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LIFE

Travel

The luxury Seven Stars in Kyushu train trades the hyper-efficiency of typical rail travel in Japan for a slower, more decadent version.

LIFE / Travel

Mar 1, 2025

Aboard Japan’s most luxurious train, the journey is the destination

By Erik Augustin Palm

For those with yen to burn, the Seven Stars in Kyushu is one of the most luxurious ways to experience some of southern Japan’s best hidden gems.

Tokoro Ruins Museum Director Yuuki Nakamura says that 'most Japanese people don’t know' the history of the Okhotsk culture, but he and others are betting that travelers might be intrigued enough to visit and find out more.

LIFE / Travel

Feb 22, 2025

Bear skulls and pit dwellings: Hokkaido aims to sell ancient history

By Justin Randall

The Okhostk culture thrived in northern Hokkaido from the fifth to ninth centuries and may have provided the Ainu with some of their best-known rituals.

In Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, an entire street is dedicated to Japanese spirits, monsters and ghouls — a sign that the overall region is rich in spine-tingling tourist draws.

LIFE / Travel

Feb 22, 2025

Shimane and Tottori to bewitch tourists with supernatural charms

By Zoria Petkoska

The two prefectures are leaning on spooky folklore to draw more travelers.

While Japan deals with so-called overtourism, the rest of the world is just getting back to pre-pandemic levels of visits from international travelers.

LIFE / Travel

Jan 24, 2025

Global tourism is back to pre-COVID highs

By Daniel Silva

Global tourism generated nearly $1.6 trillion (about ¥250 trillion) in 2024, about 3% more than the previous year and 4% more than in 2019.

For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.

LIFE / Travel

Jan 18, 2025

For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case

By Johan Brooks

Japan’s much-lauded four seasons aren’t felt as much in Tokyo as they are in the full, rural vistas of Yamagata Prefecture.

Scheduled to welcome its first guests in early 2025, the Waldorf Astoria Osaka is just one of many luxury hotel openings Japan has seen in recent months.

LIFE / Travel

Jan 4, 2025

Japan’s ‘quiet revolution’ of luxury travel nears fruition

By Tan Pin Yen

“The Japanese luxury travel scene has undergone quite the metamorphosis over the past decade,” says one industry insider.

Tonoike Sake Brewery has been gearing their brewery toward tourism since the late 1980s, attempting to lure tourists to the town of Mashiko.

LIFE / Travel

Jan 3, 2025

Traveling for sake's sake: The emergence of brewery tourism in Japan

By Yukana Inoue

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.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties

By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Supporting women’s social participation is Cartier’s commitment

Supporting women’s social participation is Cartier’s commitment

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