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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 17, 2022

On Chiba's coast, a secret herb garden thrives

Hiromi Sasaki left her life in Osaka and Tokyo behind. Her new one? Grown straight from the soil of the Boso Peninsula.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 30, 2022

For the most complex heroines in animation, look to Japan

The girls and women of anime tend to experience the conflicting emotions of real life. That's because the auteurs try to create “an everyday, real person.”
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 3, 2022

Indian traditions entwine with trees in green drive to revive land

From weddings, births and funerals to festivals such as Holi, plants and trees have become centerpieces of local culture in Rajasthan.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 3, 2022

They fell deeply in love in Bucha. One Russian bullet ended it all.

Iryna Abramova has lost almost everything: her husband, her home, three of her four pets; her life savings, in cash, turned to ash.
In Hideo Yokoyama’s “The North Light,” an architect sets out to solve a mystery when he finds out the family he built a prizewinning house for has vanished.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 23, 2024

'The North Light': One man's psychological journey subverts the crime genre

Hideo Yokoyama's novel centered on a man confronting the shattered pieces of his life offers a look into post-bubble Japan's architectural world.
Directed and co-written by Sunao Katabuchi, animated film “In This Corner of the World” depicts the beauty of nature and the horrors of war with equal potency.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2024

Films that give the Japanese perspective of the atomic bomb

Movies about the nation's darkest days — in genres such as dramas, fantasies and anime — offer another side to Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' story.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024

Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan

"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
A helmet jellyfish recorded at depth in the Lurefjord, Norway. The creatures experience acute physical effects from short-term exposure to suspended sediment, which could be caused by deep-sea mining.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Apr 7, 2024

The weird deep-sea world, and how mining threatens it

Demand for metals such as lithium and nickel has driven a rush to take a stake in the seabed, with Japan being a major advocate of deep-sea mining.
Supporters of the Senior Women for Climate Protection association outside the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, on March 29, 2023
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 8, 2024

How three European human rights cases could shape climate litigation

The verdicts will set a precedent for future litigation on how rising temperatures affect people's right to a livable planet.
Pro-life demonstrators listen to U.S. President Donald Trump as he speaks at the 47th annual "March for Life" in Washington on January 24, 2020.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 10, 2024

Trump making a risky bet on abortion as he seeks re-election

Trump has taken credit for the surprise overturning of the federal right to abortion in 2022.
After a string of contractual issues over guarantor service for the elderly, the government aims to introduce specific regulations to ensure that users can access support with confidence.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 25, 2024

Japan to draw up guidelines for elderly guarantor services

Demand for guarantor services is rising due to the growing number of elderly living alone
Over the past two years, 2.4 million people arrived in Canada, more than the population of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Yet Canada barely added enough housing that would cater to just the residents of the New Mexico capital of Albuquerque.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 6, 2024

Global housing shortages are crushing immigration-fueled growth

In developed economies such as Canada, Australia and the U.K., life is getting tougher for both locals and immigrants alike.
Her, a self-described feminist bar in Shanghai, on March 15. Women in Shanghai gather in bars, salons and bookstores to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 7, 2024

In China, ruled by men, women quietly find a powerful voice

Women in Shanghai gather to reclaim their identities as the country’s leader calls for China to adopt a “childbearing culture.”
Andre Hayato Saito’s latest short, “Amarela,” centers on a 14-year-old Japanese Brazilian girl (Melissa Uehara).
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2024

Cannes nominee on being 'too Brazilian to be Japanese, too Japanese to be Brazilian’

Andre Hayato Saito's Palme d’Or-nominated short film, “Amarela,” is rooted in the director's own experiences with searching for a sense of belonging.
A young woman who has just turned 20 moves in with an eccentric distant cousin in Tokyo after her mother moves to China in Nanae Aoyama's “A Perfect Day to Be Alone.”
CULTURE / Books
May 21, 2024

'A Perfect Day to Be Alone': A touching and relatable examination of growing up

Nanae Aoyama’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novella captures the lonely juncture between adolescence and adulthood.
Simon Cheng, a pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong now living in Britain, at the offices of an organization he founded to aid new Hong Kong arrivals, in London on May 20. Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers have resettled in the United Kingdom since 2021, including prominent pro-democracy activists — and China has not forgotten them.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 27, 2024

