Spencer is a journalist in New York, formerly based in Tokyo. He is an editorial assistant at The New York Times on the Opinion page. Previously, he reported on American breaking news from The Asahi Shimbun’s New York Bureau.

Select Essays

Shinzo Abe’s State Funeral Is as Controversial as He Was, Foreign Policy, September 2022

When Tokyo Burned: ‘Paper City’ explores the forgotten firebombing of Japan’s capital, Foreign Policy, May 2022

On Photographing at Memorials, The Los Angeles Review of Books, November 2021

The Waning Promise of Tokyo 2020, The Los Angeles Review of Books, March 2021

Pearl Harbor in Film and Myth: 79 Years Later, The Los Angeles Review of Books, January 2021

Hiroshima in the Age of Virtual Remembrance, The Los Angeles Review of Books, November 2020

America’s Tokyo, Metropolis, November 2020

On the state of emergency in Tokyo (published in Japanese), Newsweek Japan, March 2020

On my family and the atom bomb (published in Japanese), Newsweek Japan, August 2019

Select Reporting

American Veterans, “Defending a Life” in Ukraine (published in Japanese; original English text here), The Asahi Shimbun GLOBE+, April 2022

Japan Society head: COVID is a chance to rethink ‘who we are,’ The Asahi Shimbun, August 2022

'Emergent Tokyo' digs into an urban sprawl borne from chaos and order, The Japan Times, June 2022

Ramen master Ivan Orkin never lost his appetite for Japan, The Asahi Shimbun (English edition), February 2022

Coming of age in America in the shadow of the 9/11 terror attack, The Asahi Shimbun (English edition), October 2021

It's past time we flush the 'weird Japan' narrative, The Japan Times, October 2021

Behind the ‘closed’ doors of Tokyo’s bars, alcohol is still flowing, The Japan Times, September 2021

“What are they trying to protect?” A Conversation with Eika Tai on Denying the Oppression of “Comfort Women,” The Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2021

Japanese-style coffee is rooted in the local kissaten, but its reach is global, The Japan Times, July 2021

A ‘new wind is blowing’ for Japan’s coffee culture, The Japan Times, January 2021

Living History: Ushering in the New Imperial Era in Japan, The Diplomat, May 2019