Woman Act is a slightly awkwardly named Kanagawa Prefecture initiative aimed at bringing "women more and more into the main role". A worthy cause, we would all agree, in Japan's acutely ...

Gatebox is a "hologram communication robot" that integrates with a smart home. Developed by Japan's Vinclu Inc and apparently the first of its kind, Gatebox can converse with you, turn on ...

The controversy over the new National Stadium to be built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics rolls on and on. After Kengo Kuma's design was chosen in the second contest that became necessary when Zaha ...

Half British, half Japanese. That alone would set Hana Tajima apart from most, but she is also a Muslim convert (at the age of 17) and a fashion designer and blogger. Tajima has teamed up fast ...

Okay, Wacky Japan alert... but this is quite fun, in a very cheeky way, and also might just be worthy of closer investigation. After all, here is a product that will not only turn heads, it might ...

This article by Adriana Mazza first appeared on Tokyo Cheapo. Photo by Adriana Mazza Boroichi Market: Intangible Folk Cultural Asset There’s something pretty magical about an intangible ...

If you’ve been to Japan you’ve seen them: Brightly lit vending machines with rows of beverages lined up, each facing the passerby and beckoning to be sampled. Maybe you’ve noticed the coffee ...

Moff is based in Tokyo but has its sights firmly on the global market. Its wearable smart toy Moff Band was released internationally after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014. Now it has ...

The surprise smash hit event of 2015 in Tokyo was the Shunga Exhibition, the first such large-scale public showing of erotic prints in Japan. 200,000 people packed the tiny Eisei Bunko Museum over ...

Everywhere around the globe has been going Star Wars crazy due to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is especially the case in Japan, though, which saw an array of merchandise and ...

After American street artist DAAS stunned us with his vibrant burial mound-inspired mural in Takatsuki, here's another example of superb recent street art in Japan. While a lot of great street art ...

Christmas and New Year are over, so it's already time to look towards the next big public (and commercial) holiday: Valentine's Day. Regular readers will know that February 14th in Japan is a bit ...

In Japan, even the police have their own moe cute mascot characters. The Japanese metropolitan police has a "crime deterrence measures" department. While that sounds very serious, in Japan that ...

The final weekend saw Comiket take over the Odaiba bay area, as thousands of cosplayers, dojinshi readers, and manga fans descended on Big Sight for the three-day festival. Japan's video game, ...

As Japan deals with a massive rise in inbound tourism, a rather ugly side to the country's popular culture is rearing its head. Part of this is due to pure ignorance and part is an ingrained belief ...