William Andrews
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william-andrews.bsky.social
William Andrews
@william-andrews.bsky.social
Working on: sociocultural history, radicalism, theatre, countercultures, New Left, memory, anti-Olympics, urbanism. Book on Adachi Masao out soon. PhD on 1960s Japan in progress. https://www.williamandrewswriter.com
Reposted by William Andrews
I spoke to Paul Schrader and Alan Poul about the Japan premiere of MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS for the JT. There will be additional screenings of the film in Tokyo this weekend, tickets for which go on sale at noon today.
www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2025...
A 40-year wait for ‘Mishima’ ends at TIFF
Paul Schrader’s 1985 biopic of the radical author Yukio Mishima finds its Japanese audience at last.
www.japantimes.co.jp
November 7, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
"We also inaugurate a new section in the magazine of intergenerational transmission entitled “Learning With Our Elders,” in which an activist/militant shares with us something they learn from a past mistake or failure. We are honored to begin with a text by Fusako Shigenobu."
We are happy to share with you our new issue "Building Trans Communities" (November–December 2025), where we mobilize collective embodiments and solidarities against transphobia around the world.

Order your copy here: thefunambulist.net/shop/62-buil...
November 3, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
This scene captures the quiet magic of Tokyo’s unplanned, human-scaled backstreets—where cars are welcome only as guests, weaving their way gently through pedestrians and cyclists. Streets like these remind us that vibrancy and human connection are at the heart of every truly liveable, lovable city.
November 2, 2025 at 4:45 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
YIDFF 2025 – report 5: The Future of Dialogue: Yoshida Dormitory, Kyoto University
asian-docs.com/2025/11/02/y...
YIDFF 2025 – report 5: The Future of Dialogue: Yoshida Dormitory, Kyoto University
YIDFF 2025 preview here, report 1 here, report 2 here, report 3 here, report 4 here The Yoshida Dormitory at Kyoto University is the oldest student dormitory still in use in Japan. It consists of t…
asian-docs.com
November 2, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Someone needs to do a deep dive into recent representations of Yoshiwara. The latest example is Tales of Edo Oiran, an immersive theatre event: "a beautiful, fleeting tale of the glamorous courtesans and the lively residents of the red-light district." 1/ immersivefort.com/show/tales-o...
November 1, 2025 at 8:21 AM
New reading for the autumn.
October 19, 2025 at 6:32 AM
A very insightful review of Adachi Masao's most recent film, Escape: "It's a work of genuine conviction made by an artist who has lived his politics, and it's a haunting and moving film, one that insists revolution is not a historical event but a lifelong condition." icsfilm.org/festivals/ne...
New York 2025 review: Escape (Masao Adachi)
"A work of genuine conviction made by an artist who has lived his politics." "A sunflower, even when cut down, still stands upright." Escape, the latest
icsfilm.org
October 8, 2025 at 11:23 AM
While the 1970 Osaka expo attracted febrile opposition from Japanese artists, the response to the soon-to-close 2025 expo was more muted. An exhibition at Wako University revisits the 1970 anti-expo movement from the perspective of religion and the avant-garde. www.wako.ac.jp/library/news...
October 7, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Tosho Shimbun is to shutter next March, bringing to a close the almost 80-year history of the newspaper, which mainly publishes book reviews and author interviews. toshoshimbun.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
In the third instalment of my Japanese Sci-fi History newsletter, I conclude my two part article on the connection between SF and The Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970,

open.substack.com/pub/elikpwil...

