Category: CULTURE

Just when we thought technology would replace everything, we hear about an event like iPhone Creative Festa and meet people who say -- not just yet! Perhaps we all have this inner desire to be ...

With the recent release of their 32nd single, "Koi suru Fortune Cookie," AKB48 has once again proven their monopoly in Japan's music industry. After hitting the physical and digital shelves on August ...

Japan has got its knickers in a twist over a French newspaper's satirical cartoon that shows two emaciated wrestlers facing up for a bout in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with the Fukushima reactors ...

Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises, the final film of director Miyao Miyazaki, in spite of the controversy over its extensive use of smoking scenes, has surpassed all box office expectations for the ...

Japan and the cat. Was ever a nation more beguiled with the feline? From Sanrio's Hello Kitty to cat cafes and YouTube sensation Maru, the box-loving pet, the Japanese are mad about cats. It has ...

While the weekend was all about the announcement that Tokyo would host the Olympic Games in 2020 -- the city's second bid and ultimately its second time to host -- some netizens and keen-eyed manga ...

This coming winter, Japan's iconic cosmetic brand, shu uemura, will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of its beauty boutique in Omotesando in central Tokyo with the Christmas collection "Six Heart ...

A little while ago we introduced a plucky newbie yuru-kyara mascot, Funassyi. As a native of Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture, he has been striving to revitalize the local culture and economy of the ...

In less than two weeks, we will find out the host city for the 2020 Olympics. Will Tokyo make it? With each city holding its own strength and weakness, I still don't think that we have come up ...

Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of the biggest entertainment companies in Japan, will host a one-of-a-kind talk show in Shibuya in September, featuring a group of hafu comedians. The theme of the "Hafu ...

Recently we learned that all public elementary schools and middle schools in Matsue, a city in Shimane prefecture, have been asked by the city's board of education to put A-bomb manga series Hadashi ...

A colleague recently brought back the customary omiyage souvenir from their Obon summer vacation to Miyagi prefecture and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the traditional mochi sweets packaging ...

Audiences are a bit divided about Hayao Miyazaki's latest blockbuster anime, The Wind Rises, which takes as its subject the rather uncommercial story of an airplane designer. However, perhaps more ...

Studio Ghibli's latest film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) has revealed yet another face to anime director Hayao Miyazaki, who reportedly was against the making of such film that he knew would be ...

Among many English speakers, spoken Japanese is often said to be fairly easy to learn. This is probably because conversational Japanese in large part is a language of omission which doesn't require ...