Menu
Search
 
April 25, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

COMMUNITY

Voices

Our Lives
How-tos
Issues
Voices
Megumi Koiwai (left) found refuge in writing and storytelling that allowed her to reconcile with her heritage and upbringing.
COMMUNITY / Voices
A community of stories: Making space for reflection and dialogue in Tokyo and beyond
Through conversations with an international writing workshop, a writer of mixed heritage finds steadier footing and a sense of self.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Black History Month in 2025: The boundaries between 'us' and 'them'
Our columnist reflects on the fraught ideologies of race from both sides of the Pacific.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Home away from home: My first time at a Tet festival in Japan
A longtime resident of Japan attends Saitama’s first public celebration of Vietnam’s most important holiday.
Writer Baye McNeil and his wife, Miki, host a Kwanzaa gathering in Yokohama together. The end of the year at the McNeil’s home is a mix of several different holiday traditions, including those of Kwanzaa.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Dec 23, 2024
A holiday season built on creativity and care
By Baye McNeil
Fusing African heritage with Japanese spirituality, our columnist crafted a holiday season that celebrates cultural understanding.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida accepts a gift of 'dekopon' citruses, a specialty product and symbol of Kumamoto Prefecture, from Kumamon, itself a mascot and instantly recognizeable symbol of the region.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 28, 2024
Japan’s ‘meibutsu’-industrial complex is a wonder to behold
By Jordan Allen
If you name a Japanese prefecture, many locals will instantly be able to tell you something that the region is famous for or a product synonymous with that area.
Time is nearly up for the hordes of insects that are thriving more than ever in Japan's increasingly boiling summer.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 23, 2024
Saying good riddance to what bugs me about a Japanese summer
By Jordan Allen
For an arachnophobe in Japan, the fall, winter and spring just can’t come quick — and stay long — enough.
Summer in Japan is now consistently brutal enough to drive you indoors and keep you there until autumn.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 27, 2024
When did summer in Japan stop being fun?
By Thu-Huong Ha
Summer in Japan used to be something to enjoy. Now, it’s something to endure.
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 15, 2024
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
By Jordan Allen
I do have a unit, and I dutifully clean the filters now and then, but over the past two or three years, I’ve learned to live entirely without it.
Perhaps being seen in the company of your own children in the right places — playgrounds, schools, etc. — can make you seem more approachable and allow children to say exactly what’s on their mind.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 24, 2024
‘You’re a spy, then?’ The odd interactions of a non-Japanese father in Japan
By Jordan Allen
Remember to keep your ears open whenever you’re near children and you’re guaranteed to hear something that’ll make you think.
Opal Lee, the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," visited Japan last month shortly after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden.
COMMUNITY / Voices / Black Eye
Jun 14, 2024
U.S. civil rights icon Opal Lee brings her Juneteenth walk to Tokyo
By Baye McNeil
Juneteenth, held on the 19th of the month, celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. Opal Lee sees it as more than an American holiday.

Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Nintendo says demand for Switch 2 console in Japan is overwhelming
An attendee plays with the Nintendo Switch 2 gaming device at a media event in Tokyo on April 3.
Top Japanese firms scrap employment system that held women back
MUFG Bank, a unit of the nation’s biggest banking group, is among firms that recently scrapped a clerical job category that consisted almost exclusively of women, a sign that the financial sector is finally getting more serious about reducing gender inequalities.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.
Cases of epidural use in labor rise in Japan alongside concerns
Of the 721,000 childbirths reported in 2024 in Japan, 13.8% involved the use of an epidural, according to the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

Latest News

Japanese supermarket sales up for fifth straight year in fiscal 2024
6 hours ago
LDP plans to submit pension reform bill in mid-May
6 hours ago
Nissan sees $5.3 billion red hole as restructuring losses mount
7 hours ago
Government ordered to pay over sexual assault by lawmaker's ex-aide
7 hours ago
Narita Airport reports 16% increase in passengers
8 hours ago