My Poetry in Great Company
I’m reading my poetry with Joshua Breakstone in Jazz and the Spoken Word THU Oct. 15, 2026, at Klavier in Tokyo.
More Poetry in the works SUN Nov. 15, 2026 at Gamuso in Tokyo. Thanks to Herman Bartelen for inviting me to be one of the poets.
My AP Stories for 2025. My AP Stories for 2024. The links for 2023 and My AP stories from past years.
My AP Stories for 2026
My AP Story and My AP Photo Sept. 22, 2026 about ikebana. The photo editor chose two of my own arrangements to relay with the story. The caption doesn’t say that although the editor did ask, and I said they are mine.
This Photo did not move with My AP Story about ikebana, but this is how the teacher looks in everyday life so sharing.
And this photo shows the completed arrangement.
My AP Story Oct. 9, 2026 about the rising cases of cyberattacks.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story Oct. 5, 2026 about the population decline.
My AP Story Oct. 1, 2026 about the Bank of Japan “tankan” economic survey.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story Sept. 20, 2026 and Oct. 3, 2026 about North Korea firing a missile.
My AP Story Sept. 18, 2026 on the Bank of Japan raising the benchmark rate.
My AP Story Sept. 16, 2026 about Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story Sept. 4, 2026 about motor maker Nidec.
My AP Story Aug. 27, 2026, an Obit on Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
My 2012 Interview with Yayoi Kusama.
My AP Story Aug. 12, 2026, an Obit on Hiroshi Okuda, a former top executive at Toyota.
And because of this story, I get interviewed by Jeremy Siegel for his radio show The World, “Remembering an Auto Industry Giant.”
My AP Story July 29, 2026, in which I interview film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and the video link to the interview.
My AP Story July 25, 2026, in which I interview Hirokazu Kore-eda about his filmmaking.
My AP Story Aug. 31, 2026 about Honda and Nissan entering a partnership in software development.
My AP Story Aug. 20, 2026 about Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story Aug. 17, 2026 on Japan’s GDP.
My AP Story Aug. 6, 2026 about Nintendo’s financial results.
My AP Story Aug. 6, 2026 about SoftBank Group Corp.’s financial results.
My AP Story Aug. 5, 2026 on Honda making a turnaround from its first ever annual loss.
My AP Story Aug. 4, 2026 about Toyota’s financial results.
My AP Story Aug. 3, 2026 about Nissan’s financial results.
My AP Story July 31, 2026 on Sony’s results, which have yet to factor in the recent Kyushu quake.
I was also busy this week in late July writing the AP Story on the Kumamoto earthquake while my colleagues were on site.
My AP Story July 25, 2026 about school blackboard artworks.
My AP Story and My AP Photo July 16, 2026 on Japanese robotics makers and Nvidia’s physical AI.
My AP Story July 1, 2026 in which I interview Eiko Kadono, the author of “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
Korochan and Jiji. Reminders my AP Stories go all over the place with one being the toy a 9-year-old always has at her DJ gigs (story below) and the other that cat companion of Kiki the witch, a character created by a 91-year-old writer (story above).
My AP Story July 22, 2026 about Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story July 1, 2026 on the tankan survey.
My AP Story June 28, 2026 about an earthquake, the latest in a series amid typhoon season.
My AP Video June 24, 2026, my interview of “Human Vapor” remake director Shinzo Katayama.
My AP Story June 15, 2026 about a child DJ and My AP Video.
My AP Story June 16, 2026 about SoftBank using OpenAI technology to protect against cyberattacks.
My AP Story June 17, 2026 on the Japan Fair Trade Commission raid on ice cream makers.
My AP Story June 16, 2026 about the Bank of Japan raising its benchmark interest rate.
My AP Story June 3, 2026 and My AP Photos on how to make your own sushi.
My AP Story May 28, 2026 on the Humanoids Summit Tokyo.
My AP Story May 25, 2026, an obituary on the Japanese behind the convenience store empire.
My AP Story June 17, 2026 on Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story May 21, 2026 on Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story May 13, 2026 about chips packaging going without color.
My AP Story May 19, 2026 about Japan’s GDP.
My AP Story May 14, 2026 about Honda posting its first ever full year fiscal loss.
My AP Story May 13, 2026 about Nissan reducing red ink and promising a turnaround.
My AP Story May 13, 2026 about SoftBank seeing profit growth from AI investments.
My AP Story May 8, 2026 about Toyota’s earnings for the year.
My AP Story May 8, 2026 about Nintendo’s financial results.
My AP Story May 8, 2026 about Sony’s financial results.
My AP Story May 2, 2026 on the Inoue-Nakatani fight.
My AP Story April 25, 2026 on Japan’s love for boxing as anticipation grows for the Inoue-Nakatani bout.
And the boxer I interviewed for the story at a Tokyo boxing gym. Really nice guy. And may you keep winning!
My AP Story April 28, 2026 about the Bank of Japan holding the key rate steady.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story April 23, 2026 by Matt O’Brien on a robot.
My AP Story April 22, 2026 about Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story April 12, 2026 about economic vulnerabilities to “oil shocks.”
My AP Story April 10, 2026 about the art being passed down over generations in Kabuki theater.
Always an honor, even if you just did your very small part, to be part of the Best of AP Honorable Mention awarded in February 2026, for this AP Story about an explosion at U.S. Steel.
My AP Story April 1, 2026 on the Bank of Japan’s “tankan.”
Throughout the year, I filed a lot of Markets stories, so many there are no links here, but sharing the dramatic photos from my AP colleagues.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story March 19, 2026 on how Asian nations are responding to the energy crunch.
My AP Story March 18, 2026 about Japan’s trade data.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story March 14, 2026 about North Korea firing a missile.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story Feb. 24, 2026 about China’s export restrictions.
