Documenting an Evolving Japan

Unseen Japan documents Japan’s shift to a more open and inclusive society. We cover Japanese news, culture, history, and social justice movements, such as women’s rights issues and the LGBTQ and indigenous communities. Your donation keeps us editorially independent so we can create stories that matter to you – not content that feeds an algorithm.

I enjoy supporting Unseen Japan because I get news stories that aren’t published on more mainstream sites, plus analysis of news stories from those who are really knowledgeable about Japan.” 

Katie, Unseen Japan Insider member

Donate or subscribe

You can make a monthly recurring or a one-time donation in any amount to fund our work. If you liked an article, for example, considering tipping us a couple bucks for it.

Those who donate $5 or more monthly or make a $60 or larger one-time donation will become part of our Unseen Japan Insider family. You’ll get a premium version of our weekly newsletter with content not available in the free version (and no ads), access to all back issues, the right to ask us questions about Japan that we answer via the newsletter, and a voice in our editorial direction via polls and feedback sessions. 


Issues with the form? Please contact us

Why support the UJ Journalism Fund?

We’re a small, scrappy group of creator, translators, and working journalists with some big ambitions. We want to expand our current crop of articles and videos to bring you more content we think you’ll love:

  • More translations of experts, activists, entertainers, and regular citizens whose voices you wouldn’t otherwise hear in English – particularly more marginalized voices
  • More work from authors with Japanese heritage
  • More, longer, better-produced videos
  • More tours around truly “unseen” places of Japan – particularly outside of the usual tourist hot spots
Learn more about our work on our About page.

Unseen Japan Insider FAQs

How do I manage a monthly recurring subscription?

Stripe customers can manage their subscriptions through the Stripe Customer Portal. Paypal customers can manage their recurring payments through the Paypal dashboard as described in the Paypal documentation.

What's the difference between Insider and Patreon?

Patreon was our first shot at building a funding model for UJ. However, it’s expensive for what we do and it lacks payment flexibility for our supporters. We established the Journalism Fund and UJ Insider to give our supporters more payment options, to make it easier to donate, and to match an emerging trend we’ve seen among other news sites.

For the time being, we’re keeping the Patreon to help support the UJ YouTube channel. You’re free to keep both or transition your support here, depending on how you want to pay and what you want to fund.

You wrote something in Insider I didn't like! I want my money back!!

Sorry, no refunds. We’ll consider a refund under exceptional circumstances (e.g., unexpected financial distress). We won’t consider one because you didn’t fully read the website before subscribing.

Good rule of thumb: If you talk about “feminazis,” oppose LGBTQ (with an oversized T) rights, or use “DEI” as a pejorative, you won’t like it here.

Other ways to support UJ

Not ready to commit? Can’t commit at this time? Here are other ways to support us.

Read us on Medium

We cross-post nearly everything here to Medium. If you have a Medium subscription, we’ll earn a little bit every time you read an article.

Join our community

Come chat with us for free on our Discord channels and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our free newsletter below and get a round-up of all of our best content across all of our channels – Web, YoUTube, social media, and more. 

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

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