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August 06, 2025
 

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Okinawan rapper Awich ruled the summer music festival circuit last year. Which act will prove to be the most memorable in 2025?
CULTURE / Music
Jun 23, 2025

Stage dive into summer: Japan’s best music festivals, month by month

The weather will be hot, but the concert calendar is looking even hotter.
South Korean Ambassador to Japan Park Cheol-hee attends an interview on June 17 in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 22, 2025

South Korean envoy calls ties with Japan best ever

The ambassador called for closer relations in the face of deepening cooperation between North Korea and Russia and pressure from China and the current U.S. administration.
A Japanese AI researcher says that instead of fearing superintelligent machines, the world should focus on building a symbiotic relationship with them — a shift in perspective that could reshape the global AI safety debate.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2025

Make the robot your colleague, not overlord

An argument is emerging for an AI future less like "The Terminator" and more like "Astro Boy."
A recent study on the eating habits of Japanese workers has found that those who ate the most washoku were 17% to 20% less likely to show symptoms of depression compared to those who ate it the least.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 25, 2025

Washoku may prevent depression, Japan study says

Participants who ate the most washoku were 17% to 20% less likely to show symptoms of depression compared to those who ate it the least.
Fuji Media Holdings President Osamu Kanemitsu (center) and Kenji Shimizu (right), the president of Fuji TV, who serves on the board of Fuji TV's parent, at the annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 25, 2025

Fuji TV parent secures approval for new board members at shareholders meeting

The focus was on how much support there was for the proposal of activist Dalton Investments, which reportedly holds 7.5% of shares in the company.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025

Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators

Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.
In a statement on their official website, Tokio said it had decided to disband following a compliance violation by Taichi Kokubun, without providing details as to what the violation entailed.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 26, 2025

Japanese pop-rock band Tokio announces disbandment after 31 years

The group said it will bring an end to its activities as Tokio following a compliance violation by member Taichi Kokubun but did not disclose details.
An 11-year-old girl (Yui Suzuki) finds glimpses of hope while coping with her father’s terminal illness in “Renoir.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2025

‘Renoir’: An impressionistic portrait of grief and girlhood

Chie Hayakawa’s latest feature about a young girl facing losing a parent to cancer is a shining, soulful study of quiet mourning.
Elementary school teacher Seiichi Yabushita (Go Ayano) is taken to court for allegedly driving one of his students to attempt suicide in Takashi Miike’s “Sham.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025

‘Sham’ flirts with ambiguity, then picks a side

Takashi Miike’s legal drama draws from a real-life incident and makes a clear but frustratingly simplified case.
Chef Hideaki Matsuo (middle) and the staff of Oseto Suisan Fisheries prepare to check on their sustainably farmed fish.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 29, 2025

With farmed fish, RelationFish swims against the tide in fine dining

Want to be an advocate of Japan’s marine health? Look out for sustainably farmed fish the next time you dine at a restaurant.
Thai eatery Orangutan takes over Lou cafe in the evening, replacing casual coffee and cakes with the fiery dishes of Isan cuisine.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 29, 2025

Come nightfall in Nakano, Thai eatery Orangutan opens its arms

Named after an ape, the restaurant, which takes over a cafe space in the evening, brings authentic, fiery Isan flavors to Tokyo.
Maria Seiren, known for winning the first-ever “Japan’s Got Talent” with her opera voice, has also been training in traditional noh theater, creating productions that combine opera, noh and even pop music.
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 28, 2025

Diva of dualities: Maria Seiren sings opera and noh in both a female and male voice

The first-ever winner of talent show competition “Japan’s Got Talent” is having a stacked year with two noh and opera productions and her 10th anniversary album release.
Hamas militants carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, amid a ceasefire between the two sides, in the central Gaza Strip, in February.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jun 28, 2025

Battling to survive, Hamas faces defiant clans and doubts over Iran

Hamas fighters are operating autonomously under orders to hold out as long as possible but the Islamist group is struggling to maintain its grip.
In a world rocked by war and shifting power, Pope Leo XIV steps into the global spotlight, seeking unity and moral authority for a diverse and wounded flock — not with force, but through tradition, saints and patience.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2025

How many saints can Pope Leo add to his army?

When the world goes off kilter, words from the Vatican can seem toothless. But don’t underestimate the power of the Church’s long game.
Michael Ebbesen, general manager of Lego Japan, says Lego bricks based on Japanese culture have a rich global appeal and are sellable around the world.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 30, 2025

From Hokusai’s Great Wave, shinkansen to One Piece: a cultural treasure box for Lego Japan

There is plenty of room for Lego to grow in Japan, but the low birth rate is undeniably a challenge.
Racks of servers being tested at the new Amazon Web Services facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, on June 3
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 30, 2025

AI data-center boom could destroy Big Tech's net-zero plans

The tech sector faces a "climate strategy crisis" as its data centers demand ever more electricity and water to power growing fields, such as artificial intelligence.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in 2016
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 30, 2025

Dalai Lama set to reveal succession plan as China watches

The Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama addresses journalists in London in 2008.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 30, 2025

The Dalai Lama: Tibet's spiritual leader, bane of Beijing

A thorn in China's side, Tenzin Gyatso became the face of the Tibetan cause as he crisscrossed the globe, mixing with royalty, politicians and celebrities.
A protester wears a face mask with the colors of the Thai flag during an anti-government demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 1, 2025

