Longreads
Nine years on, Fukushima’s mental health fallout lingers – WIRED UK
ADHD medication felt like a silver bullet… until I started to unravel – The Guardian
Climate Change
Can the Netherlands’ ground-shifting plan prevent flooding? – Financial Times
What would an entirely flood-proof city look like? – The Guardian
The journey to zero-emissions transport – EIT Climate KIC
Can bringing back starry nights stimulate the climate movement? – Citylab
Art Without Oil: The people trying to end fossil fuel sponsorship of the arts – VICE
Harnessing the power of community to drive an energy revolution – Japan Times
Health
Can the cold make you stronger? – The Guardian
COVID-19: A breath of fresh air for indoor air quality? — Modus magazine
ADHD medication felt like a silver bullet… until I started to unravel – The Guardian
Urban issues and housing
COVID-19: a breath of fresh air for building design? – Modus
Stormy weather: who suffers most when the rain hits hard? Inequality after Hurricane Harvey – Modus
Bike-dominated Amsterdam is not a walker’s paradise – Citylab
Muji is redesigning Tokyo’s cheap estate housing as a hip lifestyle choice – Quartz
Tokyo designers push the boundaries of wooden skyscrapers– Financial Times
A house for all seasons – Financial Times
Where are the world’s most elderly cities, and how are they coping with ageing populations? – The Guardian
Japanese prefab tiny homes could change the way we think about disaster housing – Quartz
A greater share for the Japanese sharehouse – Nippon.com
Review of Tokyo Totem, a guide of how to find one’s rhythm in Tokyo’s urban sprawl – TimeOut
Culture, politics, and society
White apologies are almost as bad as the crimes that sparked them – Medium
What Pokemon, Japanese schoolgirl punks, and cocaine have in common – Foreign Policy
Under the ‘Orientalist’ kimono – The Japan Times
Asylum seekers find little refuge in Japan – Metropolis magazine
How Japan’s election could change the shaky balance of military power in Asia – Quartz
Novelist Mizumura fights to arrest fall of Japanese literature – The Japan Times
A minicar named Hustler? Japan’s brand names raise eyebrows – Reuters
Gender inequality
Gender inequality is still stark in the home. Could a wage rectify the balance? – The Atlantic
Japan has a cute problem – Why “kawaii” culture holds women down, in Matter
The vagina, in all its ‘obscene’ glory – The Japan Times
A woman’s lowly place in Japan, mirrored by its language – The Japan Times
Fukushima’s nuclear disaster
I covered the catastrophic aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan while I was a correspondent at Reuters in Tokyo. In 2020 I went back to write a longread for WIRED on how people are still struggling to live with the radioactive fallout of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident.
Nine years on, Fukushima’s mental health fallout lingers – WIRED UK
日常に潜む放射性物質の影：原発事故と福島のいま – WIRED JP
Insight: Japan’s nuclear clean-up: costly, complex and at risk of failing – Reuters
For many Fukushima evacuees, the truth is they won’t be going home – Reuters
Special Report: Help wanted in Fukushima: Low pay, high risks and gangsters – Reuters
Fukushima farmer says government got it all wrong – Asahi Shimbun
Art
Yayoi Kusama: at 85, ‘the ideas just keep coming’ – The Sunday Telegraph
In the Kinky City – Tokyo Art Beat
If you cut into the present, the future leaks out – Tokyo Art Beat
Sentimental Journeys – Tokyo Art Beat
The Queasy Trinity – Tokyo Art Beat
Guerrillas in the Midst – Tokyo Art Beat
Film & Music
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by MDMA – Heso
Stallion Rock – Heso
Tokyo 23rd Film Festival – Heso
For the love of cinema — Heso
Sophie Knight 