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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 9, 2023

Don’t pay people to leave Tokyo. Make more Tokyos.

Trying to arrest rural depopulation, Japan wants people to quit Tokyo, its greatest metropolis. How about creating new ones instead?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Dec 19, 2022

Things to do before saying 'sayonara' to your life in Japan

Planning on leaving Japan? Think long-term with your plans. It will take a while to ship everything to a different country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 27, 2022

Toyama puts itself on Japan’s map of sustainable tourism

From traditional architecture and local folk crafts to impressive temples and a luxury hotel, Toyama's rural Tonami Plain is rich with culture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 17, 2022

How to prepare for life after Twitter

Don't delete your Twitter account just yet. Elon Musk's takeover can teach us valuable lessons about our relationship with social networks.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 7, 2022

Taiwan’s bomb shelters: ‘A space for life. And a space for death.’

Preparing for war over hundreds of years has left a mark on the island, with its hundreds of bomb shelters. Some are being turned into cultural oases.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2022

‘The Zen Diary’: Simple life lessons to feed the soul

Yuji Nakae's foodie drama, adapted from a 1978 book by the late Tsutomu Mizukami, plays out like a feature-length episode of “Chef's Table.”
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2022

Get ready to relearn how to use the internet

Everyone knows that an AI revolution is coming, but no one seems to realize how profoundly it will change their day-to-day life.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 29, 2022

In Myanmar's rebel strongholds, internet blackouts can mean life or death

With many people relying on Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, warnings about impending attacks by junta forces haven't been able to reach villages.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Sep 19, 2022

Paula Badosa adjusting to life among tennis' top class

Badosa is currently ranked No. 4 in the world and enters the Pan Pacific Open this week as the top seed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Sep 19, 2022

Run for your life — and a sense of community — with these international clubs

Internationalized groups are as much about camaraderie as they are exercise, but the effects of physical activity can work wonders on both your physical and mental health.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 10, 2022

‘An Illustrated Guide to Samurai History and Culture’ brings the warriors to life in color

Journalist and author Gavin Blair offers a nuanced view of samurai history and their influence on modern pop culture in his latest book.
One of Singapore Design’s Week’s lighter exhibitions is the “Unnatural History Museum of Singapore,” where levity and engineering combat anxieties over ecological crises.
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 20, 2025

‘Pluriversal’ Singapore Design Week brings solution-oriented works

Running through Sept. 21, the design fair in the island city-state grapples with issues especially common in Japan.
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes celebrates after his squad's home win over Chelsea.
SOCCER
Sep 21, 2025

Manchester United breathes life into season with Chelsea victory

Manchester United got goals from Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro to earn a thrilling 2-1 home victory over Chelsea on Saturday.
Bartender and raconteur Shingo Gokan wants his new Tokyo bar, Sangai, to tell the story of Japan's terroir.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Sep 23, 2025

With new Tokyo bar, Shingo Gokan's bartending journey comes full circle

After a nomadic career, a charismatic bartender now finds home to be a vibrant source of tippling inspiration.
Professional models cosplay characters from Persona 5: The Phantom X, one of many titles on display at Tokyo Game Show, Japan's largest gaming industry event.
LIFE / Digital
Sep 26, 2025

Tokyo Game Show 2025 leans into renewal and rebirth

Japan’s largest games industry show returns with its largest spread of exhibitors yet.
Haruo Tsukamoto, a rank-and-file member of the Liberal Democratic Party and a rice farmer in Ibaraki Prefecture, questions if the party still stands for people like him.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 2, 2025

The party that ruled Japan for decades is in danger of crumbling

Long-time supporters are questioning if the Liberal Democratic Party still stands for them even as populist and far-right challengers make inroads.
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 4, 2025

How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green

Run by three generations of the same family, Ryokukou Garden is behind the greenery for five major pavilions at the Osaka event.
Avant-garde chef Grant Achatz and his team from Alinea are in Tokyo for a three-week residency.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 4, 2025

Eat your balloons: The culinary theater of Grant Achatz comes to Tokyo

The man behind Chicago’s iconic Alinea restaurant shares insights on modernist cuisine and his Tokyo pop-up.
Among respondents in a recent survey who have been affected by inflation, 91.3% said price increases had impacted their food expenses.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 9, 2025

Over 80% of households in Japan feel impact of rising prices, survey shows

Over half of respondents said their cost of living had increased, with average monthly living expenses rising by ¥9,636.
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 11, 2025

Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity

Set in Ezo (modern-day Hokkaido), the highly anticipated samurai action-adventure game contains familiar thrills but subpar substance.
Inna Ilina, vice president of the Ukraine Pavilion, says she is grateful her country was able to participate and send out a clear message: Ukraine and its democratic values are not for sale.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2025

At Osaka Expo pavilions, staff recount ‘life-changing’ experiences

Nearly 160 countries and regions participated in the Osaka Expo, with each bringing staff from overseas to help run their respective pavilions during the six-month event.
Gamers play the Pokemon Legends: Z-A video game at the Ninentdo booth during the Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany, in August.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 17, 2025

Pokemon brushes up decades-old formula with Legends: Z-A

Pokemon’s latest title, Legends: Z-A, trades turn-based fights for real-time clashes in a Paris-inspired cityscape.
The recent China spy scandal in the U.K. highlights a chaotic, disorienting political and intelligence environment, resembling something more likely found in spy fiction rather than real-world espionage.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2025

U.K.’s China spying scandal is a ‘Slow Horses’ plot

The China spy scandal currently gripping U.K. politics and media is again redolent of a fictional milieu.
Despite the advance of synthetic alternatives and declines in the available workforce, some textile workers still see the potential of traditional persimmon dyeing.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 1, 2025

Sun-dried and sustainable, Japan’s persimmon dye lives on

Thanks to Japan's largest freshwater lake, Shiga Prefecture has long thrived as a production center of persimmon tannin dyeing.
A display shows an advertisement for betting on the New York City mayoral election, featuring New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in Times Square, in New York on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 6, 2025

Wall Street girds for life under Mamdani, worries about New York City's competitiveness

Wall Street and the finance industry have had broad misgivings about Mamdani and his affordability-focused campaign.
Noh theater uses several types of masks, including the "onna" (woman) mask.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 6, 2025

Learning to feel noh: The words that unlock its mystery and emotion

Noh theater’s mystery and emotion unfold through careful understanding of the language used.
Parents in Japan consider everything from kanji meaning, sound and total strokes when choosing names for their newborns.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 8, 2025

‘Deep Blue,’ ‘Morning Sun,’ ‘Clear Sky’: Japan’s top baby names for 2025

Single-kanji names jumped in popularity this year, possibly in reaction to a new law aiming to crack down on overly creative ”kira kira” names.
The Onodera Food Service group, which manages Sushi Ginza Onodera and "kaiseki" specialist Nadaman, has merged a sushi "omakase" (chef's choice) into a kaiseki to create a new dining experience.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 7, 2025

At Nadaman, a traditional Japanese multicourse meal gets a new format

The Onodera group has taken a bold step in merging two of its dining concepts — sushi and “kaiseki” haute cuisine.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes