On 6/8/2004 4:30 PM, Declan Murphy wrote:

> Scott Reynolds wrote:
> 
>> On 6/8/2004 4:11 PM, Declan Murphy wrote:

>> He is a journalist, yes, but I find his penetrating analysis of 
>> current events (grounded as it is in his long residence and varied 
>> experiences in this country and native-level command of the Japanese 
>> language) to be strikingly insightful and original.
>>
>> Yet even someone as singularly knowledgeable about things Japanese as 
>> Howard French probably does not know about the halfway house for 
>> foreigners Mike mentioned.
> 
> Ok thanks. I've only seen one or two of his articles that I can recall. 
> A travel piece about Matsumoto Castle perhaps the last one. I'll note 
> the name for the future. Who does he write for?

He writes for the New York Times, and his articles often appear in the 
IHT-Asahi. But I was just putting you on. I don't think Howard French 
has lived in Japan very long (he may already have moved on to South 
Korea or China by now) and I doubt very much that he speaks Japanese, if 
the quotes that appear in his articles are any indication. Finally, he 
never seems to write about anything original, he just reuses stuff the 
domestic press has already done to death.

The NYT seems to have a new main Japan guy now, Norimitsu Onishi. It 
will be interesting to see if he brings any deeper insight to his Japan 
reportage than his predecessors have.

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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com