Author, editor, podcaster, and cultural critic and observer Patrick Macias talks about manga, anime, and the general state of pop culture in Japan.

Topics include:

• Manga's reputation in the past vs. today
• Differences between manga made in Japan vs. those produce in the US
• The future of anime and AI
• The evolution of pop culture in Japan
• The Japanese attitude toward rebellion and how it has changed over time.
• Writing and moderns perspectives on the Gaijin Memoir
• Patrick's recommended reading

Patrick Macias is the editor-in-chief of Otaku USA magazine, the founding editor of Crunchyroll News, and the author of numerous books about Japanese pop culture including Mondo Tokyo: Dispatches from a Secret Japan, published in 2024, and (with Tomohiro Machiyama) Cruising the Anime City, published by Stone Bridge Press in 2004.

Patrick also wrote the original story for the anime series URAHARA that was simulcast globally in 2017.

Patrick was born and raised in Sacramento, California, and now lives in Tokyo.

Books by Patrick Macias include:

• Mondo Tokyo: Dispatches from a Secret Japan
• The Essential Anime Guide
• A Kid’s Guide to Anime and Manga

Patrick's recommended books on the podcast are

• Pure Invention by Matt Alt
• Watching Anime, Reading Manga by Fred Patten

Patrick is also cohost, with Matt Alt, of the podcast Pure Tokyoscope.

For a complete list of Stone Bridge Press books, visit www.stonebridge.com.

Steve Beimel, a long-time resident of Kyoto, is the driving force behind Japan Craft 21, whose goal is to preserve and nourish Japanese crafts. Here he discusses the variety and significance of crafts in Japan and what makes them so special.

“The crafts of Japan are an international treasure that have enriched and inspired people around the world for hundreds of years.”--Steve Beimel

Topics include

• What is JapanCraft21 and its mission?
• Why are traditional Japanese crafts dying?
• The challenge of preserving traditional crafts today
• The Japanese vs. foreign perspectives on traditional japanese crafts
• How JapanCraft21 approaches promoting and preserving Japanese crafts
• Tourism in Kyoto and Japan today; is it crowded as people say? (Hint: now is a great time to come to Japan!)

Links

• https://www.japancraft21.com/what-we-do
• https://japanlivingarts.com/
• http://www.stevebeimel.com/bio.html

Participants

A Japanophile for over thirty years, Steve Beimel founded Esprit Travel & Tours in the early 1990's, as a U.S.-based tour company specializing in culturally focused tours to Japan and catering to enthusiasts of the arts. Over the years, he has worked with a wide range of masters of traditional culture including art, crafts, architecture, gardens, music, theater, cuisine and religion. "The most fulfilling part of my Japan-related life is working with so many amazing and talented men and women. It has been a great privilege for me to introduce guests from abroad to these people, in a true spirit of cultural exchange." For ten years Steve published the The Kyoto Diary, a quarterly journal celebrating the arts of Japan and featuring interviews with many of the Japan's renowned craftsmen and artists. He now lives with his wife Ritsuko in the northern foothills of Kyoto.

For further information, see this article about Steve Beimel in All About Japan.

Peter Goodman is publisher of Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley, California, which for over thirty years has specialized in books on Asia, especially Japan and China. For a complete list of Stone Bridge Press books, visit www.stonebridge.com.

For a complete list of Stone Bridge Press books, visit www.stonebridge.com.

Translator Mark Gibeau and publisher Peter Goodman discuss Mark’s translation of Osamu Dazai’s novel Ningen Shikkaku, which Stone Bridge published as A Shameful Life. Why is this mid-20th-century Japanese author's portrait of an alienated (and alienating) personality still so attractive to contemporary audiences, especially teens and young adults?

Topics include:

• Teaching Japanese in Australia
• The original Donald Keene translation and why Mark decided to translate it again
• How many other translations of this work are there, and are there more to come?
• Why isn’t Mark’s translation called No Longer Human like the other editions?
• Mark's process of translation
• The importance of being a sensitive reader
• What is Dazai's lasting appeal to younger readers?
• What is translation and what is the hardest part about it (hint: it's not the language per se).
• Challenges of translating Japanese, a high-context language
• AI and future implications for translating and translators. Are jobs at risk?

Tony's Reading List recently compared Mark Gibeau’s translation of Ningen Shikkaku to Donald Keene's:

• Review of the work
• The Gibeau translation
• The Keene translation

Mark Gibeau is Senior Lecturer, School of Culture, History & Language, at Australian National University in Canberra.

Peter Goodman is publisher of Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley, California, which for over thirty years has specialized in books on Asia, especially Japan and China.

For a complete list of Stone Bridge Press books, visit www.stonebridge.com.