Philip Patrick

Philip Patrick

Philip Patrick is an exiled Scot, who lectures at a Tokyo university and contributes to the Japan Times

Thursday

Philip Patrick

Does Scotland really have too few migrants?

Mairi McAllan, the SNP government’s Housing Minister, Nicola Sturgeon protege, and leader in waiting (according to the gossip), has been lambasted for claiming that Scotland has ‘too few migrants’. McAllan said on the BBC’s The Sunday Show this week that migration was ‘good and necessary for the economy’. In doing so, she sidestepped the self-evident truth that the 4,000 or so asylum seekers who live in Glasgow – the highest figure for any local authority in the UK – are not making a particularly great contribution to the economy. She also brushed over other problematic issues, such as integration, but that’s par for the course with the Scot Nats.

Tuesday

Philip Patrick

How the Rolling Stones keep rocking

The Rolling Stones’ resilience is hard to get one’s head around. In a world of fleeting cultural phenomena, they just keep going… and going… and going. Earlier this month, under the pseudonym ‘The Cockroaches’, the band released 1,000 copies of a vinyl-only single (their 124th in their 65th year of rocking) ahead of a new studio album which will come out this summer. The combined age of the three surviving principals Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood is 242. The band are so venerable that even jokes about their age are getting old: their ‘Steel Wheels’ tour was dubbed ‘Steel Wheelchairs’ back in… 1989.  Full disclosure: I’m hardly a Rolling Stones fan.

Tuesday

Philip Patrick

The great soccer World Cup swindle

From our US edition

Tickets for this summer’s soccer World Cup are the most expensive in the tournament’s history. Or the history of any sporting event for that matter, with the possible exception of one-off extravaganzas like the Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown in 2015. The face value of tickets at this American tournament are a staggering five times higher that of the previous World Cup in Qatar. The most expensive seats for the final match have reached wallet-busting levels, affordable only to plutocrats and corporate boondogglers. And that’s just face value. What about the quaintly named secondary market? I occasionally peruse Fifa’s resale site, where the custodians of the game double dip from the buyer and seller to act as an official tout.

The soccer World Cup trophy sits in front of President Donald Trump

Friday

Philip Patrick

How to rent a family in Japan

Ever fancied an extra family member or new best friend supplied on demand and available for as long as required? Ever dreamt you could summon up a surrogate to explain yourself out of an awkward romantic entanglement, or a presentable spouse to secure an employment opportunity (like Alan Partridge’s rented wife in the ‘Hamilton Water Breaks’ episode)? All of this, and more, is readily available in Japan, for a fee, courtesy of the ‘companionship agencies’. This decidedly odd business is the subject of the film Rental Family currently on release across the UK.

Wednesday

Philip Patrick

What the Japanese can teach England about football

The Japanese national team put England to the samurai sword last night with a 1-0 victory at Wembley stadium. I am aware that opener might seem a bit corny, even offensively stereotypical, except that it does rather accurately conjure the rapid slashing passes that sliced through England’s defence for the winning goal. And it fits with the entirely honourable and respectful codified behaviour of the Japanese players, management, and fans. And as the Japanese call their own team ‘Samurai Blue,’ I plead not guilty. Japan didn’t qualify for the World Cup until 1998 Right after the match, the Japanese manager Hajime Moriyasu was interviewed on the national broadcaster NHK.

Monday

Philip Patrick

Japan’s fascination with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

The Japanese are fascinated by the scandal concerning the aristocrat formerly known as Prince Andrew. The main themes resonate powerfully. The concepts of duty, shame and being a burden to one’s family are deeply woven into Japanese culture and so embedded in the language that it is hard to express yourself without touching on them. There are at least four expressions for ‘black sheep of the family’ in Japanese and one of the very first kanji I learned was for the word ‘muru-hachibu’ (eight against one) which means ‘sent to Coventry’ (shouldn’t that be Norfolk now?).   There might also be a sense of ‘there but for the grace of god’ relief for the Japanese in watching a fellow constitutional monarchy floundering.

