Only two other class of persons were treated with anything like the merciless ferocity meted out to lovers: subversives and Christians.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Aug 17, 2024
Love was a most subversive affair in Edo Japan
As the shogunate required order in society, love was seen as a threat to rational thinking — something that you might die for.
After 80 years, Toshimizu Ishii is speaking out on his experience making balloon bombs during World War II.
JAPAN / History
Aug 14, 2024
96-year-old recounts WWII experience in Fukushima balloon bomb exhibit
"Back then, I didn’t think much about it," Toshimizu Ishii admitted. "But now, I see how senseless it all was."
Though some in the country rejected their wartime associations, the Japanese government made the Hinomaru flag and "Kimigayo" anthem official 25 years ago.
Japan Times 1999: Flag, anthem now official
After some controversy, the Hinomaru flag was made official alongside the country's national anthem, "Kimigayo."
A tunnel inside the Sado Island Gold Mines in Sado, Niigata Prefecture
JAPAN / History
Jul 27, 2024
Japan's Sado gold mines added to World Heritage list
The site is associated with Korean wartime labor and was once the world's largest gold mine complex.
As childish as Ryokan may have been, human suffering wrung his heart. A portrait of the monk and calligraphy by him are shown here. (Ink on paper; early 19th century; replica before 1970)
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jul 21, 2024
Ryokan and us: 'How wide! How boundless!'
The Edo Period monk could see the world through a child's eyes, maybe even those of a child from our modern era.
As the 1924 Exclusion Act came into effect in the United States, people in Japan were not happy. It would define American immigration policy for near three decades.
Japan Times 1924: Anti-America Day observed by all Japan
Two very different views of the United States from Japan, separated by 25 years and, more importantly, a war, define this month's look back at Japanese history.
The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima
JAPAN / History
Jun 21, 2024
Oppenheimer apologized to atomic bomb survivors, Japan nonprofit says
Oppenheimer apologized profusely while crying intensely as soon as he met the visitors, an interpreter said.

Longform

A woman passes an "akichi" (vacant lot) in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The capital is littered with such small lots in part because of Japan's aging and shrinking population.
Dealing with rising land vacancies as Japan shrinks