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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.
A student leaves the secondary school building built by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kere, in Kere's home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, on June 3, 2022.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 17, 2025

How schools are being built for extreme heat — without air conditioning

With techniques such as cross-ventilation and materials such as clay, architects around the world are adapting schools to climate change without the use of air conditioning.
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.
A preview of the "Yokai Immersive Experience Exhibition" on Friday in the city of Nagoya
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2025

Get your summer chills in at yōkai exhibition in Nagoya

The main attraction of the exhibition is a room themed on a wild dance of such supernatural creatures, with moving images of them filling the room's walls, ceiling and floor.
Shintaro Suzuki stands by a stone monument that marks the beginning of the pole-and-line bonito fishing method in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Aug 4, 2025

Miyagi city marks 350 years of bonito fishing method

In 1675, fishermen from what is now called Shingu, Wakayama Prefecture, taught a village in present-day Miyagi Prefecture a revolutionary technique to catch bonito.
Oita Prefectural Kusu Miyama High School in the town of Kusu, Oita Prefecture
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Aug 4, 2025

Two Oita towns to launch program to nurture aspiring local teachers

As the towns are facing population decline, there are few young aspiring teachers there.
Wakana, a Japanese fan of Thai BL, visits a temple in Thon Buri, Bangkok featured in the Thai adaptation of the Japanese series “Cherry Magic.” Her media consumption kindled an interest in Thai culture and language, and ultimately led her to relocate to Thailand. “I fell in love with the whole country,” she says.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 28, 2025

Boys’ love dramas from Thailand make waves in Japan

Thailand has become a top producer of BL (boys’ love) dramas — and audiences in Japan are among the most ardent consumers.
In Junglia’s Dinosaur Safari attraction during a media preview on Thursday, a casual drive through a habitat for the prehistoric creatures goes haywire when several Tyrannosaurus rexes break out of containment.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2025

Junglia, Japan’s newest theme park, opens in northern Okinawa

Open from July 25, the new Junglia theme park turns an old golf course into 22 dinosaur- and adventure sports-themed attractions.
Ronald Acuna of the Atlanta Braves next to Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his manager, Dave Roberts, before the MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta on July 15.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 26, 2025

All-Star Games may be flawed but still a boon for professional sports leagues

Several factors, including a lack of competitive furor and social media, have left many to wonder whether the standard All-Star Game model is broken.
The dashboard screen of a Toyota RAV4 compact crossover vehicle at an event in May
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jul 28, 2025

Toyota’s internal inertia stifles digital transformation effort

Inside Toyota, a group of employees are worried about the company’s future in an era when a car’s software matters just as much as its sheet metal.
Photos of Nazca Line geoglyphs newly discovered by a team of researchers at Yamagata University, on Monday in the city of Osaka
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2025

Japanese researchers discover 248 Nazca Line geoglyphs in Peru

The team conducted field surveys on sites selected from aerial photographs using artificial intelligence.
“Yakyu / Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game” is set to remain on display in Cooperstown for at least five to 10 years — and possibly indefinitely.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 29, 2025

Behind the scenes at the Baseball Hall of Fame's new Yakyu/Baseball exhibit

The exhibit tells a sweeping, richly visual story about the deep and evolving connection between Japan and America’s shared national pastime.
Eighty percent of high school students in Japan expressed interest in wage rules, followed by working hour rules, at 79.5%, according to the results of a questionnaire survey released by the labor ministry on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2025

80% of high schoolers in Japan show interest in wages and labor systems

Civics classes were cited as good opportunities for high school students to learn about social security systems.
A billboard in Columbus, Indiana displays a message that is part of the Democratic National Committee's campaign against U.S. President Donald Trump's tax-cut and spending bill, in this image obtained on July 24.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 29, 2025

Early 2026 U.S. midterm ads focus on Medicaid access and Trump tax cuts

Democrats are focusing their message on health care access while Republicans are countering that the tax provisions will enrich voters.
The NISAR satellite is encapsulated in its payload fairing at the Indian Space Research Organization’s Satish Dhawan Space Center on July 18.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Jul 31, 2025

When Earth’s surface shifts, a new satellite will see it

The satellite is a joint mission between NASA and India’s space agency and will track tiny shifts across almost all of Earth’s land and ice regions.
Michi Saito touches a piece of a dummy atomic bomb that took away her brother's life in 1945, during an interview at Zuiryu Temple in Fukushima on July 14.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Aug 18, 2025

