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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 15, 2022

Phung Khanh Linh and artists abroad get creative with city pop palette

In 2022, the world tuned in to the glitzy sounds of Japan's bubble era more than ever before. For musicians outside of Japan, their appreciation of the genre goes beyond nostalgia.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 30, 2022

How making alcohol from trees could give rural Japan a buzz

Alex K.T. Martin joins us to talk about the science — and sustainable process — behind the process that may bring cedar, oak and sakura to your next cocktail session.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 27, 2022

Toyama puts itself on Japan’s map of sustainable tourism

From traditional architecture and local folk crafts to impressive temples and a luxury hotel, Toyama's rural Tonami Plain is rich with culture.
Utagawa Hiroshige produced several highly successful series of landscape prints over the course of his career, including “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” — the largest collection of his career.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 8, 2024

The definitive guide to Utagawa Hiroshige's masterwork is a feast for the eyes

Ukiyo-e expert Andreas Marks' new book is a rare compendium of the Japanese artist’s landscapes, even by local standards.  
The tradition of koromogae, which involves changing storage spaces for clothes according to the season, is becoming less common, largely due to the increasing adoption of Western-style closets that accommodate all clothing year-round.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2024

Mothball makers innovate amid shrinking market

The market has been diminishing as synthetic fibers, which are resistant to insect damage, have become widely used in clothing.
High-rise buildings under construction in Tokyo in November last year
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2024

Japan looks to expand preferential measures for Flat 35 home loans

The measures to lower interest rates for those who acquire energy-efficient or earthquake-resistant houses are currently applied only to newly made loan contracts.
Sarvam AI, often described as India’s OpenAI, introduced software for businesses that can interact with customers using spoken voice rather than just text.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 26, 2024

Cheap AI voice bots are suddenly everywhere in India

Startups may turn India into a proving ground for what could be the next frontier of generative artificial intelligence products.
U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith
WORLD / Politics
Aug 28, 2024

Special counsel investigating Trump proceeds with 2020 election case

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed an updated indictment that removes several pages of allegations following a Supreme Court ruling.
Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce, speaks during a press conference at the 2024 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 18, 2024

Salesforce’s new AI strategy acknowledges that AI will take jobs

The new strategy by Salesforce addresses the investor fear that job losses from AI could hurt the software-as-a-service business model.
 A giant mural of Shohei Ohtani on the side of a hotel in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 5, 2024

Japanese baseball fans flock to LA to see playoff-bound Ohtani

Inside Dodger Stadium, the influence of Japanese fans is clear, from Japanese-language merchandise to cuisine that included bento boxes, sushi and fried octopus.
Violin, a day care center for the elderly, is housed in a building that used be an office of the Kudokai crime syndicate in the city of Kitakyushu. It retains the original look of the Kudokai facility, with its thick steel-plated front door, glittering chandelier and marble floor.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Oct 28, 2024

Former yakuza office repurposed to become elderly care facility

The building that houses Violin, a day care center for the elderly, was once one of the main facilities for the Kudokai syndicate.
The addition of an area in Pacific waters east of Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands saw Japan's continental shelf expanded by 120,000 square kilometers in July.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2024

Japan expands its continental shelf by 120,000 square kilometers

The expansion has sparked optimism for potential resource development.
According to Fujikyu Railway, a group of around 10 people, who appear to be foreign nationals, boarded a train at Fujikyu-Highland Station on Oct. 16 and filmed themselves dancing onboard before they got off at Otsuki Station.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 25, 2024

Fujikyu Railway weighs legal action over foreign tourist dance video

The video, made by a group that appears to be a New York-based dance troupe, features dancers sliding on the floor and asking for a hand from nearby passengers.
The Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is located in the Giardini, a historic park in the Italian city.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 6, 2024

Venice Biennale: 70 years of bringing Japanese art to the world

The Venice Biennale has been an international showcase for Japanese art for over seven decades. This year, Yuko Mohri is representing Japan at the prestigious event.
The Australian team has connected with the residents of Fuchu during their time in the city.
BASEBALL
Nov 8, 2024

Fuchu becomes home away from home for Australia before Premier12

The Australians have been coming to the Western Tokyo city since 2018.
Beyonce accepts the Innovator award during the iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theater in Los Angeles in April.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 9, 2024

Beyonce leads Grammy nods after trailblazing country album

This year's awards ceremony, held in February 2025, is shaping up to be a battle of pop titans including Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan.
The discovery of the Navaornis hestiae fills the intermediate step in evolution between the first bird-like dinosaurs, such as Archaeopteryx, and living birds.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 15, 2024

