You gotta love music. Whether its spacey ambient kankyo ongaku, relaxing jazz progressions from the 1970s, or a seven-hour kawaii danceathon, there’s nothing like the…

We recently covered the Ainu indigenous people of Japan. We looked at their traditional music as well as “Ainu My Voice,” a short-film following Rie…

We recently wrote about pet ownership in Japan. Historically uncommon, households have been adopting furrier family members en masse in recent years. The country has…

The COVID-19 pandemic is no laughing matter. Governments across the globe have been enforcing lockdowns to differing degrees during limited commerce and tourism. Similarly, Japan…

In Japan, residents in quick need of computer access head to internet cafes. These places of business offer a quiet cubicle equipped with an internet-connected…

Personally, I’ve always been fascinated by Japanese history. While far from an expert on the issue, there’s just something mystical about the society as it…

Trains are a big part of life in Japan. If you live in a metropolitan city, perhaps as a business person, you can expect a…

When you think of Japan, the first things that often come to mind are overcrowded Tokyo wards and neon shopping districts set abuzz. During non-pandemic…

There’s a lot going on. Walk along a crowded street in downtown Tokyo, bicyclists whizzing by your shoulder, and you’ll see how much focus it…

I remember action figures. Walking through endless Toys R Us aisles as a child, looking up at all the icons of Saturday morning cartoons emblemized…

If you’re an anime fan, you may have recently noticed A Whisker Away floating its way up your Netflix recommendations page. The 2020 feature-length film…

Although noxiously confusing, Japan’s roads are mostly safe. A license point systems ensures careful driving, and the number of accidents and traffic fatalities is experiencing…

For a long time, I would suggest that Japanese consumers have been squeezed. In October 2019, the government raised the consumption tax from eight percent…

It’s not uncommon for Japan to be described as some kind of utopia. The temptation is certainly understandable. Violent crime is exceptionally rare here, the…

Although Japan is largely considered homogeneous, minority groups do exist. Twenty-five thousand residents are considered Ainu, an East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the northern…