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November 22, 2025
 

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LIFE

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Lifestyle
As bear attacks spike across northern Japan, the country's community of nature enthusiasts say that while the risk might be high now, enjoying the outdoors is still possible with the proper precautions.
LIFE / Lifestyle
‘Be bear aware’: Japan’s outdoor pros sound off on ursine risks
Japan’s nature researchers, hunters and trail runners reflect on how a spike in bear activity affects their professions and hobbies.
LIFE / Lifestyle
At Ginza’s newest hotel, luxury is a private treasure
With “onsen” baths in every room, Fufu Tokyo brings its modernized take on the traditional Japanese inn to the capital.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Tokyo's viral Muscle Girls bar flexes a brawny sort of beauty
Staff at the viral nightlife spot say embracing a new beauty standard helps them shed societal expectations on femininity.
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
Nov 9, 2025
Cleanliness gets competitive at Tokyo’s Spogomi world cup
By Erik Augustin Palm
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 countries scoured Tokyo’s streets for discarded wrappers, crushed cans and cigarette butts.
Parents in Japan consider everything from kanji meaning, sound and total strokes when choosing names for their newborns.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 8, 2025
‘Deep Blue,’ ‘Morning Sun,’ ‘Clear Sky’: Japan’s top baby names for 2025
By Yuko Tamura
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.
Care worker and bodybuilder Hokuto Tatsumi helps a woman train at a care home for people with disabilities operated by Visionary in Aichi prefecture.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 28, 2025
Bodybuilders find new calling in Japan’s struggling care industry
By Tomohiro Osaki
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.

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.
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.
Yen and Japanese bonds continue to retreat as verbal intervention lacking
The yen has deepened recent lows against the dollar as the 'sell Japan' trade gains steam ahead of big fiscal stimulus.
A dictionary revision illustrates how Japanese keeps on evolving
The reference text A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar recently underwent a revision for the first time in nearly four decades.
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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