Tag - tokyo

 
 

TOKYO

A checkout system equipped with a display showing a 3D avatar enables a Lawson employee to remotely help customers at an experimental Lawson store that opened Monday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2025
Lawson beta tests futuristic convenience store with KDDI
Real x Tech Lawson utilizes a range of technologies, including robotics, digital signage and artificial intelligence.
A banner announcing the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election is displayed at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 23, 2025
Koike-backed party gains seats as LDP dealt setback in Tokyo assembly poll
Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First), supported by Koike as a special adviser, remained the biggest party, taking 31 seats, up from 26.
Hirohide Mori (left), head of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office's public security division, and Tetsuro Kamata, deputy superintendent-general of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, bow toward former Ohkawara Kakohki executive Junji Shimada (second from right) and company President Masaaki Okawara on Friday in Yokohama.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 20, 2025
Police and prosecutors apologize to Ohkawara Kakohki after illegal probe
The company's president underlined the need to fully examine the case that hit his company and make sure that similar incidents never happen again.
Restaurants from 22 territories across five continents were honored at this year's World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony held in Turin, Italy.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 20, 2025
Four restaurants from Japan earn spots on World’s 50 Best list
Tokyo has three entries, with Sezanne climbing from its previous position of No. 15 to No. 7 this year.
Shibuya’s iconic scramble crossing has helped put the district on the map globally.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2025
Shibuya, Tokyo's coolest ward, offers startups a leg up in Japan
It's offering international entrepreneurs free space, a good address and a wide range of support services.
Nihonbashi bridge, long overshadowed — literally — by an elevated expressway, is at the center of a multidecade project to relocate the highway underground in hopes of restoring the scenery around the historically significant bridge.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2025
Tokyo moves to restore open skies over historic Nihonbashi bridge
The elevated expressway is set to be completely removed in fiscal 2040 under a project expected to cost ¥320 billion ($2.2 billion).
Two suspects arrested for allegedly assaulting riot officers in Tokyo have remained silent during questioning.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 16, 2025
Suspected far-left activists arrested for allegedly assaulting riot police
The two suspects, who have not been identified, have remained silent during questioning.
Local authorities in Tokyo are resorting to unconventional measures to raise voter turnout, including partnering with public bathhouses amid Japan’s ongoing sauna boom and collaborating with high school students to create promotional materials.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 16, 2025
Tokyo teams up with bathhouses to boost voter turnout for assembly election
The previous election in 2021 showed a much lower turnout rate among younger demographics.
The classic red brick arches of Tokyo’s first “gādo-shita,” built in 1910, are what most Japanese people think of when they think about commercial spaces under elevated railways.
LIFE / Style & Design / Longform
Jun 16, 2025
Revitalizing the space under Tokyo’s train tracks
Rail underpasses in big cities are being transformed into vibrant spaces for artisans, foodies and travelers — without erasing their past.
"In My Closet" by the artist Noumra is on display at Tokyu Plaza Harajuku's Harakado space until June 18.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2025
At Tokyo Pride’s first queer art exhibition, intimacy and resistance share the wall
A vibrant, community-sourced exhibition in Harajuku showcases queer art that spans the political, absurd and deeply personal.
People gather for a campaign speech in Tokyo's Suginami Ward on June 1.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025
Parties to test political waters in Tokyo election ahead of Upper House vote
The election is seen as an early indicator of how voters nationwide might cast their ballots in next month’s Upper House poll.
Ohkawara Kakohki President Masaaki Okawara (center, left) and the eldest son (center, right) of Shizuo Aishima, a late former adviser to Ohkawara Kakohki, head to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on Monday in the capital's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 11, 2025
Central and Tokyo governments won't appeal ruling in Ohkawara case
The ruling, which also ordered the governments to pay a total of ¥166 million in damages, is set to become final Thursday.
Ohkawara Kakohki President Masaaki Okawara (right) and the eldest son of late Shizuo Aishima, a former adviser to Ohkawara Kakohki, in Tokyo on Monday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 9, 2025
Ohkawara president asks Tokyo police not to appeal damages suit ruling
Masaaki Okawara was arrested in 2020 for allegedly exporting a spray dryer that could be repurposed for weapons production, but indictments were withdrawn the following year.
Akihiko Ogino, president and CEO of Daiwa Securities Group, says Japan should press ahead with diversity initiatives as he attends the Tokyo Pride parade in the capital's Shibuya area on Sunday.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2025
Top banker vows loyalty to DEI at Tokyo Pride Parade as Trump’s pushback rages
Few Japanese executives have spoken out on U.S. backlash to DEI, though many firms seem to be quietly maintaining their initiatives.
Akihiro Okuda, a superintendent at Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, talks about his experience supporting the survivors and bereaved families of a deadly stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district 17 years ago.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 8, 2025
Police officer recounts fatal rampage in Akihabara 17 years on
After the incident, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department established the first task force dedicated to supporting the survivors and bereaved families of crime victims.
A mourner prays for the victims of a stabbing rampage on a street in Tokyo's Akihabara district on the 17th anniversary of the incident on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2025
Victims mourned 17 years after Akihabara indiscriminate attack
The attacker, Tomohiro Kato, drove a truck into crowds in Akihabara and then stabbed others, killing seven people and injuring 10.
House of Representatives speaker Fukushiro Nukaga (center-right in the front row) and others attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new National Archives of Japan in Tokyo on Monday
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2025
Groundbreaking ceremony held for new national archives building in Tokyo
The new facility was initially to open in fiscal 2026, but research on culturally important burial grounds and a difficult bidding process delayed it.
Investigators inspect a construction site in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on May 28 after an explosion occurred there a day earlier.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 2, 2025
Tokyo construction site blast caused by gas cylinder buried in the ground
The gas cylinder "may have been illegally dumped a long time ago" at the site, which was a paved parking lot for about 40 years.
Artists offer their own interpretations of Japan's most famous monster at "Godzilla The Art Exhibition."
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2025
'Godzilla The Art Exhibition' reimagines film icon as monstrous muse for modern art
The Mori Arts Center Gallery exhibition takes Japan's most famous monster beyond the world of filmmaking and asks nine artists to interpret the beast from their own point of view.
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 31, 2025
Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’
The Polish artist and animator talks about how he came to Japan and the inspiration he draws from ordinary streets and storefronts.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years