My poetry an honorable mention in “The Terrible Fives” by Ishmael Reed
This isn’t coming out until November 2026, but I am thrilled to get an honorable mention in “The Terrible Fives,” the upcoming book by Ishmael Reed, my longtime mentor since my Berkeley days.
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 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. 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.
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.
What are movies for you?
This is before I joined The AP, but I had an opportunity as a young reporter to ask an aging Akira Kurosawa a question: What is filmmaking for you? 監督にとって映画とはなんですか？
I got to tell that exact story in my recent AP story when I interviewed Hirokazu Kore-eda. Kore-eda of course asked: What was Kurosawa’s answer? I pretended to be surprised: 監督それききます?! You would ask; wouldn’t you? Kore-eda said: Come on, the way we are talking now このながれでは that’s the inevitable question. So I told him how Kurosawa had replied with a childlike but faraway look on his face, as though he was talking to no one in particular, maybe himself: If you take movies away from me, I am left with nothing. 僕から映画をとったらなにものこらないから。And Kore-eda instantly remarked: すばらしい！before he gave his answer about how lucky he was that he has his beloved hobby for a job. That interaction and his answer close my AP story.
I asked the same question to Kiyoshi Kurosawa, too. And the funny thing was that he didn’t ask what Akira Kurosawa’s answer was _ the entire opposite of Kore-eda’s reaction. He gave his own answer, which is the top part of the story, about how movies are an eternal mystery, and that’s why he keeps making them. Then I asked him: Aren’t you going to ask what Akira Kurosawa said? And then Kiyoshi Kurosawa said: Well, can I ask? Is it OK? So I said: Of course, I was more surprised you didn’t ask. Which goes to show what a nice person he is. When I told him what Akira Kurosawa had said, he said: うまいこというな。Which translates to: Hey, what a clever answer. It’s telling how his answer was a bit different from how Kore-eda had said すばらしい which just means “Fantastic!”
I’m going to keep asking this same question every time I get to interview a great Japanese auteur. BTW Kiyoshi Kurosawa said he had fun being interviewed. たのしかった he said. I’ve lived life and played reporter long enough I get to have fun now and then. Coincidentally an online “memory” popped up about the Akira Kurosawa Question. That said I’d asked: Why do you keep making movies? 監督はなぜ映画をとり続けるのですか？ It’s asking the same thing, but maybe a better question for the stage he was in _ both his life and career as a director. So next time I interview a legendary Japanese director, I would have to ask both questions.
My Poem FUKUSHIMA with my Yuricane band
My poem FUKUSHIMA today with my Yuricane band. Toshiyuki Turner Tanahashi (bass), Hirokazu Jackson Suyama (drums) and Yuuichiro Ishii (guitar) at What The Dickens in Tokyo July 5, 2026. The last part of the poem is missing from this recording. The complete poem below. The link to a reading with bassist Darrell Craig Harris. Another version with visual artists in 2018, and an even earlier version with different instrumentation. And this is the 2014 “garage” version where we did it for the very first time (excuse all the mistakes). But I still do my poetry with the same musicians, and more. And that means a lot. The poem is one of the first pieces that I wrote for what later developed into my theater piece “NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA: Meditation on an Under-Reported Catastrophe.”
FUKUSHIMA
by Yuri Kageyama
Y’all, it’s a Meltdown nation
Since Three-Eleven
Covered in the fear
Of unseen radiation
But don’t you expect
Any revolution
All you will find
Is fear and contamination.
Here in Fukushima
It rhymes with Hiroshima
Instead of a holler
Hear just a whimper
They say it is safe
The kids like Chernobyl
Are coming down sick
With Thyroid cancer.
Fukushima
Fukushima
Fukushima
Y’all, it’s no hallucination
The refugees’ life
No compensation
No resolution
Just nuclear explosions
Get your dosimeter
Cesium in the water
Lost Imagination
Here in Fukushima
It rhymes with Hiroshima
The radiated Brothers
Faces are hidden
Goggles and masks
Like an astronaut
From head to toe
The Invisible workers
Fukushima
Fukushima
Fukushima
Premature aging
Nerve cells dying
Sterility, deformity
Unborn baby
Blood count dissipation
Leukemia debilitation
DNA radiation
Godzilla’s affliction
Tsunami Demolition
God’s DeCreation
Genetic Devastation
Our next Generation.
Here in Fukushima
It rhymes with Hiroshima
No-go zones forever
The World must remember.
Fukushima
Fukushima
Fukushima
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
A song about love with Words written by Yuri Kageyama and Music and song by Ryu Miho
what do you think?
it’s a trick question
what do you think?
with a right answer
what do you think?
not at all open-ended
what do you think?
as it might seem
what do you think?
it’s asking do you really love me?
do you truly understand?
what do you think?
the answer isn’t fixed
just a right answer, and a wrong
what do you think?
i love you so much
what do you think?
and long after we’re all gone
what do you think?
that big question is still there
what do you think?
what do you think?
