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August 31, 2025
 

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TOURISM

An intricate and massive wooden ring encircles the 2025 World Expo site in Osaka on April 9.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2025
Visitors to Osaka Expo likely to exceed 10 million soon
The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition is working to reach its target of 22 million visitors, the Osaka Expo's break-even point in terms of operating costs.
Pick up some country-style bread from Boulangerie Aman on your road trip in Kamikawa, Hokkaido.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 13, 2025
Road-tripping through central Hokkaido? Don't miss these bakeries
Slice through lavender fields and flaky croissants on your drive through the scenic region of Kamikawa.
People check out Mie Prefecture's exhibit inside the Kansai Pavilion at the Osaka Expo in May.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2025
Local governments leverage Osaka Expo to attract tourists
Officials of local governments are feeling confident about their promotion activities, with some events to introduce local food and culture at the expo proving popular.
Bullet trains at Tokyo Station earlier this year
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2025
Summer vacation budget for Japanese hits record high
The average budget grew 26.4% to mark an increase for the fourth straight year.
Climbers complete their entry procedures at the fifth station of the Fujinomiya trail in Shizuoka Prefecture on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2025
Mount Fuji opens to climbers in Shizuoka
The mountain is open for climbing until Sept. 10.
According to the National Police Agency, there were 75,905 people who converted their foreign driver’s license to a Japanese one in 2024, up from 48,885 in 2019.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2025
Foreign drivers in Japan to face tougher license conversion rules from October
The stricter measures come in response to a series of high-profile car accidents caused by foreign drivers.
The Transportation Security Administration’s reversal on removing shoes ends a policy that has been for nearly two decades one of the most visible — and criticized — features of the post-9/11 heightened U.S. airport security system.
WORLD
Jul 9, 2025
U.S. travelers can keep shoes on at airport security, TSA says
The reversal ends a policy that has been for nearly two decades one of the most visible features of the post-9/11 heightened U.S. airport security system.
A Lawson convenience store in Yachiyo, Chiba Prefecture. A new service from the company comes amid the rise in inbound tourists, making hotels and inns harder to book and more expensive.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2025
Lawson to let visitors use larger parking lots as paid car campsites
The convenience store operator hopes to capitalize on demand from out-of-town visitors in places where overnight accommodations are limited.
Once a way to transport lumber from the mountains to the coast, log rafting is now Kitayama's biggest attraction.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 7, 2025
A tiny mountain hamlet keeps traditional log rafting afloat
Log rafting was once a means of transporting timber, but now it’s the tourist draw of a tiny Wakayama village.
The expansion of the locker-to-hotel delivery service is expected to ease congestion on public transportation.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2025
Locker-to-hotel luggage delivery service expanding in Japan
The service was launched at major stations in Osaka last year and operators have recorded a rapid rise in usage.
Xu Pengcheng (right), model Mao Yi and Nono walk along a corridor inside an abandoned hotel in Shanghai on May 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 6, 2025
China's abandoned buildings draw urban explorers despite risks
Urban exploration is growing in popularity in China, where a yearslong property sector crisis has left many cities dotted with empty buildings.
Tokyo ranked second after New York and ahead of Dubai and Singapore in a ranking of the top global cities for nighttime tourism.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2025
Tokyo and Kyoto feature among top ‘noctourism’ destinations
Both cities rank highly in an emerging trend of nighttime tourism, according to a recently released report.
Outlays by households in Japan, adjusted for inflation, gained 4.7% from a year ago in May, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 4, 2025
Japan’s households boost spending by most since summer of 2022
Consumption makes up more than half of Japan’s economic output and could determine whether the economy will enter or avoid a technical recession.
Data compiled by the Japan Department Stores Association shows that tax-free inbound sales at over 80 department stores across the country fell by 41% in May from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 3, 2025
Japan’s department store shares lag as tourist splurge slows
Tax-free inbound sales at over 80 department stores across the country fell by 41% in May from a year earlier.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae (front right) visiting the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area in Kangwon Province, North Korea, on June 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2025
North Korea opens massive beach resort, state media reports
The Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, according to Pyongyang.
The plot of land in front of the Kyukyodo stationery shop in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district marked the nation's highest per-square-meter roadside land price for the 40th consecutive year.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2025
Japan's roadside land prices rise for fourth year in a row
The plot of land in front of the Kyukyodo stationery shop in Tokyo's Ginza district had the highest per-square-meter roadside land price in the country for the 40th year in a row.
A gate to check climbers at Mount Fuji's fifth station in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, on June 13. Climbers who do not have the necessary climbing equipment may be barred from using the trails.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 30, 2025
Mount Fuji’s ¥4,000 entrance fee kicks in for all routes
Climbers paid ¥2,000 to scale the mountain via the popular Yoshida trail last year, while those who made the journey through other routes did not have to pay anything.
Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 30, 2025
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji’s deadliest weekend still echoes today. Luckily, area rescue squads have leveled up their game.
Kazuhiro Asano (center left) receives a commemorative gift with his family as the 10 millionth visitor to the Osaka Expo on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2025
Osaka Expo visitors top 10 million
"The number of customers is increasing more and more, at a faster pace than we thought," Secretary-General Hiroyuki Ishige said during the event in the Expo venue.
Major department stores are doing their best to cater to foreign customers, but it’s unclear if it will lead to more sales.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2025
Department stores' tax-free sales drop as tourists' shopping patterns change
Greater foreign tourist diversity has led to a change in shopping priorities, the executive of the Japan Department Stores Association said.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
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.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
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.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
Jesse Kirkwood: ‘Languages are entire cultural universes with all sorts of baggage’
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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