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September 17, 2025
 

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EXPATS

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Swastika Jajoo (fourth from right) began attending the daily radio calisthenics routine at Sendai’s Kitasanbancho Park and struck up unexpected friendships with a group of elderly residents.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 15, 2025
Calisthenic companions bridge cultures and generations
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a doctoral student in Sendai found friendship in unexpected places.
False social media stories about Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba planning mass immigration obscure Japan’s real and growing reliance on foreign labor.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 12, 2025
Japan needs an immigration debate, not social media myths
There’s no mass immigration from the Global South into Japan, though you might not know that if you primarily consume your news on social media.
Melos Han-Tani is a game designer of eclectic interests whose upcoming releases, Angeline Era and Danchi Days, are set in alternate-history Ireland and a public housing complex in Japan, respectively.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 12, 2025
Melos Han-Tani: ‘Figuring out what you value is valuable for any artist’
A designer, programmer and composer, Han-Tani draws inspiration from a wide range of sources and channels his creativity through games, music and writing.
The second edition of the Tokyo International Comedy Festival will feature 60 shows across eight venues with a diverse array of talent on stage.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 11, 2025
Tokyo International Comedy Festival doubles down on diversity and scale
The second edition of Tokyo’s stand-up festival has leveled up with even more bilingual sets, international guests and comedy specials than before.
A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, Jon Heese naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 2007 and embarked upon a career in local politics the following year.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 8, 2025
Canadian-born politician tackles Ibaraki’s issues big and small
After being elected to four terms in the Tsukuba Municipal Assembly, Jon Heese now serves as a prefectural assemblyman — and one of Ibaraki Prefecture’s biggest cheerleaders.
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Sep 1, 2025
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The residents of Betsukai, Hokkaido — where cows outnumber people 7-to-1 — have extended a warm welcome to five players from overseas who joined the Pilot Spirits.
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 29, 2025
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
The government is set to create a task force to review its immigration plans and prevent social division between foreign nationals and citizens.
Jesse Kirkwood is part of a vibrant field of translators who have nurtured what might be called a “post-Murakami era of Japanese literature and translation,” one book at a time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 29, 2025
Jesse Kirkwood: ‘Languages are entire cultural universes with all sorts of baggage’
The Japanese-English literary translator reflects on catching the recent wave of “post-Murakami” fiction and how he balances reading for work versus pleasure.
The former main building of the Justice Ministry. The ministry is requesting ¥877.5 billion in overall funding, of which ¥22.9 billion would be used for measures linked to foreign workers.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 28, 2025
Budget requests from Justice Ministry focus on foreign nationals
Of the ¥877.5 billion requested, ¥22.9 billion would be set aside for measures linked to foreign workers and ¥18.3 billion for measures that respond to a rise in foreign tourists.
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2025
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The move comes amid concerns that foreign nationals are using the visa as an easy loophole to settle in the country.
Musical act Petalhead, comprised of Jaime Alise (left) and Riku Ogura, performs at More Than Music’s beachside event in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Aug 25, 2025
More Than Music makes space for creative communion
Since 2018, Tokyo-based duo Justin Sachs and Atsuko Sunaga have been organizing live shows and curating a community with shared passions.
In honor of his longstanding ties and contributions to Japan's business, legal and nonprofit communities, Carl J. Green was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette in 2018.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 20, 2025
Carl J. Green, mentor to a generation of ‘Japan hands,’ dies at 85
A lawyer and scholar with deep ties to Tokyo’s business and legal communities, Green opened the Ford Foundation’s Tokyo office.
Kinga Skiers (left) co-founded the Tokyo chapter of Food Not Bombs in 2023. The organization aims to provide the capital’s homeless population with food and other essentials.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Aug 18, 2025
Solidarity with Tokyo’s homeless residents, one day at a time
Since 2023, the Tokyo chapter of Food Not Bombs has been supplying vegetarian meals and everyday goods to homeless people across the city.
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district in April. The number of foreign residents in Japan hit a record high at 3.76 million as of the end of last year, comprising just over 3% of the population.
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2025
Welcoming foreign residents benefits Japan, three quarters of economists say
Some highlighted the need to avoid conflating foreign nationals who may be in Japan temporarily with long-term foreign residents.
Francisco Villarreal moved to Japan in 2014 to attend a teacher training program and has forged deep ties to the kindergarten in Tokyo's Asakusa district where he has worked since 2018.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 11, 2025
Kindred spirits, kindergarten connections: From Buenos Aires to east Tokyo
An Argentinian teacher finds echoes of his hometown in the working-class neighborhoods of eastern Tokyo.
In the most recent regular session of parliament, problems were highlighted regarding some foreign workers leaving Japan without paying outstanding taxes.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2025
Japan starts survey on foreign nationals' unpaid resident taxes
Some foreign workers end up leaving the country without paying outstanding taxes.
The National Tax Agency at the Ministry of Finance, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Japanese tax authorities can bill foreign residents in Japan for assets inherited globally.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 7, 2025
Japan's inheritance tax is high, unforgiving and sometimes avoidable
Under certain circumstances, overseas inheritance can pass tax-free to foreigners who are residents in the country.
A street in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on Wednesday
JAPAN / Society
Aug 7, 2025
Biggest drop in Japanese nationals seen alongside record high in foreign residents
The number of Japanese nationals on Jan. 1 was 120.7 million, while the number of foreign residents had risen 10.65% in a year to 3.68 million.
A video on Bayraktar's Instagram account of the Belgian photographer approaching an elderly worker in Tokyo's Shibuya has gone viral, garnering almost 9 million views.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 6, 2025
Photographer Bleg Bayraktar is winning social media with politeness
Japan holds a special place in the heart of the Belgian photographer, who has shot portraits in various countries and cultivated a reputation for being incredibly respectful.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 4, 2025
Japan calls for strict punishment after attack on Japanese in China
Tokyo has asked the Chinese government "to strictly and fairly punish" the suspect, while ensuring the safety of Japanese nationals in the country.
Haneda Airport security staff arrested over theft
Tokyo police have arrested a 21-year-old security inspector at Haneda Airport after he allegedly stole cash from a passenger during a baggage inspection.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
SDF spots China’s biggest aircraft carrier for first time
The Fujian aircraft carrier is seen in Shanghai in May 2024 as it leaves for its first sea trial.
White House threatens broad crackdown on liberal groups
FBI Director Kash Patel (right) listens to senior White House adviser Stephen Miller speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Pole vault rivals in awe after Duplantis has another historic night in Tokyo
Sweden's Armand Duplantis competes in the men's pole fault final during the World Athletics Championships at National Stadium in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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