NTNU Japan Program

16/01/2026

Osaka versus Tokyo dialects.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17nBf31wEH/

31/12/2025

How to order ramen in Japanese.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FyyTPKRSG/

08/12/2025

Japan and Korea: Distant Politically, close linguistically.

08/12/2025

Standard versus Gen Z Japanese popular phrases

08/12/2025

25/11/2025

My interview with Pravda in Slovakia (In other words: "Pre Pravdu to vysvetlil profesor medzinárodných vzťahov Paul Midford z Meiji Gakuin University v Jokohame.") about Prime Minister Takaichi's controversial statement about a Taiwan crisis and China's reaction.

Čo by urobilo Japonsko, keby sa Čína pokúsila ovládnuť Taiwan silou? Tokio by to mohlo priviesť až k vojne s Pekingom.

30/10/2025

Here is a video of my book talk yesterday at Hope College: The Senkaku Islands Confrontation and the Transformation of Japan's Defense (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). 昨日ホープ・カレッジで行ったブックトークのビデオはこちらです。『尖閣諸島の対立と日本の防衛の変革』（パルグレイブ・マクミラン、2025年）

23/10/2025

Upcoming book talk on The Senkaku Islands Confrontation and the Transformation of Japan's Defense. 尖閣諸島対立と日本の防衛の変革に関するブックトークを開催します。

In his book, Dr. Midford explains the dramatic and well reported shifts in Japanese defense policy at the end of 2022, offers a distinct interpretation of the trajectory of Japan's defense strategy over the past decade and argues that it is driven by a renewed focus on territorial defense and de fac...

24/09/2025

Meshida's English language comedy videos sometimes provide insightful social commentary. This one touches on two stereotypes of foreign tourists that I believe really do anger many Japanese, especially using torii gates as exercise bars (never do that!). Of course, these are very rare incidents (like a leading politician's claim the other day that foreign tourists sometimes kick deer in Nara), but they produce a visceral reaction (especially the torii gate case). Also, when I first saw "Foreigners-Only Train Cars" caption for a split second I believed it was real. That seems like something the Japanese government (or railway companies) might actually do.

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20/09/2025

The history of LDP Presidential Elections since 1955.

An introduction to the political activities of the Liberal Democratic Party. Here you will find information about press conferences held by the President of the LDP, the Vice-President, the Secretary-General and the Chairman of the Policy Research Council, as well as news about Diet member activitie...

20/09/2025

About Japan's relatively new Official Security Assistance (OSA), a complement to its decades old Official Development Assistance (ODA).

Move is part of Tokyo's efforts to counter Chinese activity in South China Sea