Essay

Tsukimi (月見), The Season of Moon Viewing

Tsukimi, the season of moon viewing, starts next week in Japan. Learn more about this day's origins, how to make Tsukimi Dumplings, and why the rabbit in the moon is pounding a rice cake.

Melonpan: The Japan Sweet Bread’s Armenian History

Melonpan, the sweet baked good that delights people across East Asia, was the creation of one Armenian man living in the diaspora in Japan. This is his - and his diaspora's - story.

Review: “Black Box: The Memoir That Sparked Japan’s #MeToo Movement”

Ito Shiori's arresting memoir, Black Box, has been credited with starting #metoo in Japan. Now her seminal book has a superlative new English translation.

Sanrizuka: The Battle for Narita Airport

Narita, Japan's busiest airport, was once the site of a titanic civil struggle that pitted thousands of armed activists and farmers against the state.

Food from the Wild, Food for Thought: “Eating Wild Japan”

Winifred Bird's Eating Wild Japan is an in-depth, humanistic, and fascinating journey across the wilds of the country in search of foraging.

How Schools on Remote Japanese Islands are Fighting Depopulation

As depopulation hits the Japanese countryside, remote islands are even more at risk. Chad Kohalyk details the exchange program one island hopes will change the tide of fate - and which his family participated in.

Review: Coed Revolution: The Female Student in the Japanese New Left

Chelsea Szendi Schieder's new book deftly and fascinatingly reframes the history of Japan's New Left around the women who contributed so much to it.

The Indomitable Lady Onami of Sukagawa

Too often, history leaves out the Japanese women who left their mark on the world around them. Meet Lady Onami, who led her clan in defiance of the Date clan.

The Meiji Government’s Failed Attempt to Ban Cremation

With the end of the age of the samurai, the new Meiji government set off to curb any sign of "barbarity" within Japan - which, briefly, included cremation.

Essay

Before You Go...