Top Thai court suspends PM Paetongtarn in ethics violation case

The court said it had accepted a petition from 36 senators that accuses Paetongtarn Shinawatra of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards in violation of the constitution.
This screen shot from Korean Central Television taken Friday shows a screen displaying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looking at coffins during a performance attended by Kim and Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova in Pyongyang.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 1, 2025

North Korea's Kim shown honoring troops killed in Russia-Ukraine war

Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, according to South Korea's spy agency.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra waves after Thailand's Constitutional Court suspended her from duty pending a case seeking her dismissal, at the Government House in Bangkok on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 2, 2025

Thai leader’s suspension deals new blow to battered economy

Thailand is mired in slow growth, with households burdened by debt, a budget bill outstanding and the threat of U.S. tariffs weighing down expectations.
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2025

Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made

A new show at Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills Gallery explores the painstaking process of the late “Grave of the Fireflies” and “Pom Poko” director.
In adapting Masataka Matsuda’s 1998 play “On Summer Sand” to film, director Shinya Tamada decided to age up the central character, played by Joe Odagiri (left), by 10 years to bring out a deeper sense of despondency and grief.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 1, 2025

From stage to screen, a story of quiet connection in the still heat of Nagasaki

Director Shinya Tamada adapts "On Summer Sand" for film by filling the silences between scenes with heartbreak and slow healing.
Emperor Naruhito speaks during a news conference at the Imperial Palace on Wednesday ahead of his visit to Mongolia together with Empress Masako from Sunday.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2025

Emperor to mourn Japanese detainees who died in Mongolia

The Emperor last visited Mongolia in 2007, when he was Crown Prince.
Satoshi Kirishima (Katsuya Maiguma) goes into hiding after becoming a wanted man for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in “I Am Kirishima.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 3, 2025

‘I Am Kirishima’ peels back the mystery of a fugitive radical

Banmei Takahashi's drama gives shape to a man whose face appeared on wanted posters in police stations across Japan — and who stayed hidden for decades.
Ubu (Saki Miyashita) is a bounty hunter who takes down cyborg criminals in "Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2025

‘Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl’: Beautiful, brutal and bringing back ’90s anime energy

The first chapter of Yasuomi Umetsu's new "Virgin Punk" project delivers old-school action and animation in a cyberpunk future.
“Fani Mani” marks Kom_I’s return to music, after leaving the genre-bending J-pop outfit Suiyoubi no Campanella in 2021.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 4, 2025

‘Try first, figure it out later’: Kom_I and Foodman’s beautiful mess

Part philosophy and part performance, the musicians' “Fani Mani” is all party.
Akira Otani's genre-bending novel "The Night of Baba Yaga" takes place in Japan’s 1970s yakuza underworld and centers on the daughter of a mob boss and a ruthless martial arts fighter who serves as her bodyguard.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 4, 2025

Queer-coded yakuza story wins prestigious U.K. crime writing award

With “The Night of Baba Yaga,” Akira Otani is the first Japanese writer to win the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Award for crime fiction in translation.
Waseda University is one of 14 institutions in eight countries found to have used hidden prompts in research papers.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2025

Hidden AI prompts in academic papers spark concern about research integrity

The discovery raises serious concerns about the integrity of the research in the papers and highlights flaws in academic publishing.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya explains his campaign promises in Tokyo on June 30 for the Upper House election.
COMMENTARY / Japan / From Party Leaders
Jul 4, 2025

Japan’s Do It Yourself Party: Who we are and where we are headed

Our core philosophy is “to protect Japan’s national interests and bring about harmony in the world.”
China’s unbeatable new production model export
China is not merely moving more goods; it is exporting a new, ruthlessly efficient production model powered by automation, AI and state-guided industrial optimization.
Extreme heat in Japan set to peak this week
People shield their eyes from the sun as they walk through a street on a hot day in Tokyo on July 26.
How Pakistan shot down India's cutting-edge fighter using Chinese gear
An Indian Air Force pilot gets out of a Rafale fighter jet during its induction ceremony at an air force station in Ambala, India, September 2020.
Australia announces new warships will come from Japan
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami-class frigate Niyodo sails at an undisclosed location in this image released Tuesday.
Italy's fast fashion hub becomes Chinese mafia battlefield
Signs for fast-fashion factories in Prato, Italy, on Friday. Chinese crime groups in the district thrive on the "Prato system" rife with corruption in the fast-fashion sector.
Australia announces new warships will come from Japan
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami-class frigate Niyodo sails at an undisclosed location in this image released Tuesday.
Fuji Rock's weekend of surprises was one of its best yet
Radwimps lead singer Yojiro Noda threw himself into the rock band’s Green Stage performance ahead of headliner Vampire Weekend.
How Trump is gaslighting on climate change — with Japan’s help
The Bishu Maru LNG tanker, owned by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, next to the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas
With a new distillery, Suntory makes a spirited move on gin market
A staff inspects a distillation pot still at Suntory's new Osaka Spirits & Liqueurs Craft Distillery, which will focus on gin production and help Suntory capture a bigger slice of the fast-growing gin market.
Junglia brought dinos back to Okinawa. But will it bring tourists?
At Panorama Dining, one of Junglia’s two proper restaurants that also doubles as the rooftop Inifinity Terrace overlook, guests can pay extra to sit in balcony tables made to look like birds’ nests overlooking the park grounds.

Podcast

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

Longform

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.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped
By Elizabeth Beattie

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