Get updated weekly

Get our free weekly newsletter summarizing the most popular content we published across all of our channels in the past seven days. Even if you follow us on social media, subscribing is a great way to help us stay in contact with you more personally and help us grow independently of social media companies and their algorithms. 

Sign up for our free newsletter to get a weekly update on our latest content and help keep us editorially independent.

Need a preview? See our archives

Upgrade to Insider

Our newsletter is free to all – as is nearly all the content on our site, social media, and YouTube. If you love UJ and want to support us, consider upgrading to Unseen Japan Insider. A membership to Insider gets you: 

  • An enhanced newsletter with a bonus article every week, other news from Japan, and commentary on this week’s stories
  • All Insider back issues via our website
  • Ask Us Anything – ask us a question, we’ll answer via the newsletter 
  • Editorial Board – have a say in our future editorial direction

Talk to us

You can also talk to us and other members of the UJ community – for free – via our Discord forum.

Unseen Japan: The Japan you don't learn about in anime

Unseen Japan is a collective of writers who report on news, history, culture, and social movements in Japan based on Japanese sources. We aim to cover viewpoints from Japan that you may not often hear in the English speaking world. 

If you’re new to UJ, check out our about page for a comprehensive review of what we cover by topic. You can also dig into our latest posts, or check out our News and Essays categories. Our Featured category also contains some of our best longer-form work.

Recent Headlines

Before You Go...

Let’s stay in touch. Get our free newsletter to get a weekly update on our best stories (all human-generated, we promise). You’ll also help keep UJ independent of Google and the social media giants.

Want a preview? Read our archives.

Read our privacy policy