Japan's image has experienced numerous transmutations. The book covers the metamorphosis from Japan's image of a feudal, exotic and romantic land inhabited by Madam Butterflies, to its sudden emergence as a geopolitical power following its defeat of Russia in 1905. More was to come. In the 1930s and 40s the image of the kamikaze vividly illustrated the fanaticism and barbarity associated with Japan in World War II. With the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan rejoined the international community as a friend and ally of the US. The next transmutation came in the 1980s when the Japanese economy appeared to be functioning on anabolic steroids and its continued ascent to take over the US was predicted. "Japanese management" became more than a science, almost a religion, among business schools and consultancies. Today there are two images: one is conveyed through manga, karaoke and the global fashion for sushi; the other is of an economically and demographically declining nation. Will this image correspond to Japan's swan song or are there more transmutations on the way? One constant in Japanese history and the image it has projected has been the country's constant ability to surprise.

Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic 60-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world. Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city’s dark underbelly, interviews Japan’s baseball elite after publishing his first best-selling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation. A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, “the greatest city in the world,” Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.

Hans Küng is undoubtedly one of the most important theologians of our time, but he has always been a controversial figure, and as the result of a much-publicized clash over papal infallibility had his permission to teach revoked by the Vatican. Yet at seventy-five he is also something like a senior statesman, one of the 'Group of Eminent Persons' convened by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and a friend of heads of government like Tony Blair and President Mubarak of Egypt. In this fascinating autobiography he gives a frank and outspoken account of the first four decades of his life. He tells of his youth in Switzerland and his decision to become a priest; his doubts and struggles as he studied in Rome and Paris, and his experiences as a professor in Tübingen, where he received a chair at the amazingly early age of thirty-one. Most importantly, as one of the last surviving eye-witnesses he gives an authentic account of the struggles behind the scenes at the Second Vatican Council, in which he took part as a theological expert. Here it becomes clear just how major an influence he was, to the point of shaping the Council's agenda and drafting speeches for bishops to deliver in plenary sessions. With its rich thought and vivid narrative, Küng's book paints a moving picture of his personal convictions, and his struggle for a Christianity characterized not by the domination of an official church but by Jesus.

A Career of Japan is the first study of one of the major photographers and personalities of nineteenth-century Japan. Baron Raimund von Stillfried was the most important foreign-born photographer of the Meiji era and one of the first globally active photographers of his generation. Based on extensive new primary sources and unpublished documents from archives around the world, this book examines von Stillfried’s significance as a cultural mediator between Japan and Central Europe. Awarded the 2nd Professor Josef Kreiner Hosei University Award for International Japanese Studies.

In this wise and profound book, a noted social psychologist draws on the latest research and theory on human development and, illustrating with arresting real life examplesfrom love and marriage, the workplace and careers, sports and games, and moreshows how we deal with winning and losing in our personal lives.