POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa

Episódios

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  Tokyo Is a State of Mind: The Vanishing World of the Edokko 01.10.2026 18min

  This week on Post-Whatever, I dedicate it to my late grannie, who once single-handedly talked down a gang of sword-and-gun-wielding yakuza at her own front gate, using nothing but attitude. She also survived two firebombings of Tokyo, one of them by falling asleep on her own roof while 500 B-29 bombers flew overhead. Not fled. Not hid. Fell asleep.She was what's called an Edokko — old-school, working-class Tokyo, three generations deep, allergic to saving money, prone to flying into loud, theatrical rages, and speaking a coarse dialect called Beranmei, itself an aggressive contraction of a sentence meaning: "What the fuck are you talking about?"Also in this episode: why “Baka yarou (you bloody fool)” is how these people said "I love you,"  and the correct — non-negotiable — way to dip your soba.Fair warning: I do eventually admit this is all rather romanticised, and that Edo wasn't some socialist utopia. But some of what these people valued is still worth stealing for the present day.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#PostWhatever #Tokyo #Podcast #OldTokyo #JapaneseHistory
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  Dual-Layered Languages: What English and Japanese Have in Common 24.09.2026 15min

  This week on Post-Whatever, I do something I almost never allow myself: point out what English and Japanese have in common, rather than spending the usual twenty minutes explaining why they're linguistically about as compatible as oil and a kettle.Turns out both languages are secretly the same trick played twice. English is a Formula One car with a German engine and a French chassis — Anglo-Saxon grammar underneath, nearly a millennium of French and Latin vocabulary bolted on top after the Normans turned up in 1066 and rearranged the furniture. Japanese runs the identical con: Yamato Kotoba, the ancient native language, as the engine, and Kango — Sino-Japanese vocabulary imported via Korea and China — as the elegant, official-sounding bodywork. Same sentence, two entirely different vocabularies, depending on whether you want to sound like a farmer or a barrister.And when things get properly serious — drowning-in-a-river serious — neither language reaches for the fancy one. Along the way: a 2,600-year Imperial family tree that gets distinctly wobblier the closer you look at it, several legendary emperors who apparently lived past 130 (some considerably past), a genuinely contested academic theory about where the first Emperor of Japan may really have come from, and the story of why Japan's first bullet train was named after light and an echo, rather than something with more syllables and considerably less soul.Fair warning: this one wanders into territory Japanese academia would rather leave well alone. Consider yourself warned, and invited.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#PostWhatever #Tokyo #Podcast #Linguistics #JapaneseHistory
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  Music Channel Honjo 7 Fushigi: Edo's Ghosts, Reimagined as a Walking Tour 17.09.2026 19min

  This week on Post-Whatever, I finally talk about the project I've been not-so-subtly hinting at for weeks: the music I composed for Music Channel Honjo Seven Fushigi, an audio installation by contemporary artist Hiroko Okada for Sumida Art Festival 2026. It's also completely free to experience — like all the best things in life.A quick disclosure up front: this episode is a blatant, shameless plug for my own work, and I've made no attempt to disguise it as anything else. That said, it's also stuffed with genuinely fascinating, slightly odd nuggets of Edo-era history, so hopefully the plugging is at least in good company.The work unfolds across Honjo — from Ryogoku Station through to Kinshicho, roughly 90 minutes to 2 hours on foot — with a fictional radio drama unlocked at seven QR-coded points along the route, each built around one of the "Seven Wonders of Honjo," ghost stories and folklore passed down since the Edo period.Along the way: a tale of vengeance and one-sided reeds by Ryogoku Bridge, a tidal garden that now fakes its own tides, a Tanuki in therapy, Hokusai's overlooked daughter Ooi, a rock band made entirely of monsters and ghosts, and a Kappa politely denying she's a fish thief.I also get into the history behind it all — Edo's staggering population at its peak, the philosophy behind "money is a circulating commodity in the realm," and why a two-and-a-half-century stretch of peace produced some of Japan's best ghost stories.Installation route: Ryogoku Station → Honjo → Kinshicho (free to experience)Audio installation by Hiroko Okada, part of Sumida Art Festival 2026Music composed by Ken NishikawaIt's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#PostWhatever #Tokyo #Podcast #JapaneseHistory #Yokai
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  How to Annoy a Simpleton in a Comfy Echo Chamber 10.09.2026 10min

