Roger Dahl’s Zero Gravity 1991-2026
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Roger Dahl has decided to retire from his The Japan Times cartooning career after 35 years.
Gebdel Gento writes of Roger Dahl leaving Tokyo’s The Japan Times, Japan’s largest English language newspaper:
Longtime readers of this paper will be familiar with the artwork of Roger Dahl, whose contributions have been an integral part of The Japan Times since 1991. Besides his editorial cartoons lampooning current affairs, Dahl’s long-running “Zero Gravity” comic strip has left its mark with its comedic take on expat life in Japan.
That enduring relationship will come to an end this month as Dahl closes a chapter of his career with his final contribution to the paper.
A native of Washington state, Dahl got his start as a cartoonist at university and community publications before coming to Japan, like countless others, to teach English. After two years, he began drawing on those experiences for his first cartoons.
So did Dahl’s editorial cartoons lead to his Zero Gravity comic strip or was it the other way around.
Turns out it was simultaneous. From a 2015 interview with The Japan Times cartoonist (or here):
Like his cartoon counterpart Larry, Dahl was teaching English at a junior high school in 1991 when he tentatively put together a few strips with a view to submitting them for publication. Against the well-intentioned advice of a journalist friend, who warned him he stood no chance of success, he sent his work to the four major English daily newspapers operating in Japan at the time.
I was hoping I would hear back from even one of the papers, so I was delighted when two said they were interested in my work,” he says. Dahl chose The Japan Times as he thought there was more scope for growth with the paper, and the rest is history.
But it wasn’t the prototype for what would become Zero Gravity” that initially drew the newspaper痴 interest. I threw in one of my political cartoons at the last moment, just for variety, really. And it was that cartoon that got me in!
It comes as a surprise to learn that Dahl left Japan in 1995 for family reasons and has been living back in Seattle ever since. He fully expected his departure from Japan to signal the end of his cartooning for The Japan Times, so was gratified when the editors asked him to continue.
While admitting it is occasionally challenging, Dahl says the Internet has made it entirely possible for a U.S.-based cartoonist to keep current with trends in Japanese politics and popular culture.
Roger Dahl worked for The Japan Times from February 1991 to January 2026.
That doesn’t mean he’s retiring, though.
“One of the biggest factors in moving on from The Japan Times after 35 years is wanting to devote more time to new creative adventures,” Dahl says during an online interview from his Seattle home. “Children’s books, young adult literature, graphic novels and animation. I’ve been asked to make a brief animation for my church’s upcoming 125th anniversary, and I’m excited to see if I can figure out how to do it.”
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