Lovers are always asking each other: “What do you think?” and getting upset if their lover doesn’t quite get it, or answers he or she felt something about an artwork or a film they just saw together in a different way from what you’re feeling, or thought the feeling should be, or whatever. It’s really a fruitless game, but it’s one all lovers play, all the time, throughout history, wherever they are, any nation, any culture. Because ultimately you’re just asking: Do you love me? And there is no right answer or a wrong one. Just that moment you share, you are both here, alive but together on this little beautiful planet, lost in the cosmos, and we never know what to think anyway.
And this version as arranged and performed by Toshiyuki Turner Tanahashi.
LOVE SIMPLY a love poem by Yuri Kageyama
Love Simply
To be near hurts
To be far hurts, too
Love simply hurts
To live hurts
To die hurts
Love simply hurts
Watching you die
Hurts even more
Love simply hurts
To know you hurts
To have known you hurts
Love simply hurts
But to not know you,
Not hurt for you
Is simply not a choice
Love simply hurts
Love simply hurts
Love simply hurts
「愛はただ痛い」
a poem by Yuri Kageyama translated into Japanese by Ryu Miho
近くにいるのもまた辛い
遠くにいるのもまた辛い
愛はただ痛い
生きるのもまた辛い
死ぬのもまた辛い
愛はただ痛い
あなたが死ぬのを見るのは
もっと辛い
愛はただ痛い
あなたを知るのもまた辛い
あなたを知っていたのもまた辛い
愛はただ痛い
でも、あなたを知らないのは
あなたのために傷つかないのは
ただ選択できない
愛はただ痛い
愛はただ痛い
愛はただ痛い
This poem, now lyrics to a song, was written in 2023. It is still developing, but I feel it has come full circle. It still makes me cry. My love is still so very real and, I know, eternal, which means the pain will never go away. It is overwhelming and frightening. But I now know many people feel this way. It is a feeling that comes only with someone you truly love. The wonderful thing is that I was able to show him my poem. He just said, “I feel loved.” The look he had on his face was like a child, totally fulfilled and happy. And what else is a poem meant to do?
I read “Love Simply” with music by Jackson on drums and Teru singing and playing guitar of the music he wrote at an open-mic in Tokyo Oct. 5, 2025. Thanks for having us and being such a fun crowd.
I read my poem “Love Simply” with Teruyuki Kawabata on guitar and Osaki Haniya, fellow poet and co-writer of “Continuously Poetry,” at Bar Gari Gari in Ikenoue, Tokyo, Sept. 19, 2025. Thanks to the Drunk Poets for having us.
“Love Simply” was one of the poems presented, and rendered in the two different versions, at the Book Party for “Continuously Poetry” Nov. 29, 2025, at Infinity Books.
The links to what is becoming a series of poems.
Besides the Book Party, I also earlier read “Love Simply” with Teru at Infinity Books, on Oct. 11, 2025. Before I read, I told the people at the jam session that the poem was about my partner of more than 40 years, who died in April. I don’t think I ever said that in public about my poem. I also told them that I showed him the poem before he died, and he told me he felt loved. You know how you feel a bit drained, depressed even, after reading your work. But one young man who was there to jam told me he liked my poem, then said: “Your husband is one helluva lucky man.” That made it all worth it. And I thanked him.
A Book Party to celebrate CONTINUOUSLY POETRY.
SAT Nov. 29, 2025 at Infinity Books in Tokyo. 7 p.m. ~ 8 p.m.
Readings by the Poets, Osaki Haniya and Yuri Kageyama.
With music by Teruyuki Kawatabata, Ryu Miho and Toshiyuki Turner Tanahashi.
Free Admission and Free Copies of the Book.
One of the poems, “Love Simply,” but there were many more:
The Program for the evening:
This arrangement has the feel of autumn. The yellow chrysanthemums are the main objects. But the susuki grass blades add dynamism to the composition, while the brown-tinged leaves to the side have their own distinct personality.
My teacher said it was interesting I kept the blades long, and very much like me, which I think he meant in a positive way, as in a free spirit.
More of my ikebana at these links: No. 5 No. 4 No. 3 No. 2 and My No. 1 Ikenobo Ikebana.
what do you think?
a poem by Yuri Kageyama
what do you think?
it’s a trick question
what do you think?
with a right answer
what do you think?
not at all open-ended
what do you think?
as it might seem
what do you think?
it’s asking do you really love me?
do you truly understand?
what do you think?
the answer isn’t fixed
just a right answer, and a wrong
what do you think?
i love you so much
what do you think?
and long after we’re all gone
what do you think?
that big question is still there
what do you think?
what do you think?
This is the first piece in a still untitled series. Continue to this link for the rest of the series.
I went on to collaborate with a singer and musician to make this into a song.