On Saturday, April 18 at 2:00 PM, Doc Films at University of Chicago will present a screening of “Black Box Diaries” (2024, Dir. Shiori Itō · 103m · Digital) followed by an in-person conversation with Director Itō and Prof. Yuki Miyamoto of DePaul University.
events.uchicago.edu/event/265285...

Making the Marx Brothers The Marx brothers were born in New York, but Chicago was the true birthplace of the act called the Marx Brothers, one of the world’s funniest.

Robert Loerzel in the Chicago Tribune with an extended piece on the early history of the Marx Brothers in Chicago.

www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/12/m...

Three Japanese filmmakers in competition at Cannes 2026: Koreeda, Hamaguchi, Fukada. Sode will show in Un Certain Regard, and Kurosawa in the Premiere's section.
deadline.com/2026/04/cann...

Supernatural Japan Supernatural Japan examines the role of Japanese writer Izumi Kyōka (1873–1939) in the formation of modern literature of the fantastic in Japan as a global literary genre. Kyōka wrote some of the most...

New book: Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe, "Supernatural Japan: Izumi Kyoka and the Global Fantastic" (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, University of Michigan Press)

press.umich.edu/Books/S/Supe...

No Kings, Chicago

It was a long winter but No Kings Spring has arrived in Chicago. #NoKings

One of my favorite signs from today’s “No Kings” protest in Chicago.

LIFETIME BASEBALL YouTube video by Akiko Yano - Topic

Baseball is back, and Yano Akiko has a new single to celebrate it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgHR...

Minneapolis punk rock trio the Suicide Commandos to sign off after 50 years this weekend The show Saturday night at First Avenue will mark both a first and a last for the band.

Minneapolis punk rock trio the Suicide Commandos to sign off after 50 years this weekend www.twincities.com/2026/03/26/s...

Mangaka Yoshiharu Tsuge Dies at 88 <p>Yoshiharu Tsuge, a manga artist known for highly artistic avant-garde works such as “Nejishiki” (Screw type) (1968) died on March 3 of aspiration pneumonia. He was 88.</p>

RIP, legendary manga artist Tsuge Yoshiharu.

japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/obit...

Markets Surge After Trump Claims He Had Sex With An Angel NEW YORK—In what came as a welcome shock to investors amid recent dips in the global economy, markets reportedly surged Tuesday after President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social Post that he’d had ...

theonion.com/markets-surg...

Flattery or forgery? Row erupts over Vienna Phil’s re-orchestration of a Florence Price piece Inclusion of first Black woman in US to write a symphony in Vienna’s New Year’s Day concert was a long overdue recognition. But how much of her music was actually played?

Tom Service writing for The Guardian: "Flattery or forgery? Row erupts over Vienna Phil’s re-orchestration of a Florence Price piece."
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

Today, on the 15th anniversary of that horrific day in 2011, we visited Tokyo Polytechnic University's remarkable exhibit "Speaking the Unspeakable: 15 Years of Dialogue on Okawa Elementary School"「語りにくさを語るー大川小をめぐる15年の対話」. How to make sense of the senseless?
r-dimension.xsrv.jp/okawa/

Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago

www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...

Yoko Tawada Is A Genius In Any Language | Defector There’s always a song to sing, but first a silence must be created for the song to be born in. — Yoko Tawada, Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel The best argument I can make for why I like reading...

Patrick Redford for Defector: "Yoko Tawada Is A Genius In Any Language."

defector.com/yoko-tawada-...

For a class activity, I'm collecting versions of the famous opening to Kawabata Yasunari's _Yukiguni_ (1948).

「国境の長いトンネルを抜けると雪国であった。夜の底が白くなった。信号所に汽車が止まった。」

Critical Failures by Miyabi Goto | Hardcover | Cornell University Press Critical Failures revisits the overlooked messiness at the heart of Japan's early experiments with modern criticism. In the Meiji era, young intellectuals posited that mastering the art of critical...

New book: Miyabi Goto, "Critical Failures: Modern Japan and the Possibility of Reading Otherwise" (Cornell East Asia Series): a creative rethinking of the rise of modern literary criticism in Meiji Japan as a kind of productive failure.
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

CFP: 28th Annual Japanese Studies Graduate Student Conference at UCLA (May 18–19, 2026); abstracts due March 31.

networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/2014...