  What do you get when you tell someone in Japan you once lived in Britain for a few years? Hint: it is always, without fail, a question about the food.This week on Post-Whatever, I go looking for the exact moment a perfectly nice conversation turns into a stereotype convention — and find it, reliably, in the first thirty seconds of talking about the UK. I mount, in my own defence, a fairly bold claim: that London's food scene beats Tokyo's, and that watching a (Japanese) stranger's face try to process this information is one of life's great, cheap pleasures.From there it's a proper rant — bigotry that's too polite to notice itself, "pure" Japanese identity deployed with a completely straight face, and the particular, kettle-warmed comfort of an echo chamber where absolutely nobody is going to disagree with you. I make a case for the intellectual chameleons among us — the rare few who can argue either side of a political argument convincingly, purely to raise the standard of the room.There's a brief, unresolved argument with myself about the episode's own title. There's a Joni Mitchell reference that turns unexpectedly zen. And there's a closing thought on the people who are the opposite of intellectual chameleons — the ones willing to die on a hill for what they believe — that will either move you or annoy you, and possibly both.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#Japan #Podcast #Tokyo #EchoChamber #Bigotry #Culture
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  Business as Usual (Since 578 AD) - How Japan Builds Companies That Won't Take the Hint 03.09.2026 19min

  What's the oldest company in the world? Hint: it's not a bank, and it's had a rather eventful 1,448 years.This week on Post-Whatever, we go looking for the oldest business on Earth and find it in Osaka. Founded in 578 AD, back when Britain didn't yet have a written language, Kongō Gumi spent the next fourteen centuries building Buddhist temples, survived civil wars, a 250-year lockdown, two atomic bombs, and a stock market crash — only to be finished off by, of all things, some rather enthusiastic real estate investing in the 1980s. There's a lesson in there somewhere, and it isn't the one you'd expect.But Kongō Gumi is just the beginning. We count down six of the world's top ten oldest companies (all Japanese, obviously), meets a hotel that's been run by the same family for 52 generations, and a Kyoto confectionery shop that's sold exactly one thing since the year 1000 — no rebrand, no seasonal menu, just the one mochi skewer, forever.Then the real question: why does Japan have more centuries-old companies than the rest of the world combined? We have some theories — involving the concept of adopting your way out of a useless heir, a healthy allergy to debt, and a slightly provocative argument about religion, revolutions, and why nobody in Japan got the guillotine treatment. Expect at least one aside about the imperial family that will annoy the correct people.It's business advice, ancient history, and mild religious controversy, delivered with the usual Post-Whatever disregard for staying on topic.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#Japan #JapaneseCulture #Podcast #Tokyo #History
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  Confusion Cuisine, or How Japan Learned to Love Beef 27.08.2026 15min

  For over a thousand years, eating beef in Japan was considered spiritually ruinous — the sort of thing that got you some very serious side-eye from the neighbours, if not outright bad karma. Then, in 1872, the Emperor sat down and ate a piece of it on purpose, as an act of government policy. A group of armed monks were, understandably, not thrilled about this and stormed the Imperial Palace to say so. It did not end well for the monks.This week on Post-Whatever, we trace how that spectacularly awkward beginning somehow led to katsu curry, omurice, and sukiyaki — dishes now so thoroughly Japanese that most people have no idea they were essentially invented to trick an entire nation into eating cow. Along the way: why Japanese curry has nothing to do with India and everything to do with the British Navy, how Worcestershire sauce quietly lost its anchovies on the way to becoming a national condiment, and how the same forbidden meat that once got monks shot is now called Wagyu and treated like a minor deity.It's a story of tradition, invented on the spot and by government decree — which, if you squint, describes rather a lot of things people now call "traditional."It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#JapaneseFood #WagyuBeef #FoodHistory #Podcast #JapanHistory
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  80 years of karmic circle - Japanese history repeats itself 13.08.2026 19min

