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India.com
21-05-2025
- India.com
7 Must-Visit Places In Japan
Zee Media Bureau May 21, 2025 Fushimi Inari-taisha is a famous Shinto shrine located in Kyoto, Japan. It is dedicated to Inari, the deity of rice, prosperity, and business. The shrine is best known for its thousands of bright red torii gates that form scenic trails up Mount Inari. Founded in 711 AD, it serves as the head shrine for over 30,000 Inari shrines across Japan. Arashiyama is a scenic district on the western outskirts of Kyoto, Japan, known for its natural beauty, historic sites, and cultural charm. It is especially famous for the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, where tall bamboo stalks create a serene and otherworldly atmosphere. Meiji Jingu is a major Shinto shrine located in Tokyo, dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, who played key roles in the modernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration. Kiyomizu-dera is a historic and iconic Buddhist temple located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 778 AD, it is dedicated to Kannon, the goddess of mercy, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto." Senso-ji is Tokyo's oldest and most famous Buddhist temple, located in the historic Asakusa district. It was founded in 628 AD and is dedicated to Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Dotonbori is a lively entertainment and nightlife district located in Osaka, Japan, along the Dotonbori Canal. Known for its bright neon lights, animated signboards (like the famous Glico running man), and street food, it's a must-visit destination for tourists Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is a serene urban oasis nestled in the heart of Tokyo, Japan. Spanning 58.3 hectares, it harmoniously blends three distinct garden styles: Japanese traditional, French formal, and English landscape gardens. This fusion creates a tranquil retreat amidst the bustling cityscape Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion, is a famous Zen Buddhist temple located in Kyoto, Japan. Officially named Rokuon-ji, it was originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa for the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and later converted into a temple by his son. Read Next Story
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Korea Herald
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
[Robert J. Fouser] Comparing Seoul and Tokyo
Seoul and Tokyo are two of the most populous capital cities in the world and often invite comparison. I took advantage of the opportunity after returning to Seoul from a recent visit to Tokyo. Both cities are not only the capital of their respective nations, but also the most dominant cities of their respective countries in nearly all areas of human activity. Despite this basic similarity, several significant differences emerge that affect the vibe of each. City populations vary depending on how 'city' is defined. The most common definition is the 'city proper,' but this leaves out suburbs and nearby cities that make up the larger urban area. By city proper, the two cities are about the same, with Seoul having 9,605,000 people and Tokyo 9,878,000 people, according to 2024 estimates. The area of each city is also similar at 605 square kilometers for Seoul and 627 square kilometers for Tokyo. Both cities sit at the center of a large urban area containing vast suburbs and other large cities. The population of the Seoul area is 25.5 million, whereas the Tokyo area is substantially larger at 37.3 million. Tokyo became the world's most populous urban area in 1955 and still holds the title. The Seoul area ranks fourth and contains just over 50 percent of the population of South Korea, whereas the Tokyo area has only 30 percent of the population of Japan. Politicians and pundits in both countries have long complained about the dominance of the capital over the rest of the country. With about half of the national population, the Seoul area is far more dominant than the Tokyo area at under a third. Seoul is easily accessible from most major cities in the country, whereas Tokyo feels more remote to people living in Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and Okinawa. The different histories of the cities helps explain the difference in dominance. Seoul was founded in 1394 as the new capital for the Joseon Kingdom, which was founded by Yi Seong-gye in 1392, and it has remained the center of political power and most dominant city ever since. Founded in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokyo is some two centuries younger than Seoul. During the Edo Period (1603-1868), the Tokugawa bakufu centered on what is now Tokyo held political power, but the emperor, who had lived in Kyoto since 794, retained symbolic power. Several regions in Japan retained substantial levels of autonomy and charted their own course. It was only after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 that the