I'm going to be at USC in September talking about my book...
Paul Christensen Book Talk - "Fraught Futures: Hope, Connection, and the Unhoused across Tokyo"
calendar.usc.edu
Paul Christensen
@takadanobaba.bsky.social
Cultural anthropologists, mostly Japan, think Takadanobaba is pretty neat.
Tokyo underground - impossible crowds or uncannily liminal
The number of boomer men unable to leave the car and go into the grocery store with their wife is reaching comically epidemic proportions.
To base your entire fascist platform on "Japan first" but then go with elementary school textbook English on your posters is peak loser.
What you see at 2:00am when the jet lag hits all the way.
Japanese terminology as ridiculous self-help industry gimmick continues to thrive...
My local Books-a-million fighting the jingoistic bullshit
@ajawoods.bsky.social book is outstanding AND it reminded me of the Lyndon LaRouche canvassers deceiving my grandmother into a donation outside a Ralph's in the early 90's so... Clear indicator of accuracy?
New article time with @clsturtz.bsky.social @cmcclean.bsky.social @tomphuongle.bsky.social and other cool but not on bluesky people.
Demographic decline as an idiom of distress: Rethinking gender (In)equality in Japan
The world faces overlapping crises of global scale and consequence. Given limited attention and capacity, which crises garner attention and framing as important? Which are neglected in ways reflect...
tandfonline.com
An administrator today said at the institute meeting that they are "monitoring affordability" - corporate speak really needs to die.
When your building's elevator ads remind you of the full grotesque scale of US empire...
The US campaign to starve Cuba of fuel should be understood as genocidal. They are targeting a whole nation, deliberately destroying conditions necessary for life, in flagrant violation of international law. Pure barbarism, there is no other way to describe it.
Periodic reminder that All Cats Are Beautiful.
Rio’s bloodiest day: the untold story of Brazil’s most deadly police raid
In interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian pieces together how an operation targeting a criminal gang left 122 people dead last October
theguardian.com
A sampling of books given prominent placement at Rio bookstores that never seem to get the same treatment in the US...
Is Japan a cautionary tale or a fetishized object that lets scholars and policymakers avoid hard questions? Paul Christensen explores this dynamic as part of our ongoing series, Critical Asian Scholarship in a Time of Global Crisis. Read the full article here: apjjf.org/2026/1/chris... #Japan
My wife @oceanana.bsky.social is one of the illegally fired federal workers profiled here.
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 6mo agoAt the end of Donald Trump’s first year back in office, roughly 300,000 fewer Americans worked for the government. Franklin Foer spoke with 50 federal employees who were either fired or forced out: theatln.tc/XfKtWRqe
My declaration for (particularly) Japan studies as the world burns.
If Japan is the future, why aren’t we more upset? - Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
[…]
apjjf.org
The US aggression against Venezuela is naked imperialism. All pretext has been exposed as farce. An invasion would cause tens of thousands of deaths. Every sane person must oppose this madness.
@nytimes.com reporting on how my wife @oceanana.bsky.social was illegally fired from her position at NOAA.
She Tracked the Health of Fish That Coastal Communities Depend On
nytimes.com
The absurdity of the motorcycle radio is matched only by its vulgarity.
The Japan=prestige (and thus expensive) in Brazil is wild. R$100 for sunscreen that's usually less than ¥1,000.
