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The people of Tokyo make this metropolis pulsate with energy. TW checks in with four of the many Tokyo voices that make the cacophony a symphony. Jordan A.Y. Smith, Poet, Professor, Translator…
By Zoria Petkoska
Museums in Japan don’t necessarily have to be boring slogs through yawn-inducing historical tomes and shrug-producing arcane art. Here’s a sampling of some truly intriguing institutions bound to pique interest and raise…
By Ciaran Lawler
Traveling in the new normal means wearing masks for prolonged hours. I recently took my first international trip after more than a year, as I visited India to meet my family. I had…
By Nitika Bhatia
Hip-hop has been popular in Japan since the early ’90s. Since then, homegrown Japanese artists have been creating their own genre of hip-hop incorporating syncopated American beats with Japanese lyrics. Although Black American…
By Jamila Brown
Who is best placed to advise on up-and-coming artists? Artists themselves of course. We asked five established music scene mainstays to select their top picks for the coming year. That includes experimental musician…
By Kim Kahan
Taking part in his first-ever Winter Olympics four years ago, Yuto Totsuka was seen as a dark horse for a medal in the halfpipe competition. Things were looking pretty good until the…
By Matthew Hernon
On this day in 1981, Paul McCartney was apprehended at Narita Airport for carrying a large bag of marijuana. He spent nine days in the slammer, though it could’ve been worse had…
Growing rice isn’t the easiest of tasks even today, but a few hundred years back, it was a significantly more complex operation. Rice seedlings first had to be matured in separate beds…
By Cezary Jan Strusiewicz
At the time of writing, Squid Game is enjoying its third consecutive month on the list of the Top 10 most popular Netflix shows in Japan. But the success of the Korean…
When it comes to things Japan should be worrying about in 2022, movies are low down on the list. But that’s precisely why it needs movies now more than ever. With everything…
Sophie is delightfully chipper despite it being 9am on a Sunday morning. It’s early by most measures in this city that never sleeps, but for someone who has as much on her…
By Samantha Low
The end of 2016 was the lowest point in my life. I was still living in Sydney, Australia and it was late on a Friday night. I found myself standing out on…
Few cults have left as nightmarish a legacy as Aum Shinrikyo in Japan. A doomsday group led by near-blind yogi Shoko Asahara, it unleashed a deadly sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway…
By David McElhinney
In my series of trying Japanese learning apps for TW, I downloaded Bunpo. The first thing you will notice when opening the Bunpo grammar learning app is its uncluttered, flashcard-like design. The second…
By Andreas Neuenkirchen
Kabuki, a UNESCO-recognized Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is a form of classical Japanese theater characterized by its extravagant costumes, make-up, performances and a surprising lack of women’s bathrooms backstage. That’s because…
There has never been a better time to get into Japanese books. 2022 is ripe with newly translated gems of both contemporary and classic authors, as well as works originally written in…
By Lisa Wallin
The year begins with a few beloved venues and attractions closing their doors forever. This includes places surrounding the the Odaiba entertainment complex Palette Town such as Zepp Tokyo, Venus Fort and…
By Narumi Imayuki
Yusanbako are the colorful lunch boxes once widely used by children all over Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku. Originally made from lacquered wood, they fell out of use following World War II and…
By Louise George Kittaka
