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June 07, 2025
 

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SHOWA

Eiichi Minagawa, the representative of a victim group of Niigata Minamata disease, speaks during a ceremony on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the official recognition the disease.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2025
Ceremony marks 60 years since Niigata Minamata disease recognition
At the ceremony, about 300 people observed a moment of silence for the victims.
Remains taken by researchers from Kyoto Imperial University, which is now Kyoto University, from a tomb in Okinawa Prefecture in the early 20th century have been returned, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2025
Okinawan remains looted in early Showa Era returned by Kyoto University
The remains had been taken from a tomb built in the middle ages in the Okinawan village of Nakijin.
Teru Hasegawa, Esperanto name Verda Majo, wrote leftist political essays during WWII.
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2025
A window into the mind of Esperantist and political activist Teru Hasegawa
During WWII, a young Japanese woman resisted her country's descent into fascism by writing leftist essays, now collected and translated in "Whispers of a Storm."
Tomy's time-honored Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu, or Pop-Up Pirate, is set to go through its first rule change in 30 years in July.
JAPAN / Society
May 19, 2025
Nostalgic games and toys spark renewed interest in Japan
Products from bygone decades have evoked nostalgic memories for adults of a certain age while piquing fresh interest among the younger generation.
The larger-than-life hairstyles of Japan's Showa Era are unmistakable — and they're making a comeback.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 12, 2025
Sculpted waves, sleek updos: Showa hairstyles are back in fashion
Television reruns and social media content showcasing Showa idols may be the driving force behind the revival of retro styles.
Margot Magniere and Theo Poyer returned to Japan after pandemic-era restrictions were lifted and decided to stay for a while.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2025
The band that turned a pandemic lockdown into a Tokyo dream
On “Grand Voyage,” French pop act Tapeworms tap into Japanese cultural nostalgia and picopop.
Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Mar 7, 2025
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly
Despite longstanding taboos, evolving attitudes toward women's health highlight shifting cultural norms.
Showa Kogyo employee Yuki Maeda (right) holds fish-gathering plates she developed, alongside company president Akinori Kazeoka.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional voices: Chubu
Feb 24, 2025
Fish-gathering plate proves a big hit with anglers
The plate, which reflects light under the sea to attract filefish, was developed by a Showa Kogyo employee who loves fishing.
The Japanese icebreaker Shirase arrived at Japan's Antarctic research base on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 2, 2025
Japanese icebreaker Shirase reaches Showa Station in Antarctica
Goods and fuel will be transported to the base from the Shirase using snowmobiles following the arrival.
Taiwanese writer Yang Shuang-zi’s novel “Taiwan Travelogue” provides a portal to the past and allows the reader to explore a bygone world with their eyes, ears and stomach.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2024
The sentimental gastronomies of ‘Taiwan Travelogue’
Yang Shuang-zi’s layered tale of female companionship takes readers on an epicurean frolic through Taiwan's colonial era.
Izumi Suzuki’s autobiographical novel “Set My Heart on Fire” is the first novel by the author and actor to appear in English.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 12, 2024
‘Set My Heart on Fire’: Izumi Suzuki captures the heady cravings of youth
The cult writer’s autobiographical novel follows its unapologetic groupie narrator as she romps through Yokohama’s underground music scene in the 1970s.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, awards Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh (left), the commander of the Aerospace Force, with the Fath badge in Tehran on Sunday for the missile attack on Israel. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 10, 2024
Today's Tehran looks a lot like the Tokyo of the 1930s
Current tensions between Iran and Israel have parallels to historical events in 1930s Japan.
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet
CULTURE / Music / OUR PLANET
May 7, 2024
How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music
Hiroto Nagai has sonified polar climate data, resulting in a string quartet piece that he thinks can get people to care more about what the data expresses.
“Extremely Inappropriate!” centers on Ichiro Ogawa (played by Sadao Abe), a crude high school teacher who is chain-smoking his way through 1986. He accidentally ends up on a bus that turns out to be a time machine, which drives him to 2024.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle
Apr 5, 2024
‘Extremely Inappropriate!’ took a big swing. TV is better for it.
The drama — which features a fish-out-of-water protagonist and satirizes social issues — is the most divisive Japanese TV show of the year so far.
People exit the platform at a train station along the Yamanote Line in Tokyo in 1986. A time-traveling TV comedy with a bawdy middle-aged hero from the era has become a big hit in Japan, juxtaposing brash 1980s attitudes with the more politically correct present day.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 29, 2024
Satire TV show strikes a generation-spanning chord in Japan
"Extremely Inappropriate" uses a time-traveling protagonist to humorously highlight the gap between attitudes of the 1980s and the 2020s.
Tokyo International Film Festival celebrated the 120th anniversary of Yasujiro Ozu’s birth with screenings of the director’s films, including 1953’s “Tokyo Story.” The festival also held a symposium featuring three world-class filmmakers discussing Ozu’s contributions: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Jia Zhangke and Kelly Reichardt.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2023
Kelly Reichardt: 'Yasujiro Ozu truly tries to achieve stillness'
The indie director discusses Ozu's cinematic impact on the 120th anniversary of his birth at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Singer and dancer Shizuko Kasagi's life is the basis for the new morning drama series on NHK.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Longform
Oct 1, 2023
When the 'Queen of Boogie' reigned in Japan
Shizuko Kasagi gave Japan a reason to rejoice again and inspired a generation of young women in the process.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Jun 19, 2023
Resurrecting a prince's home with a dark wartime past
Tekigaiso hosted meetings that helped set Japan's course during World War II. But with an extensive renovation taking place, how much of its story is set to be told?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Jun 4, 2023
'Stakeout Diary': A killer on the run, two postwar gumshoes — noir at its finest
When a photographer was given rare permission to follow two detectives through Tokyo on a murder case, who’d have known he’d gather a legion of fans decades later.
CULTURE / Longform
Apr 24, 2023
Showa seduction: The unending attraction of retro Japan
Yet another generation is smitten with mid-20th century Showa Era style, designs and products. Is there more to it than nostalgia?
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
Trump and Musk trade barbs on social media as alliance crumbles
The trouble between U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk started brewing days ago, when Musk denounced Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.
Japan won’t wait for G7 summit for possible U.S. trade deal
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the U.S. speaks to reporters at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.

Podcast

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

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

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