Spying arrests send chill through Britain’s thriving Hong Kong community

The arrests have cast a spotlight on activists’ concerns about China's surveillance of its critics abroad.
In “A Gentleman from Japan,” Thomas Lockley lays out the history of English exploration around the globe during the 16th century, delving into the life of the first recorded Japanese person to set foot in the United Kingdom, the United States and South America.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 2, 2024

'A Gentleman from Japan': A journey of firsts in the age of exploration

Written in fast, novelistic prose, Thomas Lockley uses the thread of one Japanese man’s experience to guide his readers into a complex world of suspicion and danger.
However non-Japanese fathers in Japan manage the vagaries of life abroad, many share a preference for forging ahead for the benefit of their children.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 14, 2024

There’s no one-size-fits-all fatherhood for foreign-born dads in Japan

From Hokkaido to Okinawa, fathers in Japan talk getting married, raising kids and taking life as it comes.
Father's Day is said to have come to Japan around 1950, shortly after the establishment of Mother's Day.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 15, 2024

The evolving nature of fatherhood in Japan

Meiji Era fathers were stern, those from Showa had to be productive for the nation. Heisei dads were told to get involved at home. What will the "Reiwa Dad" look like?
Anti-abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court in Washington on June 14.
WORLD / Society
Jun 19, 2024

'Unthinkable' normalized two years after U.S. abortion ruling

From medics to single mothers to abused minors, Americans from all walks of life have been affected.
Occupational therapist Mitsuyoshi Okutsu interacts with children at Kamioka Elementary School in Hida, Gifu Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jul 1, 2024

Occupational therapists join the ranks of staff at Gifu schools

It is estimated that there are around 110,000 occupational therapists in Japan, working mainly at hospitals and welfare facilities.
While Japan may not have a large market for English-language publications, there's still hope to grow your career overseas while living here.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jul 1, 2024

How to make it as an English-language author in Japan

Some writers find career stability in teaching, while others find that the culture and vibrance of this country inspires their imaginations.
Durian Lollobrigida and his co-hosts — actors Megumi and Chiaki Horan, singer Thelma Aoyama and former “Terrace House” panelist Yoshimi Tokui — offer in-studio commentary on the contestants’ footage in Netflix’s new reality dating show, “The Boyfriend.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 13, 2024

'The Boyfriend' host Durian Lollobrigida puts a face to queer joy

Involvement in Netflix's new reality dating show is just the latest success in the Japanese drag queen's rise.
One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 22, 2024

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Homeless influencers, fantasy boyfriends and bubble-era bars — Kabukicho seems to have it all.
Athletes who are part of the Refugee Olympic Team participate in the Parade of Nations on the River Seine during the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics on July 26.
OLYMPICS
Aug 6, 2024

Refugee Olympic Team representing displaced people and making its mark in Paris

The refugee team, which first competed at the 2016 Games, will walk away from the Paris Olympics with one medal and potentially more.
A fan poses for photos next to a poster of trot singer Lim Young-woong before attending his concert in Seoul in May.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 9, 2024

Trotting ahead of K-pop? South Korean crooner Lim Young-woong rivals BTS

The traditional South Korean music genre of trot includes elements of jazz, swing and enka.
Produced by Toei Animation, “Girls Band Cry” follows five young women who form a band and navigate the Japanese rock landscape.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Aug 17, 2024

Prepare for a new wave of anime-born bands

'Girls Band Cry' and its in-real-life band Togenashi Togeari offer the latest evolution of mixed-media music projects.
Takako Yamashita, a descendant of a former Japanese resident of the Russian-controlled islands called the Northern Territories, seeks to preserve memories of life on the isles through the creation of pictorial maps.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2024

Memories of Russian-held isles preserved through pictorial maps

The maps feature the names of residents on each house and colorful illustrations of flora and fauna, as well as scenes from daily life.
Existential risks like bioterrorism or climate change, created by humans, are not being treated by governments with anything like the seriousness or urgency they deserve.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2024

Will we survive the next 100 years?

Existential risks like bioterrorism or climate change, created by humans, are not being treated by governments with anything like the seriousness or urgency they deserve.
Since arriving in Japan, Adrian Bianco has dedicated himself to exploring the country’s many subcultures at the website sabukaru.online.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 30, 2024

Adrian Bianco: ‘Leaving your comfort zone keeps you alive’

Upon relocating in Tokyo after a stint with the Vice empire in Germany, Adrian Bianco has explored Asia's underground via his website Sabukaru Online.

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