'One-of-a-kind' fossil from Brazil reveals birds' brain evolution

The fossil discovery filled in a gap of 70 million years in the understanding of the evolution of avian neuroanatomy.
The Bluesky social network has soared to one of the top positions in social network downloads in app stores in the past week since the U.S. election. The company reported a recent gain of 700,000 new users joining the social media platform, an alternative to X.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 18, 2024

How Bluesky, alternative to X and Facebook, is handling explosive growth

Bluesky’s meteoric growth underscores its role as a decentralized alternative to traditional social networks, prioritizing user control and developer creativity.
A low pressure storm system known as a "bomb cyclone" moves off the coast of the U.S. Pacific Northwest and western Canada in a composite satellite image on Nov. 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 7, 2024

Google introduces AI agent that aces 15-day weather forecasts

They report that their new model can, among other things, outperform the world’s best forecasts meant to track deadly storms and save lives.
A variety of rice cookers at a home appliance store
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Dec 16, 2024

Companies rush to high-end rice cookers as consumer tastes change

Appliance-makers are working with rice growers to boost demand, as well as debuting products that focus on flavor and features.
The suffering of people with disabilities has been compounded by steep shortages in devices to aid them, including wheelchairs and hearing aids, and in damage to roads, sidewalks and homes with accessible features.
WORLD / Society
Dec 9, 2024

Gaza's disabled people face ‘impossible times’ of chaos and war

The war has forced most of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents from their homes and has been particularly punishing for people with disabilities and their families.
A monuments of a plastic model of an armor worn by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, is seen in the city of Shizuoka on Dec. 6.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jan 6, 2025

In Shizuoka, plastic models are not just child's play

Monuments of plastic models are found throughout the city to showcase its model-making industry, which traces its roots to skilled craftsmen of the Tokugawa shogunate.
“The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” centers on three teenage protagonists who are transported into a fantasy world where they must grapple with a foreign culture.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 11, 2025

Isekai anime offers a key to understanding globalization

The fantastical genre wherein characters are dropped into unlikely worlds — and sometimes bodies — can be read as an allegory for the structure of the contemporary anime industry.
The TikTok ban results from an April law signed by President Joe Biden and is the first time the United States has attempted to shut down access to an app with such a large user base — roughly 170 million domestic users.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 17, 2025

How a TikTok ban would work — and why user workarounds won't

TikTok reportedly plans to shut down the service and will show users a message about the law and offer to let them download their personal data.
Sony PlayStation's online services came back online on Saturday, the Japanese group said, after a 24-hour outage.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2025

PlayStation network back online after 24-hour outage

The network's failure prevented many owners of Sony consoles including the PS4 and the PS5 from playing multiplayer games such as the hugely popular "Fortnite" and "Call of Duty."
Fukushima University student Itsuki Yamada (right) takes part in a workshop in December in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, together with local residents. Yamada leads a group of student volunteers that runs an internet community radio program featuring Iitate.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Feb 17, 2025

University students launch community radio show for Fukushima village

The program aims to spread word about the realities faced by Iitate's aging population, and support the village's revitalization.
"I hope skaters who train here will go on to shine on the world stage," Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada told the Japan Times at Mao Rink Tachikawa Tachihi, a skating rink in Tachikawa, Tokyo, whose establishment she was involved in, on Jan. 28.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Feb 11, 2025

Mao Asada sets out to safeguard the future of Japanese skating

Mao Rink Tachikawa Tachihi, a project that involved the three-time world champion, has become a dream destination for skaters.
Toyohara Kunichika experimented with established norms of composition and began spreading a single figure over three full sheets, as seen in this “Kabuki Play 'Kagamiyama Gonichi no Iwafuji'” triptych.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 15, 2025

Kunichika's vibrant ukiyo-e gets a chance to shine at anniversary exhibit

An underappreciated ukiyo-e master is the focus of the largest-ever retrospective of his work in Japan, marking the 190th anniversary of his birth.
An Apple store in Walnut Creek, California, on Monday. Apple Inc. Apple investors rejected a proposal to end the iPhone maker’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, but CEO Tim Cook some some adjustments may occur.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 26, 2025

Apple to keep DEI efforts, though some adjustments possible

The proposal to abolish DEI efforts came after competitors like Meta and Google have started winding down such programs.
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, speaks during an event at the company’s campus.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 31, 2025

'Something is rotten': Apple's AI strategy faces doubts

Theories vary on why Apple is having trouble seizing the AI moment.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan