Philip Patrick

Japan’s smoking ban is a sham

31 January 2025 4:14 pm

The Japanese city of Osaka has banned smoking on the streets in an apparent effort to smarten up the city…

The real reason female footballers aren’t on birthday cards

23 January 2025 2:20 am

Oh dear… it appears that birthday and greetings cards are sexist. This is, at least, the claim of a group…

The arrest of South Korea’s president won’t end this saga

15 January 2025 9:16 pm

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol has been arrested after police officers scaled fences and cut through barbed wire to detain…

The ‘MAGA’ South Koreans still supporting President Yoon

9 January 2025 5:00 pm

In extraordinary scenes more reminiscent of a South American coup than a supposedly stable first world democracy, fights broke out…

Are Premier League fans right to protest ticket hikes?

6 January 2025 12:50 am

It takes quite a lot to unite the fans of Manchester United and Liverpool, but it will happen today at…

Why did South Korea’s President Yoon declare martial law?

12 December 2024 7:20 pm

The aftershocks of last Tuesday’s declaration, and then cancellation, of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol continue to be…

South Korea’s President Yoon will be lucky to escape jail

4 December 2024 9:59 pm

Six hours. That was the duration of the profoundly disturbing and simultaneously farcical version of martial law invoked by South…

Why has South Korea’s president declared martial law?

4 December 2024 3:06 am

In a dramatic and unnanounced move, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday in a live…

Jeremy Clarkson’s time has come

20 November 2024 11:43 pm

It’s a reasonable bet that if Jeremy Clarkson stood for prime minister tomorrow, he’d win by a country mile. Some…

Gary Lineker’s opinions were never welcome at the BBC

12 November 2024 5:36 pm

Having thought it was all over, several times, it is now – for Gary Linker as presenter of Match of the…

Kamala Harris and the death of the celebrity endorsement

8 November 2024 5:00 pm

Poor old Bruce Springsteen. The legendary rocker bet the farm on an endorsement of Kamala Harris and may well have…

Japan could soon lose one of its best assets

29 October 2024 2:56 am

What now? This is the question on everyone’s lips here in Tokyo after a dramatic general election which looks to…

Newcastle, Saudi Arabia and desperate decline of English football

22 October 2024 4:30 pm

Is a major scandal over the sale of Newcastle United to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund…

A day of violence in Tokyo

20 October 2024 12:14 am

It has been an alarming day in Tokyo as political terror returned to the streets of the capital. A man was arrested for throwing…

Does it matter that Thomas Tuchel isn’t English?

16 October 2024 9:32 pm

Thomas Tuchel has been confirmed as the next manager of the England national football team, to take over from the…

Wimbledon won’t be the same without line judges

10 October 2024 8:28 pm

It will soon be the end of an era at Wimbledon. From 2025, the All England Club has announced that…

Japan’s next prime minister is a bit of a maverick

27 September 2024 9:02 pm

The 67-year-old Shigeru Ishiba will become Japan’s new prime minister on 1 October after winning a surprisingly exciting play-off vote…

The tragic cost of Japan’s floods

23 September 2024 11:41 pm

Yet another natural disaster has struck in Japan as floods and landslides in the Noto peninsula, precipitated by ‘unprecedented’ rainfall,…

The trouble with the Champions League

17 September 2024 4:00 pm

The revamped Champions League kicks off this week with all the gushing hyperbole we have come to expect from this…

Hot springs have doomed Japan’s net zero ambitions

10 September 2024 4:00 pm

Most people know that Japan is a country cursed with considerable seismic activity; frequent, and very occasionally devastating, earthquakes and…

Why won’t the England manager sing the national anthem?

7 September 2024 10:42 pm

England’s interim manager Lee Carsley has intimated that he will not be singing the national anthem as his team takes…

Why are Britain’s diplomats virtue-signalling to South Korea?

3 September 2024 2:22 am

An important international conference will take place this week in South Korea, focused on the peninsula’s security concerns. The UK…

Scottish Nats still haven’t worked out why they lost

2 September 2024 4:01 pm

Unlike a slightly more high-profile reunion event, the ticketing website for the Scottish referendum tenth anniversary show is not expected to crash.…

Shanshan may be the strongest typhoon in Japanese history

30 August 2024 6:54 pm

The Japanese are battening down the hatches – again – as typhoon Shanshan wreaks devastation to the south-west of the country, with…

The allure and terror of Mount Fuji

25 August 2024 4:00 pm

Six men have died on Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji since the start of the climbing season in July. This figure,…