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November 23, 2025
 

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FOOD

A notice is displayed at a McDonald's restaurant informing customers of the end of the Pokemon card promotion, on Tuesday in Tokyo's Toshima Ward.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 12, 2025
McDonald’s Japan apologizes over frenzy linked to Pokemon card promotion
Many customers bought Happy Meals in bulk to get their hands on limited-edition Pokemon trading cards, only to discard the food and resell the cards online.
Recent heat waves and little rain may impact the rice harvest in Japan that typically starts in late summer, at a time when rice supplies have already been strained by adverse weather in recent years.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2025
Japan’s rice crop at risk as farms face record-breaking heat
Weather extremes may impact the harvest that typically starts in late summer, at a time when rice supplies have already been strained by adverse weather in recent years.
Top officials from the Farm Ministry bow deeply to apologize for mistakenly saying that Japan has enough rice based on faulty data at a meeting on Aug. 8 at LDP headquarters.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 8, 2025
Farm ministry apologizes over erroneous rice supply and demand forecasts
The errors came to light when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba admitted that the government’s miscalculations had led to prices surging in the past year.
The rise in household consumption spending in Japan in June was driven by a 30.1% jump in spending to buy automobiles and motorcycles, and higher electricity bills.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 8, 2025
Japan's household spending rises 1.3% in June
The average spending by households with two or more members was ¥295,419 ($2,000).
A rice farm in Niigata Prefecture. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday that the government will reconsider its long-standing policy of limiting rice production — a measure that has been in place since around 1969 in response to chronic oversupply.
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2025
Ishiba to reverse rice curb policy as government admits to miscalculating demand
“We had assumed that production volume was adequate, despite the lack of sufficient analysis,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said.
Japan's exports of food and farm produce between January and June were the highest on record for 19 items, including green tea.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2025
Japan food exports expand 15.5% in January to June
Exports to the U.S. hit a record first-half high of ¥141.0 billion, up 22.0% and driven by robust demand for scallops, green tea and yellowtail.
Bags of newly harvested Koshihikari brand rice are sold at a supermarket in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2025
Japan's first rice crop of 2025 goes on sale at high prices
Rice prices may remain high even after autumn, leading consumers to struggle with their food spending.
Nemah Hamouda holds a baby bottle while cradling her 3-month-old granddaughter, Muntaha, as she prepares to feed her amid a severe shortage of infant formula and rising malnutrition, in Gaza City, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Aug 1, 2025
'If the baby could speak, she would scream': the risky measures to feed small babies in Gaza
Infant formula is scarce after a plummet in aid access to Gaza and many women cannot breastfeed due to malnourishment.
The price increases in August will be especially noticeable for dairy products, including milk and yogurt, according to the research firm Teikoku Databank.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 31, 2025
1,010 food and beverage prices to rise in Japan in August
The price increases in August will be especially noticeable for dairy products, including milk and yogurt.
Hideyuki Okamoto, ice pop maker Akagi Nyugyo's marketing team leader, says the public is more accepting of price hikes as he holds the company's flagship Garigari-kun ice pop.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jul 29, 2025
Enough apologies: How Japan is shaking off its price hike phobia
A shift in consumer mindset about such increases is driven by the biggest pay hikes in three decades and has given companies more confidence to pass on rising costs.
Prolonged high prices for food and other goods have pushed down consumer sentiment and real wages, according to the Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finance for fiscal 2025.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 29, 2025
Japan should take all possible measures to raise wages, white paper says
Prolonged high prices for food and other goods have pushed down consumer sentiment and real wages, while predictions for continued price climbs have curbed consumption.
At Meiji the Sutenai ("Don't throw things away") Factory in the city of Saitama, the company sells dairy products whose best-before dates are approaching.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2025
From power generation to discounts, companies in Japan work to reduce food waste
Meiji, for example, has a store in the city of Saitama that sells dairy products whose best-before dates are approaching at about 40% off the suggested retail prices.
Palestinians, mostly children, attempt to receive a hot meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Jul 23, 2025
More than 100 aid groups warn of 'mass starvation' spreading across Gaza
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory.
Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2025
Israel issues new evacuation orders in central Gaza as hunger worsens
Much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland during more than 21 months of war and there are fears of accelerating starvation.
An employee at Yatsumeya Nishimura, an eel restaurant in Tokyo's Meguro Ward, grills eel on Saturday, this year's Day of Ox.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2025
Amid searing summer heat, eel restaurants draw crowds on Day of Ox
Japanese people have a tradition of eating nutritious grilled eels, believed to be good for restoring energy, on the midsummer Day of the Ox.
Food banks are struggling to secure rice and other food items to distribute to people in need as inflation has put a dent in donations.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
As rice shortage hits donations, food banks urge politicians to tackle poverty
Food banks are struggling to secure rice and other food items to distribute to people in need as inflation has put a dent in donations.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.3% from a year earlier in June, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025
Inflation stays elevated after easing from two-year high
Japan’s key price measure cooled a tad more than expected while remaining well above the Bank of Japan’s target.
The central bank will probably weigh increasing its key price forecast from 2.2% for this fiscal year after food inflation proved stronger than expected.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 14, 2025
BOJ may raise price outlook as food inflation beats expectations, sources say
The yen briefly strengthened against the dollar following the report, while Japan’s bond futures dipped.
Hiroshi Moriyama (left), secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party and also head of a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers promoting Japan-China friendship, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held talks in Osaka on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 11, 2025
China to resume Japanese beef imports
China banned Japanese beef imports after the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan in 2001.
Junko Koeda, one of the latest members of the Bank of Japan's policy board, speaks during an interview at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 9, 2025
New board member hints at possible raising of BOJ's price outlook
Junko Koeda, a former Waseda University economics professor, on Monday gave her first media interview since joining the board in March.
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.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.
Two men suspected of smuggling 1 ton of gold into Japan from South Korea
U.K. gold bullion bars and coins are displayed at Baird & Co. in Hatton Garden in London.
Takaichi rejects China's demand to retract Taiwan remarks
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has rejected China's demands for her to retract her comments on Taiwan, saying Tokyo's stance on a major regional security crisis remains unchanged.
Japan set to lean on U.S., allies for support if China escalates
U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo, on Oct. 28.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40
By Weiwen Lin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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