Author, Researcher and Lecturer with a Passion for History, Music and Japan
Yanaka 谷中村: A losing battle to save a village The Watarase Yûsuichi nature reserve 渡良瀬遊水地 looked bleak on the overcast April day when I visited it, but also invitingly peaceful. Spring had not quite made it to the area yet, it seemed; most of the trees were still bare,…
Tanaka Shôzô 田中正造 (1841-1913): A Champion for the Victims of the Ashia Pollution Case Tanaka Shôzô, elected into Japan’s first Parliament in 1890 as the representative of Aso district in Tochigi prefecture, learned for the public good early in life. At the age of only 17 he succeeded his father…
1. Earlier this April I travelled what seemed like one of the most desolate places I have seen in Japan: the area around the Ashio Copper Mines. Mining ceased in 1973, and 1980 the mines re-opened as a tourist attraction. In 2017, it looked to me as if even tourism…