Culture

Shop Japan: 18 Quintessential Japanese Products For Your Home

Looking for something quintessentially Japanese for that perfect gift or souvenir? Or something different to…

Playful or Malicious: A Guide to Japan’s Magical Animals

Japanese mythology is very… biological? In the sense that while it does feature gods and…

Japanese Seasonal Ingredients and How To Use Them: Goya

A popular summer ingredient and long-held as the secret for long life in Okinawa, Japan’s…

Award-Winning Japanese Author Mieko Kawakami: “I Have a Problem With The Patriarchal System in This Country”

The award-winning author of Breast and Eggs shares her thoughts on writing about reproductive ethics,…

Ed’s Picks: Top 5 Japanese Singles of July 2020

Aside from my favorite Japanese songs of July listed below, worth mentioning are Awich’s furious…

7 Eco Bags That Meet Function and Style

As you may have heard – or alarmingly noticed during a grocery run – Japan…

D’ART Shtajio: The First Foreign-Owned Anime Studio in Japan

Growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, Arthell Isom always dreamed of owning his own company,…

“Suddenly, My Dream Seemed Much Closer”: Rising Star Noa Talks How It All Started, His Latest Single ‘Taxi’ and His Next Big Dreams

Twenty-year-old Noa Kazama dreamed of becoming a K-pop singer when he was young. Supporting his…

Ed’s Picks: Top 5 Japanese Albums of July 2020

Spoilt for choice by the number of excellent releases in July, there is a Japanese album…

3 New Japan-Based Comics to Follow this Summer

Tokyo is an ocean of opportunities, and artists are especially appreciated here. From painters and…

The (Almost) Complete Guide to Japanese Gestures, Body Language and Their Meanings

Foreign languages are hard. There are so many words, phrases and expressions to remember and…

Is This The End Of Japan’s Live Houses?

As Tokyo creeps back to some semblance of normality with nightclubs and bars open again,…

This is What Sets ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ Apart from the Rest

Ghost of Tsushima, a video game developed by US-based Sucker Punch Productions, was released on…

The Life-changing Fancy Wigs of Tomihiro Kono

The Portuguese man o’ war is the sphinx of the sea. Oft mistaken for a…

From Kumamon to Chiitan: What’s the Deal With Japanese Mascots?

You’ve heard of them: Yuru-chara. Among the seemingly endless ways Japan is fantastically weird are the…