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October 30, 2025
 

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JAPANESE FILM

Ikken Yamamoto plays a shell-shocked Self-Defense Force veteran whose past comes back to haunt him in “Flames of a Flower.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2025
‘Flames of a Flower’: A bold interrogation of Japan’s pacifist identity
Oudai Kojima’s PTSD drama turned politically charged thriller takes aim at Japan’s postwar contradictions.
Koto Nagata’s “Baka’s Identity” follows three men (from left: Yuta Hayashi, Takumi Kitamura and Go Ayano) in Japan’s fake ID trade, bound by crime and brotherhood.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2025
‘Baka's Identity’ exposes an underworld of stolen names and lost souls
In Koto Nagata’s thriller, Japan’s vulnerable youth on society’s margins risk everything — even who they are.
Director Junji Sakamoto (left) walked the Tokyo International Film Festival red carpet with Sayuri Yoshinaga (center) and Non (right), who both play mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, in the biopic "Climbing for Life."
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 28, 2025
Tokyo Film Festival opens with global stars and a spotlight on Asian storytelling
From Juliette Binoche’s directorial debut to Paul Schrader’s Mishima biopic, this year’s festival celebrates cross-cultural creativity.
In “Climbing for Life,” Sayuri Yoshinaga (right) portrays Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, alongside Yuki Amami as the journalist who covered the expedition.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2025
‘Climbing for Life’ doesn’t break new ground, but knows its footing
Sayuri Yoshinaga brings quiet strength to the biopic about the first woman to summit Mount Everest — even when the film itself plays it safe.
Yukari (Hana Sugisaki, right) is brought out of her shell by a beautiful hostess (Kotona Minami) in “Meets the World.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2025
‘Meets the World’: A tragicomic hunger for connection
Between grilled meat and gay manga, Daigo Matsui’s latest is a darkly funny tale of friendship, fantasy and female loneliness.
A hitman (Ryuhei Matsuda, left) and a spiritual ascetic (Yosuke Kubozuka, right) go to infinity and beyond in “Transcending Dimensions.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2025
‘Transcending Dimensions’: A wild trip to enlightenment
Toshiaki Toyoda’s latest feature is a spiritual odyssey with punk energy and cosmic chaos.
A shy transfer student (Kento Nagao, right) is befriended by a popular girl at his high school in “The Sickness Unto Love.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2025
‘The Sickness Unto Love’: Teen romance spirals into dark cruelty
Behind the soft glow of young love, Ryuichi Hiroki’s drama exposes the brutal games teenagers play.
Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet"
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2025
What you need to see at this year's Tokyo film festival
From slow cinema and satire to moving biopics and restorations of classics, the TIFF lineup has something for every cinephile.
Masami Nagasawa plays the talented but circumscribed offspring of a famed ukiyo-e artist in “Hokusai’s Daughter.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 9, 2025
‘Hokusai’s Daughter’ captures the ferocity of a forgotten painter
Masami Nagasawa delivers one of her most compelling performances yet in Tatsushi Omori’s historical biopic.
Takuya Matsumoto and Masayuki Ino play hitmen in Yugo Sakamoto’s mockumentary-style action comedy, “Flame Union.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 9, 2025
‘Flame Union’: Hitman returns with fighting finesse and comic firepower
Yugo Sakamoto steps back from bullets and banter for a sharper, funnier kind of action in his latest film.
Anshul Chauhan’s Japanese film “Tiger” won the Hylife Vision Award for independent films at this year’s Busan International Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2025
Japanese films win crowds but few prizes at Busan festival
From art house cinema to commercial hits, 24 films showcased Japan’s range at the 30th edition of the Busan International Film Festival.
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 3, 2025
The summer kabuki came roaring back
A hit film and shifting demographics are drawing new audiences to kabuki, sparking hopes for a revitalized future.
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.
A young man (Kodai Kurosaki) has a tense reunion with his estranged father in “Brand New Landscape.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025
‘Brand New Landscape’ captures family dysfunction in a shimmering city
In director Yuiga Danzuka’s first feature, Tokyo gleams with promise — but loneliness lingers in every corner.
Suzu Hirose (left), Satoshi Tsumabuki (center) and Masataka Kubota (right) play childhood friends caught up in the simmering tensions of postwar Okinawa in Keisuke Otomo’s “Hero’s Island.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
‘Hero’s Island’: Okinawa-set epic is lavishly realized but lacks bite
Keisuke Otomo recreates postwar turmoil in rich detail that is sometimes more vivid than the characters themselves.
An anthropomorphic frog (voiced by Non) and a banker turned parking lot attendant (Koichi Sato) team up on a mission in "After the Quake."
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
The familiar is made surreal in ‘After the Quake’
Tsuyoshi Inoue’s feature reworks NHK’s four-part Haruki Murakami drama adaptation, evoking the dreamlike atmosphere of the author’s works.
Filmmakers Chloe Zhao and Lee Sang-il will receive the Kurosawa Akira Award, given to filmmakers who have “left their marks in cinema and will be entrusted with the film industry's future,” at this year's edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2025
Tokyo film festival to open with Everest and close with some Shakespeare
Japan’s main movie event kicks off Oct. 27 with the true story of the first woman to summit Mount Everest. It closes Nov. 5 with Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet."
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.
In “Ranshima Bound,” Yoshio (Tomoki Kimura, right) returns to his Hokkaido hometown with his supposed wife (Yuko Kii) when his estranged brother tells him their mother is in a coma.
CULTURE
Sep 19, 2025
‘Ranshima Bound’: Family fractures and buried truths collide in Hokkaido chill
Tomoki Kimura’s turn as a one-time punk rocker drifting through life grounds Kamada’s drama in rage, regret and reluctant tenderness.
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.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
At first summit with Trump, Takaichi pledges 'new golden age' for alliance
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi raises her fist as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in front of U.S. Navy personnel on board the U.S. Navy's USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the American naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.
Abe shooting suspect Yamagami pleads guilty to murder
Members of the media gather outside the Nara District Court in the city of Nara on Tuesday hours before the start of the trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, the man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022.
Takaichi buys time and builds trust with ‘near-perfect’ Trump summit
U.S. President Donald Trump walks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier during a visit to the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.
JPYC, world’s first yen stablecoin, is issued
Noritaka Okabe, head of Japanese startup JPYC, at a news conference for the first yen stablecoin in Tokyo on Monday
At Japan Mobility Show, BYD gears up to conquer Japan's EV market
BYD Auto Japan President Atsuki Tofukuji unveils the Racco at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Oasis returns to Tokyo: Rain, rapture and rock
Fans wait to get into the Oasis show at Tokyo Dome on Saturday. While lining up in the rain, some broke into impromptu versions of the British rock group's hits.
Kyushu banzuke sets the stage to cement 2025’s sumo narratives
Onosato ahead of his bout against Aonishiki at The Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 18
Tokyo Film Festival opens with global stars and a spotlight on Asian storytelling
Director Junji Sakamoto (left) walked the Tokyo International Film Festival red carpet with Sayuri Yoshinaga (center) and Non (right), who both play mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, in the biopic "Climbing for Life."
Spanish artist and Japanese writer duos diversify the manga talent pool in Japan
"Menheim” is a dark fantasy manga with a story that centers on a girl’s quest to find a cure for her ill brother.

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

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Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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