POST-WHATEVER with Ken Nishikawa

Ken Nishikawa

Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa is a weekly talk show about everything and nothing - and a little bit about Japan, the West (Britain, in particular), and the vast, baffling space in between — covering music, culture, food, history, politics, philosophy, and whatever else demands attention that particular week. Hosted by Ken Nishikawa — 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.

  1. 6d ago

    The Atomic Bomb - Crime Against Humanity That Saved Millions of Lives

    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 Nishikawa FOLLOW ME on: facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574320836189 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kendajapkid/ #PostWhatever #Hiroshima #Nagasaki #WWII #History #AtomicBomb #Podcast #JapanHistory

    The Atomic Bomb - Crime Against Humanity That Saved Millions of Lives

  2. Jul 30

    The First Blue-Eyed Comedian in Japan — the Tragicomical Story of the Original Kairakutei Black

    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 failure How to get disowned by your family and simply... disown them back, faster The blue-eyed rakugoka who out-Meiji'd the Meiji era The oldest audio recordings in Japan, and why AI ought to clean them up already What "adopted son" sometimes actually meant in 1900s Japan — and still means today 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 #JapanHistory #Rakugo #Meiji #TokyoPodcast #JapanesePodcast #Kairakutei

    The First Blue-Eyed Comedian in Japan — the Tragicomical Story of the Original Kairakutei Black

  3. Jul 23

    Japan: The Promised Land? A (Very) Rough Guide

    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

    Japan: The Promised Land? A (Very) Rough Guide

  4. Jul 16

    So, What the Hell Is a Geisha, Anyway?

    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

    So, What the Hell Is a Geisha, Anyway?

  5. Jul 2

    It Was 60 Years Ago Today — The Beatles Conquered Japan

    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

    It Was 60 Years Ago Today — The Beatles Conquered Japan

  6. Jun 25

    How to Enjoy Your Toxic Patriotism — A Field Guide to Your Inner Hitler

    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 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 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

    How to Enjoy Your Toxic Patriotism — A Field Guide to Your Inner Hitler

  7. Jun 18

    The voice of David Attenborough - Planet Trans

    Sir David Attenborough just turned 100, which means two things: 1 - he remains a global treasure, and 2 - 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 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 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

    The voice of David Attenborough - Planet Trans

  8. Jun 11

    The Most Difficult Language in the World - Don't Panic!

    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 subject While 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

    The Most Difficult Language in the World - Don't Panic!
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About

Post-Whatever with Ken Nishikawa is a weekly talk show about everything and nothing - and a little bit about Japan, the West (Britain, in particular), and the vast, baffling space in between — covering music, culture, food, history, politics, philosophy, and whatever else demands attention that particular week. Hosted by Ken Nishikawa — 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.

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