My AP Story and My AP Photos Feb. 20, 2026 about the kimono and sustainability.
My AP Story Feb. 18, 2026 on Japan’s trade data.
My AP Story Feb. 16, 2026 about Japan’s economic growth.
My AP Story Feb. 6, 2026 on Toyota naming a new chief as profits decline.
My AP Story Feb. 12, 2026 about SoftBank Group thriving on the OpenAI boom.
My AP Story Feb. 12, 2026 about troubled Nissan promising it’s on the right track.
My AP Story Feb. 10, 2026 about Honda’s profits being hurt by Trump’s tariffs and EV policies.
My AP Story Feb. 5, 2026 on Sony’s earnings.
My AP Story Feb. 4, 2026 about heavy snow in Japan.
My AP Story Jan. 22, 2026 about Japan’s trade data.
I’m a Contributor to this AP Story Jan. 4, 2026 about North Korea firing missiles.
My AP Story Jan. 2, 2026 about the emperor and his family greeting well-wishers at the palace for New Year’s.
I usually start the New Year by covering a countdown event for our roundup story. I send a bunch of material but, by the end of the global day, it becomes one line, if even that. It’s a great way to start out the new year as a reporter, a humbling but comforting reminder that we just do our jobs. I am a Contributor to this AP Story Jan. 1, 2026.
I’m talking about my work, both my journalism _ and my poetry _ at this event in Tokyo. I initially wrote, “Rarely have the two sides of my writing met, but they will at Tokyo Humanities Cafe FRI March 6, 2026.” But, on second thought, they have always been one and the same.
Talking with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike on Children
I had the opportunity to chat with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike recently. She wasn’t overbearing at all and laughed when I said, let’s do some girls talk here. Ten years into leading a city with a $1 trillion economy, she says she plans to keep going for the next term. She’s already promoted tourism, startups, greenery and sustainable energy. And last year, Tokyo reversed Japan’s decade-long declining birth rate, actually growing by 0.3%, tiny but a dramatic blip coming after a giant dropping swerve.
“I have always put children first in my policy,” Koike said.
And the programs the Tokyo government offers to encourage people to have children are impressive. Some people are moving into the city just to get the benefits: 60,000 yen ($375) for pregnancy, and another 60,000 for a 1-year-old or 2-year-old child; separately 180,000 yen ($1,125) for each birth. Medical care for children and youngsters is basically free. A teen pays 200 yen ($1.25) for each doctor’s visit. Tokyo offers up to 100,000 yen ($625) to help with medical treatment for reducing the physical pain of childbirth. Koike says people genuinely fear that pain. Affordable housing and free nursery care are also offered for those in need.
Analysts say it’s too early to tell if the reversal in childbirths will really stick or fade. It will take years to decide for sure. But, for one, Tokyo boasts an abundant fiscal base. Americans who hear about Koike’s policies literally gasp in surprise and envy.
Charles McClean, assistant professor of political science at Yale University, who studies Japan, says childbirth is “a hard metric” and nobody has really figured out “the magic” to reverse that, but stresses Koike has done a good job of spreading the word about her policies and programs meant to support children.
“I think population is the foundation of a society. If the population declines, social services will also decline, down to bus services. There won’t be any taxpayers either. Even if you go to a hospital, there won’t be any doctors or nurses, just beds,” Koike told me.
The great cities of the world may build roads, skyscrapers and other infrastructure. But all that will be nothing without people.
“People move society. That is the basic of the basics,” she said.
THE BROKEN FRAME a poem by Yuri Kageyama
The ambulances are screaming. We look up and see a big tear in a steel fame right by our apartment building. We wonder but figure it’s not a murder because we don’t read about it, and there aren’t that many murders in Tokyo. Every time we see the broken frame, we wonder who it could have been. And what might have driven this individual, whom we don’t know and never will know, male or female, young or old, happy or unhappy, probably unhappy, literally over the ledge to a dark deep definitive leap of death. It does not make us feel very good. Every time we see that broken frame. A few weeks later, the frame gets fixed. And we stop wondering.
For Women Only _ A poem by Yuri Kageyama
For Women Only _ A Poem by Yuri Kageyama
perfume,
rubbing shoulders,
we rattle silently over the tracks
blouses, tucked bags, even powdered chins,
up too close to really see;
we sense only relief
we smell no greasy beards or sweaty suits or
beer breath of the morning after _
this morning commuter train
“josei senyo sha”
reserved
for women only,
introduced to protect the gentle sex
from those groping dark hands
preying prying fingers, stroking thigh,
poking panties,
pretending to be penises
right in public transport,
“josei senyo sha”
this is the kindness of Japanese society:
let chikan go unchecked,
forgiven for their mischief,
and give us, women, this special spot
farthest from the action
farthest from the ticket gates
the first car up front,
and the most dangerous
if we crash
ASYLUM
A poem by Yuri Kageyama Feb. 26, 2022
She barely remembers the rape
Monsters grow only in drugless sleep
She is well taken care of
—
Air raid on Tokyo
Baghdad
Dresden
Ukraine
— —
She no longer draws but
Cuts papers of color
Into ferns and flowers
— — —
Hunger in Biafra
A scream in Vietnam
Van Gogh’s ear
Haiku March 24, 2021 by Yuri Kageyama
つえをつき
見上げる空に
初桜
Cane in his hand,
He looks up for a long time
First cherry blossoms
The world suddenly looks like a splendid and hopeful place when sakura starts to bloom, right about this time in Tokyo. It happens without fail every year. But it’s so dazzling it feels unexpected. This morning, an old man was gazing up at a tree, probably the first cherry blossom tree he saw on his walk. His eyes, behind the glasses, I knew had seen so much, and was seeing all of that, again, in the flowers.
