Challenging the notion of the nonreligious in Japan being religious through tradition and institution, this book demonstrates how negativity and antipathy for religion relate to religious decline in Japan today. Why do most Japanese say they are 'nonreligious' (mushukyo)? Since the 1990s, scholars have answered this key question for understanding religion in contemporary Japan as follows: although the Japanese say they are nonreligious because they do not identify with a p...

While scholarly works on this topic have to date mainly concentrated on Japan's influences in economic and political terms, this volume examines Japanese influences in Asia from a broader perspective. The text takes into account human factors, such as the presence of Japanese people as workers, managers and visitors in Asian societies and the flow of Japanese goods in terms on their impact on popular culture. In addition, the book examines the feelings within other Asian nations such as In...

Japanese Religions on the Internet draws attention to how religion is being presented, represented and discussed on the Japanese Internet. Its intention is to contribute to wider discussions about religion and the Internet by providing an important example – based on one of the Internet’s most prominent languages – of how new media technologies are being used and are impacting on religion in the East-Asian context, while also developing further our understandings of religion in a ...

Lynn Thrax was forced into a life of running at a young age when his family was slaughtered by the man known as Ruffio St. Cloud. After years of running with his twin sister in tow he finally is forced to face his nemesis. After defeating Ruffio, Lynn was thought to have a moment of peace only to have Niccolo, Ruffio's heir, pick up where his grandfather failed. Now Lynn must deal with this threat or have everyone he loves be thrown into the path of Niccolo's vengeance.

A brilliant, emotionally wrenching new novel from the author of Atonement and Amsterdam.Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge, renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons, a seventeen-year-old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out.She visits the boy in hospital – an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful...

The brand new John Rebus thriller from the iconic Number One bestseller Ian Rankin: one of the must-read books of the year.'Rebus in jail and better than ever ... Surprising, gripping and witty. Rankin has taken the police procedural and transformed into an epic character study of a man and his city ... Nobody does it better.'THE TIMES* * * * *JOHN REBUS SPENT HIS LIFE AS A DETECTIVE PUTTIN...

The breathtaking new novel from Ian McEwan‘A thumping literary mystery’ Independent‘A gripping page-turner’ Observer‘A beautiful novel, full of wisdom and heart. I loved it’ Elif Shafak2014: A poem is read aloud once then vanishes without a trace.2119: A century later, the seas have risen and the world is under water. Those who remain are haunted by ...

NOW A MAJOR BBC TV SERIES STARRING COLIN FARRELL, JACK O'CONNELL AND STEPHEN GRAHAMA ship sets sail with a killer on board . . .A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little option but to accept the position of ship's surgeon on this ill-fated voyage. But when, deep into the journey, a cabin boy is discovered brutally...

The battle for control of your life: the rise of democratic totalitarianism.For the first time in history, governments are on the brink of being able to totally control your life. This is where The Truman Show meets The Omen.Be very afraid.The story of human history has always been one of power and control.From Alexander the Great through the massive Roman Empire, and even Adolf Hitler's global imperial plans, leaders have repeatedly lunged at the opportunit...

Michael Beard is a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: his wife is having the affair, and he is still in love with her. When Beard's professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and save the world from environmental disaster.

The past is a foreign country: t****his is your guidebook.Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? Should you go to a castle or a monastic guesthouse? And what are you going to eat? What sort of food are you going to be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord?This is the most astonishing social histo...

For the past twenty five years, climate change has dominated the news agenda and the political sector. As the media whip up a frenzy of public concern, politicians use that concern as a cover to seize more taxes, more power and much more control of the daily lives of the public.But what if you found out you'd effectively been conned?Air Con became the world's #1 bestselling book on climate change, topping the Amazon sales charts in the US and UK, as award-winning investigat...