Texts of the Heisei Era This volume with contributions on the literature of the Heisei era (1989-2019) contains analyses of contemporary Japanese literature. It presents authors such as Shimada Masahiko, Abe Kazushige, Tawad...

New book: "Texts of the Heisei Era: Readings of Contemporary Japanese Literature," ed. Lisette Gebhardt and Christian Chappelow (De Gruyter).

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

‘Do what you really want to do while you’re still alive’: Masayoshi Takanaka, the Japanese guitar hero surfing a second wave in his 70s Playing a surfboard-shaped axe, Takanaka was a stadium-level artist at home but little known in the west – until YouTube brought him a huge new audience

James Balmont in the Guardian on guitar legend Takanaka Masayoshi's unexpected late-career resurgence.

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

Torikaebaya Monogatari | Stanford University Press Torikaebaya monogatari is a twelfth-century Japanese tale like no other. As suggested by its title, which literally translates to "if only I could exchange them" (torikaebaya) "story" (monogatari), it...

New book (well, a reissued book in updated form) "Torikaebaya Monogatari," trans. Rosette F. Willig (Stanford University Press).

www.sup.org/books/asian-...

not once have I ever needed a text message or email summarized in my entire fucking life

俳優・渥美清｜神保町シアター 寅さん役で国民的俳優となった渥美清（1928-1996）の特集上映です。今回は、東宝で主演した珍しいラブコメや、渥美自ら製作に携わった知られざる名作、ほんの数シーンしか登場しない東映時代劇と、様々なジャンルの上映で“寅さんだけじゃない”渥美の魅力にも迫ります。

atsumi kiyoshi retrospective at the jimbocho theater commemorating the 30th anniversary of his passing
www.shogakukan.co.jp/jinbocho-the...

Animals in Premodern Japan This Open Access book is presented with an outlook on current developments in Japanese Animal Ethics and how Andō Shōeki's depictions of non-human animals.

New book (free open access): Melissa Ann Kaul, "Animals in Premodern Japan: The Encyclopaedia of Andô Shôeki 安藤昌益 (1703-1762)" (Springer).

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

‘Wrong in 1942. Wrong now.’ Local Japanese Americans tie WWII incarceration to Trump’s immigration crackdown se American groups held a vigil at the Broadview ICE facility on the Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the 1942 order spurring mass incarceration of those of Japanese ancestry during World War…

Shareable link: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/22/j...

‘Wrong in 1942. Wrong now.’ Local Japanese Americans tie WWII incarceration to Trump’s immigration crackdown se American groups held a vigil at the Broadview ICE facility on the Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the 1942 order spurring mass incarceration of those of Japanese ancestry during World War…

'Wrong in 1942. Wrong now.' Local Japanese Americans tie WWII incarceration to Trump's immigration crackdown www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/22/j...

A Nation Within | Stanford University Press The presence of hundreds of thousands ethnic Koreans in Japan, or "zainichi Koreans," is one of the visible legacies of Japanese colonialism. A surprising and influential group among zainichi Koreans ...

New book: Sayaka Chatani with KumHee Cho, "A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan" (Stanford University Press).
www.sup.org/books/asian-...

The critic who ruffled pop culture’s feathers In “Blank Space,” W. David Marx questions the 21st century’s creative vitality and responds to critics who say he’s too cynical.

Eric Margolis profiles David Marx and his new book “Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century" for the Japan Times (behind paywall, alack).

www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026...

February 19, 2026 INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY As survivors and descendants of the mass removals, detention, deportation, and family separation targeting our community during WWII, we refuse to stand by idly while our friends and neighbors are violently disappeared, forcibly removed, mass incarcerated, and separated from family members. We decry the murders of community members and at least 37 people in ICE custody and enforcement in 2025. We reject false narratives that state violence is "unavoidable," a "justifiable military action," necessary for "national security"—the same arguments used as they forced our parents, grandparents, aunties, and uncles into U.S. concentration camps in 1942. On this Day of Remembrance, we call on Japanese Americans and all people who believe in "Never Again" to demand justice for those we have lost—on the streets and hidden away in ICE detention centers. To break this cycle of state violence. To rise up and resist, together. We bravely commit to being the allies our familes needed during WWII. STOP REPEATING HISTORY. #TsuruForSolidarity #FreeFamilies #FreeThemAll

84 years ago today, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, ordering the removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, about two-thirds of whom were US citizens. The Day of Remembrance this year comes as we see DHS buying land and warehouses for more camps now.