Japan

Yuri Chekalin19.09.2026

Japanese schoolchildren are spending more time with screens than ever before. But the tablet is only one piece of a much larger story—a story about how modern childhood may be changing the human eye. When Digital Childhood Changes the Eye Imagine an ordinary Japanese schoolchild. A smartphone on the way to school. Several hours of […]

Yuri Chekalin30.08.2026

Of all the languages I know, the Japanese word baishun—meaning prostitution—seems to me among the most evocative. There is something strangely melancholy and gentle in its sound, an echo of the feeling that sometimes overtakes us on a rainy day, when the damp scent of the earth makes us pause and think about eternal questions. […]

Yuri Chekalin27.08.2026

Japan is usually associated with cutting-edge technology, neon-lit Tokyo, bullet trains, and the triumph of corporate capitalism. Yet for more than a century, Japan has also been home to one of the most unusual political phenomena in the modern world: the Japanese Communist Party, or JCP. Its story began on July 15, 1922, when a […]

Michael Mozzhechkov19.08.2026

After World War II, Japan lay in ruins. Around 25% of the nation’s wealth had been destroyed, while industrial production had fallen to roughly one-tenth of its prewar level. Under these circumstances, Japan set out to catch up with the world’s leading economies—and too often, that drive for growth came at the expense of both […]

Yuri Chekalin04.08.2026

It is fascinating that Madama Butterfly, or Cio-Cio-San, has long been regarded as one of the most “Japanese” of European operas. Yet, in reality, it tells us far more about Western perceptions of Japan at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries than about Japan itself. The same can be said, in a different […]

Yuri Chekalin21.07.2026

There is a peculiar trick that history likes to play on us. It records the names of emperors, generals, conquerors, and men who spent their lives proving that they were important. It carefully preserves the dates of battles, treaties, and political intrigues. But every once in a while, history makes a mistake — a fortunate […]

Yuri Chekalin27.06.2026

In the city of Uchtensk, Bureaucracy lived. It never walked—it went through the proper approval process. It never spoke—it issued directives. Even its mirror reflected a person only after they presented valid identification. One day, a citizen attempted the impossible: to obtain a certificate stating that he existed. “Please fill out an application to receive […]

Yuri Chekalin19.06.2026

Today we’re heading to the very heart of Tokyo — Shibuya. As you’ll see, it’s like Times Square multiplied by a hundred. There are endless crowds, entertainment venues, restaurants, izakayas, and countless little eateries. Tokyo truly never sleeps. You can pass the time until dawn by drinking, playing billiards, reading manga in cafés, or even […]

Yuri Chekalin14.06.2026

Japan has long maintained a cautious immigration policy, emphasizing social stability and controlled migration. Introduction However, demographic challenges such as a declining birth rate, an aging population, and persistent labor shortages have compelled the Japanese government to reconsider its approach to immigration and visa policies. In recent years, Japan has introduced a series of visa […]

Yuri Chekalin12.06.2026

Oda Nobunaga is one of the most influential figures in Japanese history. Living during the turbulent Sengoku, or “Warring States,” period, he began the process of unifying Japan after more than a century of civil conflict. Through military innovation, political vision, and bold leadership, Nobunaga transformed the balance of power in Japan and laid the […]

Japan’s Myopia Epidemic

Priestesses of Love

Japanese Communism: A Century of Revolution, Underground Struggle, and Parliamentary Politics

Minamata Disease: Japan’s Environmental Reckoning

Madama Butterfly and the Japan of the Western Imagination

Beneath the Shadow of the Fleeting: A Woman’s Voice from the Heian Court

The Great Bureaucratic Seal

Notes from Japan: Hachikō

Visa Reform in Japan

Oda Nobunaga: The Unifier Who Changed Japan

Japan’s Myopia Epidemic

The Whirlwind Front

Subject to Fits

Royal Navy and Trojan War Heros