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November 21, 2025
 

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CULTURE

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Mari Yamamoto (left) stars alongside Brendan Fraser in “Rental Family,” a film about services that provide stand-in friends and family for hire.
CULTURE / Film
'Rental Family' brings real-world insight to modern loneliness
Actor Mari Yamamoto drew on her journalist’s eye to bring authenticity to her role in a film about hired stand-in friends and family.
CULTURE / Film
Mamoru Hosoda’s ‘Scarlet’ takes on ‘Hamlet’ with bold visual departure
The Oscar-nominated director re-imagines the Shakespearean tale as an animated quest through the afterlife.
CULTURE / Film
‘Blonde’: Conformist classrooms get a satirical makeover
Yuichiro Sakashita’s comedy takes aim at Japan’s obsession with uniformity, bureaucracy and adults who fear growing up.
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 19, 2025
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
By Thu-Huong Ha
The new “Rental Family” film starring Brendan Fraser revisits an irresistible controversy and suggests that while rental family members are fake, they address a real loneliness.
While Fan Bingbing brings emotional energy to the lead role in Chong Keat Aun’s “Mother Bhumi,” the film’s narrative layers don’t coalesce in a satisfying way and ultimately leave the viewer adrift.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2025
At TIFF, East Asia’s veteran stars tread new territory with mixed results
By Mike Fu
Fan Bingbing, Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro stepped into their darkest roles yet — but the stories didn’t rise to meet them.
Hiroshi Tachi (left, with Gordon Maeda) plays a yakuza turned fisherman who takes self-sacrifice to the extreme in Michihito Fujii’s “A Light in the Harbor.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2025
Predictability weighs down ‘A Light in the Harbor’
By James Hadfield
Michihito Fujii’s yakuza drama is determinedly old-fashioned — and not in a good way.
An elderly woman (Chieko Baisho, right) revisits memorable spots in her life with the help of a taciturn taxi driver (Takuya Kimura, left) in “Tokyo Taxi.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2025
‘Tokyo Taxi’: A simple fare becomes a voyage through time
By Mark Schilling
With heart and humor, veteran director Yoji Yamada’s 91st film may be his most moving yet.
Tatsuya Nakadai had the look of a leading man in his youth, but his large and searching eyes suggested the pain and loneliness of an old soul.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2025
Tatsuya Nakadai: A masterful leading man and postwar icon
By Mark Schilling
Tatsuya Nakadai worked with nearly every major Japanese director of the postwar era, but it was his collaborations with Akira Kurosawa that cemented his legacy.
Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "Morte Cucina," starring Bella Boonsang, is a food film par excellence.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
Asian auteurs stole the show at this year's TIFF
By Mike Fu
Zhang Lu and Pen-ek Ratanaruang delivered standout entries at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Made at a time when Japan was still grappling with Yukio Mishima’s legacy, Paul Schrader’s biopic “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” was blocked from screening in the country for decades.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
A 40-year wait for ‘Mishima’ ends at TIFF
By James Hadfield
Paul Schrader’s 1985 biopic of the radical author Yukio Mishima finds its Japanese audience at last.

Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Beware of China’s strategic distortion of reality
China holds a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3. 
Yen rout brings talk of ¥160 to the dollar and possible intervention
The yen has been weak against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks, with some analysts expecting the retreat to continue.
China to reimpose ban on Japanese seafood imports amid row over Taiwan, reports say
A sign reading, "Suspend the sales of all fish products imported from Japan" is displayed in an area home to Japanese restaurants in Beijing in August 2023. China will reimpose a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, media reports in Tokyo said Wednesday, as a diplomatic spat between the two countries deepens.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
By Kathryn Wortley

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Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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