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Philip Patrick

Philip Patrick

The Spectator

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They think it’s all over for President Yoon – it is now

They think it’s all over for President Yoon – it is now
friday 5

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

I’m bored by this blossom worship

I’m bored by this blossom worship
friday 8

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan has been stunned by the Trump tariffs

Japan has been stunned by the Trump tariffs
03.04.2025 5

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Up to 11 / What’s wrong with a Spinal Tap reboot?

Up to 11 /					 													 						What’s wrong with a Spinal Tap reboot?
25.03.2025 9

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Does Japan want its own nuclear weapons?

Does Japan want its own nuclear weapons?
22.03.2025 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Football is demolishing its past

12.03.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Is Trump going to rip up the US security alliance with Japan?

09.03.2025 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan and Britain are too weak to help each other

07.03.2025 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

The comedy genius of John Shuttleworth

23.02.2025 6

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Tokyo grift / Why Japan is best at whisky, tailoring, cheese, pastries… I could go on

05.02.2025 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan’s smoking ban is a sham

31.01.2025 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

The real reason female footballers aren’t on birthday cards

22.01.2025 4

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Beautiful game / The Arts Council should subsidise footballers

22.01.2025 30

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Yoon Suk-yeol / The arrest of South Korea’s president won’t end this saga

15.01.2025 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

The ‘MAGA’ South Koreans still supporting President Yoon

09.01.2025 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Are Premier League fans right to protest ticket hikes?

It takes quite a lot to unite the fans of Manchester United and Liverpool, but it will happen today at Anfield. Some of the most committed...

05.01.2025 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Why did South Korea’s President Yoon declare martial law?

The aftershocks of last Tuesday’s declaration, and then cancellation, of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol continue to be felt by South...

12.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

South Korea’s President Yoon will be lucky to escape jail

Six hours. That was the duration of the profoundly disturbing and simultaneously farcical version of martial law invoked by South Korea’s president...

04.12.2024 9

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Cut above / Is London the most stylish city on earth?

Let’s face it, there are many reasons not to visit London these days: the crime, the intimidatory protests, the woeful public transport, the eye-...

04.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Why has South Korea’s president declared martial law?

In a dramatic and unnanounced move, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday in a live broadcast on YTN television....

03.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Jeremy Clarkson’s time has come

It’s a reasonable bet that if Jeremy Clarkson stood for prime minister tomorrow, he’d win by a country mile. Some might even crown him the next...

20.11.2024 40

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

It was time for Gary Lineker to go

Having thought it was all over, several times, it is now – for Gary Linker as presenter of Match of the Day. Lineker who has occupied the hot seat...

12.11.2024 8

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Kamala Harris and the death of the celebrity endorsement

Poor old Bruce Springsteen. The legendary rocker bet the farm on an endorsement of Kamala Harris and may well have alienated about half his...

08.11.2024 1

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan could soon lose one of its best assets

What now? This is the question on everyone’s lips here in Tokyo after a dramatic general election which looks to have inflicted a potentially...

28.10.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Newcastle, Saudi Arabia and desperate decline of English football

Is a major scandal over the sale of Newcastle United to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund about to engulf the club? And...

22.10.2024 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

A day of violence in Tokyo

It has been an alarming day in Tokyo as political terror returned to the streets of the capital. A man was arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails...

19.10.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

England manager / Does it matter that Thomas Tuchel isn’t English?

Thomas Tuchel has been confirmed as the next manager of the England national football team, to take over from the hapless and seemingly confused...

16.10.2024 4

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Rising Sun / I think we’re turning Japanese

Japanese culture is rapidly colonising the West, from our theatres to our cinemas, to our streaming services and our bookshops, to the food we eat...

16.10.2024 10

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Wimbledon won’t be the same without line judges

It will soon be the end of an era at Wimbledon. From 2025, the All England Club has announced that the services of line judges, who ringed the...

10.10.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan’s next prime minister is a bit of a maverick

The 67-year-old Shigeru Ishiba will become Japan’s new prime minister on 1 October after winning a surprisingly exciting play-off vote against his...

27.09.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

The tragic cost of Japan’s floods

Yet another natural disaster has struck in Japan as floods and landslides in the Noto peninsula, precipitated by ‘unprecedented’ rainfall, have...

23.09.2024 5

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

The trouble with the Champions League

The revamped Champions League kicks off this week with all the gushing hyperbole we have come to expect from this glossy, money-saturated event....

17.09.2024 1

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Hot springs have doomed Japan’s net zero ambitions

Most people know that Japan is a country cursed with considerable seismic activity; frequent, and very occasionally devastating, earthquakes and...

10.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Why won’t the England manager sing the national anthem?

England’s interim manager Lee Carsley has intimated that he will not be singing the national anthem as his team takes on Ireland in the Nations...

07.09.2024 7

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Why are Britain’s diplomats virtue-signalling to South Korea?

An important international conference will take place this week in South Korea, focused on the peninsula’s security concerns. The UK will not be...

02.09.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Scottish Nats still haven’t worked out why they lost

Unlike a slightly more high-profile reunion event, the ticketing website for the Scottish referendum tenth anniversary show is not expected to...

02.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Shanshan may be the strongest typhoon in Japanese history

The Japanese are battening down the hatches – again – as typhoon Shanshan wreaks devastation to the south-west of the country, with worse,...

30.08.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

The allure and terror of Mount Fuji

Six men have died on Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji since the start of the climbing season in July. This figure, two more than last year, is especially...

25.08.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan just can’t find the staff

‘Kanko kankai’ (tourism pollution) is the latest buzz phrase here in Japan as the double-edged samurai sword of the visitor boom continues to cause...

20.08.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Language games / The decline of football speak

The new Premiership season kicked off this weekend and, with all the usual hype, will come novelties. There are the gamely optimistic new arrivals...

19.08.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

How scandal brought down yet another Japanese leader

Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida has announced he will be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democratic party next month. This means yet...

14.08.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Nagasaki shouldn’t have snubbed Israel from its A-bomb ceremony

Nagasaki’s Peace Park held a ceremony today to mark the 79th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city (which killed 74,000...

09.08.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Japan is running out of rice

Japan is running out of rice. Stocks have fallen to their lowest levels in decades, prompting fears that emergency reserves may need to be...

04.08.2024 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

What’s the problem with playing Premier League football in the US?

Sadiq Khan has suggested that the long rumoured prospect of Premier League fixtures being played in the United States is now inevitable. Khan, a...

29.07.2024 1

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Olympics / Why the punishment fits the ‘crime’ for Japan’s smoking gymnast

Japan’s Olympics have got off to the worst possible start. The captain of their women’s gymnastics team Shoko Miyata has withdrawn, or more...

22.07.2024 3

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

K pop / Japan’s weird celebrity culture is coming to Britain

The Japanese singer, actor and heartthrob Matsumoto Jun, who I’ve always thought of as an Oriental David Cassidy (thus showing my age), will make...

16.07.2024 1

The Spectator

Philip Patrick