91²Ö¿â

author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 20, 2025
 

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Justin Randall
The Hokkaido East Trail links some of the northern prefecture's most striking national parks and landscapes.
LIFE / Travel
May 24, 2025
In search of untouched Japan? Meet Hokkaido¡¯s newest hiking trail.
The 410-kilometer Hokkaido East Trail links three national parks as it winds through marshland, calderas and more.
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
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.
The first official government survey of Hokkaido backcountry skiing could spell changes for trails in the northern prefecture.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 1, 2025
First official survey set to change backcountry Hokkaido skiing
From October 2024, the land ministry has been gathering opinions on Hokkaido¡¯s alpine adventurers with an eye toward increased support and safety for off-piste enthusiasts.
Lantoko, a company operated by Taiwan native Ping-Fang Lan, offers drift ice walking tours and other exhilarating experiences in and around Shiretoko National Park.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 13, 2025
Due north: Foreign-born guides introduce Hokkaido¡¯s unique charms
With adventure tourism on the rise in Hokkaido, a new generation of foreign-born guides is eager to greet travelers.
For the 20 Questions column this year, writers asked their interview subjects about everything from their lives in Japan to their thoughts on news topics.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 28, 2024
There were plenty of hot topics to opine on in 2024
We take a look back at some of the best answers that our interviewees gave for 20 Questions from throughout the year.
By windsurfing around the British Isles, Jonathan ¡°Jono¡± Dunnett says he was rescued from disillusionment and depression.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 10, 2024
Jonathan Dunnett: ¡®The ocean is far bigger than we are, and it will humble us.¡¯
With his bright orange sail, windsurfer Jonathan Dunnett is pretty visible out on the water. This means he draws attention from other boaters and the odd shark.
Walking through Tokyo's varied neighborhoods and the sub-communities within them can be the best way for a tourist, even one with limited time, to take the city in.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 5, 2024
Sure, Tokyo¡¯s trains are amazing. But are they ruining your trip?
Amid a visit to the infinite urban landscape that is Tokyo, what does it mean to maximize your time?
In addition to standup comedy, Anthony Jeselnik co-hosts the podcast ¡°The Jeselnik and Rosenthal Vanity Project¡± with NFL analyst Gregg Rosenthal.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 11, 2024
Standup comic Anthony Jeselnik, known for fierce roasts, to play first Japan show
The comedian will hit Tokyo as part of the Asia stretch of his worldwide ¡°Bones and All¡± tour.
In the future, more tour operators and sites of interest may start marketing themselves based on travelers' preferences to set their own schedules.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 29, 2024
When Japan travels, it doesn¡¯t mind going it alone
Regardless of the destination, more tour operators and regions are leaning on ¡°travel as a form of self-care.¡±
However non-Japanese fathers in Japan manage the vagaries of life abroad, many share a preference for forging ahead for the benefit of their children.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 14, 2024
There¡¯s no one-size-fits-all fatherhood for foreign-born dads in Japan
From Hokkaido to Okinawa, fathers in Japan talk getting married, raising kids and taking life as it comes.
In 2023, Bryan Eastlake (left) began a three-year contract with the local Takahama tourism association to write, post photos and otherwise promote the small town in northern Kyoto Prefecture to a wider audience.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
May 20, 2024
The new vanguard of rural revitalization efforts in Japan
Currently, the Regional Revitalization Corps has around 200 foreign residents working in different industries around the country.
Photographer Toko Jinno is passionate about documenting the lives of Japan¡¯s fishermen.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 11, 2024
Toko Jinno: 'Eating fish is common in Japan, but the lives of fishers are not so well-known'
Photographer goes behind-the-scenes of the fishing industry in hopes to inspire and educate people to support its workers.
Summer averages in eastern Hokkaido float in the high teens and low 20s, not necessitating widespread air conditioning usage in homes and businesses.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2024
Fear the impending heat? Escape to Kushiro, the land of no summer.
