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September 03, 2025
 

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DESIGN

A London-based design pair has turned handhold straps on the Den-en-toshi Line into stylish table lamps.
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 25, 2025
Retired Tokyo trains live on as upcycled table lamps
Former railcars on the Den-en-toshi Line have been refashioned into table lamps available for purchase from Aug. 25.
Jony Ive, left, is collaborating with OpenAI’s Sam Altman as part of a nearly $6.5 billion deal.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 22, 2025
OpenAI to buy AI startup from Apple veteran Jony Ive in $6.5 billion deal
The purchase — the largest in OpenAI’s history — will provide the company with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices.
For centuries, artisans have unraveled strands of the fibrous bark of "shuro" trees to create a medley of everyday objects. Designer Kazuki Nagasawa is now transforming the traditional material into ethereal contemporary pieces.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 9, 2025
Kazuki Nagasawa's sustainable designs are rooted in tradition
The recent SaloneSatellite Award-winner transforms a humble bark, long used by artisans to craft everyday objects, into ethereal works of contemporary design.
Tokyo Creative Salon combines elements of design, fashion and less easily categorizable artistic disciplines.
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 18, 2025
Tokyo Creative Salon sees the city as both runway and canvas
Through March 23, Tokyo’s streets, shopping centers and civic spaces will host an interdisciplinary celebration of creativity.
Ian Lynam's "Fracture" is the result of 15 years of research and production and excavates 100 years of Japanese graphic design history from the Meiji (1868-1912) to Showa eras (1926-89).
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2025
‘Fracture’ dissects 100 years of Japanese graphic design
Ian Lynam puts his kaleidoscopic expertise to work examining Japanese graphic design from an internationalist and feminist perspective.
The 12-year wait between Designtide Tokyo events was long, but the range and quality of exhibitions on offer made it worth the wait.
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 11, 2024
After 12 years, Designtide Tokyo returns with a lineup of sensory dialogue
Swedish music hardware company Teenage Engineering both scored and encapsulated the philosophy of the innovative design fair's 12-year comeback.
For Designart 2024, 130 (one thirty) is exhibiting its first furniture collection of 100% recyclable 3D-printed works at Issey Miyake Ginza.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 19, 2024
117 creative exhibits take over Tokyo for Designart 2024
Designart’s official exhibitions at the World Kita -Aoyama Building in Minato Ward are always well-rounded displays of both established and up-and-coming designers.
Plamo Furniture’s Baum series of interior works, designed by Takuro Izumi, is made with vertically layered panels of engineered wood that can be custom-designed to seamlessly fit any space.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 5, 2024
Japan's flat-packed furniture doesn't skimp on aesthetics
Disappointed by flat-packed aesthetics? Not if you give these Japan-designed pieces a look.
Designed by Bob Foundation in collaboration with Sugita Ace, the Sonaete series of disaster preparedness kits are packaged in bags, boxes and pouches that look attractive in homes.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 13, 2024
Stylish emergency goods can save precious seconds when disaster strikes
Eye-catching go bags, canary-inspired whistles and more aesthetically pleasing emergency preparedness items you'll want to keep within arm's reach.
The Oku knife "hooks or wraps elegantly along the edge of a plate or board," designer Kathleen Reilly says.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 22, 2024
A playfully subversive knife from a rising Scottish design star
The Scottish artist fuses East and West in a new knife design crafted in and inspired by Niigata Prefecture’s Tsubame-Sanjo.
With brightly colored hair and equally colorful attire, the 48-year-old Maaya Orii certainly stands out in a crowd.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 1, 2024
Paging Dr. Maaya, the neurosurgeon doubling as a fashion designer
Maaya Orii works as a neurosurgeon in Tokyo on weekdays and as a doctor in Kushiro, Hokkaido, on weekends. In her spare time, she’ll shift gears and focus on fashion.
In about a year, Wormann has taken four Tokyo "akiya" (abandoned homes) under his wing — three in Sangenjaya and the most recent in Shin-Nakano.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 27, 2024
The Swede bringing ‘Japandi’ style to Tokyo’s abandoned homes
The 86-year-old building Wormann acquired in Sengenjaya came with not only a degraded structure but also termite damage throughout.
The colored patterns of Tsuguru "nuri," made in Aomori Prefecture, are achieved by applying multiple coatings of lacquer, which are later polished down to reveal layers of colors beneath.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
May 18, 2024
A new initiative rethinks old Tohoku crafts
Described as “collector's items,” the works are being kept under wraps until their debut at a May 24-25 exhibition at Kudan House in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.
Since launching in 1961, the iconic Salone del Mobile furniture fair has firmly established Milan’s status as a leading force in the global design world
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 18, 2024
Salone del Mobile’s Maria Porro: ‘Italy and Japan share many things’
Maria Porro became the leading global design fair's first female and youngest-ever president when she was named to the position in 2021.
Adal’s Look into Nature brand, on show at Salon del Mobile 2024, rethinks "igusa" (Japanese rush grass), traditionally used for tatami, as a sustainable material for furniture.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 13, 2024
Japan’s best and brightest designers set to shine in Milan
The Salone del Mobile trade fair and its accompanying SaloneSatellite exhibition of up-and-coming talent attracts a pool of talented Japanese designers.
Yuji Takahashi says there is a culture of passing down good furniture for generations in places like northern Europe. He wants such practice to be the norm in Japan as well.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 25, 2024
Craftsman’s works spreads nationwide through furniture with no nails
Yuji Takahashi uses a traditional technique called "sashimono," by which grooves are carved and joints fitted together.
An in-house design by Yamagiwa, the Sui drop-shaped light uses traditional Japanese chōchin lantern techniques and is made with Mino washi paper.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Feb 17, 2024
Japan-made standouts from one of Paris' biggest design fairs
Maison & Objet is now such a popular event that it is often nicknamed the Paris Fashion Week of the interior design industry.
Kyoji’s Ma_do Fragments Wall Art collection of stainless steel frames, designed by Katsuyama Motonori, features off-cuts and other objects selected from Kyoji’s collaborating craftspeople.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 18, 2023
Off-the-wall designs to spruce up your home or office
On: Design looks at some products that can bring new life to bare walls.
Gala Espel’s “Archeology of the Future” fuses digital technology with handcraftsmanship to create silverware and jewelry of industrial forms and natural motifs.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 17, 2023
Designart’s young creators foreshadow the future
On: Design this month focuses on the work of five creators selected by Designart judges for its 2023 Under 30 program.
The Materials Provided by Mizuno Baseball Bat Tableware set is made from a recycled, discarded baseball bat and includes two large tumblers, a vase, a small cup, four cutlery rests and a sake cup.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 30, 2023
Game-changing designs from sporting goods brands
On: Design looks at two major Japanese sporting goods companies that have launched unique SDG-inspired projects.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
Woman dies after possible knife attack in Setagaya
Police investigate the scene where a woman was found bleeding on a street in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
Suntory CEO Takeshi Niinami resigns over alleged possession of illegal drugs
Takeshi Niinami, then-chief executive officer of Suntory Holdings, in May 2024
Why Stalin didn’t invade Hokkaido still largely unknown, 80 years after WWII
During a survey to collect the remains of victims from the Taito Maru, one of the vessels involved in the Three Ships Incident, a metal helmet was found near the stern of the vessel on Aug. 5, 1984, at Rumoi Port. No human remains were discovered.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
‘Cool’ Patagonia wants to take used items into the mainstream
"It's not just about sales. It's about system change," said Marty Pomphrey, general manager of Patagonia Japan, on Aug. 6.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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