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Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 21, 2022

Culture in 2022: Good books, outdoor art and 'Tokyo Vice'

Culture editor Alyssa I. Smith talks to culture critic Thu-Huong Ha about the books they read, the festivals they went to and how Japanese stories are currently capturing Hollywood's attention.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 16, 2022

'Everything Everywhere All at Once' costume designer Shirley Kurata becomes the story

With the success of the film 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' the work of Shirley Kurata is in demand, but her personal style has always had its own fans.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jun 11, 2022

Can unlikely friendships kickstart fashion’s lackluster recovery?

Breaking down brand barriers may be the only way forward for Tokyo's couturiers
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / Longform
Mar 14, 2022

Plastic love: Proliferation of PET bottles in Japan complicates a sustainable future

Japan recycles and reuses its ubiquitous plastic container more than almost any other country — but some say it's still not enough.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 19, 2022

Expressing gender: Fresh approaches to unisex collections

A diverse fashion market is one that is broad enough to include everyone.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 23, 2022

Exploring the poetry of an exiled emperor on the Oki Islands

Go-Toba, Japan's 82nd emperor, used his time in exile to advance the ancient poetic form known as waka.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 18, 2022

Olympic athletes told to leave phones at home to dodge spying in China

Beijing has promised the world's top athletes access to a partially unfettered internet during the Winter Games, but security experts say there are reasons to exercise caution.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
May 23, 2021

Japan’s latest woodwork designs go against the grain

“On: Design” introduces innovative new products inspired by traditional bamboo and wood crafts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 11, 2021

‘Terminal Boredom’ is a treasure trove of Izumi Suzuki’s subversive science fiction

Izumi Suzuki, a prolific writer of speculative science fiction and a counterculture figure in the 1970s and '80s, has gone largely overlooked by modern readers — until now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2021

‘That We May Live’: New Chinese fiction delves into the playfully weird

Explaining the difference between speculative fiction and science fiction can feel like sorting out overlapping nebulae. The main distinction of speculative fiction may be that a story is just barely possible, at a slight remove from reality that veers into the playfully weird. A Japanese author exemplifying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 9, 2021

Flashbacks and fantasy kick off Japan’s 2021 fashion scene

As department stores try to make up for a dismal 2020, recently released capsule collections turn to feel-good, nostalgic escapism.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 19, 2020

There’s a story behind each of Makiko Minagawa’s textiles

The former textile director of Miyake Design Studio is still pushing the boundaries of natural fabric, craftsmanship and sustainability.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Sep 13, 2020

As the industry goes online, fashion trends go retro

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo is still on schedule; Animal Crossing is haute couture; and Wacko Maria celebrates 15 years.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 24, 2020

Plastic pollution flowing into oceans to triple by 2040, study says

The new research offers solutions that could cut the projected volume of plastic entering the ocean by more than 80 percent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jul 19, 2020

Omotenashi Selection 2020: Artisanal items with Japanese flair

The sixth annual Omotenashi Selection recognized 68 products for good design and cultural relevance. Three homeware items caught On: Design's eye.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 12, 2020

The everyday mask gets more designer upgrades

Japan's department stores see a surprising sales recovery in June and masks continue to move high-end.
Japan Times
LIFE / EVENTS AND INFORMATION
Apr 3, 2020

Bold, vibrant stencil art remains alive today

Gazing upon artworks using kappazuri , an innovative Japanese stencil printing technique, similarities can be seen with Japan’s rich tradition of ukiyo-e woodblock printing. Others might recognize an affinity with stenciling techniques found in contemporary street art.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 21, 2020

'The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper': What to do when you lose your shoes? Find them and write

Author Rebecca Otowa came into her writing career late in life. But that doesn't stop her from immortalizing many aspects of her experiences of being part of a traditional Japanese family living in a 350-year-old farmhouse.
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 3, 2025

Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments

NHK's new four-episode miniseries, “After the Quake,” probes the ripple effects of past major disasters across Japanese society.
The transport ministry will consider administrative punishments for Japan Post after carrying out probes.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2025

Government begins probe of Japan Post over improper driver checks

The audit started after it was learned that 75% of post offices offering collection and delivery services across the country had improperly conducted mandatory alcohol checks.
Teru Hasegawa, Esperanto name Verda Majo, wrote leftist political essays during WWII.
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2025

A window into the mind of Esperantist and political activist Teru Hasegawa

During WWII, a young Japanese woman resisted her country's descent into fascism by writing leftist essays, now collected and translated in "Whispers of a Storm."
Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s push to slash rice prices could either mark a populist gesture or ignite a political revolution that challenges the entrenched agricultural lobby and the foundations of postwar conservative power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 30, 2025

Can the 'rice man,' Koizumi, save the day?

Late last week, newly appointed farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced that he aimed to bring the rice price range down to around ¥2,000 per 5 kilograms.
Sega's first brick-and-mortar store in Japan is an example of how the country's video game industry is thinking of its digital products as tangible experiences.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 18, 2025

Sega’s first Japan store signals ‘immersive entertainment’ push

Opened on July 18 in the Shibuya Parco building, the video game company’s brick-and-mortar venture hints at a broader trend in Japan’s gaming landscape.
The portal of the Chosei undersea coal mine in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The remains of workers who died in a 1942 submersion accident were left behind in the mine.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2025

Efforts continue to recover undersea mine workers' remains, decades on

Diving surveys have aimed to find the remains of the 183 workers — 136 from the Korean Peninsula and 47 from Japan.
In the most recent regular session of parliament, problems were highlighted regarding some foreign workers leaving Japan without paying outstanding taxes.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2025

Japan starts survey on foreign nationals' unpaid resident taxes

Some foreign workers end up leaving the country without paying outstanding taxes.
Filmmakers interview the general manager of a Bald Men's club for an upcoming Flix Oven documentary that will be available via the streaming platform Samansa.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Aug 14, 2025

Samansa bets on commuter cinema

As attention spans get shorter, a Japanese startup is banking on short films as easily digestible entertainment.
A worker displays a handful of shredded hard drive pieces for e-waste processing at a facility in Festac, Nigeria, in 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 21, 2025

Urban mining eases the critical minerals crunch 

Governments are waking up to the potential of e-waste recycling, and Japan is leading the way.
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2025

An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills

Well known for its views of Mount Fuji, the mountainous community also holds a growing collection of world-class art.
Osamu Dazai struggled with depression and addiction, themes that were also central to his writing.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 22, 2025

Why Japan’s most melancholic writer speaks to today’s youth

Osamu Dazai's works are enjoying a new boom of retranslations and readers 80 years after they were first published.
Fatimata Madou shows a photo of Mohamat, her 9-month-old child who died of malaria.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 3, 2025

Babies' deaths in Cameroon show how U.S. aid cuts curtail malaria fight

Upon taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump paused all foreign aid, including the President's Malaria Initiative, launched in 2005 by George W. Bush.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell