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July 17, 2025
 

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CULTURE

Film

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Two university students (Sara Minami, left, and Fumika Baba) with grim family lives find camaraderie and warmth in each other in “Love Doesn't Matter to Me.”
CULTURE / Film
‘Love Doesn't Matter to Me’: Romance takes a backseat to female friendship
In Aya Igashi’s unconventional coming-of-age drama, not all people deserve forgiveness and not all women need love to thrive.
CULTURE / Film
‘New Religion’: Chic debut is low on shivers
Keishi Kondo’s horror film dives deep into dream logic and dread, but its emotional detachment leaves a chill that’s more cold than scary.
CULTURE / Film
‘Young & Fine’: Teenage horndog tale balances heart and hormones
The oddball sensibility of Toshiya Kominami’s coming-of-age film, paired with Yuka Kouri’s winning performance, elevates a questionable setup into something surprisingly human.
Hyun Bin (center) plays real-life Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun in “Harbin.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2025
‘Harbin’: Somber historical drama sees act of mercy lead to bloodshed
By Mark Schilling
Hyun Bin portrays real-life Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun as a complex figure shrouded in a sense of doom in Woo Min-ho’s film.
Ubu (Saki Miyashita) is a bounty hunter who takes down cyborg criminals in "Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2025
‘Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl’: Beautiful, brutal and bringing back ’90s anime energy
By Matt Schley
The first chapter of Yasuomi Umetsu's new "Virgin Punk" project delivers old-school action and animation in a cyberpunk future.
Satoshi Kirishima (Katsuya Maiguma) goes into hiding after becoming a wanted man for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in “I Am Kirishima.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 3, 2025
‘I Am Kirishima’ peels back the mystery of a fugitive radical
By Mark Schilling
Banmei Takahashi's drama gives shape to a man whose face appeared on wanted posters in police stations across Japan — and who stayed hidden for decades.
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2025
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
By Thu-Huong Ha
A new show at Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills Gallery explores the painstaking process of the late “Grave of the Fireflies” and “Pom Poko” director.
In adapting Masataka Matsuda’s 1998 play “On Summer Sand” to film, director Shinya Tamada decided to age up the central character, played by Joe Odagiri (left), by 10 years to bring out a deeper sense of despondency and grief.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 1, 2025
From stage to screen, a story of quiet connection in the still heat of Nagasaki
By Matt Schley
Director Shinya Tamada adapts "On Summer Sand" for film by filling the silences between scenes with heartbreak and slow healing.
An 11-year-old girl (Yui Suzuki) finds glimpses of hope while coping with her father’s terminal illness in “Renoir.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2025
‘Renoir’: An impressionistic portrait of grief and girlhood
By Mark Schilling
Chie Hayakawa’s latest feature about a young girl facing losing a parent to cancer is a shining, soulful study of quiet mourning.
Many recent video games, including Breath of the Wild and Planet of Lana, have borrowed from the pastoral aesthetic of Studio Ghibli films like “Princess Mononoke.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2025
Studio Ghibli’s majestic sensibility is drawing imitators
By Lewis Gordon
Forty years after the Japanese animation studio was founded, game creators are embracing its legacy of moral integrity.

Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Japan team finds ancient ocean full of squids
The ancient ocean was full of squids, whose population exceeded that of fish or ammonites, a Japanese research team mainly from Hokkaido University has found through a new method using technology.
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
Japan launches government body to address concerns over foreign nationals
The new administrative body would serve as a cross-agency "control tower" to respond to issues such as crime and overtourism involving foreign nationals, according to the government.
Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder's wife
The house of the wife of the late Chizuo Matsumoto, the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder, in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.
Tokyo stocks hit by a perfect storm of tariffs, politics and budget worries
Tokyo stocks are underperforming shares in other large markets globally.
Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Tokyobike founder believes in taking in sights of dynamic cities slowly
Ichiro Kanai, founder and president of Tokyobike, is developing a niche but a new customer base who want to cycle as part of a lifestyle.

Podcast

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

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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