@drchrisharding.bsky.social
Cultural historian & broadcaster based at the University of Edinburgh Weekly essays π http://www.japan-and-the-world.com/ All my work π https://linkin.bio/chrisharding
Looking forward to History Hit on Substackβ¦!
12.12.2025 21:13 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Full essay here π
www.chrishardingjapan.com/p/why-is-jap...
How do you train an AI on a language where this sentence is perfectly normal:
Because already finished, gave book.
(MΕ owatta kara, hon o ageta)
Humans resolve the meaning instantly using context.
AI doesnβt - and that turns out to matter a lot for Japanβs AI ambitions.
π
12.12.2025 19:39 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Seems reasonable. Fingers crossed it helps a bit...!
12.12.2025 19:38 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Or indeed this... (Lib Dem leader, 2024 UK election). π
12.12.2025 19:37 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0π
12.12.2025 19:34 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Bluesky worked in my case - thanks for sharing it!
12.12.2025 19:34 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Ha! π
22.10.2025 07:18 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Japan is losing more than 2,000 people every day to population decline.
Is automation the answer?
This week's Substack post:
www.chrishardingjapan.com/p/can-vendin...
Japan's famous vending machines look like late 20th-century tech.
In fact, they're both decades and centuries older.
They may also hold the key to the country's future.
www.chrishardingjapan.com/p/can-vendin...
Exciting times in Japan...
04.10.2025 06:04 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Promises to be an interesting evening - do come!
24.09.2025 18:50 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
From gangster to kingmaker: Kodamaβs story is the focus for the second of my five essays on America's transformative occupation of Japan, from 1945 to 1952.
www.historywithchrisharding.com/p/the-gangster
Arrested as a Class-A suspect, he was jailed in Sugamo Prison, where he befriended future PM Kishi Nobusuke.
Released in 1948 as US policy shifted, Kodama returned as kuromaku - funding and co-ordinating conservatives, liaising with the CIA, and helping to build the LDP.
Kodama Yoshio, born poor in Fukushima in 1911, became an ultranationalist adventurer.
He amassed a fortune in wartime China, from gems to precious metals, doing black-market deals with Nationalists and Communists alike and working as a fixer for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
In kabuki, kuromaku ('black curtain') are stagehands dressed in black who move sets unseen.
In politics, they are the unseen power-brokers: the kingmakers, the fixers, the invaluable intermediaries.
Japan's LDP leadership election is underway & 'kuromaku' culture is in full swing - the shadowy power behind the curtain.
One of the earliest practitioners, right after WWII, was the gangster & ultranationalist Kodama Yoshio, who helped lay the foundations of the LDP.
A π§΅
βThe sense in Japan of a society and culture under threat and in need of defending is set to be a potent force in politics for a good while to come.β
My piece for @thetimes.com today:
www.thetimes.com/world/asia/a...
For more on how Japanese philosophy can help us live well, watch or listen to my conversation with @takeshimorisato.bsky.social.
π www.historywithchrisharding.com/p/how-can-ja...
From this outlook came 4 aesthetics:
β¨ YΕ«gen: a mysterious sense of the other side.
π§ Mono no aware: the pathos of fragility and everything passing away.
π΅ Wabi-sabi: beauty in (apparent) imperfection & incompleteness.
π Iki: elegance with restraint/understatement.
Unlike Western philosophy, which often seeks universal truth, Japanese thought has leaned more toward:
β’ imperfection
β’ finality
β’ particularity
At its roots are 3 traditions:
πΏ Shinto mythology (indigenous, ritual & nature-based)
π Confucianism & Taoism (imported from China)
πͺ· Buddhism (via people, texts & art making their way into Japan from mainland Asia)
Japan wove these threads together in remarkable ways.
One of the things that first drew me to Japan was its philosophy: growing out of myths, rituals and an awareness of impermanence, and worked into everyday life & art.
A short 𧡠for anyone new to this...
@takeshimorisato.bsky.social
A new Today in Japanese Politics: The first candidates announce their intentions as the LDP debates how to elect a new leader. Plus, a milestone meeting of defense ministers in Seoul. open.substack.com/pub/observin...
08.09.2025 21:27 β π 9 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0Looking forward to chatting with you about it soon, Ginny!
09.09.2025 15:53 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Another one for the 'and they wonder why Japanese people don't like tourists' file...
www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09...
Ishiba is off!
Japan's PM is stepping down, following two disastrous sets of election results on his watch.
A battle for the soul of the LDP - still Japan's largest party, despite its recent woes - ensues.
Backstory:
www.historywithchrisharding.com/p/rise-of-th...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
7/
For deeper coverage, follow:
@nickkapur.bsky.social
@mrjeffu.bsky.social
@unseenjapan.com
And for my own take, as a cultural historian: www.historywithchrisharding.com/p/rise-of-th...
6/
- Emperor restored as head of state
- Rights curtailed
- Pacifism abandoned
- Controls over media and education.
Some outlets report that Sanseito is in favour of Japan having nuclear weapons.
