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January 19, 2025
 

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For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
LIFE / Travel
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
Japan’s much-lauded four seasons aren’t felt as much in Tokyo as they are in the full, rural vistas of Yamagata Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel
Japan’s ‘quiet revolution’ of luxury travel nears fruition
“The Japanese luxury travel scene has undergone quite the metamorphosis over the past decade,” says one industry insider.
LIFE / Travel
Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan
While sake consumption has declined in Japan, breweries across the nation are taking advantage of a rise in overseas interest to promote themselves as tourist destinations.
At each shrine and temple, priests create festive, decorative go-shuin stamps, and you can collect the marks of all seven of the lucky gods on one piece of paper (called a shikishi) to serve as a good-luck talisman.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2024
Start the new year not with one temple visit, but seven
By Zoria Petkoska
The seven lucky gods pilgrimage is a less hurried alternative to the often-crowded first temple or shrine visit of the year.
Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Dec 23, 2024
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?
By Kathryn Wortley
Inbound tourism to Japan reached a record high in 2024, but managing the crowds and ensuring sustainability remain a challenge.
On Dec. 11, Universal Studios Japan officially unveiled its new Donkey Kong Country area, putting the iconic character in the spotlight for the first time in a while.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 12, 2024
USJ’s new Donkey Kong Country is a barrel of fun
By Joel Tansey
Mine Cart Madness is the area’s only ride, but there are shops and snacking options as well as chances to meet costumed characters from the iconic series.
The town of Futaba is still dealing with the effects of 3/11, but that isn't stopping some residents from looking forward.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 7, 2024
Futaba pivots to 'hope tourism' to revive its fortunes
By Mike Fu
Whether you’re a long-term resident of Japan or flying in for a holiday, the message is clear: Futaba welcomes you.
Best known as the home of Kuon Temple, Minobu, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a charming day trip from Tokyo with the potential for cultural verisimilitude.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2024
In rugged Yamanashi, a wild-goose chase for ‘real Japan’
By Owen Ziegler
Japan’s countryside certainly offers a different experience than its cities, but whether that makes it categorically superior is up for debate.
The Kurama Fire Festival is one of Japan's most visceral 'matsuri' (festivals), but growing throngs of spectators could bring changes in the future.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 2, 2024
At Japan’s hottest festival, crowds threaten to smother the flames
By Shawn B. Swinger
Despite the growing throngs of attendees, it’s the smaller details of the Kurama Fire Festival that add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Located in the Otemachi neighborhood, the 'skull mound' of Taira no Masakado is said to be the source of ills and misfortunes of any who would disturb the site.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 26, 2024
Take a Halloween stroll through Tokyo’s dark history
By Mark Schreiber
Tokyo has no shortage of creepy places to check out this Halloween, and the good news is that many are conveniently accessible.

Crashed Jeju jet’s black box failure shows decadeslong gap in power rules
The flight data recorder retrieved from Jeju Air flight 2216, which crashed killing 179 people in December. Black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the flight stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea's transport ministry said Saturday.
Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki signs with Dodgers
Roki Sasaki pitches for Japan during the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome on March 11, 2023.
Major Japanese firms pay record winter bonuses
The average figure of winter bonuses agreed on by labor unions and employers stood 4.93% higher than a year earlier.
Yokozuna Terunofuji retires after injury-plagued career
Terunofuji won 10 titles in sumo's top division during his career.
Japan now expects to miss its 2025 primary balance goal
Japan’s primary balance is once again set to miss its long-standing target of achieving a balanced budget by the year ending March 2026.
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.
The efforts to bridge the disaster information gap, 30 years on
Roxana Oshiro and her husband gather their belongings in front of their house in Furukawacho, in Kobe's Suma Ward, after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.
Japan looks to up the ante with more money and partners in military aid program
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo hold a joint news conference in Taguig City, Metro Manila, the Philippines, on Wednesday.
Possibility of Nankai Trough megaquake now 80%, government panel reports
A map of the hypocentral region of an anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake
With new regional party, Shinji Ishimaru touts rebirth
Shinji Ishimaru announces details of his new regional party at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Podcast

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

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers
mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers

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