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April 27, 2026
 

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Weiwen Lin
At Park Hyatt Tokyo's revamped Girandole, chef Kojiro Tsutsumi (left) is tasked with executing Alain Ducasse's vision of a French brasserie.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 24, 2026
Girandole by Alain Ducasse is a stunning ode to brasserie fare
The renowned French chef and restaurateur's latest venture in Tokyo hits all the right notes, thanks to the deft skills of chef de cuisine Kojiro Tsutsumi.
This year's Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list spans 17 cities across Asia, with Penang, Ubud and Kasauli appearing among the entries for the first time.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 26, 2026
Tokyo earns seven spots on Asia¡¯s 50 Best Restaurants list
Sazenka and Maz climb ranks, but Osaka's La Cime stole the show as 91²Ö¿â highest-ranked restaurant.
Anzu Kojima (right) and Francois Proust of Three Grapes wine bar want guests to keep an open mind when they try Japanese wines.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 25, 2026
¡®For Japanese wine, you must forget everything you know about wine¡¯
Leave your preconceived notions of vino at the door of Three Grapes, a new bar offering in-depth, guided tastings of domestic wine.
Expect beautiful latte art, such as this bonsai drawn by barista Pietro Vannelli, at Vannelli Coffee.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 3, 2026
From Italy to Japan: Vannelli Coffee opens in Tokyo
With fancy gadgets and fragrant brews, the Italian specialty coffee brand brings some pizzazz to an already sophisticated java scene in the Japanese capital.
At Peter, The Peninsula Tokyo's revamped flagship restaurant, chef Yohan Da Costa balances French and Japanese elements in his modern French cuisine.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 15, 2026
How Yohan Da Costa is redefining Peter at The Peninsula Tokyo
After 12 years, The Peninsula Tokyo's flagship restaurant has swapped its steak-and-grill theme for a French concept led by up-and-coming chef Yohan Da Costa.
Bacha Coffee's outlet in Tokyo is the Singapore-based upscale coffee chain's first shop in Japan.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 16, 2026
With a dose of old-world charm, Bacha Coffee brews its way to Tokyo
The boutique coffee chain¡¯s first outlet in Japan offers all the trademarks of the brand: fragrant javas, stylish interiors and delicious croissants.
Driftwood Bar & Grill, part of Fairmont Tokyo's trio of bars on its 43rd floor, offers creative cocktails and panoramic views of Tokyo's Minato Ward.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 13, 2026
At Driftwood, cocktails flow to the sounds of city pop
Fairmont Tokyo¡¯s new bar concept is an open space of three sky-high bars, including a classy area serving cross-cultural sips and a listening bar playing retro hits.
Juzo Itami¡¯s ¡°Tampopo¡± was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn¡¯t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
CULTURE / Film / Longform
Nov 22, 2025
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40
Four decades on, Juzo Itami's film remains unsurpassed as a wicked and delicious social commentary on Japanese society told through the lens of food.
Tatsuya Nakadai
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 11, 2025
Renowned Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai dies at 92
The actor was best known for his role as an aging warlord in Akira Kurosawa¡¯s ¡°Ran.¡±
The Onodera Food Service group, which manages Sushi Ginza Onodera and "kaiseki" specialist Nadaman, has merged a sushi "omakase" (chef's choice) into a kaiseki to create a new dining experience.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 7, 2025
At Nadaman, a traditional Japanese multicourse meal gets a new format
The Onodera group has taken a bold step in merging two of its dining concepts ¡ª sushi and ¡°kaiseki¡± haute cuisine.
Great Wines World features more than 260 top-rated wines curated by influential American wine critic James Suckling.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 31, 2025
Renowned wine critic James Suckling brings Great Wines World back to Tokyo
The event showcases more than 260 top-rated bottles from 150 producers, with a focus on Bordeaux.
This year¡¯s World's 50 Best Bars list features bars from 29 cities worldwide, including debuts from Eastern Europe.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 10, 2025
Tokyo earns three spots on World¡¯s 50 Best Bars list
Bar Benfiddich climbs ranks, but Hong Kong steals the show with Bar Leone making history as the first bar in Asia to be named No. 1 in the listing.
Avant-garde chef Grant Achatz and his team from Alinea are in Tokyo for a three-week residency.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 4, 2025
Eat your balloons: The culinary theater of Grant Achatz comes to Tokyo
The man behind Chicago¡¯s iconic Alinea restaurant shares insights on modernist cuisine and his Tokyo pop-up.
Intrigued by Japanese wines, Burgundy winemaker Etienne de Montille decided to explore Hokkaido's wine scene, eventually setting up his outpost in Hakodate in 2017.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 3, 2025
