Thread So you want to do research in Japan and need a sponsor. Some thoughts. 1/38 Like most researchers in Japan, I'm delighted both for more interest in the field and for researchers and grad students to want to invest the time here to get to know the place, the archives, the people, the language, the politics, whatever. 2/38

It’s fair to say that I was troubled a couple of weeks back at some of the fanfic written about new Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide here on Twitter, noting him to be a hardscrabble fighter for reform. This story should trouble everyone in academia. www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ne… The Science Council of Japan is one of the more laudable institutions in the country’s government, by law including hundreds of appointed specialists from across disciplines to provide guidance and expert opinion to the government on important matters of the day.

Donald Trump's Favorite War Films #10

"Why Is Chuck Norris Wasting His Time Trying to Help These Losers?"

#TrumpsFavoriteWarFilms Donald Trump's Favorite War Films #9

"Some Winners Who Stupidly Feel Bad They're Not Losers"

2020 can just go to hell at this point. I had no idea he was ill. He was an amazing screen presence and I’m so sorry for his family and friends, as well as for film fans who won’t get the chance to see what he’d do next.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1299529112512598017

I’m in a museum while my daughter is napping in her stroller, and I’m just losing all emotional control at this point. I mean, I call 2020 a hellscape mostly as a joke, and yet I hear this unending drumbeat of tragedy and dread back in the US that echoes for me here in Tokyo.

I'm friendly with and have great admiration for a number of the signatories, and I don't disagree with anything they've written. But honestly, this well-meaning, very well-reasoned, and convincing letter feels like it was written in a very different era.

defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-secur… I don't mean their security views are outdated -- though I guess that would be one possible critique -- but rather that the idea of coherent foreign policy as a selling point of a campaign feels like a relic from a bygone era.

Here's a multi-page rundown of the 75th anniversary of the end of the war at Yasukuni Shrine from Japan's most right-leaning national newspaper, the Sankei Shimbun: sankei.com/life/news/2008… I'm obviously not a Sankei partisan nor an apologist for Yasukuni. What does interest me is the representational gap between discussions of the shrine internationally and this kind of coverage domestically.

Thread: My reaction to the newest Doraemon film, "Nobita's New Dinosaur" (伸びたの新恐竜), a meditation on biopower and neoliberal governmentality, memory and narrative, and the sublime power of friendship. Spoiler alert! 1/25 Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Doraemon series -- about a robot cat sent by its owner in the future to his nerdy childhood self, armed with a pocket of futuristic gadgets to help him out of wacky misadventures -- has long been noted for its Foucauldian overtones. 2/25

Padma Lakshmi can think whatever she wants, but I think that the Times's decision to run this is almost as wrong-headed as the Tom Cotton op-ed.
nytimes.com/interactive/20… As someone who has gladly eaten cooked bees and silkworms at a restaurant in rural northern Vietnam, not to mention the more exotic cuts at Japanese grilled pork stands, I basically agree. And yes, let's diversify our understanding of elite cuisine.

@Pamherd recently wrote this to me:

https://twitter.com/pamela_herd/status/1281341401654005762?s=20

It's especially jarring on a day like today when the list of devastating/disturbing/crazy news seems endless. Like:
chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct…

"We are the United States, not the Divided States. All Lives Matter." - Diamond (of Diamond and Silk), just now, Tulsa rally. Honestly, I'm surprised at how genuinely angry she seems right now. Though she just mentioned Sharia Law, so I guess maybe Biden's proposal to replace the constitution with it has triggered her.

⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ While I agree that the Fake News are putting out false polls showing you trailing Biden, I think there are steps that can improve your campaign. One would be replacing VP Pence with Marjorie Taylor Greene on the ticket. washingtonpost.com/politics/georg… VP Pence is a good and decent man, but evangelicals are with you already. They want a fighter, not a kind soul. And Marjorie Taylor Greene fights for her belief that an anonymous 4chan member with top-secret clearance knows how your war against the pedophile ring Dems will work.

Suggested Question @foxnewsalert: "If the comparison is so important, why did Joe Biden make all those Americans die in Vietnam?"

press.foxnews.com/2020/04/fox-ne… Suggested Question @foxnewsalert: "Why is your sarcasm so much better, smarter, and more effective than Joe Biden's?"

press.foxnews.com/2020/04/fox-ne…

Newest among things I myself had written, ⁦@Paul_Kreitman’s ⁩ “Abe is the scion of the most powerful political dynasty in Japan’s history...... paulkreitman.net/corona-as-kaij… “.....He was born with more silver spoons jammed into his mouth than a novelty act at a nineteenth-century carnival; he sweats privilege like a runner lapping the Imperial Palace on an still afternoon in August.”

⁦@realrobcopeland⁩ is a very good reporter and writer, but this article has been bugging me all day. I’d be thrilled if this team were to solve the pandemic but this often feels like a press release rather than hard-hitting journalism. wsj.com/articles/the-s… The profiles come close to an episode of Scorpio: quirky geniuses solving puzzles while occasionally using a flummoxed insider to pull strings so the lumpenbureaucracy doesn’t get in the way.

Because of this, I wanted to share with you my dumbest fall/winter, when I got into supremely dumb arguments, all of them my own fault, over different movie tastes (and bad taste was the fault of everyone else — I remain blameless except in provoking the arguments).

https://twitter.com/David_Leheny/status/1252699916083707904

I was living in Newbury, MA in 2001-2002 while on a postdoc at the @HarvardUSJapan, and I did my writing in the morning in the Newburyport Starbucks. The most famous regular was Andre Dubus III, whom I still maintain was the author of “The Notebook,” all evidence to the contrary.

As a non-native speaker who struggles to follow the logic of the epidemiological arguments, I try to be careful about criticizing the Japanese government . But letting schools open next week seems nuts. asahi.com/ajw/articles/1… I mean, my university is basically shutting down classes until mid-May. And while I know there's a lot I don't see, I'm pretty sure Waseda students aren't in as much close, confined contact with all their classmates as my soon-to-be second-grader at his elementary school.

Not to be a sycophant, but I'd like to give a shout-out to @waseda_univ president @aiji_tanaka for his handling of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/Mulboyne/status/1239604969281482752

Many universities are still debating what to do, but Waseda made the decision quickly to cancel graduation and entry ceremonies, and to delay the beginning of the semester.

@SenJohnKennedy’s Top Ten Films of All Time #10: Bridge of Spies - In this Spielberg masterpiece, a kind-hearted and wise Russian agent teaches Deep Stater Tom Hanks the real meaning of diplomacy. #SenJohnKennedyTopFilms @SenJohnKennedy’s Top Ten Films of All Time #9: Invasion U.S.A. In this oft-overlooked drama, American Deep Stater Chuck Norris comes to understand the global appeal of Russia when two of its agents build a multinational alliance.