I am so so sorry that Alice Wong has left. I didn’t know her well, but I knew her for a long time and had many convos - and her words, her advocacy, and her humor meant so much for so many. And in classic Alice fashion she generously left us all a note. Safe travels, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social. 一路走好

YES WE CAN!!!!

It’s extremely rich to be gaslit by actual journos that this “isn’t a real story” while the NYT constantly makes non-stories into stories (THE ENTIRE COVERAGE OF MANDANI’S)

Not the main point here, but this is exactly why Tokyo (or other allies) can't take anything for granted. You and your interests are not the priority, and if this wing grows in importance, that's only more true.

I grew up among Christians and missionaries in Japan, some of whom were intensely antagonistic to other religions, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting anywhere near “anointing” or otherwise defacing shrines and temples. Like, that would have been so obviously beyond the pale. But NYT of course…

Looking forward to getting yet another Dem fundraising text and me typing STOP in 3, 2, 1…

I will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable. We are in a health care emergency. A simple one-year extension of these tax credits would cost less than Donald Trump’s $40 billion bailout for Argentina. A vote for this bill is a mistake.

Black American soldiers literally dug these WWII graves. Traumatic. To acknowledge that fact at a cemetery they helped construct is something the Heritage Foundation cannot accept. As Veterans Day approaches, never forget that this country both compels and disrespects Black military service. Always.

JJS invites you to the following live, online event: Workshop on Submitting a Manuscript to JJS. Dec 3, 2025, 09:45 AM EST Coeditors Sabine Frühstück and Morgan Pitelka will present about things to keep in mind when preparing a manuscript. Register in advance: unc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

These guys and their fans only know how to break things. They can break a lot of things before enough people care enough to stop them, but that will happen eventually

バーニー・サンダーズも「急進左派」なのだろうか。(笑)

テレ朝さんもマムダニ=「急進左派」だそうです。「民主党左派」なら全然違和感ないのに、なんでわざわざ今回の選挙戦に関する英語の文脈ではそもそもあまり出てこなかった(というか、英語のどの訳語に当てはまるのかさえ定かではない)を「急進左派」というレッテルを貼りたがるのだろうか。恣意的なものを感じざるを得ないのですよね。 youtu.be/ErGpmFp9hhc?...

Congratulations to my wonderful MIT neighbor and colleague @calculatedvalues.bsky.social!!!

「急進左派」…ですか。冒頭に出てくる「『民主社会主義者』を自称し」っていうのも単に所属政党の名前ですよね。はっきり言って記事の内容も解像度が低いな〜、というのが正直な感想。 Not especially impressed by this short Asahi piece that describes Mamdani as a "radical leftist" and is seemingly based on little more than Wall Streeter gripes. www.asahi.com/articles/AST...

This book is *amazing* - highly recommended.

I’m just a small-town political scientist, & it’s still relatively early, but it appears that The Actual Democrats did not Need To Do any of the Things or Learn any of the Obvious Lessons that Ezra Douthglesias said they Must Do & Learn.

The American electorate tonight

テッサ・モリスースズキ先生による、ラムザイヤー氏の在日コリアンに関する論文 (Social Capital and the Problems of Opportunistic Leadership: The Example of Koreans in Japan) の徹底的な反論とファクトチェックです。ラムザイヤー氏の元論文はThe European Journal of Law and Economicという学術誌のオンライン版に2021月2月に発表されたものでした。 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

On an extremely personal note, I’m just very happy for my young Dodgers-fan nephews, who live just outside of LA and got to witness not one, not two, but three Japanese players do what they did in the postseason!

will kim is still in ICE detention

>定着居住者は計81万人から計122万人まで増えた一方、刑法犯の検挙人数は6281人から3991人まで減っていた。人口1千人あたりの検挙者は7.7人から3.3人と半分以下になっている。来日外国人では、最も増加幅の大きい訪日旅行者は673万人から2507万人と4倍近くに増加したが、検挙人数は8505人から5735人まで減少した。 www.asahi.com/articles/AST...

