With a lockdown looming, it has never been a better time to update your emergency earthquake kit.

This year’s edition of the Japan Nite event at the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) was going to be special. It would have marked the event’s 25th anniversary of showcasing Japanese artists to fans in Austin, Texas, with a North American ...

While people on social media have largely been preoccupied with the pandemic, the most buzzed-about happening online in Japan involves a crocodile — don’t roll your eyes just yet — which, at some point, transformed into a commentary on the follies of capitalism and ...

This year's hanami season is shaping up to be a weird one. The beginning of spring rarely forces people to choose between having a good time under the cherry blossoms and grappling with a pandemic, but that's where we’re at in 2020. For those proactively ...

Choirs full of Swedish children typically don’t break into song at Narita Airport. That’s precisely what happened last Monday night, however, when a youth group called Nova Cantica found itself stranded at the transport hub and decided to pass the time by singing in ...

Typhoon Jebi caused all sorts of damage when the storm — the most powerful in 25 years to hit the country — tore through western Japan earlier this month. The typhoon wreaked havoc wherever it went, even damaging the roof of Kyoto Station, sending shards of ...

Even the most innocuous upload can carry political baggage online in 2018. It’s a truth Western users have become used to, where a pancake restaurant’s idiotic rebranding strategy can become a discussion about the appropriation of gang culture. Recent examples show that Japanese netizens ...

Everyone in Tokyo has a commuting horror story, but sometimes you need to see an example of some really rough behavior on the trains with your own eyes to understand just how bad some people have it. An act of violence recorded on a smartphone ...

One person’s cultural observations can be another’s daily gripes but, with any luck, they can lead to an enlightening debate. That was the case last week when a blog post about one non-Japanese individual’s experience working in the country’s information technology sector proved popular ...

Another month, another celebrity controversy in Japan. This time, however, the commotion over J-pop producer Tetsuya Komuro’s alleged affair and subsequent retirement might mark the moment that netizens rejected the country’s obsession with scandals. It also allowed those who might fall under the media ...