Almost nothing is known of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's early years with warlord Oda Nobunaga, but by 1570 we see him commanding a detachment, 3,000 strong, in battle against a Nobunaga rival. The peasant boy has come a long way.

The ubiquitous word "productivity" last summer acquired a new meaning — or at least a new twist. Members of the LGBT community, wrote Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mio Sugita, "do not reproduce. In other words, they are unproductive. I wonder if it is appropriate ...

Maybe we're immortal. It's not a new idea. Christianity's appeal over 2,000 years rests largely on its promise of eternal life. In Japanese Buddhism, the soul passes from life to life — a dreadful prospect, it was held, which only the enlightened escaped. Buddhist karma ...

In 1590, having already subdued Kyushu and northeast Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi successfully took Osaka Castle after a three-month siege. But with opposition defeated, what happened next?

What a strange place a school is — a world within a world, a society within a society. Kids grow up in it asking themselves, "Is the real world like this?" Yes and no. It is and it isn't. In December, the weekly Aera published the ...

Sodanē. What an innocent, carefree year it must have been to spawn so bland a word of the year. It has a nice ring to it, especially when spoken with the Hokkaido lilt the women's curling team — surprise bronze medalists — gave it during ...

There's no such place as Imizustan. Warabistan is equally fictitious. "Stan" means "homeland" in ancient Persian — hence Pakistan, Afghanistan and so on. A substantial Pakistani community in Imizu, Toyama Prefecture, spawned the nickname Imizustan. Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, hosts a growing community of Kurds. ...

Spectacular battle scenes, honorable deaths and tragic pathos, "The Tale of Heike" is like Japan's very own "Iliad."

Do I really need this operation? Is this medication really good for me? Does my doctor really know what ails me? Who can you trust? Which of the following leading Japanese businesses, for example: Nissan Motor Co.? Subaru Corp.? Toray Industries Inc.? Kobe Steel Ltd.? ...

Japanese art has a quality all its own. The ancient and the avant-garde merge. Prehistoric figurines seem 10,000 years deep rather than 10,000 years old. And modern art takes us back even as it propels us forward. Manga, for instance, predates its name by ...