Made it through heavy snow to hotel in Niigata prefecture. View from my room below. Had a soak in an onsen. Now watching PM Takaichi being interviewed after confirmation her party will have 2/3 majority. Centrist alliance appears to have crashed + burned.

A lot has happened in five years so delighted that some forecasts turned out accurate

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Mandelson sought advice from Jeffrey Epstein on setting up his advisory firm, Global Counsel, including how to target potential new clients such as the Chinese government. www.ft.com/content/13d2...

5 years today since @davidheniguk.bsky.social + I were speakers on a @thejapansociety.bsky.social webinar on Brexit, the UK + Japan. Happy to say our predictions have largely stood the test of time. I've summarised and updated some of them in the article below rudlinconsulting.com/japan-in-the...

Yikes. I'm leaving for Japan this Thursday and meant to be facilitating a team building off-site in Niigata Monday to Thursday next week.

FT Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein asked an unidentified woman to buy a Snow White costume just weeks before former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley’s infamous exchange with the convicted sex offender about the Disney character. ft.trib.al/v96AYiz

Eastern Daily Press valiant attempt to find a Norfolk angle to the Epstein files www.edp24.co.uk/news/2581620...

Factories in China ship drugs to British gangsters, who then give the payments in cash to Chinese students studying at UK universities. The students either take the cash to Bicester Village, or first pay it into their bank accounts before going; then they buy Gucci handbags + ship them back to China

Whqt it was like being the first foreigner at Catholic school for nice young ladies in Japan in 1973. open.substack.com/pub/pernille...

#totp hands! Mike

Sniffup? Spotera! A story of winter coats and Japanese men in loin cloths. James Kirkup and haunted houses. open.substack.com/pub/pernille...

I'm off to Japan next week, partly for work, partly for nostalgia, partly for tourism. I've started a Substack to keep a log of what I find this time, my 30th? trip to Japan since 1973. My first post - a fire horse in search of wool sheep pernillerudlin.substack.com?utm_campaign...

Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen https://www.wikiart.org/en/james-mcneill-whistler/caprice-in-purple-and-gold-the-golden-screen-1864

'Evening Exodus at Victoria Station' (from 'The Colour of London', 1907) by Yoshio Markino

There some interesting breakdowns by demographic too - Men don't seem to care as much about coughing and sneezing as women + more concerned about seat hogging. Also that they looked at attitudes to foreign visitor behaviour + noisy conversation came top of irritating behaviour. 1/

I do love a Japanese poll on manners - this one is especially good as it tracks over time. So #1 in most irritating behaviours on Japanese trains for the 2nd year running is sneezing or coughing, up from #6 in 2016. #2 for 2 years running + always in top 3 is seat/space intrusion/hogging. 1/3

Eye opening read from Black American academic + writer in defence of the US constitutional right to bear arms to fight tyranny - for us Europeans who are still trying to comprehend why someone would take a gun to a protest. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Nissan has already sold its Barcelona and South Africa plants to China's Chery. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Does anyone else suffer from this annoying earworm that every time they see "Board of Peace" Paul McCartney starts piping up with one of his worst songs.

Beef katsu coming to Europe - Kyoto-style beef cutlet restaurant chain Saint Marc eyeing France, Italy and Spain, with a goal of opening the first location by 2028 - targeting about 10 restaurants per country. asia.nikkei.com/business/foo...

Very excited by this - Toho, Japanese entertainment giant (Godzilla, Studio Ghibli, Doraemon, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kokuho) has aggressive plans to expand globally. Set up European HQ in UK, has acquired UK distributor Anime Ltd. asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/bi...

Speaking of middle powers needing to stick together... This would be Starmer's first visit to Japan since becoming PM. Likely to discuss GCAP (next generation fighter get) and CPTPP asia.nikkei.com/politics/int...

One reason I am gloomy about Britain’s ability to rise to this geopolitical moment is the sheer parochialism and unseriousness of much of its media. The Times, which used to be a serious paper, does not have a single comment piece today on the gravest international crisis in 80 years

Japanese leaders have frequently invoked "the rules-based international order" so the British media really need to stop being so parochial with the "what does this mean for Starmer's credibility?" take re Carney's speech on how middle powers need to accept the rules-based international order is dead

"I no longer feel an obligation to think of peace" Any chance to break out one of my favourites

In a Gifu Prefecture community in which roughly half of the residents are age 65 or older, people are helping one another with everyday problems in what could be a model case for an aging society.

The Bath https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/6107

'Leaving His Majesty's Theatre' (c.1907) by Yoshio Markino

How the mighty have fallen. Not mentioned in the article but I'd be interested to know how far the domestic business has recovered since the Olympic bid rigging scandal of 2029. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

The Highway Code rule 112b: LED headlights

David Bowie died ten years ago today so here is a photo of him in Japan looking cool as the current Berlin winter.

Very much here for 1) on this. Could possibly be the best music video ever.

Koito, Japanese automotive parts supplier, has sold Koito Europe and factory (employing around 400) in Droitwich UK to British company Shapers. Koito originally bought the plant in 1998 through acquisition of Britax Vega www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/2570244...

Buffett-backed Japanese group Marubeni buys UK’s Gola to ride retro trainer boom. Another attempt by a big Japanese trading company to move away from commodities giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

UK's Aon to enter Japan insurance broker market as rules ease asia.nikkei.com/business/ins...

My latest article. Enjoy! asia.nikkei.com/opinion/righ...

Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science in the UK is to be wound up + assets transferred to other Hitachi High-Tech entitities - presumably Hitachi High-Tech Europe HQ in Germany. The company was formed as the result of Hitachi acquiring Oxford Instruments' Industrial Analysis business in 2017.

Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK results just in. Turnover ⬇️10%, £888m loss, headcount ⬇️ 4%, production volume ⬇️15%. Capital injection £900m to strengthen balance sheet. Impairment charge of £656m. LEAF old model ended Feb 24, New model starting Dec 25. www.ft.com/content/2de7...

Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK results just in. Turnover ⬇️10%, £888m loss, headcount ⬇️ 4%, production volume ⬇️15%. Capital injection £900m to strengthen balance sheet. Impairment charge of £656m. LEAF old model ended Feb 24, New model starting Dec 25. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Wow I just got an email from Warren Buffett wanting to give me $2.5m. Sounds legit, right?

Saw this in the window of Tombland Books in Norwich. With illustrations but I'm guessing I'll be disappointed

I've said it before and I'll say it again, #gremlins is the best Christmas movie. Unfortunately light might not work on MAGA

Mannie has taken his seat for our Christmas Eve dinner. He has heard there is a gravlax starter. (I use my Danish ancestry as an excuse for 2 dinners)

Excellent news to start the day! 🧀🧀🧀

😳

This tallies with what I have observed with my Japanese corporate clients - initially very pessimistic in the first half of 2025 because of Trump tariffs, took countermeasures, and now things are picking up again. asia.nikkei.com/economy/trad...

We have this daft Christmas tradition (but then, that's kind of the point of this time of year if you're not religious) of having a couple of tins of KP Cheese Footballs to eat during telly watching. But in recent years hunting them down has become a challenge. None in Asda. Now on to Iceland.

If you're planning to visit Japan in the holidays, try not to tell Japanese people how cheap everything is. They think £15 is insane for a bowl of ramen in London. But even this Japanese magazine is surprised that this bowl of ramen costs Y290 (£1.45) in Fukuoka. toyokeizai.net/articles/-/9...

The basic truth of all claims about immigrants is that immigrants are just, you know, people, and therefore what is true for any human in the UK working in one field is also true of an immigrant in that one: www.ft.com/content/10da...