emperor moved to Tokyo as power was centralized in a state modeled on European powers of the time. Tokyo's dominance is thus more recent and has shallower historical roots than that of Seoul. Another interesting difference is the topography. The historic center of Seoul sits between mountains, with Cheonggye Stream flowing through the center. The current city contains many mountains and hills as well as the wide Han River. This means that most neighborhoods in Seoul have slopes, some of which are quite steep. It also means the city has substantial greenery and natural landmarks that break up the concrete cityscape. Tokyo, by contrast, sits on the southern edge of Kanto Plain, the largest expanse of flat space in Japan. The city has many hills but no mountains or other natural landmarks. Instead of natural landmarks, the city's constructed landmarks, such as Tokyo Tower, stand out. Compared to Seoul, the city feels like an endless stretch of concrete with a few green spots dotted around. Tokyo ranks ninth among world cities for skyscrapers, defined as buildings taller than 150 meters, whereas Seoul ranks 21st. This makes the city feel larger than Seoul. Both cities have vast subway networks, but Tokyo has a much larger network of private railways that converge on commuter hubs in the western part of the city. Seoul, by contrast, lacks commuter hubs with people changing trains as at many busy subway stations instead. The busiest stations in Seoul are mainly for intercity travel by KTX. The commuter hubs and their commercial activity also help make Tokyo feel larger than Seoul. Despite the differences, both cities are becoming increasingly multicultural as their foreign-born populations rise. Tokyo passed the 5 percent mark recently and Seoul looks to do so this year. Crossing the 5 percent mark meets the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's definition of a multicultural society. This gives both cities the opportunity, if not the responsibility, to develop models to help other cities with the transition toward a multicultural society. Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Providence, Rhode Island. He can be reached at robertjfouser@ The views expressed here are the writer's own. -- Ed.
Japan Forward
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Forward
Reclaiming Okinawa: The Forgotten Front in Japan's National Identity Crisis
In a recent lecture hosted by the Historical Awareness Research Committee, Satoru Nakamura of the Japan Okinawa Policy Research Forum laid out a compelling case. Okinawa, he claimed, is not merely a local political issue. Rather, it is a lens through which we can understand Japan's national crisis in identity, sovereignty, and historical continuity. At the heart of Nakamura's argument is the claim that Okinawa has been deliberately severed from Japanese national history through educational policy and political activism. Japanese history textbooks isolate Okinawa's past under the rubric of "Ryukyuan history," often without explaining how and when Okinawa became part of Japan. "Ask the average Japanese person when Okinawa became Japanese," Nakamura said. "Most can't answer. That's not just ignorance — it's vulnerability." Nakamura contests this narrative by situating Okinawa's incorporation into Japan within the broader context of national unification following the Meiji Restoration. The so-called "Ryukyu Disposition" was not an act of colonial aggression, he argues. Rather, it was part of the abolition of feudal domains and the establishment of a centralized state. Just as the Tokugawa-era han system was dismantled throughout Japan, Okinawa too was integrated as a prefecture. A major portion of the lecture was devoted to exposing the weaknesses in the claim that Ryukyu was ever a sovereign state. Nakamura pointed to the 1854 Treaty of Amity between the Ryukyu Kingdom and the United States. Many often cite this as evidence of Ryukyu's international recognition. However, recent scholarship shows that the treaty was never ratified by the US Senate and was labeled a "compact," not a formal treaty between sovereign states. France and the Netherlands also signed agreements with Ryukyu, but likewise declined to ratify them. Western powers, Nakamura concluded, never treated Ryukyu as an independent nation. "They were never equals. That's the whole point. It was diplomacy for form's sake, not for sovereignty," he said. Nakamura further dismantled the narrative of Okinawan victimhood by highlighting the geopolitical threats posed by foreign intervention. In 1844, nearly a decade before Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in Japan, a French warship arrived in Okinawa and demanded concessions, including permission to station missionaries. Ryukyuan officials, operating under Satsuma's suzerainty, refused. This event prompted the Tokugawa Shogunate to order Satsuma to send troops to reinforce Okinawa, illustrating that the central government regarded Okinawa as part of its national defense perimeter. "The