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Tourists make their way through Tokyo's Asakusa neighborhood in March 2020.

New frontier: The future of tourism in Japan

by Alex K.T. Martin

The COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time for Japan’s tourism industry. The nation was anticipating an influx of big-spending foreign travelers to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The quadrennial sporting extravaganza was postponed for a year, however, and is now slated to be ...

On April 1, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s in-house video game developer, Japan Studio, was restructured around a single team.

A shaky future for Sony’s Japan Studio after mass staff exodus

by Brian Ashcraft

Since the original PlayStation launched in 1994, the Tokyo-based Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment) established itself as a leader in gaming hardware. Sony hadn’t merely released one of the most popular game consoles of all time, but it also had its own in-house vide...

Remnants: Shoes for a man, a woman and a child left in the Aokigahara Jukai forest on the flank of Mount Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture. The name in part translates as "Sea of Trees," though with good reason it is often referred to as "Suicide Forest."

Inside Aokigahara, Japan’s ‘Suicide Forest’

by Rob Gilhooly

I am walking through Aokigahara Jukai forest, the light rapidly fading on a mid-winter afternoon, when I am stopped dead in my tracks by a blood-curdling scream. The natural reaction would be to run, but the forest floor is a maze of roots and slippery rocks and, truth be told, I am lost in this ...

Members of cheer squad Japan Pom Pom post for commemorative photos before filming a dance routine for an online performance in Tokyo, Japan, April 12.

‘As our leader says, try anything’: Japan’s silver-haired cheer squad

by Elaine Lies

Pompoms rustle and silver shoes flash as Japan Pom Pom practices, moving to a lively cheer dance beat. With members age 60 to 89, they're no ordinary squad. But don't you dare call them grannies. "Right at the start, we weren't very happy about being called 'granny cheer dancers,'" says Fum...

Colorful koinobori streamers move like swimming carps in the breeze on Children’s Day.

What is Golden Week and why does it matter?

by Russell Thomas

Golden Week is big business. A cluster of holidays that results in an extended break for most of Japan, it is also a time when huge swaths of the population embark on domestic and international vacations. But this year, due to COVID-19, Golden Week is going to be different. Although it looks l...