great deal of the credit for Japan’s…
Our final episode in this miniseries brings conspiracism in Japan to the present day, as we discuss a wave of…
This week, something a bit different: the start of a history of conspiracy theories in Japan. This first episode is…
This week: we take a look at the genre of the yakuza movie, or ninkyo eiga, which started off as…
This week: we take a look at postwar samurai film/jidaigeki in order to understand better the trajectory of the most…
This week: we wrap up the miniseries with the end of Akebono’s career, as the first gaijin yokozuna takes his…
This week: Akebono becomes a yokozuna, and finds himself burdened with new expectations on and off the dohyo. Plus, a…
This week: in the span of just a few years, Akebono goes from a rookie in sumo to one of…
This week: Chad Rowan, who will be the first non-Japanese yokozuna in history, is the subject for the rest of…
This week: after Taiho, the floodgates open as more non-Japanese rikishi begin to enter the sport. One of them, Takamiyama,…