  Every 80 years or so, Japan seems to hit "reset" — and then, with almost suspicious precision, proceeds to repeat itself.In this episode, I lay out a rather uncomfortable historical pattern: 1868 and 1945, two total reinventions of the nation, each followed by exactly the same 40-years-humble, 40-years-hubris arc — right down to a spectacular economic collapse at the end of both. Meiji Japan modernised itself out of feudalism, then talked itself into Pearl Harbor. Postwar Japan rebuilt itself out of the rubble, then talked itself into believing it could buy California. You can probably see where this is going. Japan, seemingly, cannot help itself.Along the way: the real story behind Japan's "2,600 years undefeated" myth, why beating Russia in 1904 mattered rather more than winning a war usually does, the numbers behind the bubble economy that briefly made the Tokyo Stock Exchange bigger than Wall Street, and a Buddhist concept that might explain why Japan seems allergic to changing course on its own.(Yes, I'm aware this makes two war-adjacent episodes in a row. It's mid-August in Japan, it's unavoidable, I promise to lighten up next time. Also — I'm off next week for Obon, so consider this your homework before the break.)It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa #JapaneseHistory #MeijiRestoration #Podcast
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  The Atomic Bomb - Crime Against Humanity That Saved Millions of Lives 06.08.2026 20min

  CONTENT WARNING: This is, by some distance, the most divisive episode of Post-Whatever to date. If you've enjoyed the show so far because it's mostly kept you mildly amused rather than genuinely furious — today may be the day that changes, well, maybe. Buckle up. Listener discretion, and possibly a stiff drink, advised.81 years ago today, at 8:15 in the morning, the world entered the nuclear age over a city full of civilians. We're still arguing about it. We probably always will.In this episode, I try to hold two seemingly incompatible truths at once: that the bombs may have averted millions of deaths from a planned invasion of Japan bigger than D-Day itself, and that the way — and speed — with which they were used still troubles me deeply. Along the way: the peace feelers Washington already knew about and chose to ignore, a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido that came within a presidential "no" of happening, the Imperial Japanese Navy's last battleship gathering dust, women and children armed with bamboo spears, and my own entirely unqualified opinion on what I personally think Truman should have done with those dreadful bombs.I expect to annoy absolutely everyone, from patriots to pacifists, in this one, in scrupulously equal measure. If that's not balance, I don't know what is.(Fair warning: I expect some genuinely heated comments on this one. I'm up to my neck in work at present, so — say what you like, I probably won't be reading or replying. Sorry. At least, it does magic  for the algorithm)It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday (except next week, because I'm busy bragging about my music production). Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken NishikawaFOLLOW ME on:facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/#PostWhatever #Hiroshima #Nagasaki #WWII #History #AtomicBomb #Podcast #JapanHistory
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  The First Blue-Eyed Comedian in Japan — the Tragicomical Story of the Original Kairakutei Black 30.07.2026 15min

  Long before Pakkun, before Katsura Sunshine took rakugo to West End and Broadway, there was an Australian who beat them all to it by about 130 years — and did it while being heckled mid-performance by his own brother.This episode tells the genuinely unbelievable life of Henry James Black: Meiji-era magician, English teacher turned stage comedian, the first Westerner officially recognised as a professional rakugo storyteller, and — somehow, also — a kabuki actor tutored by one of the biggest names in the form's history. He adapted Dickens and Shakespeare for 1890s Tokyo audiences, changed his name, changed his nationality, and was there — voice and all — for what may be the earliest surviving recordings ever made in Japan. (Available on YouTube. Audio quality: apocalyptic. Historical value: enormous.)It's also, underneath the jokes, a rather sadder story than the highlight reel suggests — one involving a spectacular family estrangement, a very dark year in 1908, and a side of his personal life that biographers have only recently started piecing together properly.In this episode: Why a 19th-century beer bet is still a perfectly recognisable form of human failureHow to get disowned by your family and simply... disown them back, fasterThe blue-eyed rakugoka who out-Meiji'd the Meiji eraThe oldest audio recordings in Japan, and why AI ought to clean them up alreadyWhat "adopted son" sometimes actually meant in 1900s Japan — and still means todayTune in and find out.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday (except next week, because I'm busy bragging about my music production). Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #JapanHistory #Rakugo #Meiji #TokyoPodcast #JapanesePodcast #Kairakutei
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  Japan: The Promised Land? A (Very) Rough Guide 23.07.2026 20min

