Happy Days! My Article is in the Latest Issue of the Asia-Pacific Journal!
In the culmination of a lot of work and far too many delays, I am happy to say that I have been published in the latest edition of the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, an academic journal that publishes articles related to Asia (obviously). The article entitled “Comedians Who Dare: Political Satire in Contemporary Japan,” mainly covers my interviews with Yamamoto Tenshin and Hamada Taichi of the Newspaper and Muramoto Daisuke of Woman Rush Hour. We talk about their experiences performing political comedy in Japan and discuss what motivates them, how they see their role in society, and the issue of censorship in Japan. On a personal note, this is the first article I have had published in many years and because academic writing is an acquired skill that requires many hours of practice, I was quite rusty, to say the least. As an academic, it’s really necessary to continue your research and to publish articles regularly. The experience of writing an article and getting it published can be a long and arduous one, involving self-doubt, countless re-writes, and difficulty finding a publisher. Luckily, I was supported by my mentor professor (from graduate school) and was able to find a receptive and helpful publisher. Please take a look at the article and if you have more time you can see one of the unabridged interviews with Yamamoto and Hamada of the Newspaper in the Interview section of this website. It’s a bit long but I think it was quite an interesting discussion with two members of the top political comedy group in Japan.
Yamamoto and Hamada of the Newspaper.
Muramoto Daisuke (Woman Rush Hour) discussing his political routine.