Japan¡¯s first foreign wine investor plants its roots in Hokkaido
Burgundy¡¯s Domaine de Montille has opened a winery in Hakodate ¡ª a vote of confidence in the region¡¯s terroir.
Tokyo's current crop of three-Michelin-starred establishments includes six Japanese restaurants, five specializing in French cuisine and one that does Chinese cuisine.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 27, 2025
Tokyo retains Michelin crown with 160 starred restaurants for 2026
This year¡¯s figure, though 10 fewer than the year prior, does little to dent the capital¡¯s reputation as a leading gourmet destination.
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 22, 2025
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Yellowish and high in acidity, German sake won't please the purists, but open-minded consumers, especially wine drinkers, may find something appealing.
A staff inspects a distillation pot still at Suntory's new Osaka Spirits & Liqueurs Craft Distillery, which will focus on gin production and help Suntory capture a bigger slice of the fast-growing gin market.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 3, 2025
With a new distillery, Suntory makes a spirited move on gin market
Currently in operation, the high-tech facility in Osaka will open to the public next year with a focus on its popular Roku gin variants.
At the Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025 awards ceremony, 20 new entries were added to the list, reflecting the increasing diversity and creativity of Asia's bar scene.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 17, 2025
Tokyo nabs four spots on Asia¡¯s 50 Best Bars list
Two of the city¡¯s bars, Bar Benfiddich and Virtu, drop ranks while this year¡¯s list showcases a wider diversity with several new entries from places like Jakarta and Bengaluru.
Restaurants from 22 territories across five continents were honored at this year's World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony held in Turin, Italy.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 20, 2025
Four restaurants from Japan earn spots on World¡¯s 50 Best list
Tokyo has three entries, with Sezanne climbing from its previous position of No. 15 to No. 7 this year.
After establishing Lagoon Brewery in 2021, Yosuke Tanaka began making export-only "nihonshu" (Japanese sake) and later, "craft sake," a new genre of sake that isn't bound by the rules of traditional sakemaking.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 25, 2025
Brewed from rice, water and tomatoes: The growth of ¡®craft sake¡¯
Hampered yet inspired by the strict regulations for new brewers, a growing breed of sake producers are making the beverage on their own creative terms.
The language around Japan¡¯s new bike rules leaves no room for ¡®maybe¡¯
Under the new blue ticket system, cyclists will have one week in which to pay fines for minor traffic violations.
China holds live-fire drills in waters near Luzon as Japan joins military exercises in Philippines
Head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner Jr., speaks during the opening ceremony of the U.S.-Philippines Balikatan joint military exercises, at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on Monday.
Trump evacuated as shooter opens fire at Washington gala event
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, flanked by FBI Director Kash Patel (left) U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin (second right) and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, shortly after a shooting incident at a press gala event Saturday.
Don Quijote owner opens discount grocer as Japan inflation bites
Pan Pacific International Holdings, the owner of discount chain Don Quijote, opened its first Robin Hood store, a new food-focused chain, in Aichi Prefecture on Friday.
Laps of icy roads in China show sodium batteries making an EV breakthrough
A CATL sodium-ion battery model.
The American chef reconnecting with Japan through a Kyoto restaurant
Located in Kyoto¡¯s historic geisha district, the SoNoMa experience begins in the front room of the restaurant, where guests are served a welcome drink and a trio of small bites.
Hokusai¡¯s erotic art on display at a Kabukicho noh theater
¡°The Dream of the Fisherman¡¯s Wife,¡± a rarely exhibited print by Hokusai, will be on display at the Shinjuku Kabukicho Noh Theater for a limited time, from May 1 to 10.?
Inkonbini: Slice-of-life, cozy gaming from Japan¡¯s convenience stores
Alongside the simplified management of a convenience store, Inkonbini asks players to help a small cast of regular shoppers with not only their shopping but problems in their personal lives.
Japanese developers worry over construction supply shortages amid Iran war
Paul Nikel, President of West Canada Homes, with an increasingly rare supply of plastic foam
Professional sumo awaits three potential new stars
Bill Christopher Li, now known as Honoikazuchi, at the All-Japan championships at the Kokugikan on Nov. 30

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Projects like the BuddhaBot aim to re-create dialogue once lost to time, raising questions about whether AI can extend the teachings of Buddha or merely simulate them.
Can AI replace a priest? Japan¡¯s temples and shrines are testing the limits.
By Alex K.T. Martin

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