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June 06, 2025
 

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VIDEO GAMES

The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025
Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here
The long-awaited gaming console hits shelves Thursday, with booming orders and tariffs making for a complicated debut.
Elden Ring Nightreign sees a developer following up its greatest commercial and critical outing with a game that struggles to find its stride.
LIFE / Digital
Jun 2, 2025
In Elden Ring Nightreign, the FromSoftware formula goes awry
Released on May 31, the studio’s first purely multiplayer effort struggles to grasp what makes its newly chosen genre great.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't your typical Japanese role-playing game, but that hasn't stopped it from being one of the best to come from the genre in years.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
May 24, 2025
Uh-oh, is the rest of the world making JRPGs better than Japan?
Developed by a French studio, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has pushed the genre forward more than any Japanese-developed title in the past 10 years.
Mixue, a Chinese bubble tea chain, has become the world’s largest food and beverage chain, with tens of thousands of stores all over Asia. The company is just one example of the increasing reach and popularity of Chinese cultural exports across the globe.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 23, 2025
How China’s soft power is rewriting Asian culture
Chinese cultural exports are becoming increasingly popular across the world and especially Asia. Do they promote cross-border understanding or are they tools for propaganda?
For Nintendo, it’s been a challenge making sure it can produce enough Switch 2 gaming devices to meet demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2025
Nintendo turns to Samsung to make chips for Switch 2
The Kyoto-based company is pivoting to Samsung because the Nvidia-based chipset that the Switch 2 employs was optimized for the Korean company’s manufacturing systems.
''A Minecraft Movie'' star Jack Black attends the films world premiere in London on March 30. Video-game adaptations like the movie are overtaking superhero films at the box office.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025
Success of ‘Minecraft’ shows the future of movies is games
The big-screen feature from Warner Bros. Discovery, "A Minecraft Movie," has outearned every other U.S. movie so far in 2025.
Kyoto's gaming landscape is dominated by Nintendo's headquarters, but a contingent of foreign-born indie developers is also working in the gaming giant's shadow.
LIFE / Digital
May 17, 2025
In Nintendo’s backyard, foreign indie game devs are thriving
“Of course, we’re all in the shadow of Nintendo, but we’re also here because of Nintendo,” says one British indie game developer.
A Sony PlayStation 5 controller
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025
Sony profit forecast flattens under ¥100 billion tariff burden
New Sony Chief Executive Officer Hiroki Totoki’s first task is to navigate the entertainment group though a new era of a tariff-wielding United States.
An attendee wearing a Super Mario costume plays a Nintendo Switch 2 game console at the ExCeL London international exhibition and convention center in London on April 11.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 10, 2025
Nintendo doesn’t rule out Switch 2 price hike after soft outlook
The firm expects shipments of the system to be nearly 1.8 million shy of analysts' estimates, and could raise the price, depending on how Trump administration tariffs work out.
An attendee plays Mario Kart World during the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience event in London in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 8, 2025
Nintendo gives conservative sales outlook for Switch 2 amid tariff concerns
The Kyoto-based company expects to ship just 15 million units of the new console in the year to March, shy of the 16.8 million average estimated by analysts.
Excitement for Nintendo's next console is high, but a vocal contingent of fans are voicing criticism over the company's pricing strategy.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
May 5, 2025
‘Drop the price’: Behind the pushback on Nintendo’s Switch 2
Nintendo games have never been cheap, but the company seems to be nickel-and-diming more than ever with its new console.
An attendee plays with the Nintendo Switch 2 gaming device at a media event in Tokyo on April 3.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025
Nintendo says demand for Switch 2 console in Japan is overwhelming
"We have received 2.2 million applications for the lottery sale at our official online store for customers in Japan alone," said Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa.
A police officer stands guard on April 1 at the home of Masaki Eguchi in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, where the body of Waka Kato had been found in a closet.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 21, 2025
Aichi man rearrested, newly charged with murder of high school girl
According to investigative sources, the incident took place after the two got into a quarrel over "Fortnite," a popular online battle royale video game.
In Europe, the PS5 digital edition will now cost €499.99 ($570.04), PlayStation said, while in Britain its price will be £429.99 ($566.53).
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2025
Sony announces PS5 price hikes in some regions
The price of the PS5 digital edition, which has no disk drive, will rise by more than 10% in Europe, Britain and Australia.
Sony and Nintendo might have to raise the prices of their game consoles, which are assembled mainly in China and are shipped to the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025
Nintendo Switch 2 and Sony PS5 likely to get price hikes due to tariffs
Pricing could come close to $590 for the soon-to-be-released Nintendo Switch 2 or Sony’s PS5 Astro Bot bundle.
Guests play the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console at an event in Paris on April 2.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 10, 2025
Nintendo gets breathing room on tariffs — just in time for Switch 2 launch
Nintendo dodges a 46% tariff on Vietnam-assembled consoles, buying time to flood the U.S. with Switch 2 units before the launch window closes.
Guests play with the new Nintendo Switch 2 video game console system during a presentation at the Grand Palais in Paris on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 5, 2025
Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders in U.S. over tariff concerns
The Kyoto-based company is delaying preorders of its hotly anticipated gaming console as it assesses the fallout from the trade tariffs.
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 3, 2025
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The gaming giant's newest console will retail for ¥49,980 for its Japanese-only version and ¥69,980 for multilingual and multiregion support.
The body of a high school girl was found in a closet at the home of Masaki Eguchi, a 21-year-old unemployed man, on Tuesday in the city of Ichinomiya in Aichi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 2, 2025
Aichi man admits to stabbing Tokyo high school girl over gaming dispute
The victim went missing after saying on Friday she was going to the home of a friend she met through online gaming.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Syndicates are increasingly targeting middle- to upper-class individuals from across the world through something as harmless as online video games.
Japan’s fertility rate hits record low despite government push
The total number of births dropped to about 686,000, marking the first time the figure has fallen below 700,000, according to a health ministry release on Wednesday.
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.
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.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
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.
Is Japan ready to say goodbye to tax-free shopping?
Arrows lead to the tax-free counter at a branch of discount retailer Don Quijote in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
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.
Six months into 2025, J-pop is having a full-on identity crisis (and a great time)
The year so far is only proving that Mrs. Green Apple is the biggest band in Japan. Their success also seems to be hinting at a change in the musical landscape more broadly.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
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.

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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