  I'm in a handy position here: I can talk about Japan exactly AS IT IS, and nobody gets to call me racist for it. Some might call me unpatriotic instead — but you already know how I feel about that. I don't give a toss.Every year, a fresh wave of westerners fall in love with Japan from a safe distance — often thanks to those wonderfully soothing Japandi renovation videos, photo of an instagramable bowl of ramen, or the general vibe of a country that seems to have its act together. This week, I'm asking the question those videos rarely get around to: should you actually move here?Consider this your rough guide — emphasis on rough — to the bits that never make it into the highlight reel. Why strangers can leave a wallet on a café table and expect to find it later. Why your downstairs neighbour may know more about your evening than you'd like. Why the rubbish collection schedule alone could destroy your elevated visions of Japan. And why, despite all of it, most of us who came here for six months somehow never quite leave.There's also a brief, bruising detour through the visa system, and an honourable mention for Sweden's most famous export to a quiet corner of Setagaya.As ever: no sugar-coating, minimal patriotism, and a healthy disregard for anyone who thinks pointing out a country's flaws makes you its enemy.Is Japan the promised land? Tune in and find out.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday (except next week, because I'm busy bragging about my music production). Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa #JapanLife #MoveToJapan #ExpatLife #TokyoLife #JapanPodcast
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  So, What the Hell Is a Geisha, Anyway? 16.07.2026 19min

  My mother is a geisha. She's spent a lifetime being magnificently misunderstood, and this week, so am I, as I attempt to explain her profession to an audience that mostly learned about the subject from a Hollywood film starring an American actress playing Japanese.Geisha are not prostitutes (I have absolutely nothing against prostitution. I am merely trying to tell it as it is). They never were, not officially, and the distinction — while genuinely fascinating — has been getting lost in translation for about 150 years. This episode sets the record straight: what geisha actually are, where they came from, how they politely elbowed their way out of the pleasure quarters and into respectability, and why, despite all that, the Japanese government still can't quite bring itself to fund them properly.Along the way: the strange economics of a banquet with no printed menu and no listed price, a geisha guild that once ran out of names and had to christen someone after a bullet train, Marlon Brando doing an accent, and my mother's professional opinion of my table manners (poor).It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday (except next week, because I'm busy bragging about my music production). Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa #Geisha #Atami #TokyoLife #Podcast #JapanLife #LivingInJapan #JapanCulture #Japan #Tokyo #TalkShow #JapaneseCulture #Kyoto
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  It Was 60 Years Ago Today — The Beatles Conquered Japan 02.07.2026 16min

  Exactly sixty years ago today, four lads from Liverpool walked onto a stage and played their final two shows of the Japan tour at the Nippon Budokan. They only played for half an hour. Then they left Japan the next day. Japan has never quite recovered since, and the evidence is in every classroom of every Japanese school.The Beatles visited Japan only once. They were the first music act ever to play the Budokan. Historians — actual historians — listed it as the single most significant event of 1966 in Japan. Above everything else that happened that year. Everything.The musicians, comedians and novelists they inspired that week went on to define Japanese popular culture for the next half century. The echoes are still reverberating today.This week on Post-Whatever: samurai swords as diplomatic currency, why a gentlemanly music manager from Liverpool understood Japanese culture better than any ruthless businessman ever could, and how four mop-tops turned an entire generation of post-war Japanese youth from reserved salarymen to long-haired revolutionaries.It’s a moral tale about why chasing quick money ruins art, and why capitalism could use a bit more culture.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ride.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday (except next week, because I'm busy bragging about my music production). Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa #Beatles #Beatles1966 #Budokan #TokyoLife #Podcast #JapanLife #LivingInJapan #JapanCulture #Japan #Tokyo #TalkShow #JapaneseCulture
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  How to Enjoy Your Toxic Patriotism — A Field Guide to Your Inner Hitler 25.06.2026 12min

