Peter Tasker

Published in Japan Forward 28/11/2022 Toshiro Mifune passed away twenty five years ago this December.

Published in Japan Forward 10/11/2022 On their first tour of Japan in 1971, hard rock maestros Led Zeppelin came up with a generous gesture.

Published in Japan Forward 27th October 2022 Once upon a time Japan stood out for its rapid turnover of prime ministers, whereas British politics was generally stable, with leaders Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair holding office for eleven and ten years r…

Published in Nikkei Asia 22/9/2022 It’s not just Tom Cruise reprising the title role in Top Gun: Maverick.

Published in Japan Forward 1/10/2022 It was one of those sticky late September days that seem to hark back to the summer, rather than anticipating the crispness of a Tokyo autumn.

Published in Japan Forward 23/9/2022 It was fitting that Shinzo Abe’s death was marked by a day of mourning in India, and that 98-year old Dr.

Published in Nikkei Asia 9/9/2022 BEPPU, Japan — Ichiro is the big boss around here.

Published in Japan Forward 9/9/2022 It’s still hard to process the horrific assassination of Japan’s most consequential politician of the last sixty years.

Published in Japan Forward 03/08/2022 Werner Herzog is one of the great film directors of our time.

Published in Japan Forward 8/7/2022 “My advice is to turn back right now,” said our guide.

Japonica asked me about my favourite Japanese places, activities, foods, books and so on.

Published in Nikkei Asia 13/ 7/2022 The first thing I see on disembarking from the ferry is a giant polka-dotted pumpkin sitting on the dockside.

“What do you care about humanity?

Published in Japan Forward 4/6/2022 In 1963, Ishihara wrote an article about a Sumo wrestling match that he had just watched.

Published in Nikkei Asia 23/5/2022 Impressive social cohesion to keep price rises tame You have to feel sorry for Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.

Published in Japan Forward 20/5/2022 In September 1973, Ishihara and his wife travelled to Scotland where he led an all-Japanese team in search of the Loch Ness monster.

Published in Japan Forward 8/5/2022 Shintaro Ishihara, four times elected governor of Tokyo, prize-winning literary novelist and outspoken nationalist, passed away in February this year.

Published in Nikkei Asia 23/4/2022 In the first round of the French presidential election on April 10, hard right candidate Marine Le Pen racked up a strong result, with a share of the vote just a few percentage points below the total garnered by current…

Are you dissatisfied with your life?

Published in Japan Forward 6/4/2022 Joan Miro and Japan, the current exhibition at Bunkamura in Shibuya, is well worth attending – even if, like me, you are not particularly knowledgeable about twentieth century abstract art.

Published in Nikkei Asia 31/3/2022 Have you heard about the great Japanese discount market that offers exclusive deals to foreigners?

Published in Nikkei Asia 12/03/2022 “Pandemics do not put geopolitics on hold… they may even intensify geopolitical competition by distracting states’ leadership.”

Published in Japan Forward 06/02/2022 Apa Hotel (Always Pleasant Amenities) is an impressive outfit.

Published in Japan Forward 21/01/ 2022 It was thanks to Covid that I recently managed to view the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Tate Modern in London.

Published in Nikkei Asia 5/1/2022 It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon, but it might as well be around midnight.

Published in Japan Forward 1/1/2022 Making predictions is a mug’s game.

Published in Nikkei Asia on December 1st 2021 It will be a sad day when banknotes disappear, to be replaced by Central Bank Digital Currencies in the brave new world of the cashless society.

Published in Japan Forward 9/11/2021 Suddenly, inequality is near the top of the political agenda almost everywhere, or so it seems.

Published in Nikkei Asia 3/11/2021 It is Sunday night in a small market town in southwest France where the geese easily outnumber the human population.

Published in Nikkei Asia 11/10/2021 “What will unfold might be inflation, a financial bubble and subsequent financial crisis, social discontent due to widening inequalities in wealth, a continuous decline in the growth rate or some combination of these fa…

Published in Japan Forward 16/9/2021 “I was born in a place absurdly deep in the countryside.

Published in Nikkei Asia 10/09/2021 Hollywood has a Japan problem.

Published in Japan Forward 8/8/2021 The 32nd Summer Olympics will be remembered for the steely-eyed resolve and ingenuity that Japan displayed in successfully staging the Games under the shadow of Covid-19, which has made such a mess of our economies and…

Published in Japan Forward 26/7/2021 Even during Tokyo’s Covid-induced state of emergency, there was a queue outside Nair’s Indian restaurant in East Ginza.

Published in Japan Forward 22/7/2021 The Witches of the Orient (directed by Julien Faraut, 2021).

Published in Japan Forward 7/7/2021 The Tokyo Olympics have been getting a bad press recently, but a new film reminds us just how important this quadrennial sporting jamboree can be.

Published in Nikkei Asia 10/6/2021 One of the most mysterious incidents in the annals of sensational unsolved crimes that dot Japan’s post-war history concerns the confectionary company, Ezaki Glico.

Published in Japan Forward 7/6/2021 The wedding between Bose and Toshiko took place in secret at Toyama’s residence, with witnesses including Foreign Minister Shinpei Goto and future Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai, both enthusiastic pan-Asianists.

Published in Japan Forward 5/6/2021 I’m sitting in the Nakamuraya restaurant in Shinjuku wolfing down a substantial portion of chicken curry.

Published in Japan Forward 7/5/2021 On the western fringe of Tokyo’s Ginza district, you can find a bizarre structure that looks like something from Logan’s Run or some other half-forgotten SF movie of bygone years.

Published in Japan Forward 12/4/2021 At the time, it seemed more like the plot of a bad James Bond movie than everyday reality.

Published in Nikkei Asia 14/4/2021 Sixty years ago this month, one of my favourite films hit the cinema screens for the first time.

Published in Nikkei Asia 17/3/2021 ”Officials from the police agencies came in and sat alongside yakuza bosses who sat next to CIA agents.

Published in Japan Forward 4/3/2021 In June 2011, I went up to Tohoku to visit my friend K. who lives in the coastal town of Ofunato.

Published in Japan Forward 3/3/2021 In the event of an earthquake, you’re supposed to shelter under a table.

Published in Nikkei Asia 17/2/2021 The fate of the 2021 Olympics Games in Tokyo may still be hanging in the balance, but one indirectly related event is already in progress.

Published in Japan Forward 17/2/ 2021 So it’s finally happened.

Published in Newsweek Japan February 1st 2021 The Covid crisis drags on, spreading gloom and despair everywhere, yet stock markets are on fire.

Published in Nikkei Asia 15/1/2021 “Over 80% of the world’s people have never been in an airplane.

Published in Japan Forward 20/1/2021 The storming of the Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters on January 6th has unleashed a cascade of dodgy comparisons.