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Part of Osaka Art and Design 2025, Maki Takato’s “Yokai Unity” is a collaboration with a Zen-Buddhist monk from Nara, whose hands in prayer were 3D-scanned for an inflatable sculpture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025

Osaka wants to show off its artistic talents

With the expo underway, the city is buzzing with people. The art scene is trying to catch some of that attention with a variety of events and initiatives this summer.
"In My Closet" by the artist Noumra is on display at Tokyu Plaza Harajuku's Harakado space until June 18.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025

At Tokyo Pride’s first queer art exhibition, intimacy and resistance share the wall

A vibrant, community-sourced exhibition in Harajuku showcases queer art that spans the political, absurd and deeply personal.
A social media influencer photographs her meal for her followers.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 16, 2025

Influencers take bigger bite of ad pie as economic turmoil tightens budgets

Brands increased investment in influencer partnerships by 49% in 2024 and content creators topped social media marketing budgets, taking up a quarter of total annual spending.
Science suggests that three days of “shinrin-yoku” (forest bathing) is enough to boost immunity for an entire month.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 21, 2025

The science of shinrin-yoku: Why forest bathing feels good

Science suggests that three days of “shinrin-yoku” forest bathing is enough to boost immunity for an entire month.
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.
Rie Usui has been working to help people with disabilities get jobs, and now runs a talent agency for disabled people.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 29, 2025

Tokyo woman working to help people with disabilities secure jobs

Rie Usui's talent agency represents about 40 models and television personalities who feature in advertisements and TV drama series.
A gate to check climbers at Mount Fuji's fifth station in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, on June 13. Climbers who do not have the necessary climbing equipment may be barred from using the trails.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 30, 2025

Mount Fuji’s ¥4,000 entrance fee kicks in for all routes

Climbers paid ¥2,000 to scale the mountain via the popular Yoshida trail last year, while those who made the journey through other routes did not have to pay anything.
Shintaro Awa is the new head chef of L'Ambroisie in Paris, replacing the legendary Bernard Pacaud, who helmed the restaurant for more than four decades.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 5, 2025

Shintaro Awa appointed to head the kitchen of L’Ambroisie in Paris

The Japanese chef takes over the role of Bernard Pacaud, who helmed the renowned restaurant for nearly 45 years.
“Giselle” lead Yuriko Kajiya (center), performing with Connor Walsh as Albrecht, is one of six Japanese dancers at Houston Ballet.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 9, 2025

Japanese dancers find a home abroad at Houston Ballet

Returning to Japan for the American ballet company's first international tour since 2022, several dancers speak about why they moved overseas.
Hyun Bin (center) plays real-life Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun in “Harbin.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2025

‘Harbin’: Somber historical drama sees act of mercy lead to bloodshed

Hyun Bin portrays real-life Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun as a complex figure shrouded in a sense of doom in Woo Min-ho’s film.
A high school senior (Taisuke Niihara, center), his girlfriend (Yuki Araho, left) and their alcoholic teacher (Yuka Kouri, right) find themselves in a lopsided love triangle in Toshiya Kominami’s “Young & Fine.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2025

‘Young & Fine’: Teenage horndog tale balances heart and hormones

The oddball sensibility of Toshiya Kominami’s coming-of-age film, paired with Yuka Kouri’s winning performance, elevates a questionable setup into something surprisingly human.
Hideo Kojima, the leading auteur in Japanese video games, has skirted controversy in the wake of the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jul 12, 2025

Is Japanese skin really ‘too smooth’ for Hideo Kojima’s games?

When it comes to Hideo Kojima’s visuals, art imitates life — and it’s more often Hollywood’s version of life than Japan’s that influences his games.
Businesses who cater to fandoms gathered at Tokyo Lifestyle Week for the second annual Oshikatsu — Merch Collection Expo, a trade show devoted to fandom goods.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Jul 12, 2025

Music idol and anime fandom merch is big business

Over 100 booths showed off the latest in acrylic stands, binoculars and cheering items such as glow sticks and flags at the second Oshikatsu — Merch Expo.
A barber gives a model a haircut during the World Barber Classic at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2025

Japan's World Barber Classic tries to bring back business

The event is part of a bid by Japan's struggling barber industry to attract young male clients lost in recent years to hair salons.
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2025

Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan

In “Things Become Other Things,” the longtime resident of Japan captures that grace that lingers in slowly vanishing countryside towns.
A call girl (Kaho Seto) traumatized by the death of her young daughter becomes entangled with a strange client in “New Religion.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 17, 2025