  The World Cup is in full swing, which means the world's most polite people are currently screaming at television sets over a man falling over in the correct way. I thought I might take this as an opportunity to ask an uncomfortable question: what if patriotism isn't a corruption of human nature, but an expression of it — and what if the same instinct that makes football exciting and fun is the one that legitimises industrial-scale massacre?But I’m not trying to be a spoilsport!In this episode: why spectating sport only became enjoyable once you abandoned your perfectly reasonable, well-informed, scrupulously fair worldview; what the actual science says about testosterone and aggression (it's messier than the popular version); the Roman playbook for divide-and-rule and why it still works; one bit of Hitler in all of us; and why peace may be a wee bit harder to build than war ever was to start.A kind of follow-up to Episode 8, "Would You Kamikaze? Debunking the Myth of Patriotism" — though you don't need to have heard that one first to enjoy this one.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ridePost-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #Patriotism #WorldCup #Testosterone
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  The voice of David Attenborough - Planet Trans 18.06.2026 16min

  Sir David Attenborough just turned 100, which means two things:1 - he remains a global treasure, and2 - it’s finally time I confess that, in the 1990s, I was his Japanese voice.Yes. Really.No. I don’t sound quite like him (in Japanese).And yes — the BBC was absolutely desperate.In Episode 11 of Post‑Whatever, I explore how a young, sleep‑deprived translator at the BBC accidentally became the Japanese Attenborough, why there were almost no alternatives for the BBC to stop this from happening, and what this all reveals about the very lopsided gender dynamics of the translation industry.Along the way, I will offer some highly debatable insights into why women dominate the profession, why simultaneous translation is a form of psychological warfare, and why interpreters often end up being yelled at for things they didn’t say.It's a junkyard of useless knowledge. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.It's the gnarliest multi-cultural listening ridePost-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #HiddenJapan #JapanCulture #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan #TokyoHistory #JapanHistory#BBC #DavidAttenborough #Translation #Linguistics #GenderImbalance #Voiceover #Bilingual
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  The Most Difficult Language in the World - Don't Panic! 11.06.2026 20min

  The US government ranked every language in the world in five categories - by how much learning time it requires for an American diplomat to become fluent. Japanese didn't make it to any of these categories. In fact, it found itself in a unique category on its own - above all the languages that exist. Does that mean Japanese is the single most difficult and/or complex language in the world?In Episode 10 of Post-Whatever, I am tackling that very subjectWhile at it, I will offer some questionable answers to the questions such as; why the "hardest language in the world" title is almost entirely meaningless, why Japanese is simultaneously terrifying AND simpler than English, and why language exams should be abolished immediately.It's academic. It's educational. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan #TalkShow #TokyoHistory #JapanHistory #LanguageLearning  #LearnJapanese #Linguistics #Bilingual
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  Silken Tofu and Tamari Soy Sauce - two most misunderstood Japanese food items 28.05.2026 14min

  Every week, somewhere in the world, a well-meaning Western chef reaches for silken tofu and tamari soy sauce and applies them to everything with the quiet confidence of someone who has done absolutely no research.This episode is for them. And for you.In Episode 9 of Post-Whatever, Ken demystifies two of the most misunderstood ingredients in your Japanese pantry: tamari soy sauce and silken tofu. Both are excellent. Both are routinely used in entirely the wrong context. And both have been systematically misrepresented.Also : why the little paper flag on kids’ lunch counts as a national security risk.It's academic. It's educational. It's occasionally quite funny and merciless in tone.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan #TalkShow #TokyoHistory #JapanHistory #tofu #tamari #soysauce #JapanPodcast  #JapaneseFood
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  Would you Kamikaze? - Debunking the myth of patriotism 21.05.2026 21min

