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New reading: issue of Spectator about historical itinerants and drifters in Japan.

Okamoto Kozo, the last surviving member of the group of Japanese who attacked Lod Airport in 1972, has died at the age of 78. He was released from prison in the 1980s. He later received asylum in Lebanon and lived under the protection of the PFLP. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

Kozo Okamoto, Japanese militant who took part in a 1972 Tel Aviv airport attack, dies in BeirutKozo Okamoto, a Japanese militant involved in a deadly attack on Tel Aviv’s airport over 50 years ago, has died in Beirut at 78www.washingtonpost.com

International Association of Art Critics Japan has issued a statement opposing the Flag Desecration Bill out of fear that works of art that use the Japanese national flag might be subject to punishment under the new law. (Pictured: Yanagi Yukinori's World Flag Ant Farm.) critique.aicajapan.com/18358

Tokyo High Court orders compensation over the death of left-wing activist Hoshino Fumiaki in prison throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2026/06/27/t...

Tokyo High Court orders compensation over death of left-wing activist Hoshino Fumiaki in prisonOn 26 June, the Tokyo High Court handed down a ruling in an appeal filed by three bereaved family members seeking damages from the state over the death of left-wing activist Hoshino Fumiaki in 2019…throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com

Born into an elite Japanese family, the photographer Akihiko Okamura (1929-85) was an unlikely candidate to become one of the most perceptive chroniclers of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. aeon.co/videos/a-jap...

Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archive. Written in 1947, Kiyoshi Tanimoto's account of the horrors of the atomic bomb attack will be published in August and is being made into a film. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Lost memoir of Hiroshima survivor found after decades in US archiveWritten in 1947, Kiyoshi Tanimoto’s account of the horrors of the atomic bomb attack will be published in August and is being made into a filmwww.theguardian.com

It gives me great pleasure to share the release of my decade-in-the-writing critical biography of filmmaker/activist Adachi Masao. Pink Auteur, Red Outlaw: Adachi Masao and Japan’s Cinema of Revolution is out September 1 via Awai Books. awaimedia.com/WilliamAndre...

Photographs as Action: The All-Japan Students’ Photo Association and the Making of Eco-Critical Photography in Japan, 1960s–2020s www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Photographic documentation by Matsumoto Michiko of the 1970s Women's Lib movement in Japan www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Koji Wakamatsu Tribute: Sex, Violence, Revolution and the Cinema of Eternal Rebellion asianmoviepulse.com/2026/05/koji...

Koji Wakamatsu Tribute: Sex, Violence, Revolution and the Cinema of Eternal RebellionA tribute to Koji Wakamatsu, one of Japanese cinema’s most uncompromising voices, whose work transformed pinku, exploitation, political cinema, and low-budget filmmaking into a radical language of sex...asianmoviepulse.com

Seibu Kōdō and Punk in Kyoto: "This unit of Modern Kyoto Research looks at one of the city's more minor but nonetheless vibrant scenes: punk music in Kyoto." www.modernkyotoresearch.org/seibu-k%C5%8...

Silent, empty landscapes: Recent photographic practices about Sanrizuka and the Narita Airport protest movement throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2026/05/12/r...

Silent, empty landscapes: Recent photographic practices about Sanrizuka and the Narita Airport protest movementThis year has seen the publication of Wakayama Tadataka’s photo book Threshold from Akaaka, the latest in a growing corpus of photographic practices that engage with the legacy of the Narita …throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com

Japan sees large protest in support of pacifist constitution as PM Takaichi pushes revisions www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Japan sees largest protest in support of pacifist constitution as PM Takaichi pushes revisionsJapanese leader Sanae Takaichi has called for discussions to revise the constitution, saying it should ‘reflect the demands of the times’www.theguardian.com

New reading

The Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo has published a "documentation book" about last year's (under-promoted but very popular) exhibition of war art from the museum collection. (Full disclosure: I translated one of the curator essays.) www.momat.go.jp/wp-content/u...

A millennium of Japanese history, as told through the samurai sword aeon.co/videos/a-mil...

"We must transform Tokyo into a political metropolis rather than a tourist attraction." A conversation with a student activist at the University of Tokyo about tuition protests, solidarity with Palestine, and Toyama Koichi. heatwavemag.info/magazine/iss...

Yasuda Redux | HeatwaveA conversation with Tatsuki Kihira, a Japanese comrade active in organizing the 2024 tuition protests, about their approaches to composition and escalation, the movement’s vertical and horizontal conn...heatwavemag.info

‘Stop sucking up to America’: Japan’s youth rises up to protect pacifist constitution www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

‘Stop sucking up to America’: Japan’s youth rises up to protect pacifist constitutionProtests are growing against moves to change Japan’s ‘supreme law’, a document written by the US that is now being challenged by Iran warwww.theguardian.com

The legendary student-run Yoshida Dormitory at Kyoto University will host GENIUS LOCI, a site-specific promenade theatre performance for three days from March 27. stage.corich.jp/stage/434675

‘I considered starting over as a farmer’: Masao Adachi on political cinema, revolution and Japan today www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

‘I considered starting over as a farmer’: Masao Adachi on political cinema, revolution and Japan todayThe director and ex-Japanese Red Army militant discusses his new film Escape, about the anarchist fugitive Satoshi Kirishima, the frustrations of radical film-making and progressive politicswww.theguardian.com