98-year-old woman recalls brother's death from dummy atomic bomb

A U.S. military unit dropped dummy bombs in various parts of Japan as part of exercises aimed at training forces to gain the high skills required to drop nuclear weapons.
A pair of Japanese soldiers (Shinichi Tsutsumi, left, and Yuki Yamada, right) stay up a tree rather than standing down after the end of World War II in “Army on the Tree.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 31, 2025

'Army on the Tree': World War II film leans into absurdist theater

Among the films that commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II this year, Kazuhiro Taira’s film adapted from a play stands out for its lack of iffy politics.
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.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 3, 2025

With a new distillery, Suntory makes a spirited move on gin market

Currently in operation, the high-tech facility in Osaka will open to the public next year with a focus on its popular Roku gin variants.
Miyu Yamashita plays a shot during the second round of the Women's British Open on Friday in Porthcawl, Wales.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Aug 2, 2025

Miyu Yamashita rides stellar 65 into Women's British Open lead

Yamashita held third place after the first round at Royal Porthcawl and took control Friday with a bogey-free, seven-birdie round.
A memorial to two Japanese soldiers killed in combat with anti-Japanese forces in Phrae Province, northern Thailand
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2025

80 years on: Thai man wants to return soldiers' remains to Japan

During the war, Japan was an enemy to the Free Thai group, but the soldiers were victims of the war, which was unnecessary, Puchong said.
A person visits the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 4, 2025

AI search pushing an already weakened media ecosystem to the brink

A recent study has revealed that AI-generated summaries now appearing in Google searches discourage users from clicking through to source articles.
A carrier-based Type 52 Zero fighter marks the entrance foyer of Yasukuni Shrine's Yushukan, a museum that tells a more nuanced story of Japan's experience in World War II than the controversies around the shrine might suggest.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 8, 2025

Tokyo’s WWII museums hold diverse views on war and peace

From detainees in Soviet labor camps to last-ditch efforts to develop miracle weapons, the capital’s war museums tell a multitude of stories of a country in crisis.
Sung in Japanese, German and Ukrainian, “Natasha” is a multilingual opera with a multinational cast. Belgian soprano Ilse Eerens will originate the titular role, with Japanese mezzo-soprano Hiroka Yamashita as Arato and German baritone Christian Miedl as their trickster guide.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 9, 2025

‘Natasha’ distills global zeitgeist on the opera stage

An original work commissioned by the New National Theatre, Tokyo, “Natasha” is a multilingual opera with a multinational cast from Japan, Germany and Belgium.
At Himawari Shokudo 2, chef Hozumi Tanaka serves Italian-inspired fare with a focus on Toyama produce, such as this appetizer of lightly blanched "hotaru ika" (firefly squid) served atop mixed wild plants and a crepe prepared from "yamato-imo" yam.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Aug 8, 2025

At Himawari Shokudo 2, Italian food with a Japanese soul

Punching above its own weight, the intimate restaurant is one of the growing number of quality establishments that are helping to cement Toyama's status as a dining destination.
Fukagawa Distillery's bar offers a view of the distillation still behind its walls.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Aug 10, 2025

In a coffee-mad neighborhood, a gin distillery is a clear alternative

Located in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Fukagawa Distillery wants residents to “think of gin as their local drink."
The Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center has removed materials about Beijing's treatment of ethnic minorities and Hong Kong from an exhibit on authoritarian governments.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 9, 2025

Thai gallery removes China-focused artworks after 'pressure' from Beijing  

In what artists called the latest attempt by Beijing to silence critics overseas, the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center changed multiple works by artists in exile.
A cyclist looks at the Montreal skyline on Aug. 3 as a smoky haze from wildfires blankets the city.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 10, 2025

How Canadian wildfire smoke is jeopardizing health across North America

Canadian provinces have evacuated towns and struggled to contain the second-worst wildfire season in 30 years.
MLB umpire Jen Pawol stands on the field before a game between the Braves and Marlins in Cumberland, Georgia, on Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 11, 2025

Pioneering female MLB umpire Jen Pawol makes debut behind plate

A day after her historic debut as the first woman to work as an umpire in an MLB contest, Pawol was behind the plate in another milestone effort.
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.
Osaka Asian Film Festival, which will hold its 21st edition early to draw on Expo 2025 visitors, is set to open on Aug. 29 with a restoration of “Tracing to Expo ’70.” The Taiwanese film follows a Japan-raised Taiwanese woman whose search for her long-lost benefactor takes her to the 1970 Osaka Expo.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2025

Osaka Asian Film Festival gets an expo boost

In a rare double bill, the Osaka Asian Film Festival will stage a special summer edition to make the most out of interest in the ongoing world's fair.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight