Philip Patrick is an exiled Scot, who lectures at a Tokyo university and contributes to the Japan Times
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Ever fancied an extra family member or new best friend supplied on demand and available for as long as required? Ever dreamt you could summon up a surrogate to explain yourself out of an awkward romantic entanglement, or a presentable spouse to secure an employment opportunity (like Alan Partridge’s rented wife in the ‘Hamilton Water Breaks’
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The Japanese national team put England to the samurai sword last night with a 1-0 victory at Wembley stadium. I am aware that opener might seem a bit corny, even offensively stereotypical, except that it does rather accurately conjure the rapid slashing passes that sliced through England’s defence for the winning goal. And it fits
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The Japanese are fascinated by the scandal concerning the aristocrat formerly known as Prince Andrew. The main themes resonate powerfully. The concepts of duty, shame and being a burden to one’s family are deeply woven into Japanese culture and so embedded in the language that it is hard to express yourself without touching on them. There are at least four expressions for ‘black sheep of the family’ in Japanese and
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A corner of Glasgow’s historic Central Station was destroyed by fire last Sunday in scenes that resembled the 1970s disaster film Towering Inferno. The fire apparently started in a pop-up vape shop occupying a ground-level retail outlet and spread rapidly upwards. The dome of the 19th-century structure partially collapsed and 250 firefighters and a high-pressure hose
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Yesterday afternoon, Rangers and Celtic played out a dismal 0-0 draw (‘eye-bleeding’, was journalist Tom English’s verdict) in the Scottish Cup quarter-final before the game was settled/put out of its misery on penalties. The game itself will soon be forgotten, what won’t be is the trouble that followed. Celtic’s ‘triumph’ provoked a pitch invasion by fans
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How the mighty have fallen. Tottenham Hotspur, the fifth richest club in England, the ninth richest in the world, current Europa League Champions and a mere five years ago Super League aspirants, are now facing relegation to the not-so-super league, the Championship. After yet another dismal defeat last night (1-3 to Crystal Palace), our (full disclosure: I’m
One of the most serious issues in the well-filled in-tray of freshly endorsed Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi is Taiwan (which China claims as its own sovereign territory) and the lamentable state of Sino-Japanese relations. Takaichi provoked fury with comments in the Japanese parliament in November when she stated that were China to attack Taiwan,
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Well, she pulled it off. Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi took the bold gamble of calling a general election after just two months in office but has been rewarded with a landslide victory. Over the weekend, her Liberal Democratic party’s coalition with the JIP (Japan Innovation party) easily secured two-thirds of the 465 seats in
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If Keir Starmer’s trip to China seemed unfathomable, then his follow-on visit to Tokyo today is even more mysterious. ‘Why on earth is he here?’ the Japanese are asking (those that have noticed he is here that is). There doesn’t seem to be any pressing business for the Prime Minister to discuss with his Japanese
Is the Japanese economy about to crash? This once unthinkable prospect is now very much thinkable as concerns grow, and the cost of borrowing rises, in response to the bold but, to many, bewildering economic plans of prime minister Sanae Takaichi. It is a question of huge import, for if the Japanese economy collapses the
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Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka is at the centre of controversy again, losing friends and alienating people as she has done throughout her chequered career. The four-time major champion and current world number 16 has been accused of poor etiquette in a match against the Romanian Sorana Cîrstea at the Australian Open. Osaka was heard
Japan will go to the polls in February for a general election after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called a snap poll today. Takaichi is looking to make the most of her extraordinarily high approval ratings – in what has proved quite a lengthy honeymoon period – to secure a more comfortable mandate for her ambitious policy
It was the Golden Globes last night in Tinseltown and as per usual Hollywood’s finest strutted and peacocked on the red carpet to the click and flash of the massed paparazzi cameras. Images of their 1000-watt smiles and 10,000-dollar couture outfits were beamed around the world to a million Instagram and X feeds. Yet, something
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It is testament to the decline of Manchester United that the sacking of their manager, Rubin Amorim, on Monday has been treated as a second-order story. True, rather dramatic events in South America have put such things into their perhaps proper perspective, but you do feel that even if it were an especially slow news
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For those trying to understand Japan’s plummeting birthrate – which some fear could eventually lead to Japanese people ceasing to exist – evidence of where the problem might lie emerged this week. Old tweets from Japan’s new minister of state for economic security, Kimi Onoda, have surfaced in which the 43 year-old describes herself as ‘2D
Teams from two Islamic countries playing in one of America’s wokest cities on the anniversary of Stonewall – what could go wrong?
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Fifa looks set to face its first major scandal of the 2026 World Cup – if you don’t count the exorbitant cost of the tickets, that is. The Egyptian FA has made a formal request for the cancellation of an LGBTQ+ celebration planned to take place at their Group G game against Iran on 26
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Today’s World Cup draw in Washington, presided over by Fifa president Gianni Infantino with best buddie president Donald Trump at his side, is intended to whet appetites, set pulses racing and, most importantly, get fingers twitching on booking sites for tickets, flights, and hotels for next summer’s North American extravaganza. The World Cup 2026 is
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If you want to make a Japanese high school teacher break out in a cold sweat and suffer heart palpitations, just whisper the word ‘monpa’ in their ear. For ‘monpa’ or ‘monster parents’, the bane of a Japanese educator’s life, are serial complainers notorious for their persistence, aggression, unreasonableness and irrationality. They have become such
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Scotland have qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years. I can hardly believe that I have just written that sentence, so fantastical did this eventuality appear at times, and how specialised in failure Scotland’s once proud national team had become. But it is true. I’ve checked the score, and pinched
