May the force be with you. Or should that be... toothpick? Does Japan harbor the biggest Star Wars fan base? Why else does it seem to have such an insatiable appetite for Star Wars products and ...
Read More
The spring in Japan means many things: the start of the new fiscal and academic year as well as the arrival of the cherry blossom season. The sakura blooms, transforming parks and other areas into ...
Read More
Everyone's favorite creators of chindogu (strange and "useless" gadgets) have done it again: made something we didn't even realize we needed. Thanko's latest arrival is the Smaneck Smartphone ...
Read More
127 million people live in Japan. 5.5 million vending machines live there too. That's about one for every 23 people, and it hasn't been until recently that they've started to communicate with one ...
Read More
A few years ago Maywa Denki released a toy that would go on to storm the world and win a major award. It was the Otamatone, a curious tadpole-shaped electronic synthesizer that you played by moving ...
Read More
The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) spotlights art and design-related attractions in a new travel guide 99+1 JAPAN: Traveling through Art, Design, and Architecture and an accompanying ...
Read More
How cool is this grandma? Cool enough to do a perfectly choreographed "kome dance" (rice dance) with two other female performers (approximately 40 years younger) in kimono. If you eat plenty of ...
Read More
In need of a rest? Get some shut-eye in the heart of Tokyo and on a luxury bed by France Bed at the Nescafe Harajuku cafe space from March 16th until March 26th. Part Nestlé coffee showroom and ...
Read More

Tokusatsu TV series and Japanese airliner collaboration wristwatch
Kudos to Japanese electronics company Nidec for conceiving the Motorize Smart PET Bottle, perhaps mankind's most unnecessary invention since the shoe umbrella. What is it? It's a phone-activated ...
Read More
In March 2016, Sony Global Education unveiled KOOV, a brilliant coding kit for young programmers. Building 21st-century skills, block by block. Play, Code. Create. That's the concept behind ...
Read More
The American ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs will open a new high-end "ice cream lounge" in one of the most chic areas of Tokyo serving cocktail-style desserts. To promote the release of the ...
Read More
The popular chain of designer capsule hotels 9 Hours will open a new branch and its first ever in Tokyo. The hotel opens on March 22nd in north Shinjuku's Okubo area, just two minutes' walk from JR ...
Read More
Since their 2005 debut, music group Perfume has been steadily pumping out the hits with songs including "Linear Motor Girl" and "Polyrhythm." Now twelve years later, members Nocchi, A-chan and ...
Read More
Studio Ghibli fans will jump up and joy when they see this Kaonashi No-Face Piggy Bank. Featuring the iconic character from the 2001 anime Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki, the Kaonashi No-Face ...
Read More
It is almost time for the anniversary of Japan's greatest postwar natural disaster, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that struck northeast Japan on March 11th, 2011. The tsunami caused unprecedented ...
Read More