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November 21, 2025
 

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ANIME

A Danish princess (voiced by Mana Ashida) journeys through the afterlife in search of her undead uncle, determined to avenge her father’s death in "Scarlet."
CULTURE / Film
Nov 20, 2025
Mamoru Hosoda’s ‘Scarlet’ takes on ‘Hamlet’ with bold visual departure
The Oscar-nominated director re-imagines the Shakespearean tale as an animated quest through the afterlife.
The latest “Demon Slayer” film has become the first Japanese movie to top ¥100 billion ($644 million) in global box office revenue, its distributors said.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 18, 2025
New ‘Demon Slayer’ film becomes first Japanese movie to break ¥100 billion
Released outside of Japan in August, including in North America and China, the film has attracted 89.17 million viewers internationally.
Members of Band-Maid combine heavy riffs and maid-inspired visuals in their latest project, "Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty."
CULTURE / Music
Nov 18, 2025
How Band-Maid brought anime energy into the hard-rock sound of ‘Scooooop’
The hard-rock quintet push their creativity to new extremes on latest EP, “Scooooop.”
Japan must act quickly to protect anime creators through stronger labor rights, transparency and fair compensation as AI threatens to exploit the industry’s creative work.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 18, 2025
Will artificial intelligence turn Japan’s ‘irreplaceable treasures’ into slop?
AI’s threat gives Japan a second chance to do right by the workers propping up the $21 billion industry.
Sony reported operating profit of ¥429 billion in the quarter through September, beating analyst estimates as sales surged thanks to blockbuster movies like "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle."
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2025
Sony lifts profit view on anime strength and tariff revision
The Tokyo-based conglomerate now expects ¥1.43 trillion in operating profit for the year through March, up 7.5% from its previous guidance.
A happy-go-lucky guy with many obsessions (voiced by Masaya Sano) becomes intensely interested in a young woman named Pechka (Moka Kamishiraishi) in “The Obsessed.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
‘The Obsessed’: Charming anime dances to its own tune
"Crayon Shin-chan" director turns a 2001 novel into a quirky, rough-edged musical anime.
Kenshi Yonezu's “Iris Out” was an instant hit when it dropped in September. Its association with smash anime "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" has spread it to even more people.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 31, 2025
Kenshi Yonezu, 'Chainsaw Man' and the art of pop ubiquity
Top single “Iris Out,” featured in the nation's top film, prove that music and movies can unite Japan — and define a cultural moment.
After its July release, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle,” an animated feature adapted directly from a TV arc, became the highest-grossing Japanese film ever.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2025
Anime isn’t competing with Hollywood — it’s beating it
Once a niche passion, anime has become a global obsession. “Demon Slayer” lit the fuse. “Chainsaw Man” just proved it’s unstoppable.
“Future Kid Takara,” a series of anime shorts to be aired on NHK Educational TV in November, attempts to educate children about climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Oct 26, 2025
Japan’s youth are apathetic toward the climate crisis. Could anime change that?
“Future Kid Takara,” a new series set to air on NHK Educational TV, aims to empower children and encourage them to take action against climate change.
North Korean IT workers have been identified working in Japan, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine, using a strategy to secure employment and remit earnings back to North Korea.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 23, 2025
North Korean agents in Japan’s anime industry part of sophisticated sanctions evasion
A cross-border sanctions monitoring effort between Japan and 10 other countries has sounded the alarm on North Korea’s sanctions evasion tactics in a detailed report.
Sora 2, a short-form video app made by OpenAI, enables users to create realistic AI videos with text prompts, but critics say that there are insufficient guardrails — from a lack of copyright consideration to families of public figures upset by the reanimation of their loved ones.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 16, 2025
Japan’s government asks OpenAI to seek permission amid Sora 2 copyright concerns
Sora 2 enables users to create realistic AI videos with text prompts, but critics say that there are insufficient guardrails.
OpenAI has rolled out a social app powered by Sora 2, its artificial intelligence video generator, which was quickly flooded with videos featuring iconic Japanese intellectual property.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 7, 2025
OpenAI’s Sora 2 is drowning in Japanese 'AI slop'
Iconic Japanese characters are prevalent across Sora 2, but legally, this places the company on shaky ground.
Racehorse Oguri Cap, a superstar stallion of the late 1980s, is reimagined in anime form as a teenage schoolgirl who must perform upbeat idol-pop songs after every victory in “Umamusume: Cinderella Grey.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Oct 4, 2025
‘Cinderella Grey’ gallops past the other sports documentaries
Mixing real horse-racing history with idol-pop fantasy, “Cinderella Grey” proves anime can outpace today’s flat sports shows.
An elderly inmate (voiced by Kaoru Kobayashi in the present and Junki Tozuka in flashback) confides in a potted balsam flower (voiced by Pierre Taki) about the decisions that led him to prison in "The Last Blossom."
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025
Pieces fall perfectly into place in the reflective ‘The Last Blossom’
Reflective and heartfelt, Baku Kinoshita’s animated feature tells a story of second chances without being overly sentimental.
The Pokemon mascot Pikachu wearing a Chicago Cubs jersey attends the Tokyo Series at Tokyo Dome in March. As the world rediscovers Japan, it’s learning that many preconceptions no longer apply.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 1, 2025
Is Japan finally back? That’s the wrong question.
Almost three decades after prices first fell into negative territory, they’ve now risen every month for the past four years.
American saxophonist Patrick Bartley is the leader of J-Music Ensemble, a jazz-fusion band specializing in instrumental covers of Japanese music.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2025
Finding jazz in J-pop: Patrick Bartley’s musical second language
The J-Music Ensemble leader translates Japanese culture into a classic American musical tradition.
Colorful displays promote the Japanese film "Demon Slayer" at a cinema in the Ikebukuro earlier this month.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2025
Japan government to support domestic digital content overseas
The package includes multi-year support for the digital content industry's overseas expansion.
The process of making “Baan” was personal and enlightening for Maneetapho, who spent years talking about anime on his YouTube channel and podcast before making the jump to becoming an anime creator himself.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2025
YouTuber Gigguk shifts from talking anime to making anime
Garnt Maneetapho, who runs the YouTube channel Gigguk, makes the jump from critic to creator with his short film “Baan — The Boundary of Adulthood.”
Channing Tatum, one of the English-language voice actors, and others attend the premiere of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle” at the TCL Chinese 6 Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. Japanese anime has surged from niche fandom to global box-office powerhouse with the latest “Demon Slayer” installment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2025
Anime’s ‘Demon Slayer’ hit is a watershed for Japan
Its animation finally has a global box-office smash. Now the country must capitalize on it.
The government is considering raising the upper limit on the industry ministry's subsidies for video productions costing ¥300 million or more from the current ¥200 million.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2025
Japan to boost support for its anime and film industry
The government is aiming to triple overseas revenue from Japanese content to ¥20 trillion in 2033.
Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Beware of China’s strategic distortion of reality
China holds a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3. 
Yen rout brings talk of ¥160 to the dollar and possible intervention
The yen has been weak against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks, with some analysts expecting the retreat to continue.
China to reimpose ban on Japanese seafood imports amid row over Taiwan, reports say
A sign reading, "Suspend the sales of all fish products imported from Japan" is displayed in an area home to Japanese restaurants in Beijing in August 2023. China will reimpose a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, media reports in Tokyo said Wednesday, as a diplomatic spat between the two countries deepens.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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