Friday

Philip Patrick

Glasgow needs protecting

A corner of Glasgow’s historic Central Station was destroyed by fire last Sunday in scenes that resembled the 1970s disaster film Towering Inferno. The fire apparently started in a pop-up vape shop occupying a ground-level retail outlet and spread rapidly upwards. The dome of the 19th-century structure partially collapsed and 250 firefighters and a high-pressure hose drawing water from the River Clyde were needed to get the fire under control. A key architectural symbol of the former ‘second city of the empire’ was brought low. It wasn’t quite Glasgow’s Notre Dame moment, but desperately sad nonetheless.  This is the fifth major fire of a historic building in Glasgow in recent years.

Monday

Philip Patrick

Down with the Old Firm

Yesterday afternoon, Rangers and Celtic played out a dismal 0-0 draw (‘eye-bleeding’, was journalist Tom English’s verdict) in the Scottish Cup quarter-final before the game was settled/put out of its misery on penalties. The game itself will soon be forgotten, what won’t be is the trouble that followed. Celtic’s ‘triumph’ provoked a pitch invasion by fans of both teams, some of whom were dressed in all black and masked like ninjas. A flare was launched into the Broomloan stand, and there are reports of a Celtic official being attacked. The pitch was soon cleared, and thankfully, no one was hurt, but it was a horrible look at the end of a horrible game. There could be serious repercussions.

Friday

Philip Patrick

The decline and fall of Tottenham Hotspur

How the mighty have fallen. Tottenham Hotspur, the fifth richest club in England, the ninth richest in the world, current Europa League Champions and a mere five years ago Super League aspirants, are now facing relegation to the not-so-super league, the Championship. After yet another dismal defeat last night (1-3 to Crystal Palace), our (full disclosure: I’m a fan) fifth loss in a row, Spurs sit 16th in the league, just a point ahead of West Ham and Nottingham Forest. As the commentator on TNT said, ‘the unthinkable has now become possible’. We thought we were too good for the Premier League.

Wednesday

Philip Patrick

Japan is holding firm against China’s Taiwan bullying

One of the most serious issues in the well-filled in-tray of freshly endorsed Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi is Taiwan (which China claims as its own sovereign territory) and the lamentable state of Sino-Japanese relations. Takaichi provoked fury with comments in the Japanese parliament in November when she stated that were China to attack Taiwan, it would be interpreted as a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan, implying a military response could follow. Under the terms of its constitution, Japan is severely limited in its military options but Takaichi appeared to be preparing more solid ground with her phrasing. A 2015 law changed the constitution allowing Japan to retaliate if the country faced a ‘life-threatening’ situation.

Tuesday

Philip Patrick

What Kemi Badenoch could learn from Sanae Takaichi

Well, she pulled it off. Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi took the bold gamble of calling a general election after just two months in office but has been rewarded with a landslide victory. Over the weekend, her Liberal Democratic party’s coalition with the JIP (Japan Innovation party) easily secured two-thirds of the 465 seats in the lower house needed to push through most bills even if the upper chamber, where Takaichi does not have a majority, tries to stop her. The contrast between her position and that of the beleaguered Sir Keir Starmer, whom she met just over a week ago in Tokyo, could hardly be starker. One is enjoying the time of her political life, the other is fighting for his.

Saturday

Philip Patrick

Japan doesn’t want to see Starmer

If Keir Starmer’s trip to China seemed unfathomable, then his follow-on visit to Tokyo today is even more mysterious. ‘Why on earth is he here?’ the Japanese are asking (those that have noticed he is here that is). There doesn’t seem to be any pressing business for the Prime Minister to discuss with his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi right now. If it is just a courtesy call, then it’s rather a discourteous one since the timing, for her, is terrible. Wags here are calling the visit a 'boondoggle', claiming Starmer just wants to enjoy the cheap shopping Takaichi faces a make or break snap-election on 8 February. She is seeking to win an outright majority in the lower house and thus a mandate for her ambitious policy platform.

Tuesday

Philip Patrick

Could the Japanese economy crash out?

Is the Japanese economy about to crash? This once unthinkable prospect is now very much thinkable as concerns grow, and the cost of borrowing rises, in response to the bold but, to many, bewildering economic plans of prime minister Sanae Takaichi. It is a question of huge import, for if the Japanese economy collapses the consequences around the globe could be grave. The inevitable, slightly lazy comparison is with Liz Truss.

