Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama announced his resignation this week, leading to the first major leadership challenge for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan since taking office in a landslide last year. The selection of Kan was not unexpected, but highlights a number of more subtle, long-term trends in Japan’s post-war evolution.
The cherry blossom season holds a lot of importance in Japan. It’s a sign of beauty and life, but it’s also a social occasion across the country. I did a bit more hanami, or flower viewing, this year than I was able to last year, and had an excellent experience at the famous castles of Osaka and Himeji.
On Tuesday, January 5th, 2010, I headed to my local train station, as usual, to head toward the Tennoji section of Osaka. The traditional new year’s holiday is called o-shogatsu, an honorific term referring to it being the start of the first month of the new year, and typically strings along from the first to [...]
Last night I went along with friends to dinner at the Gozanbou teppanyaki restaurant on the top floor of the Kyoto Granvia Hotel. I was gobsmacked at the high quality of the food, the surroundings, and, indeed, the entire experience. What a treat! The evening started with garlic, and lots of it. Frankly, I think [...]
I gave a keynote speech at the 2009 annual conference of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) in Kyoto, Japan, that talked about my observations of Japanese business operations, highlighting the differences that become barriers to communication. This morning, I had the privilege of seeing a write-up of the talk in IT [...]
Living in Japan for the past year, I’ve had an unparalleled opportunity to see the daily life of the citizenry as they go about their daily lives. It’s an aging population, to be sure, but that’s not to say that there isn’t an ever present throng of young people going to-and-fro, usually sporting a school [...]
