Steven Herman spent 1990-2006 in Japan, most of those years with Voice of America. He served as South East Asia Bureau Chief as well as North East Asia Bureau Chief for the Korean Penninsula & Japan. Over his 16 years living in Japan he covered the Kobe Earthquake as well as the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disaster, which he said was "covering three disasters at the same time."

He also recounts his more recent days as a White House Foreign Correspondent, especially his time as a traveling pool reporter. You'll learn what it's like to fly on Air Force One, why he got banned (twice) from X by Elon Musk, that "Presidential M&M's" are a thing, and his best advice for those wanting to write a book about their experiences in a foreign country.

Finally, he gives a concise account of what happened to VOA in the Trump Administration, his role as a whistle-blower, and tells us why DOGE shut them down. Herman retired from VOA in mid 2025 and now teaches journalism. In this latter discussion, he reveals how he blew the biggest scoop ever in his journalism career.

Herman is currently the executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy & Innovation in the School of Journalism & New Media at the University of Mississippi.

Some of Herman's favorite books on Japan are:

Notes in Japan, by Alfred Parsons (1896)

No Surrender: My 30-year War the autobiography of Noda Hiro (1974, transl. Charles S. Terry)

The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa (Princeton Univ. Press, 1991)

Links

You can find Steve Herman on social media at:

Mastadon, Blue Sky, Threads, Substack, LinkedIn and Instagram

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

John Ross speaks with English travel writer and photographer David Leffman about his new book, A Murder in Yunnan: The Unsolved Killing of a British Diplomat on China’s Southwestern Frontier. The conversation begins with David’s own long engagement with China, which started with a difficult first trip in 1985, and then continued a decade later with work on The Rough Guide to China.

In the 1860s, the British dreamed of opening a profitable overland trade route into China from British India via Burma. The 1868 Sladen Expedition scouted a route from Bhamo in Burma to Tengyue/Tengchong in Yunnan, China. The going was difficult because the southwestern frontier area had been devastated by prolonged Muslim uprisings and banditry. The Browne Expedition tried again in 1875. Augustus Raymond Margary, a young British diplomat and gifted Chinese speaker, joined this second expedition after making a remarkable overland journey from Shanghai across the breadth of China. But tragedy soon struck.

Margary’s murder near the border – what became known as the Margary Affair – turned into a diplomatic crisis, nearly provoking a third Anglo-Chinese war. This BOA episode contains no spoilers; David doesn’t reveal who he thinks killed the young Englishman, but we do run through some of the many suspects and look at the fallout from this true crime case. And, as icing on the cake, we even hear about a Burmese mission to Peking with elephants as tribute.

A Murder in Yunnan is published by the Hong Kong-based Blacksmith Books. It’s due out April 7, 2026 but can be preordered now.

To learn more about David Leffman’s writing, visit his website.

John has written reviews for Bookish Asia of David’s earlier China books.

The Mercenary Mandarin: How a British adventurer became a general in Qing-dynasty China. John also did a related author interview with David for this book.

Paper Horses: Woodblock Prints of Gods from Northern China

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.

Amy discusses the relationship between anti-foreign sentiment, overtourism, and tourist manners in Japan. Protests in Kyoto, Kamakura, and Tokyo claim that overtourism negatively impacts the daily lives of locals. Right-wing populist groups like the Sanseito party further use overtourism to fuel anti-foreign sentiment. With Japan's aging population, and only 59% of the Japanese people in the working age range, foreign workers are being brought to Japan to fill jobs, creating a perceived burden to locals, who are already battling overtourism. Amy also shares examples of poor tourist behavior that exacerbates anti-foreign sentiment. She emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting Japanese culture to improve the tourist experience. Lastly, she offers tips from her book on how to be polite because, actually, many Japanese manners are not that obvious!

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island. and Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan.

The Books on Asia website posts book reviews, podcast episodes and episode Show Notes. Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. Subscribe to the Books on Asia newsletter to receive news of the latest new book releases, reviews and podcast episodes.