Diane Rehm interviewed (audio) Martha Sherrill the author of Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain.  Sherrill spent some time in Japan and found out about the story of the Akita, its near extinction, and its preservation by Morie Sawataishi around WWII.  If you’re a dog lover, you’re sure to enjoy the interview and the […]

in january of this year, what is being called a “missing link” from the cretaceous period was discovered in iwate prefecture by one kazuhisa sasaki.

this specimen is the oldest praying mantis specimen to have legs with hair and spines.
interesting…

If you are a history buff and podcast user, you might want to check out Historicast.
Owned and operated by Japan Talk podcast listener Jordan Cassady, Historicast puts out short segments that provide information about various historical events, from the distant and not-so-distant past.
Even though it is brand new and has only two segments available, Jordan […]

Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy Car race by winning the Japan 300 in Motegi. I’m not a huge motor sports fan myself, but it is certainly a historic first and worth noting. Here’s ESPN’s take on the event.
Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after […]

If Japanese castles are your thing, and you don’t know about it already, head over to jcastle.info, which provides an in-depth guide to all Japanese castles.
The site provides as much information as you would need before visiting, including 5-star ratings, maps and access info, photos, links, and some historical notes.
And in that spirit, here’s a […]

The New York Times has a quartet of articles related to Japan.
One article deals with a lawsuit regarding WWII forced suicides. I have not heard much about this issue before and it is quite interesting. The topic of revisionist history is a universal one. In this particular case an author wrote about […]

Last July, Natsuki Matsumoto rummaged around at an Osaka antique store and made a wonderful discovery- short, silent anime films over 90 years old- the oldest ever found.
The National Film Center in Tokyo has restored both anime films: “Nakamura Katana”- A 2 minute silent film about a samuari and “Urashima Taro” based on an […]

scattered around buddhist temples in the tohoku region of japan there are mummified bodies enshrined in . practitioners of an ancient set of rituals known as shugendô, these monks actually mummified themselves in a prolonged act of asceticism. believing that they could attain enlightenment in a mere ten thousand days (about 8 years, […]

A while back we got mail from the University of California Press telling us that they have recently published by a book that might be worth reading. It is by now Japan resident Charles Jenkins, and it is titled The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea.
Charles Robert Jenkins is a […]

Check out this amazing time map animation that traces geopolitical changes on the Korean Penninsula over time.

I wanted to find something like this for Japan but I couldn’t.

Andy Young who runs Siberian Light - The Russian Blog, writes in to point us to his post about a long forgotten battle fought between Japan and the Soviet Union in the opening days of World War II. Forgotten, but so significant that it literall altered the course of history.
In August 1939, just weeks before […]

MAKER Montanus
TITLE Iedo
PLACE ISSUED Amsterdam
FIRST EDITION 1671
AREA SHOWN Tokyo
TECHNIQUE Copper engraving
I came across this while browsing old maps for sale online. If anybody wants more info drop me a line.

Like most people, the Japanese have a lot of respect for the business leaders who have created enduring organizations, with Thomas Edison very near to the top of the list. Another man who is well respected in Japan is Konosuke Matsushita.
Very poor as a child, he was forced to leave school in the 4th […]

What does the small, sleepy town of Mifune in Kumamoto prefecture have that Tokyo wishes it had? Giant lizards, that’s what.
While Godzilla (ゴジラ) takes the pop culture limelight, real dinosaurs are being unearthed in Kyushu.
Reuters reported this weekend,
An 85 million-year-old dinosaur skull has been found in southwestern Japan, one of the oldest discoveries […]

We all know that both Korea and China get a lot of mileage out of their claims that Japan distorts history.
Well, did you know that these countries are also at odds with each other over the exact same reason?
For the past few years, Korean soaps have been a staple of Chinese television. Despite repeated attempts […]

Despite years of tantrum throwing by Korea, the 9th Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names has ruled that the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan shall continue to be called the Sea of Japan, just as it has been for centuries.
“I encourage the three countries concerned to find a solution acceptable […]

Another government is taking issue with Japanese revision of World War II history, but this time it’s not Korea or China, but the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly. Okinawa is opposing the national government’s orders to textbook publishers to delete references to the fact that the Japanese Imperial Army forced Okinawan civilians to commit suicide during the […]

There are many theories out there concerning the origins of mankind, some more plausible than others. And I don’t know which one you were taught, but I bet it wasn’t this one.
“The Black Mountain Grape Homonids”

A small Japanese Castle Town with a rich history
Related article: Often Overlooked Odawara - Part 2

Odawara Castle - once the seat of power for one of Japan’s greatest samurai families
Many tourists in Japan, whether foreign or Japanese, tend to zoom past the little city of Odawara on their way to and from Tokyo, paying […]

South Korea has sent a special delegation this week to Monaco to lobby the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) on the question of the use of the name “Sea of Japan”, which as you may know the Korean government wants changed to “East Sea”.
The goal of the delegation is to “make efforts to prevent the IHO […]