Tag: books

November 2, 2016 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. “You know how our world values ideas but tends to eschew writing for having little use? Just like a wise man once said, ‘I cannot see why living knowledge should be recorded by a lifeless medium such as writing – pictures are more befitting the attempt.’ But go to the human world, […]

October 30, 2016 · 0 comments

By Meghan Ellis. Continuing the trend of people telling us all about the untold history of Japanese things, The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers by John Szczepaniak sets out to educate Western readers on the pitfalls and practices of the games industry in Japan. Taking the form of a collection of interviews following a […]

October 20, 2016 · 0 comments

  By Paul Jacques. As a 12-year-old, I remember wandering the High Street in Mosley (Birmingham) and entering a martial arts shop. There wasn’t much I could afford, but I did buy a 50p pamphlet with a scratchy drawing of the human body, and an English translation on the “ancient Chinese martial art” of Dim […]

September 3, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements. In The Untold History of Ramen, George Solt digs behind invented traditions to tell the story of one of Japan’s most famous dishes, not as a breathless account of urban cuisine, but a hard-nosed anaylsis of demographic changes, supply chains and industrial politics.

August 22, 2016 · 2 comments

By Jonathan Clements. From its cheeky, quirky cover, to the selection of its contributors, to its unifying tone, Mark McLelland’s new anthology deserves to shoot right to the top of Japanese Studies reading lists. The End of Cool Japan: Ethical, Legal and Cultural Challenges to Japanese Popular Culture offers a vital and timely warning for […]