Against the backdrop of calls for renewed nuclear testing in the Pacific and the ongoing attacks on fishing vessels, my lecture on Lucky Dragon No. 5 is going to hit different in 2025!

I'm doing an AMA in r/AskHistorians on Wednesday, starting at 9am Eastern! If you've got questions on the history of manga or media history, head on over to www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori... and ask!

I shouldn't be surprised I know but I'm constantly struck by just how easily triggered and scoldy pundits like Barro and Klein can be as they criticize their imagined "left/lib dem scolds."

Thinking about Platner www.nytimes.com/2023/07/30/u...

Come join us @osuhistory.bsky.social The Ohio State University as Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese History🗃️ jobs.chronicle.com/job/37884726...

Why does it feel like the chance of the Nazi Tattoo Guy showing up on an NYT podcast in a not so distant future has gone up in the last 24hrs?

It was a 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf insignia tattoo for Christ sakes

I always remind my students that “quite difficult“ in Japanese could mean anything from “quite difficult” to “lol fuck no, drop dead.”

It took literally one day before LDP leaders began saying that what Ishin no Kai said was a "non-negotiable" part of their deal is "quite difficult." news.web.nhk/newsweb/na/n...

LOLOL

Canvas is still down, eh?

Hardly the most important aspect of this agreement and I wouldn't want my own Japanese handwriting to be published, but still, the Ishin leaders' penmanship is...ooof:

"Susan Collins has reached one of the most powerful positions in Washington...The Appropriations chairmanship should have been the pinnacle of her nearly three-decade-long career. Instead, it’s been an onslaught of challenges." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/20/n...

Really great that a huge chunk of US higher education moved onto a single, online platform for class management that can be affected by an outage of one company's servers in one fell swoop.

Unintentional 家庭漫才 of the day: I said goodnight to my daughter and I was convinced that I was closing her door as I backed out of her room, except...I was actually opening her closet door. It appears that I am blessed with a bit of 天然ボケ.

Might be the best concise summary of Japan's current political situation I've encountered...Masaya Inoue of Keio University correctly highlights the role of factions and the future instability of any coming government:

Walking to Boston Common. No kings then, no kings now!

Excited to dig into Hannah Shepherd's new book, out in December from UC Press: www.ucpress.edu/books/the-na...

My first article, which critiques the adapatation-resilience development paradigm by tracing its genealogy to prewar Japanese labor science and its influence on everything from austerity policies to anti-air conditioning, is now OA on cssh. doi.org/10.1017/S001...

Dreaming of one day being buried in your own ancient Japanese-style keyhole-shaped tomb? Good news: there's one in Chiba! Bad news? There's a waitlist with 6,000+ people on it already: youtu.be/uz1TqIbbLVA?...

A Japanese "science warrior" rampages through NYC (in Oct. 1943), blending healthy doses of tradition, modernity, and delusion

beautiful (& just a tad surreal) 😎

TV clip showing the utter ridiculousness of an apparent GOJ proposal to purchase Ford F-150 for use as gov vehicles IN JAPAN to pander to Trump in the hope of tariff relief. The official who came up with this should be named and shamed. Even the dealer’s like “Maybe don’t.” youtu.be/FT_28L7U0MA?...

鍋ディナーの翌日のご馳走は残り汁&野菜で作った雑炊ランチ。別の日の残りものだった鳥の胸肉と山椒をプラスして。

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach: Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone. … America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

It's a "no thanks" from MIT to Trump's "Compact": "...fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone." links.mit.edu/nl3/N5Jy2cKq...

Big upheaval in Japanese politics. Today (Japan time), after a ninety minute meeting between Saitō, head of Komeito, and Takaichi, the LDP politician who recently won her party’s presidency, Saitō announced an end to their parties’ 26-year-long coalition agreement.

初鍋!