#worldexpo #osaka #expo70
#japanese #scifi #history
JSF#3: The Sci-fi Creators Who Made Osaka Expo ’70 (part 2/2)
How Japanese SF Critiqued Asia's First World's Fair
open.substack.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Both Paul Schrader and Mishima Yukio seem chuffed that their film is finally going to screen in Japan.
October 2, 2025 at 5:06 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
"Mishima: A life in Four Chapters", directed by Paul Schrader, will get its first screening in Japan at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival. Schrader plans to attend. That's 40 years after its release, and the 100th anniversary of Mishima's birth. www.yomiuri.co.jp/culture/cine...
映画「MISHIMA」完成から40年後に日本初上映へ…三島由紀夫生誕100年の節目に東京国際映画祭で
【読売新聞】 10月27日に開幕する第38回東京国際映画祭で、日本とアメリカの一流スタッフが集結して製作した1985年の映画「MISHIMA」(ポール・シュレイダー監督、原題「Mishima: A life in Four Chap
www.yomiuri.co.jp
October 1, 2025 at 6:04 AM
The poet Tony Harrison has died. I revisited his poem V, a reflection on grave vandalism in his native Leeds, and preserved in a film shown on TV in 1987. At a time of social divisions, this critique of our vacuous yet entrenched notions of "versus" feels relevant. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPut...
Harrison V Part 1
YouTube video by realthedeal33
www.youtube.com
September 29, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Kurdish migrants face hostility as Japan wrestles with demographic crisis: “With their allies in the media, they turned this into a public safety issue, but they made no effort to actually engage with us.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
‘My kids are too scared to go outside’: Kurdish migrants face hostility as Japan wrestles with demographic crisis
Antagonism toward migrant communities visible in the UK, Europe and the US appears to be spreading to Japan
www.theguardian.com
September 29, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
The fallout over a sexual assault accusation has led to a major split in Japan's biggest student movement throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2025/09/24/z...
Zengakuren splits and YouTube channel ends in fallout over sexual assault accusation
The far-left group Chūkaku-ha issued an extraordinary statement on 11 September announcing that a leading member of its youth wing, Ishida Mayumi, had been dismissed from his senior positions in th…
throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com
September 23, 2025 at 3:44 PM
New must-buy for readers interested in Japan's Long Sixties, reading the period through the framework of the iconic "snake dance" protest style: Snake People: Zigzag Demonstration, or the Genealogy of Tactics by Sakai Takashi rakuhoku-pub.jp/products/37
『スネーク・ピープル――ジグザグデモ、あるいは戦術の系譜』 酒井隆史
フランスデモ、座り込み、洗濯デモ、棺桶デモ…かつてのデモは多様で柔軟だった。なかでも路上を蛇行するジグザグデモは、デモの華であり、労働者・失業者、老若男女を魅了した。しかし、その自由な乱舞は、大衆の愚かな「はみだし」としてバッシングされ、「迷惑行為」として規制されていく。このデモの誕生から姿を消すまでの軌跡を追尾する。
rakuhoku-pub.jp
September 20, 2025 at 7:56 AM
A far-left activist and lesbian dominatrix with a traumatic past. Who says politics in Japan is dull? throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2025/09/14/c...
Meet the Chūkaku-ha Joan of Arc
News Post Seven published an extensive four-part interview in July with a 21-year-old woman identified only as Ninomiya, described as “Chūkaku-ha’s mystery beauty”. More than the …
throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com
September 14, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
Tokyo 68 – a fictionalized graphic novel focusing on women in the Tokyo University struggle of 1968-1969. Rebellious Japanese students of New Left protest movements.

By artist Hélène Aldeguer and historian Chelsea Szendi Schieder. Future versions in English and Japanese. @chelseaszendi.bsky.social
September 7, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
Occupation des universités, manifestations contre les bases militaires américaines d’où partaient les avions bombardant le Vietnam ; lutte contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita sur une zone agricole ; naissance du mouvement de libération des femmes…
September 7, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
In my latest essay on the history of Japanese sci-fi, I chronicle how a who’s who of pioneering SF creators helped to conceive and design The Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970.

#japanese #scifi #sf #sciencefiction #history
#worldexpo #WorldExpo2025 #expo70 #osaka
JSF#2: The Sci-fi Creators Who Made Osaka Expo ’70 (part 1/2)
How Japanese SF Shaped Asia's First World's Fair
open.substack.com
August 30, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by William Andrews
So Part One is available now on a limited release. This is the story of the decision that changed the world and it stars the grandson of the man who made that decision. Clifton Truman Daniel is Harry S Truman with Sadao Ueda as Hirohito. Please share. Listeh here podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
August 31, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Settlement reached in lawsuit over future of Kyoto University's Yoshida Dormitory throwoutyourbooks.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/s...
August 29, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Lake of Illusions (1982), dir. Hashimoto Shinobu
August 26, 2025 at 10:21 AM
These "flasher bikes" were what Japanese kids dreamed of riding in the 1970s. An arsenal of souped-up lights on the back and various other accessories like mirrors and speedometers. No one ever said late Showa was subtle.
August 5, 2025 at 10:15 AM