Japan and the World

Christopher Harding is a scholar of Japanese history and culture whose books include Japan Story and The Japanese, and this podcast extends that work into audio form. Each episode takes a single question about Japan and explores it through conversations with other experts or through carefully crafted audio essays. Recent episodes have asked why Oda Nobunaga welcomed Western missionaries, what the dark history behind Japan's Prime Minister's residence looks like, and why Japan appears to be falling behind in artificial intelligence. The range is deliberately broad, spanning centuries and disciplines while maintaining a consistent thread of intellectual curiosity. Harding has a gift for connecting historical events to present-day Japan in ways that feel natural rather than forced, and his academic background means the analysis is always grounded in serious scholarship. The show launched in 2023 and has been publishing weekly through February 2026, with 33 episodes in the archive so far. Episodes run about 30 minutes, long enough to develop an argument without overstaying the welcome. The podcast fills a particular niche between pure history shows and current-affairs commentary, offering the kind of informed perspective that helps listeners understand not just what happened in Japan's past but why it still matters now. Rated 5.0 stars on Apple Podcasts, though with only a handful of reviews so far, the show deserves a larger audience.