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August 21, 2025
 

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JAPAN

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History
Noe Ito (third from right) was editor-in-chief of feminist magazine Seito and her partner Sakae Osugi (second from right) was a prominent anarchist of the Taisho Era. Both were murdered by military police in 1923.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Taisho Democracy: A turbulent, tenuous era of conflicting ideals
The resilience of Japanese politics, culture and society were tested during the 14 years of the Taisho Era (1912-26).
JAPAN / History / Longform
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
An decades-long effort to recover the remains of those who died during World War II, most of them abroad, may be entering its final phase.
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Civilian air raid survivors fight for recognition 80 years after war's end
After drafting a bill to provide concrete relief to survivors this spring, a bipartisan group of lawmakers failed to submit it to parliament days before the session’s closure.
Katsutoshi Takegami, 77, in his storehouse attic where he discovered his father's Unit 1644 documents
JAPAN / History
Aug 13, 2025
Hidden rosters and the legacy of Japan’s germ warfare
By Tomoko Otake
In a dusty box, a Nagano man finds proof his father served in Nanjing, China, with Unit 1644, part of Japan’s covert biological weapons network during World War II.
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
JAPAN / History
Aug 13, 2025
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
By Tomoko Otake
For 95-year-old Hideo Shimizu, the 4½ months he spent with the biological and chemical warfare unit of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army were just like yesterday.
Kimi Ozawa, who lost her husband in the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet, prays in front of his memorial marker on Tuesday in the village of Ueno, Gunma Prefecture.
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 12, 2025
Controversial theories continue to swirl around 1985 JAL jet crash
By Kazuaki Nagata
Some bereaved family members and critics who subscribe to the idea of possible SDF involvement say the initial probe left too many loose ends untied.
Ralph Edwards (far left), Capt. Robert Lewis (rear left), Bertha Starkey (rear center), Marvin Green (rear right), Kiyoshi (seated, left) and Chisa Tanimoto (seated, right), Koko Kondo (front left) and her three younger siblings, on the show “This Is Your Life,” on May 11, 1955
JAPAN / History / FOCUS
Aug 12, 2025
How an A-bomb survivor found forgiveness for Hiroshima bombers
By Himari Semans
Koko Kondo’s anger was extinguished when she saw the co-pilot of the Enola Gay bomber recall with regret what he and his crew had done on Aug. 6, 1945.
Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 8, 2025
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person
By Naoko Abe
At 17, Koichi Tagawa survived Nagasaki’s atomic blast and recording two months of grief, destruction and the loss of his mother in a diary he kept for life.
A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 6, 2025
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped
By Elizabeth Beattie
As a 7-year-old boy in Hiroshima, Howard Kakita was hoping to catch the vapor trail of a B-29 bomber. A sudden blast knocked him out.
In August 1950, The Japan Times reported on the canceling of Hiroshima's fifth annual peace ceremony due to the Korean War.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Aug 2, 2025
Japan Times 1950: Hiroshima peace festival canceled
In August 1950, the fifth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the city’s annual ceremony praying for peace was canceled due to ongoing combat on the Korean Peninsula.

JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
Schools get students involved in revision of unreasonable ‘black rules’
At Yawata Junior High School in Nagoya, there are no more rules on clothing and hairstyles. Students are free to wear either the school's uniform or clothes of their own choosing.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Japanese man suspected of ordering double murder in Manila
Two suspects arrested over the killing of two Japanese last week are held in restraints in Manila on Tuesday.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.
In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.

Podcast

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

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

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