News

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

You Can’t Do That in Japan (Anymore!): Hanzawa Naoki and Japan’s Modern Business World

The revival of a popular drama is met with huge fanfare and ratings - but some are pointing out that its depiction…

JAPANESE LANGUAGE

Japanese Writing: The Kanji Debate of the Meiji Period

The story of how modern Japanese came to assume its current written form - and how kanji nearly got left on the…

JAPANESE LANGUAGE

What’s Up With Okinawan Names? A Language History

Why are Okinawan names difficult for even mainland Japanese speakers? How the languages of the Ryukyu kingdom survived - despite attempts to…

FEATURED

Black Dragon Society: Japan’s Secret Imperialist Clique

How the Black Dragon Society of right-wing nationalists and pan-Asianists pushed Japan ever further rightward prior to World War II.

WOMEN

Doc: Women in Japan Can’t Be Trusted with Morning After Pill

Japanese Twitter erupts as a leading doctor in the country says sex education is too "inadequate" to let women obtain levonorgestrel over…

HISTORY

Hosono Masabumi: The Shunned Survivor of the Titanic

How Japan's lone passenger on the Titanic survived - and the ridicule and judgment he faced upon his return.

FEATURED

Sakamoto Ryoma: The Samurai Who Forged a New Japan

Learn about how a low-ranking samurai, Sakamoto Ryoma, helped bring down the Shogunate - and why he lost his life for it.

ENTERTAINMENT

How The Kremlin Saved Kurosawa Akira

Japanese film maestro Akira Kurosawa was at his lowest point - and then the Soviets stepped in.