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July 20, 2025
 

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Laura Pollacco
The Hotaruan Royal Garden Suite, a renovated traditional "minka" home, will host the second iteration of the Minka Preservation Society's MinkaMeets event.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 31, 2025
Traditional home experts to gather at MinkaMeets event
Roof thatching expert Haruo Nishio is one of several experts scheduled to speak at the June 7-8 event.
Born and raised in Japan, Joshua Thomson has been making videos on YouTube and Instagram to poke fun at stereotypes and challenge assumptions about ¡ª or from ¡ª Japanese society.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 23, 2025
Joshua Thomson: ¡®Comedy is a pill that¡¯s easier to swallow¡¯
The bilingual YouTuber talks about his hybrid cultural heritage and his aspirations in the entertainment industry.
National agency Heritage Malta worked with Japan¡¯s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure the painstaking restoration of samurai armor that spent over half a century forgotten in storage in Valletta, Malta.
JAPAN / History
May 1, 2025
Lost and found history receives glittering homecoming at Osaka Expo
Hidden away since World War II, samurai armor gifted to Malta from Japan in 1862 has been restored to its full glory and put on display at the Malta Pavilion.
Shogo Yamaguchi shares his love of traditional Japanese culture with an audience of nearly 2 million YouTube subscribers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 29, 2025
Shogo Yamaguchi: ¡®Traditional culture thrives in a peaceful society¡¯
The Kyoto-based content creator shares travel tips and reminisces on the path that led him to where he is today.
Both priest and participant bow in recognition and readiness for the practice of zazen.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 25, 2025
The art of taking a pause: Discover the 1,000-year-old meditation technique of zazen in Tokyo's temples
Thousands of years later, in Japan the practice continues under the name "zazen."
Otono Kuboki, a Japanese Canadian hair stylist for salon chain Sozo, is a key figure in the company's mission to elevate the viability of Japan's hairdressing industry to foreign residents.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 11, 2025
Can an international makeover help Tokyo salons meet foreign demand?
Sozo Education aims to train Tokyo¡¯s next crop of stylists not just in English vocabulary related to hairdressing but in the diverse needs of foreign hair types.
Kaz Shiomi is looking forward to the Osaka Expo this year, which will be held from April 13 to Oct. 13.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 10, 2025
Kaz Shiomi: ¡®I want to show people ¡­ how to color outside the lines¡¯
Producing toys under her kiko+ & gg* brand, the business owner hopes to encourage children to find their own unique paths in life.
Jon Walsh, an urban farmer and the owner of Business Grow, has been teaching the residents of Tokyo how to grow their own food for over a decade.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Dec 31, 2024
Great things can grow in small places
This is a sponsored story, created and edited exclusively by Tokyo Metropolitan Government¡¯s Tokyo Updates website.
With brightly colored hair and equally colorful attire, the 48-year-old Maaya Orii certainly stands out in a crowd.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 1, 2024
Paging Dr. Maaya, the neurosurgeon doubling as a fashion designer
Maaya Orii works as a neurosurgeon in Tokyo on weekdays and as a doctor in Kushiro, Hokkaido, on weekends. In her spare time, she¡¯ll shift gears and focus on fashion.
Japan Times contributor Laura Pollacco (front right) was offered the role of one of her all-time favorite heroines, Elizabeth ¡°Lizzie¡± Bennet, in the Tokyo International Players¡¯ production of ¡°Pride and Prejudice.¡±
CULTURE / Stage
May 18, 2024
Local theater in Japan is more than a hobby ¡ª it¡¯s a community
For contributor Laura Pollacco, companies such as Tokyo International Players and Sheepdog Theatre offer a home away from home.
Kaori Yamada grew up surrounded by bonsai her whole life and was expected to carry on her family's 170-year-old legacy when she became an adult.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 23, 2024
The bonsai master working to branch out an age-old craft
Kaori Yamada grew up surrounded by bonsai her whole life and was expected to carry on her family's 170-year-old legacy or otherwise end it.
Mika and Jesse say their landlady prefers a hands-off style of property management, leaving all matters, including maintenence and repairs, to the renting couple.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2023
Renting akiya: A backdoor into 91²Ö¿â abandoned homes
¡°If the choice is between leaving (an akiya) empty or renting it out, please rent it out.¡±
By the finale, I had completely bought into Samurai Restaurant Time's spectacle ¡ª a neon-lit festival with chants and cheers.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 12, 2023
Samurai Restaurant Time gives kitschy thrills fit for Kabukicho
To replace the defunct Robot Restaurant, the neon-soaked streets of Kabukicho are serving up a kitschy second course.
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

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