Sunday

Philip Patrick

The real trouble with Naomi Osaka

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka is at the centre of controversy again, losing friends and alienating people as she has done throughout her chequered career. The four-time major champion and current world number 16 has been accused of poor etiquette in a match against the Romanian Sorana Cîrstea at the Australian Open. Osaka was heard to exclaim ‘Come on!’ repeatedly as a sort of self-motivating exhortation in Thursday’s match. Nothing wrong with that, but one of her ‘come on!’s occurred between her opponent’s first and second serves and provoked Cîrstea to complain to the umpire.

Wednesday

Philip Patrick

Japan’s Thatcher is making a huge election gamble

Japan will go to the polls in February for a general election after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called a snap poll today. Takaichi is looking to make the most of her extraordinarily high approval ratings – in what has proved quite a lengthy honeymoon period – to secure a more comfortable mandate for her ambitious policy platform. It is a bold move by Japan’s first female prime minister and not without risk. Her Liberal Democratic party (LDP), the closest thing Japan has to the UK Conservatives and long seen as the natural party of government, has a slim majority in the lower house thanks to the support of three independent lawmakers but lacks a majority in the upper chamber.

Monday

Philip Patrick

Hollywood is all but silent on Iran

It was the Golden Globes last night in Tinseltown and as per usual Hollywood’s finest strutted and peacocked on the red carpet to the click and flash of the massed paparazzi cameras. Images of their 1000-watt smiles and 10,000-dollar couture outfits were beamed around the world to a million Instagram and X feeds. Yet, something was missing. These days a celebrity glamfest is not complete without a healthy dose of woke posturing on the issue du jour, whether it be underrepresentation of black people (‘OscarsSoWhite’ or Black Lives Matter), women’s empowerment, climate change, or most recently of course, the plight of the Palestinians. This time, not so much.

Friday

Philip Patrick

Do football managers still matter?

It is testament to the decline of Manchester United that the sacking of their manager, Rubin Amorim, on Monday has been treated as a second-order story. True, rather dramatic events in South America have put such things into their perhaps proper perspective, but you do feel that even if it were an especially slow news day, this once momentous event at English football’s second most successful – and some would still say greatest – club wouldn’t have elicited much more than a shrug. Amorim has gone out with a bit of a whimper, though the unkind might say he never really arrived. His departure, it appears, was precipitated by a confrontation with director of football Jason Wilcox over a clash of responsibilities.

Sunday

Philip Patrick

The strange world of ‘2D exclusive’ Japanese women

For those trying to understand Japan’s plummeting birthrate – which some fear could eventually lead to Japanese people ceasing to exist – evidence of where the problem might lie emerged this week. Old tweets from Japan’s new minister of state for economic security, Kimi Onoda, have surfaced in which the 43 year-old describes herself as ‘2D exclusive’. For the unenlightened, this means this very eligible young woman only forms romantic attachments with animated characters.  Onoda is far from alone is being smitten with 2D characters and untempted by the real thing In the tweets Onoda explained that human romance is ‘uncomfortable’ and that her affection for ‘2D men’ leaves her no time anyway.

Thursday

Philip Patrick

Will FIFA cancel its LGBTQ Pride match for Iran and Egypt?

From our US edition

FIFA looks set to face its first major scandal of the 2026 World Cup – if you don’t count the exorbitant cost of the tickets, that is. The Egyptian FA has made a formal request for the cancellation of an LGBTQ+ celebration planned to take place at their Group G game against Iran on June 26 in Seattle. The game roughly coincides with the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969. The Seattle Pride match committee are planning to combine celebrations of the anniversary with the game.  A Pride match or Pride night is a tradition in American sports going back to around the year 2000 and is now embraced by most professional leagues. These events usually involve a particular game being dedicated to certain communities.

Wednesday

Philip Patrick

How an Iran-Egypt Pride match threw the World Cup into disarray

Fifa looks set to face its first major scandal of the 2026 World Cup – if you don’t count the exorbitant cost of the tickets, that is. The Egyptian FA has made a formal request for the cancellation of an LGBTQ+ celebration planned to take place at their Group G game against Iran on 26 June in Seattle. The game roughly coincides with the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969. The Seattle Pride match committee are planning to combine celebrations of the anniversary with the game.   The game between Iran and Egypt will be the first Pride match in World Cup history A Pride match or Pride night is a tradition in American sports going back to around the year 2000 and is now embraced by most US sports.