  The Doomsday Clock stands at 85 seconds to midnight. We just moved it forward by 3 seconds. As a species, we are clearly committed.In Episode 8 of Post-Whatever, Ken Nishikawa asks a straightforward question: would you kamikaze? This week's episode debunks the myth of patriotism — not with a rant (well, a little bit), but with history, linguistics, and some quietly uncomfortable facts that several governments would probably prefer you didn't know.Topics include: why “best country in the world" is a statement only someone who has lived in all 195 nations for at least a year is remotely qualified to make; how the Japanese, British, and French governments all used identical methodsto strip children of their native languages through humiliation and peer surveillance and replace regional identity with state-approved nationalism.Also featuring: Elon Musk, Frank Zappa, and the quietly radical notion that we might, as a species, be just intelligent enough to destroy ourselves and not quite wise enough to stop.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you and partial to being mildly offended.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Japan #Tokyo #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan #TalkShow #TokyoHistory #JapanHistory#kamikaze #patriotism #patriot #DoomsdayClock
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  The Saddest (and Funniest) Hit Parade — A Brief History of J-Pop 14.05.2026 17min

  Japan never really did “happy” love songs - traditionally, at least. Here's why — and why that's more interesting than it sounds.In this episode of Post-Whatever, Ken Nishikawa traces the surprisingly dark — and occasionally hilarious — history of Japanese popular music, from 19th-century geisha ballads to City Pop to modern J-Pop, and asks what it all reveals about how Japanese culture has always understood love, melancholy, and the business of being human.Along the way: the tragic story of Okichi, a 17-year-old geisha forced to serve the first American Consul to Japan, whose story became one of the most famous songs in the geisha repertoire. The word "aishiteru (= I love you)” — which didn't exist until someone invented it 150 years ago. A drunkard who dies, misbehaves in heaven, and gets deported by God — whose song sold 2.8 million copies. An Italian children's song that finished last in an Italian children's competition, crossed the Pacific, and sold 3 million copies in Japan. And the all-time best-selling Japanese single — certified by Guinness World Records — about a fish-shaped pastry making a doomed bid for freedom. The pastry lost. The record stands.We also look at what the data actually shows: how the proportion of "happy" love songs in Japan has shifted across seven decades, how the Bubble era briefly made optimism fashionable, how the Lost Decades brought the melancholy back, and how — in a twist nobody quite predicted — the West's pop charts are now heading in exactly the same direction Japan started from.Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West, presented by Ken — composer, broadcaster, DJ, film director, and occasional grumpy old man — who has worked for the BBC, MTV, TBS, J-WAVE, and several organisations that probably regret it.New episodes every Thursday. Like and subscribe if you know what’s good for you.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #JapanBritain #JapanvsUK #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Observational #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan#TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TokyoHistory #JapanHistory #BurtonCrane #JPop #JapaneseMusic #Japan #Podcast #CityPop #Enka 
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  When London Was Cool and Tokyo Was Rich —Boom, Britpop and the Bubble of the '90s 07.05.2026 18min