‘New Religion’: Chic debut is low on shivers

Keishi Kondo’s horror film dives deep into dream logic and dread, but its emotional detachment leaves a chill that’s more cold than scary.
Pham Thi Bich Hau (fifth from left) began translating and interpreting for the Vietnamese community in Japan in 2013, when she was working for a trainee management organization. She went on to found the Vietnam Women's Union in Japan, organizing activities like the Tet festival pictured here.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 21, 2025

The mothers holding up Japan's Vietnamese community

Online support groups and in-person events are helping Vietnamese women from all walks of life manage motherhood abroad.
One of Leonard Foujita’s biggest muses was himself. He painted self-portraits, often with a cat on his side, looking back at the viewer. He posed for photographers throughout his life, the displayed photos showing he retained his signature bowl cut and round glasses.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2025

The self as a muse: Leonard Foujita's world in paintings and photos

“Foujita: Painting and Photography” at Tokyo Station Gallery is being billed as the first exploration of the artist as a photographer and has been a decade in the making.
Pupu’s name means “appetizer” in Hawaiian, but this sweetheart is definitely more of a main dish.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Jul 24, 2025

A big, beautiful Bengal cat named Pupu

A sweetheart with a big presence, Pupu loves to make her feelings known while enjoying a cozy moment.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok in Tokyo on May 22.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 31, 2025

Japan’s strategic blind spot in the heart of Europe

Central Europe may hold the key to increased strategic autonomy without the geopolitical baggage of the superpowers.
Left to right: A woman repurposes a garbage bag to protect her hat from the rain; having a hat and a beverage close at hand is a festival must.
CULTURE / Music / Photo essay
Aug 4, 2025

A weekend in Naeba: Rain or shine, the fun never stopped at Fuji Rock '25

Sweltering naps, makeshift shelters, dancing in the rain — Fuji Rock is all about surrendering to the moment.
This year, Fuji Rock Festival's ticket sales were the strongest they have been since the COVID-19 pandemic, with overseas ticket buyers accounting for roughly 10% of all sales.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 4, 2025

From far and wide, overseas visitors flock to Fuji Rock

From Singapore to Greece to Michigan, fans came to Japan not just for the music, but for the nature, the relaxed atmosphere and the freedom to dance into the early hours.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial stands as a powerful reminder of the human cost of war and the importance of deep compassion and empathy that can inspire efforts to build a more peaceful world.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 5, 2025

Nuclear destruction through the eyes of a 10-year-old

Still, I wasn’t sure how Max would react to the enormity of the human suffering that took place in Hiroshima.
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 15, 2025

In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark

One is the world’s first Michelin-starred female sushi chef, while the other is France’s only three-Michelin-starred Japanese chef.
With graffiti now covering the crumbling walls of the main thermal baths in one of Europe's oldest spa towns, a group of young architects hopes to restore the picturesque Romanian resort.
WORLD / Society
Aug 19, 2025

The volunteers battling to save Romania's famed thermal baths

The picturesque Baile Herculane spa town's baths have fallen into an advanced state of decay.
A Japanese soldier (Eiji Funakoshi) with tuberculosis struggles to survive in the Filipino countryside during World War II in “Fires on the Plain.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2025

‘Fires on the Plain’: Haunting imagery in restored 1959 war film stands the test of time

Now restored in 4K, Kon Ichikawa’s film is a far from simple survival story that stares into humanity’s darkest corners.
Six-year-old Pooja shows her indigenous face tattoos at the Jogi Colony in Umerkot, a Hindu-majority district of Pakistan.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 21, 2025

City girls snub traditional Hindu face tattoos in Pakistan

The practice stretches back centuries in the Hindu villages that dot Pakistan's southern border with India.
At Kuro Mame, baristas customize the coffee according to the guest's preferences.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 29, 2025

Sip a bespoke coffee for ¥4,000 at Kuro Mame

Always wanted to have a barista customize your brew? Make a beeline for this premium cafe.
A sleepy Tokyo-listed operator of nail salons is aiming to reinvent itself as one of the world’s largest corporate holders of Bitcoin.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 30, 2025

Japanese nails salon attempts reinvention as major bitcoin holder

The shift is the latest in a wave of radical financial reinventions pulling the likes of biotech firms and regional banks into crypto’s orbit.
People use their phones in a garden in Moscow on June 22. Many Russians have turned to the private messaging service Telegram as the government bans Western social media platforms.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 1, 2025

Russian influencers are thriving on Telegram

Since 2021, Telegram’s monthly active users in Russia have risen to 120 million, more than 90% of the country’s internet users.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’