If the games are up, the implications hardly bear thinking about
By Philip Patrick
The Japanese, masters of the art of face saving, may be giving us a model of how to move out of corona restrictions painlessly
By Philip Patrick
Gaiatsu, or outside power, is a word likely to raise the hackles of even the mildest Japanese person
By Philip Patrick
Now and again I gently take on my Trump-hating colleagues
By Philip Patrick
It is debatable whether the Japanese public cares all that much if the games go ahead or not
By Philip Patrick
Suga may have opted for airy rhetoric as he has limited options
By Philip Patrick
Yoshihide Suga’s victory was a stitch-up of staggering brazenness for a law-governed democracy
By Philip Patrick
Abe had hoped that 2020 would be his year
By Philip Patrick
No one in Japan is checking whether you are wearing a mask or not, and there are no penalties for not doing so
By Philip Patrick
This is not the first attempt by the Abe government to get people moving around Japan
By Philip Patrick
The advantages of bowing, apart from the public health benefits, are that it is dignified and solemn
By Philip Patrick
Office workers in Japan are renowned for their quasi-devotional relationship with their employer
By Philip Patrick
Accusations of institutionalized racism abound
By Philip Patrick
The Japanese still view dependence on the state with great suspicion
By Philip Patrick
Yes, there was a lockdown, of sorts, but it was all a bit phony
By Philip Patrick
