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June 30, 2026
 

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Tim Hornyak
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 19, 2017
Gachapon: Tracing the evolution of Japan’s colorful toy capsules
Where else but Japan could you buy a miniature version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” figure crouching over a squat toilet, horror-struck? It’s one of thousands of ingeniously designed trinkets you can buy for a pittance from toy machines across the nation. They’re subversive, beautifully crafted and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 10, 2017
Plastic fantastic: How does Tokyo recycle its waste?
The next time you trek out to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, situated on the fringes of Shinagawa along Tokyo Bay, look around and you’ll see a giant smokestack by the Konan Ohashi Bridge. The visa-dispensing center, essential for foreign nationals who want to live in Tokyo, stands right by a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2017
Leiji Matsumoto surfs the floating world
The work of manga artist Leiji Matsumoto mixes historical periods, themes and technologies, often in a science-fiction setting: His signature comics involve steam locomotives and reborn World War II battleships sailing among the stars. These grand flights of fancy, which have found fans around the world,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 18, 2017
Wasteland: Tokyo grows on its own trash
Waste management authorities are working constantly to ensure that garbage in the metropolis is put to better use.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 4, 2016
Just say Yes to a new generation of prog rockers
Few rock bands from the 1960s are still going strong today, and fewer still have been as musically adventurous as prog rockers Yes. Formed in London in 1968, the outfit has survived numerous lineup changes, but the death last year of bassist Chris Squire left an especially large hole in the group after...
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2016
The future looks bleak for Yokohama’s day laborers
Once a bustling town of casual workers, Kotobukicho is now a community of aging welfare recipients.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 13, 2016
The lure of Japan’s mysterious ruins
Abandoned sites offer explorers a numinous mix of history, mortality and a sense of the passage of time
LIFE / Digital
Jul 9, 2016
Hot spot: Is Tokyo finally going wireless?
Wi-Fi is exploding in the capital thanks to an influx of tourism and the 2020 Games.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2015
Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style
Tokyo, September 1964: A squad of plainclothes police descend on the tony Ginza shopping district and round up hundreds of Japanese youths who had outraged local businesses. Their crime? Loitering in what was then outre style — button-down shirts, skinny ties, suit jackets and chino pants. These delinquents...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2015
Hanzai Japan
Hackneyed writing and plot devices grow like kabi (mold) in crime fiction, but this anthology of 16 stories by writers in and outside Japan serves up tasty surprises. “Jigoku” by Naomi Hirahara is a heartfelt, surefooted tale by a serial killer confined to a cardboard-box in hell. Carrie Vaughn’s “The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2015
Listening to the wind on Battleship Island
As if from a dream, the island floated over the sea like a terra-cotta dreadnought from a century ago. I’d arrived at Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island, and its profile was unmistakable from the deck of my ferry battling high waves and winds.
JAPAN / History
Jul 25, 2015
Winds of war: Japan’s balloon bombs took the Pacific battle to American soil
In May 1945, a pastor from Bly, Oregon, led his wife and a group of children on a day trip near Klamath Falls. They were all looking forward to hours of fishing and picnicking in fine weather. Everyone got out of the car while the Rev. Archie Mitchell was parking along a remote logging road and unloading...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 13, 2015
The gourmet date: Was it love at first bite?
Want to impress on a first date? Try the following: dress to the nines, bring a gift — and get a table at the world’s best restaurant halfway around the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 1, 2014
Malice
“The incident took place on April 16, 1996, a Tuesday.” This meditative, clever novel from the author of 2011’s “The Devotion of Suspect X” begins with a journal entry by Osamu Nonoguchi, a children’s author who happens upon the body of his friend and fellow writer, Kunihiko Hidaka, facedown in his office....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 13, 2014
A world of fear for Japan’s shut-ins
Several years ago, a vogue of interest in shut-ins, or hikikomori, saw researchers from France touring Japan and meeting reclusive youths. Such was the prevalence of the disorder, said psychologist Nicolas Tajan, that “if you ask people in Japan about hikikomori, almost everyone will say, ‘I know somebody...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 26, 2014
Japan’s ‘Moe’ obsession: the purest form of love, or creepy fetishization of young girls?
Anyone who has visited Tokyo’s Akihabara district in the past decade will have run into countless images of cartoonish girls: in posters, in figurines and in the form of real women dressed up as French maids.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 12, 2014
Meet the Japanese author behind Tom Cruise’s new sci-fi smash
You might be surprised to hear that the latest Tom Cruise science-fiction epic, “Edge of Tomorrow,” which hit theaters here recently, has a Japanese pedigree. It is based on the short novel “All You Need is Kill” by award-winning author Hiroshi Sakurazaka.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 3, 2014
A homage to the ‘Queen of Anatahan’
In November 1952, 1,000 Japanese thronged the pier at Yokohama to greet the arrival of the liner Chitose Maru. When one alighting passenger gazed down at them from the gangway, the crowd broke into a cheer. There was something about the kimono-clad woman from Okinawa that mesmerized people. Especially...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 20, 2014
Giant robots officially fly the flag for cool Japan
With its mountains of public debt, a nuclear meltdown to mop up and the 2020 Olympics bill, you’d think the last thing the Japanese government would be spending taxpayer money on is a study on robots in science fiction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Apr 21, 2013
Closing time for an old-style watchmaker winding up his career
As cotton-thick snow falls on St. Catherine Street in the heart of the province of Quebec’s largest city, Iwao Tsumura works away in his dingy second-floor shop.
Uruguay federation reportedly cancels charter flight after World Cup exit
Uruguay's Jose Maria Gimenez reacts after the team's loss against Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
Chinese and Russian bombers and fighter jets stage joint patrol near Japan
A Chinese Air Force H-6 bomber is seen during a joint patrol with Russian military aircraft on Saturday.
U.S. missile moves in Japan send China clear message: A new era has arrived
Soldiers conduct the first Typhon midrange capability live-fire exercise outside of the continental United States, firing an SM-6 missile in July last year in Australia's Northern Territory during Exercise Talisman Sabre.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
LGBTQ+ families are building lives Japanese lawmakers still struggle to see
Haru Ono founded Nijiiro Kazoku in 2010 after forming a same-sex stepfamily. She said the impetus for founding the organization was that she couldn’t find much reliable information out there for families such as hers in Japan.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.
‘The colors speak for themselves’: How Japan’s chroma bible went global
“A Dictionary of Color Combinations” is meant to function as a quick-reference guide for artists, designers and anyone with a passing interest in aesthetics as a quantifiable pursuit.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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