Nevin Thompson is the Japan Editor for Global Voices. He is a translator, writer, and journalist, and has been connected to Japan for more than twenty years.
Nevin currently lives and works on an island off the West Coast of Canada, and spends about three months each year with his family in Tsuruga, a small city on the Japan Sea Coast, just north of Kyoto.
Profile photo by Jer Clarke.
Latest posts by Nevin Thompson from August, 2017
31 August 2017
Okinawans Protesting US Military Base Asked If They ‘Understand Japanese’
"Okinawa has historically been discriminated against because of its dialect and has suffered under American occupation. It's hard to forgive such language."
24 August 2017
A Popular Japanese Cosmetic Surgeon Is Called Out for Admiring Nazism
"The last thing our world needs today is the embrace of Nazi ideology, under whose banner physicians carried out unspeakable crimes in the name of ‘progress.’"
21 August 2017
My Complicated Relationship With Cockroaches

He was in his 20s before he ever set eyes on a cockroach. Today, he's a skilled exterminator of the creatures that plague Japanese homes.
20 August 2017
A New Documentary Shows the Human Side of Male Sex Work in Japan
"The clients are powerful," says one interviewee in "Boys For Sale." "I end up giving in... So no matter what the customer forces me to do. I cannot really refuse."
18 August 2017
Seventy-Two Years Later, Japan Remembers the End of a Devastating War
Prime Minister Abe's remarks on the anniversary of the end of World War II did not express Japan's guilt. The emperor's remarks expressed feelings of "deep remorse".
13 August 2017
On Anniversary of Nagasaki Bombing, Japanese Government Criticized For Refusing to Sign Ban on Nuclear Weapons
“Whose country are you leader of anyway?” — a representative of survivors of the 1945 bombing lashes out at Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
6 August 2017
Japanese Politician Pressures School Principal About the Use of History Textbook that Explains the ‘Comfort Women’ Issue
‘Why was this textbook selected?’ trended on Twitter after a Japanese politician questioned the selection of a school textbook referencing the ‘comfort women’ issue.
3 August 2017
Japan Reacts With Alarm to Venomous Fire Ant Invasion
Fire ants have never been observed in Japan before.