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November 12, 2025
 

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LIFE

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Lifestyle
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 qualifying countries scoured the streets of Shibuya for all manners of trash as part of the Spogomi litter-picking competition.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Cleanliness gets competitive at Tokyo’s Spogomi world cup
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 countries scoured Tokyo’s streets for discarded wrappers, crushed cans and cigarette butts.
LIFE / Lifestyle
‘Deep Blue,’ ‘Morning Sun,’ ‘Clear Sky’: Japan’s top baby names for 2025
Single-kanji names jumped in popularity this year, possibly in reaction to a new law aiming to crack down on overly creative ”kira kira” names.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Bodybuilders find new calling in Japan’s struggling care industry
A Nagoya firm is tackling Japan’s caregiver shortage by recruiting bodybuilders — offering gym perks, protein subsidies and purpose.
Shunsuke Takahashi, owner of the cafe Hood by Vargas, says the Osaka neighborhood of Nakatsu feels brighter and calmer with the influx of new businesses.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 21, 2025
Nakatsu keeps its cool as gentrification looms
By Edward Hewes
Named one of Time Out’ magazine's “world’s coolest neighborhoods,” the residents of Osaka’s Nakatsu hope the area can retain its balance of old and new that makes it special.
Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood is a haven for book lovers, its rows of secondhand bookstores spilling over with printed materials.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 18, 2025
What does Jimbocho think of its unexpected ‘cool’ status?
By Phoebe Amoroso
The book town's residents weigh in on their home topping Time Out magazine's “coolest neighborhoods” list.
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 4, 2025
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
By Edward Hewes
Run by three generations of the same family, Ryokukou Garden is behind the greenery for five major pavilions at the Osaka event.
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 6, 2025
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
By Justin Randall
A new luxury resort might halt the decline of Kawayu, but only if locals and businesses can agree on how to move forward.
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 23, 2025
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
By Yuko Tamura
The monster dolls may be driving fans wild elsewhere, but Japan has long had plenty of its own domestically produced characters that know exactly what consumers want.
A catch-all term for tendonitis and arthritis caused by excessive smartphone use, 'sumaho yubi' may be difficult to treat for gadget-crazy Japan.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 22, 2025
Fingers sore from too much phone time? You might have ‘sumaho yubi.’
By Mai Yoshikawa
One doctor says the symptoms of smartphone-induced tendonitis and arthritis are on the rise for those in the 20s, 30s and 40s.
Now part of the city of Kitakyushu, the former castle town of Kokura, its collection of retro architecture and many of its inhabitants were once targeted for atomic catastrophe that eventually befell the population of Nagasaki to the south.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 9, 2025
A walk through Kokura, the city spared nuclear destruction
By Edward J. Taylor
Now part of the industrial sprawl of Kitakyushu, the city was originally meant to suffer the destruction that would eventually befall Nagasaki to the south.

Tokyo ranked world’s richest city by GDP, with Osaka-Kobe also rated highly
Tokyo has a gross domestic product of $2.55 trillion, just ahead of New York’s $2.49 trillion and Greater Los Angeles’ $1.62 trillion, according to CEOWorld’s global wealth index.
Takaichi stands firm on controversial Taiwan contingency remarks
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi responds to questions during a session of the House of Representatives' Budget Committee in parliament in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years
Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Tokyo looks to keep ‘monster parents’ at bay with new protocols
New guidelines are addressing struggles by teachers to deal with the burden of parents who make irrational complaints that go beyond what is considered socially acceptable, often referred to as "monster parents," which is overwhelming their workload.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Florist Nicolai Bergmann flourishes outside the box
Florist Nicolai Bergmann shops for fresh flowers at the Ota flower market in Tokyo on Friday.
Jenson Button brings end to an illustrious racing career intertwined with Japan
Jenson Button races for Honda during the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2008.
Cleanliness gets competitive at Tokyo’s Spogomi world cup
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 qualifying countries scoured the streets of Shibuya for all manners of trash as part of the Spogomi litter-picking competition.
Jon Homewood: ‘There’s beauty in what we throw away’
After a peripatetic childhood around the world, teacher and artist Jon Homewood ended up coming to Japan in 2012 for a professional opportunity.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.

Podcast

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

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years
By Yukana Inoue

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality
Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

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