Oliver Jia

Oliver Jia is an American researcher living in Kyoto, Japan.

Thursday

Oliver Jia

The $1,000 LEGO set and the infantilization of America

What can you buy for $1,000 these days? The latest smartphone? A discounted laptop? A nice trip to Mexico? Or what about a 9,000 piece LEGO set of the Death Star? The toy firm’s most expensive model yet. That’s right, a toy for $1,000 – the same as 35 Labubus (if you can find them), 150 packs of Pokémon cards or 80 Hot Wheels cars. It’s more pocket money than most boys and girls can afford. And as the fully built model is only a cross section of the spherical spacecraft from Star Wars, they won’t actually be able to play with it, even if they do rustle up enough cash to buy it. Really, the gigantic diorama is designed to sit on an adult’s shelf – a 31-inch wide symbol of LEGO’s shift toward an older demographic.

Lego
CRT
Oliver Jia

The return of CRT TVs

Cathode-ray televisions — the thick, “fat” CRT TVs of my youth — were dead. You couldn’t find them in secondhand shops, because who would buy one?They were sidewalk refuse, chunky e-waste, destined for the dump. In an era of economic dissatisfaction, the reduced cost of slim, high-resolution flat-screen TVs has been a major if often derided benefit. Populists often sneer at globalism — “Who cares that you can get great, cheap TVs when housing is more expensive and there are few jobs?” But even they would still use a stunning 4K — or 8K or 16 K even — OLED TV over the fat screens of the good ol’ days. And yet, for enthusiasts of retro video games and other esoteric media hobbies, what others see as trash is their treasure.

Sunday

Oliver Jia

The iPod reboot

Dig into your desk drawers or the recesses of your closet and there’s a decent chance you’ll find an iPod you haven’t powered on since Michael Jackson’s last live tour. With Apple selling over 450 million since their inception in 2001, iPods were once the hottest tech item and fulfilled Steve Jobs’ promise of being able to carry an audio library in your pocket.How times have changed. Today, the average zoomer is likely to draw a blank when you say iPod, probably mishearing the word for the AirPods line of Bluetooth headphones. But, for a plethora of reasons, the iPod is once again becoming desirable. The r/iPod subreddit has over 70,000 readers and retro tech enthusiasts like Australian YouTuber DankPods attract millions of views.

iPod

Wednesday

Oliver Jia

Will the new ‘communist’ leader of South Korea abandon the US for China?

American divisions over politics look positively civil compared to the polarization that has gripped South Korea over the last few years. During the 2022 elections, Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power party (PPP) narrowly won the presidency over his liberal opponent Lee Jae-myung from the Democratic Party by a razor thin 0.73 percent. But Yoon hastened the demise of his own presidency when on December 3, 2024, he made the poor decision to declare martial law over baseless accusations that the National Assembly’s progressive opposition were collaborating with North Korea. Martial law lasted for only a few hours after both parties unanimously voted to lift the decree.

South Korea

Monday

Oliver Jia

Why Japan won’t repeat the West’s mistakes on immigration

Japan has become another piece of fodder for the West’s culture wars. After a recent visit with his family, talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel praised the country for its clean toilets and lack of litter, only to be lambasted by right-wing pundits such as Ben Shapiro, who accused the comedian of having leftist beliefs that are completely at odds with what makes Japanese society so safe and orderly. Namely, Shapiro argued, Japan is a closed-off nation, unpersuaded by arguments to allow mass migration, and its homogeneity and “unique culture,” along with a strict legal system, help sustain this “package deal.” During the height of the Syrian refugee crisis nearly a decade ago, amid intense international criticism, Japan refused to accept asylum seekers from the Middle East.

Japan

Thursday

Oliver Jia

Shōgun is a great show… but the novel was still better 

Live long enough and everything you love will be remade by Hollywood. If you vaguely remember some film or show from your childhood, expect a grey-suited producer to rip it from the vault, spruce it up for “modern audiences” and shove it onto multiplex screens or one of the endless streaming services, where it’s likely never be seen and instantly forgot. There have been four modern Predator remakes.  When it was announced in 2018 that FX would be adapting Shōgun, the epic bestselling 1975 novel of medieval Japan by James Clavell, I heard myself audibly groaning. The 1980 mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune was already a stone-cold classic.

shōgun

Wednesday

Oliver Jia

The Americans who defected to North Korea

Last summer, US Army soldier Travis King ran across the Korean Demilitarized Zone into the arms of the North Koreans. It wasn’t because of some mental break or as part of a spy operation. North Korean state media claims he was motivated by racism and mistreatment — of course they would. The DPRK’s outlets have previously criticized the US for its treatment of African Americans, around the same time they compared former president Barack Obama to a “wicked black monkey.” Like the six American servicemen who crossed the DMZ before him, King probably had a mixture of reasons for his flight. Unlike in the previous cases, however, King’s detention was a short one.

North Korea

Monday

Oliver Jia

Japan’s peculiar pizzas

From our UK edition

Japan is known for its food. People from across the world visit the Land of the Rising Sun to eat everything from the delectable seafood of Tsukiji Market in Tokyo to the local varieties of ramen that can be found across the nation’s 47 prefectures. And yet you would be mistaken if you believed that Japan was only capable of producing high-quality local fare, as there is a long tradition of western food in this country. Particularly, and perhaps surprisingly, it’s pizza. While toppings like pepperoni and mushrooms may be normal in the US or UK, the Japanese like plenty of seafood on their slice The concept of yoshoku dates back to the Meiji period and refers to Japanese dishes that take heavy inspiration from western countries.

Sunday

Oliver Jia

Japan deserves to see Oppenheimer

As millions of people across the world rush into cinemas this week to see Christopher Nolan’s latest epic thriller Oppenheimer, one notable country will not be part of the film’s initial release window despite the relevant subject matter — Japan. For reasons that are still unclear, Universal Pictures has not announced a Japanese release date. Yet if any place deserves to see a film based on the life of the theoretical physicist who played an essential role in developing the atomic bombs which ended World War Two, it should be the country that was most affected by them. Hollywood films being delayed for release in Japan is a very common occurrence, and it rarely ever has anything to do with politics.

japan oppenheimer