Kaori Shoji

Rumor has it that since the early nineties, rural towns have been recruiting parolees to become part of the local populace. This information cannot be verified. The people involved will…

As far as bad years go, 2017 pretty much did us in and it's not even over yet. Still, the news isn't all bad, at least in the Japanese publication…

What I leave out is this: I don't want children. I'm fine with being a Japanese Wife but I would never want to be a Japanese Mother. I think about…

Seiko and I still share the same bedroom but sleep in single beds placed two feet apart, because she claimed my snoring bothered the hell out of her. I understand…

Roppongi is the white male's extra-territorial sanctuary as well as metaphorical catacomb, where pleasure draws a last gasp before crumpling into a heap of old bones. The white man's loop…

Japan Subculture Research Center is proud to present a series of short stories, by our resident book reviewer and social commentator, Kaori Shoji, on the often tragically mismatched marriages of…

  For those of us living and working in Japan, it’s tempting to think that the soul-crushing boss is a phenomenon unique to the archipelago. Certainly, there’s a better chance…

Memoirs of a Geisha starring Zhang Ziyi as a ravishing prewar geisha by the name of Sayuri ('white lily'), sinks to basement level lows of pigeon-holing and cultural misunderstanding. As…

On the other hand, most Japanese - white collar or not, are well aware that clocking in over 100 hours of overtime a month is quite common, and so is…

Shohei Sakakura has linked Black Companies with the nation's most famous and lucrative girl group AKB 48. "AKB48 and the Black Companies," and his indictments make Walmart look like a…