Visitors to Japan in the summer are often surprised by the way women will almost obsessively use parasols (typically black ones) to keep off the rays of the blazing sun. Come even just the smallest ...

J-World Tokyo, the world's first theme park dedicated to Shonen Jump manga, has opened in Ikebukuro, north Tokyo. Visitors can find the new amusement center in the Sunshine City World Import ...

You might have thought that communism was safe from mascots but then you'd be wrong. As shared by Matt Alt, the Japanese Communist Part has its own kawaii characters now, the so-called ...

Tokyo Reporter has posted about another incident in the ongoing "No dancing" saga that is affecting Japan's nightlife. GP Bar in Roppongi was raided and the manager and DJ arrested for the heinous ...

The World Cosplay Summit 2013, the international cosplay event being held this year for the eleventh time, will take over Nagoya from July 27th to August 4th. Cosplayers from all over the ...

After years of campaigning, Mt Fuji, Japan's highest peak and an ingenious piece of natural symmetry, was recently finally elevated to that status that perhaps of all people the Japanese seem to be ...

If you ever think that Japan is a country of great hospitality and politeness, you should know that behind their happy face might reveal deadly diligence and sacrifice. For a long time, the terms ...

We're going to go out on a limb here and appoint the Solano as the most stylish uchiwa (handheld fan) we have seen this year. It comes in four semi-transparent, translucent colors, and can be ...

On July 12th visitors to Yoyogi Park may have spotted some clothes that had been left in the hedges and foliage like garbage. But far from being discarded items of apparel by profligate Tokyoites, ...

Just when you thought the Han-ryu boom must surely be over, along comes an even more ambitious development. Though the fad for Korean girl groups seems now to have passed in Japan, the K-pop boys ...

Though this may sound just like another of those "Wacky Japan" stories, there's something more tender and profound at work here. With its chronically aging population and declining birth rate, ...

Japan is humid. Really, really humid. Every July and August the citizens of Japan spend their days battling sweat -- a particular nightmare for anyone who has to work in a suit or ride the rush hour ...

On June 24th, Ashley Madison, the world-famous online dating service for dissatisfied married people -- or more bluntly, plain cheaters (wannabes included) -- launched a Japanese version of the ...

And the award for July's cutest use of augmented reality mobile interaction goes to Dentsu, for this Asoberu T-Shirt ("Playable T-Shirt"). It works with a dedicated phone app to allow you to ...

Why be boring in the kitchen? There's a wealth of fun stationery around -- from evolutionary ape erasers to topographical contour notepads -- so there's no reason that kitchen utensils should be ...