notion that Ryukyu was a free actor is fantasy," Nakamura remarked. "Satsuma and Edo responded as any sovereign power would — by protecting its periphery." Bingata-dyed cotton garment with peony motif from the 1800s. Bingata was part of the Ryukyuan culture born under Satsuma rule. Tokyo National Museum (Wikimedia Commons). He also detailed Satsuma's use of Ryukyu as a backchannel for acquiring Western military technology during Japan's period of official isolation. Shimazu Nariakira's secret negotiations with France led to the construction of a modern warship — the Shouheimaru — built using Ryukyuan cover. The ship flew the Hinomaru, which later became Japan's national flag. This episode shows that Ryukyu's ambiguous status was a tool of realpolitik, not evidence of sovereignty. Nakamura criticized the postwar Japanese government for failing to commemorate Okinawa's 1972 reversion to Japan as a national holiday. Unlike Germany's Reunification Day, Japan has made no effort to mark the end of its postwar division. This negligence, he warned, has created space for separatist ideologies and allowed China to support independence movements under the guise of international law. "If Germany can celebrate its reunification, why can't Japan?" He cited the 2008 UN Human Rights Committee's classification of Okinawans as an indigenous people, which the Japanese government failed to contest. In 2014, then-Governor Takeshi Onaga launched a campaign declaring the 1879 annexation of Ryukyu a violation of international law. When asked to respond, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed it could not issue a definitive statement. According to Nakamura, this diplomatic ambiguity only emboldens foreign propaganda. "What kind of country can't even say when its own territory became its own? That's not diplomacy — it's dereliction." Additionally, Nakamura called attention to linguistic and genetic studies used to support claims of Okinawan distinctiveness. While some activists argue that the Okinawan language is not Japanese, Nakamura referenced the work of 19th-century British scholar Basil Hall Chamberlain, who concluded that Okinawan dialects were ancient forms of Japanese. Chamberlain, who taught at Tokyo Imperial University and published extensively on Japanese and Ryukyuan philology, observed that although Ryukyuan speech differed phonetically and lexically from standard Japanese, it retained deep grammatical and structural similarities. He classified Okinawan as a divergent but fundamentally Japanese dialect, not an independent language. Nakamura also referred to a recent university presentation he attended at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum, where a professor explained the latest findings in DNA research. These showed that during the time of the Ryukyu Country (1429-1879), the Okinawan population was composed of roughly 60% indigenous Ryukyuan and 40% mainland Yamato genetic material. Today, the Yamato component has increased to about 80%, reflecting centuries of integration. Interestingly, the study also indicated that a significant portion of Okinawan genetic material, particularly from Miyako Island, has flowed back to the Japanese mainland over time, further reinforcing the genetic continuity between Okinawans and other Japanese. "Even our DNA tells the story of unity, not separation," Nakamura said. A Japan Coast Guard patrol boat searches the waters around Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, after a GSDF helicopter went missing. April 7, 2023 (© Kyodo) Nakamura also noted that the term "Ryukyu Kingdom" is itself an anachronism. Historical documents refer only to "Ryukyu Country" ( Ryukyu-koku ), and the term "kingdom" appears to have originated in modern English-language translations. He argued that this semantic shift is part of a broader ideological campaign to frame Okinawa as a postcolonial victim rather than a participant in the national project. "It's a psychological operation, not a historical debate," he warned. In closing, Nakamura warned that historical distortion is not merely academic — it has strategic consequences. Misrepresenting Okinawa's past weakens Japan's internal cohesion and invites external manipulation. To counter this, he urged a national effort to reclaim and teach the true history of Okinawa's integration into Japan, not as an act of conquest, but as part of the country's modernization and unification. "Okinawa's crisis is Japan's crisis," Nakamura concluded. "We cannot defend our nation if we don't even understand how it came to be." Author: Daniel Manning
New York Times
22-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
How Impermanence Became Central to Japanese Thought