  A visit to YBA & Beyond — British Art in the '90s from the Tate Collection at the National Art Centre Tokyo recently stopped me in my tracks. It was all je ne sais quoi then, Now it's a period piece. Which, of course, is exactly what "contemporary" art eventually becomes — the clue was always in the name.That visit became the seed of Episode 6.The 1990s began with the end of the Cold War — which some historians call World War Three — and ended with 9/11, which triggered the ongoing conflict between the Christian and Islamic worlds, already being called World War Four by some. Which makes the '90s, rather neatly, an inter-war decade. A brief, strange window of relative peace and optimism — and I have the Doomsday Clock to back me up. In 1991, the Clock stood at 17 minutes to midnight, the most hopeful reading in its history. It currently stands at 89 seconds — the closest humanity has ever been to self-inflicted catastrophe. We've come a long way. Backwards.In Episode 6, I use that window — the euphoric, deluded, magnificent '90s — to examine London and Tokyo: two cities that were, briefly, at the top of the world. Through music, art, and economics, I trace how they got there, and what happened next. Britpop. The bubble. The YBAs. The boom. And the long, quietly dignified slide since.Decay fascinates me more than progress - Oscar WildePost-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa — BBC, MTV, J-WAVE — weekly cultural commentary on the space between Japan and the West. Music, food, art, politics, history, philosophy. Presented by someone who has lived in both worlds long enough to find them equally baffling.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.Search: POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #JapanBritain #JapanvsUK #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Observational #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan#TokyoHistory #JapanHistory #BurtonCrane #1930sJapan #JapanAndTheWest #EnglishPodcastJapan #JapaneseCulture #TokyoPodcast #expatllife #PopHistory #MusicHistory #JapanExpat #AsiaHistory #CulturalHistory #TokyoLife #PodcastsInEnglish #JapaneseMusic #MusicHistory #JapanAndTheWest #ExplorJapan #AsiaHistory #DocumentaryStyle #HiddenHistory #Britpop #1990s #London #Tokyo #Japan #YBA #BritishArt #CoolBritannia #JapaneseBubbleEconomy #Oasis #DamienHirst #BritishCulture #JapaneseHistory #Wabisabi #NationalArtCentreTokyo #TateCollection #Trainspotting #DrumAndBass #TripHop #ApexTwin #BilingualPodcast #JapanAndTheWest
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  Sake of the Song: The Wall Street Journal Correspondent Who Became Tokyo's First Pop Star 30.04.2026 20min

  In 1925, a young elite American journalist named Burton Crane arrived in Yokohama as a financial correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. This was, by any reasonable measure, a respectable career trajectory.By 1931, he was Tokyo's biggest pop star.Nobody planned this. Least of all Burton Crane.Episode 5 of Post-Whatever “Sake of the Song: The Wall Street Journal Correspondent Who Became Tokyo's First Pop Star” tells the story of a man who learned Japanese in the bars of Asakusa, stumbled into a recording contract at a corporate drinking party, and accidentally became the forerunner of an entire genre of Japan”s “Gaikokujin” celebrity — all whilst filing financial dispatches for some of America's most serious newspapers. He was dubbed the "Bing Crosby of Japan." His first single was heard from virtually every café on the Ginza. Toshirō Mifune reportedly sang it when pickled.Along the way: a detailed investigation into the 40-plus tram lines of pre-war Tokyo (yes, really), the February 26th Incident of 1936, the tragic fate of his duet partner in the firebombing of 1945, and the founding of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.Also: why you could stay out later in Tokyo in 1931 than you can today. Some things were more civilised back then.This is Post-Whatever — the show that lives in the cultural space between Japan and the West, and occasionally gets lost in translation.Music featured in this episode courtesy of Burton Crane (1901–1963), originally recorded and released on Columbia Records Japan between 1931 and 1936. These recordings are believed to be in the public domain in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. If you are the rights holder to any recording featured and believe this to be in error, please contact us directly.#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #JapanBritain #JapanvsUK #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Observational #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan#TokyoHistory #JapanHistory #BurtonCrane #1930sJapan #JapanAndTheWest #EnglishPodcastJapan #JapaneseCulture #TokyoPodcast #expatllife #PopHistory #MusicHistory #JapanExpat #AsiaHistory #CulturalHistory #PrewarJapan #TokyoLife #PodcastsInEnglish #BurtonCrane #JapaneseMusic #MusicHistory #JapanAndTheWest #ExplorJapan #AsiaHistory #DocumentaryStyle #HiddenHistory #ForgottenStars