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July 27, 2024
 

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Naoki Prize winner Michi Ichiho (left), and Akutagawa Prize winners Sanzo K. Matsunaga (center) and Aki Asahina pose with their award-winning books at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books
Three novelists named for Akutagawa and Naoki awards
Authors Sanzo K. Matsunaga and Aki Asahina won the Akutagawa Prize for literary writers, while the Naoki Prize for genre fiction went to Michi Ichiho.
CULTURE / Books
‘Love and Whiskey’: A tale of how an obsession delivered a woman from grief
Through Fawn Weaver’s efforts, bracketed within a personal tragedy, the true story of how Jack Daniel learned how to make whiskey from a Black slave comes to life.
CULTURE / Books
‘The Night of Baba Yaga’ weaves a yakuza thriller into a meditation on queerness
Translator Sam Bett gravitated to the Akira Otani novel for its refusal to adhere to established genre conventions.
Richard Katz argues in his new book that the key to Japan emerging from decades of economic sluggishness depends on stimulating companies with high energy and dynamism, over the lumbering, older firms.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2024
Hope for Japan, if the elephants get out of the way
By Brad Glosserman
Protecting older companies, the jobs they have produced and the political and financial relationships they have nurtured, starves newer, more innovative businesses.
Natsuko Imamura’s new short story collection "Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks" explores the worlds of three alienated girls whose problems are anything but typical.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 16, 2024
‘Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks’: Uncanny tales of troubled young women
By Thu-Huong Ha
Natsuko Imamura's narrators are young women with dogged resolve, few scruples and a naivete that borders on delusion.
In “A Gentleman from Japan,” Thomas Lockley lays out the history of English exploration around the globe during the 16th century, delving into the life of the first recorded Japanese person to set foot in the United Kingdom, the United States and South America.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 2, 2024
'A Gentleman from Japan': A journey of firsts in the age of exploration
By Iain Maloney
Written in fast, novelistic prose, Thomas Lockley uses the thread of one Japanese man’s experience to guide his readers into a complex world of suspicion and danger.
Sokyo Ono’s “Shinto: The Kami Spirit World of Japan” reveals how a mystic sense of nature lies at the heart of Shinto.
CULTURE / Books
May 31, 2024
'Shinto: The Kami Spirit World of Japan': A helpful guide to uncovering an integral part of Japanese life
By Steve John Powell
Sokyo Ono’s book provides a concise introduction to all the fundamental elements of Shinto, including its symbols, beliefs and deities.
People take selfies at a pop-up shop for the Japanese volleyball manga series "Haikyu!!" in Tokyo on April 19. Men's volleyball is flying high in Japan with the national team ranked fourth globally ahead of the Paris Olympics.
CULTURE / Books
May 22, 2024
'Haikyu!!': Comic heroes fuel Olympic volleyball manga mania in Japan
By Tomohiro Osaki
"Haikyu!!" has sold 60 million copies since its 2012 inception, and has been turned into an anime series and a film.
A young woman who has just turned 20 moves in with an eccentric distant cousin in Tokyo after her mother moves to China in Nanae Aoyama's “A Perfect Day to Be Alone.”
CULTURE / Books
May 21, 2024
'A Perfect Day to Be Alone': A touching and relatable examination of growing up
By Kris Kosaka
Nanae Aoyama’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novella captures the lonely juncture between adolescence and adulthood.
After his family loses its political influence, Prince Takaoka leaves his life in Japan behind and embarks on an adventure across Asia in Tatsuhiko Shibusawa’s “Takaoka’s Travels.”
CULTURE / Books
May 14, 2024
‘Takaoka’s Travels’: The fantastical romp of a real-life royal turned monk
By Thu-Huong Ha
Tatsuhiko Shibusawa’s outlandish novel is based on a real-life Japanese prince who set out for India, only to go missing along the way.

Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
One dead, three missing as heavy rain batters Tohoku
Camera footage shows the Mogami River bursting its banks in Tozawa, Yamagata Prefecture, on Friday morning.
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
Yen rally could help end crushing wage decay in Japan
Some economists say a sticky weak yen trend would have a negative impact on Japan's real wage growth.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Terunofuji, as he tends to do, returns to stamp his authority on sumo pretenders
Terunofuji (left) throws down Kirishima on Tuesday to build on his perfect record at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament.
Japanese startups advised to internationalize to get some global mojo
Entrepreneurs who participated in the Beyond Japan Zero to X program last year share their experiences in the United States during a meeting in May in Tokyo.

Podcast

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

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality
mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

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