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July 09, 2025
 

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ANIME

Though Netflix remains the dominant choice globally for anime viewers, Amazon Prime Video has also invested heavily in anime, steadily adding titles to their catalogue.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2025
Once a niche, anime is now mainstream content for Netflix and other streaming services
Today, more than half of Netflix’s global users watch anime on its service, with shows such as “Sakamoto Days” and “Pokemon Concierge” proving to be massive hits across the world.
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.
“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.
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.
The Japanese anime industry has been facing chronic labor shortages linked to poor working conditions that have led to a decrease in the number of productions.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2025
Japan to set up body to improve anime industry working conditions
The move is part of a five-year action plan aimed at boosting overseas sales of Japanese content such as manga and video games to ¥20 trillion in 2033.
Gentleman thief Lupin (Kanichi Kurita) and crew head to an uncharted island in the Bermuda Triangle and find themselves up against vaguely human monsters inspired by "The Island of Doctor Moreau” in “Lupin the IIIrd The Movie The Immortal Bloodline.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2025
‘Lupin the IIIrd The Movie The Immortal Bloodline’ goes big on action, light on plot
Takeshi Koike’s latest “Lupin” film needs more than poison gas, bullets and nudity — its characters need something to do.
Yasuhiro Aoki's "ChaO" won the Jury Award in the feature films category at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on Saturday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 15, 2025
Japanese director Yasuhiro Aoki wins French animation award for 'ChaO'
"ChaO" tells the story of a romance between an office worker and a mermaid princess in a future society where humans and mermaids coexist.
Vice president of events and exhibitions for Studio Ghibli, Kenichi Yoda (right), and director and Ghibli Park creative development manager, Goro Miyazaki (left), pose at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival before receiving an Honorary Palme d'Or.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2025
Studio Ghibli marks 40 years, but future looks uncertain
A look into the legacy of the beloved anime studio.
Otakukon, an anime, manga and cosplay meet in Harare, Zimbabwe, last August. Japan should take advantage of decades worth of hugely popular cultural content by taking the big swings in bringing its own stories to global audiences.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 1, 2025
Japan can ride the anime wave to become the new soft superpower
It's time for Japan to better leverage anime's global popularity, reaching international audiences via streaming platforms while opening the door to other cultural exports.
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 31, 2025
Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’
The Polish artist and animator talks about how he came to Japan and the inspiration he draws from ordinary streets and storefronts.
Anime director Shunsuke Nakashige accepts the anime of the year award for “Solo Leveling” at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2025
Anime's big night out is getting bigger — and more surreal
The soft-power spectacle at Crunchyroll's awards ceremony in Tokyo underscores anime's expanding global influence.
"Dandelion's Odyssey" an animated film by Japanese director Momoko Seto, won the International Federation of Film Critics' award on Saturday at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 25, 2025
Japan's Seto wins International Critics Award at Cannes
The French-Belgian production tells the story of dandelion seeds that travel the universe after surviving a nuclear explosion.
"Jinsei," which follows its protagonist over a century, probes themes of identity and societal issues with a dark comic touch. The director, however, says he created the story without knowing where it would lead.
CULTURE / Film
May 16, 2025
For his first feature film, director Ryuya Suzuki created a masterpiece
With no script or crew, the animator created "Jinsei," a bold debut inspired by classics such as "Citizen Kane" and "Scarface."
Though the protagonist of “Jinsei” (voiced by rapper Ace Cool) is an emotional blank slate, his journey throughout the film takes wild turns.
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2025
‘Jinsei’: Ryuya Suzuki’s solo animation is a singular debut
The 30-year-old wrote, directed, animated, edited and soundtracked in isolation — creating one of the most striking films of 2025 so far.
Japanese junior high school students attending a traditional calligraphy class
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2025
Foreign tourists get taught the Japanese high school experience
Amid a tourism boom fuelled by an extremely weak yen, repeat visitors to Japan are looking for more immersive activities.
Mori Calliope fan Taylor Jones holds a penstick as fans await entry to the historic venue Hollywood Palladium for a sold-out concert by Virtual YouTuber Mori Calliope.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 14, 2025
Digital divas: Can Japan's virtual YouTuber craze crack America?
VTuber agency Cover Corp. recently opened a U.S. office to accelerate business in North America.
Momoka Matsui and her co-worker Saki Matsumoto take photos of acrylic stand figure models of their favorite idols with cakes and teas, which they ordered at a Tokyo cafe where Matsui’s favorite boy band stopped by.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 5, 2025
Can Japan's take on fandom help drive spending?
The explosion of "oshikatsu" (supporting favored celebrities or characters), which entered the mainstream during the pandemic, has economists and the Bank of Japan taking note.
Goro Miyazaki joined Studio Ghibli in 1998 and directed films including 2006's "Tales from Earthsea" and 2011's "From Up on Poppy Hill."
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2025
AI may be coming for anime, but Hayao Miyazaki is irreplaceable, son says
Goro Miyazaki says that though nothing can replicate the depth of his father's work, new technology brings "great potential for unexpected talent to emerge."
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025
For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli
ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 2, 2025
Ghibli effect: ChatGPT usage hits record after rollout of viral feature
The viral trend saw users from across the globe flood social media with images based on the hand-drawn style of the famed Japanese animation outfit.
Foreign nationals' presence in Japan emerges as key issue in Upper House poll
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a campaign speech next to a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the Upper House (top center left) in Yokohama on Sunday.
Trump announces new tariff rate on Japan — and extension of deadline to Aug. 1
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a trade letter sent by the White House to Japan during a news conference at the White House in Washington on Monday.
China’s housing crisis is worse than it seems
Residential buildings under construction in Shanghai in July 2022. The Chinese government risks long-term decline by repeating Japan’s policy mistakes in handling its real estate and demographic crises.
Japan braces for more quakes as authorities dismiss doomsday hype
Evacuees from Akuseki Island, located in the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima Prefecuture, arrive at Kagoshima Port on Friday.
Japan stands its ground after Trump letter delivers 25% U.S. tariff shock
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at Morristown Airport, New Jersey, on Sunday. Trump on Monday sent letters to 12 countries notifying them of new "reciprocal" tariff rates effective Aug. 1.
From the Abes to the Ohtanis: How siblings shape athletic development
Olympic judoka Uta Abe (second from left) and Hifumi Abe (second from right) with their brother Yuichiro (center) and their parents. “I’m always consciously trying to be a good older brother,” Yuichiro said.
Foreign nationals' presence in Japan emerges as key issue in Upper House poll
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a campaign speech next to a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the Upper House (top center left) in Yokohama on Sunday.
Scams involving police impersonation surge
A video by the National Police Agency warns about fake scams.
Lawson to let visitors use larger parking lots as paid car campsites
A Lawson convenience store in Yachiyo, Chiba Prefecture. A new service from the company comes amid the rise in inbound tourists, making hotels and inns harder to book and more expensive.
The future is bright inside the visionary mind of architect Sou Fujimoto
The exhibition of Fujimoto’s architecture surveys his career to date, as well as looks ahead as shown in his proposal of a future floating city designed in collaboration with data scientist Hiroaki Miyata.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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Longform

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By Alex K.T. Martin

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