'SEE THE TREE there? It's turning red, right?' I looked to see what Kotaro Nishibori, the last manufacturer of paper umbrellas in Kyoto, was pointing at. On our left was a line of cherry trees, their leaves oxblood on that sunny November morning. On our right was Nijo Castle, where, Nishibori informed me, the Meiji Restoration began. It was here, in 1868, that the last shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa, returned political power to Emperor Meiji, ending the nearly 700-year shogunate. Overnight, it seemed, Japan was open to the world and, as the curtain fell on its medieval past, the country entered a period of transformational change. 'It looks like it will die,' Nishibori said of the cherry tree, 'but it's not going to die. The next spring, there will be another flower blooming on that same tree.' Then, drawing a line between nature, men and history, he gestured to the castle and said, 'All the power fading and passing to the next generation.' The notion of impermanence has long held a special place in Japanese thought, ranging from religion and philosophy to aesthetics and architecture. That essential belief in the transience of all physical things is Buddhist in origin and has generated a vast vocabulary of words surrounding its philosophical implications. Mujo is one term for impermanence, but so is mono no aware , which has been translated variously as 'the pathos of things' or 'the beauty of transience' but is simply an awareness of mujo. Buddhist teaching would have us live in proximity to this knowledge — that everything we love and become attached to must pass from the earth in its material form — allowing it to impart grace and humility to our lives, even as we forgo those things such as ego and hubris that advance the illusion that death will not come for us all. To live in the nearness of death is not a recipe for inaction or even fatalism. Yet it does require us to hold seemingly contradictory ideas. One of the ways in which Japan enshrines the subtle meaning of these concepts is through the realm of art. Beauty in old Japan, as everywhere in the premodern world, was a vessel of knowledge. Nothing, not in Asia nor in pre-Renaissance Europe, was ever beautiful for beauty's sake; it was beautiful because it lighted the way to truth. The Kyoto home of the once-prominent 19th-century statesman Tomomi Iwakura. The original paper coverings on the shelves in the main house are painted with now-faded images of birds, plants and flowers. Credit... Moe Suzuki A cedar forest, as seen from Nyonindo Hall, the women's temple in Koyasan for the female pilgrims who had been banned from entering the town for almost a thousand years. Credit... Moe Suzuki Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
22-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
Nothing Lasts. How Do We Face It?
'SEE THE TREE there? It's turning red, right?' I looked to see what Kotaro Nishibori, the last manufacturer of paper umbrellas in Kyoto, was pointing at. On our left was a line of cherry trees, their leaves oxblood on that sunny November morning. On our right was Nijo Castle, where, Nishibori informed me, the Meiji Restoration began. It was here, in 1868, that the last shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa, returned political power to Emperor Meiji, ending the nearly 700-year shogunate. Overnight, it seemed, Japan was open to the world and, as the curtain fell on its medieval past, the country entered a period of transformational change. 'It looks like it will die,' Nishibori said of the cherry tree, 'but it's not going to die. The next spring, there will be another flower blooming on that same tree.' Then, drawing a line between nature, men and history, he gestured to the castle and said, 'All the power fading and passing to the next generation.' The country that changed modern culture and design, from A to Z The notion of impermanence has long held a special place in Japanese thought, ranging from religion and philosophy to aesthetics and architecture. That essential belief in the transience of all physical things is Buddhist in origin and has generated a vast vocabulary of words surrounding its philosophical implications. Mujo is one term for impermanence, but so is mono no aware, which has been translated variously as 'the pathos of things' or 'the beauty of transience' but is simply an awareness of mujo. Buddhist teaching would have us live in proximity to this knowledge — that everything we love and become attached to must pass from the earth in its material form — allowing it to impart grace and humility to our lives, even as we forgo those things such as ego and hubris that advance the illusion that death will not come for us all. To live in the nearness of death is not a recipe for inaction or even fatalism. Yet it does require us to hold seemingly contradictory ideas. One of the ways in which Japan enshrines the subtle meaning of these concepts is through the realm of art. Beauty in old Japan, as everywhere in the premodern world, was a vessel of knowledge. Nothing, not in Asia nor in pre-Renaissance Europe, was ever beautiful for beauty's sake; it was beautiful because it lighted the way to truth. Explore More Read the editor's letter here. Take a closer look at the covers. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