A once mighty fishing port, Kushiro now aims to capture the hearts of tourists seeking escape from sweltering urban jungles for a misty paradise.
Director of the Akan International Crane Center, Miyuki Kawase, says tourism is incredibly helpful for the birds, but the people who come to take pictures of the birds have to remember they are still wild animals.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 24, 2024
Miyuki Kawase: ¡®Experience, whether happy, sad or painful, makes you grow¡¯
The director of the Akan International Crane Center in Hokkaido tells us how she found herself in a career centered around the symbolic white birds.
The sport was created in the town of Kushiro in 1978 by former Olympic ice hockey goalkeeper Katsuji Morishima, who married two things every East Hokkaido resident has ¡ª a pair of rubber rain boots and a love of ice hockey.
MORE SPORTS / Ice Hockey
Feb 22, 2024
A pastime in frozen Hokkaido: Rubber boots ice hockey
No skates are needed for Hokkaido's unique brand of ice hockey, which is a popular way to stay active during the north's long winters.
At the Akan International Crane Center, just north of the city of Kushiro proper, visitors can see the majestic red-crowned crane ¡ª a symbol of Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 17, 2024
Faces of the north: A Hokkaido town grapples with depopulation
Residents of Kushiro face an issue that more and more communities in Japan are having to deal with. The city may be young, but it's rich with tradition.
Naoko Motooka began hunting 10 years ago. Her hobby is one way Hokkaido hopes to curb a current boom in the deer population.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 15, 2024
Hunting in Hokkaido; Taylor Swift comes to Tokyo
You probably don¡¯t think of guns when you think of Japan, but Hokkaido¡¯s hunters do.
Japanese regulations determine which hunters can handle certain firearms based on the individual's experience and the level of rifling in a long gun's barrel.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 3, 2024
Hokkaido hunters say more firepower means more humane kills
A revision to Japan¡¯s firearms laws would mean new hunters would be temporarily limited to less potent shotguns.
Hiromi Uetake has future plans to turn some of the currently unused rooms of the former elementary school into taprooms for visiting customers.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 14, 2024
Craft beer¡¯s hoppy road to the deep north
Beer drinkers in these occasionally frozen lands now enjoy flavors infused with deep stories and their home prefectures¡¯ splendid natural beauty.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 29, 2023
20 Questions: The best answers of 2023
Our interviewees this year gave a lot of advice for living a good life and paying attention to the things that matter most.
Japanese markets brace for triple whammy if opposition wins big
A Sanseito campaign van in Shinjuku. The populist party is gaining ground and challenging the more centrist parties.
Sunken WWII Japanese warship Teruzuki found off Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands. A team from the U.S. nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust has discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki on the deep seabed off the Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.
Living conditions index hits lowest level in 15 years in Japan
The share of respondents to a Bank of Japan quarterly survey in June who said they have become worse off came to 61.0%, up 5.1 percentage points from the previous survey.
In Upper House race, younger voters in Tokyo turn to DPP for new direction
The Tokyo district has the highest number of candidates in the 2025 Upper House election with 32 people in the running for seven seats.
Concerns grow in Japan over possible Russian interference in Sunday¡¯s election
A think tank researcher said anti-government propaganda by Russian bot accounts was what has made the small far-right party Sanseito so popular leading up to the Upper House election.
91²Ö¿â rice farmers are confounded by Shinjiro Koizumi¡¯s policies
Kiyoshi Shibata stands in front of one of the rice paddies in Murayama, Yamagata Prefecture, where he produces the prefecture's signature rice brand Tsuyahime.
From stalking to death threats, female candidates still face harassment
Mayu Ushida, a former NHK newscaster running for election in the Tokyo electoral district on the Democratic Party for the People ticket, signs an autograph for a voter after a public rally at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Kawaii Lab redefines idol pop for the TikTok generation
Misa Kimura is the main producer for Kawaii Lab, a project by entertainment agency Asobisystem whose groups have found success by pairing a social media-first strategy with a fresh perspective on traditional idol-pop tropes.
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.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER