history

SOCIETY

Happy Science: Inside Japan’s Far-Right Religious Movement

In the mid-1980s, a Japanese salaryman declared himself the reincarnation of Buddha and Hermes. Now his religious organization claims millions of adherents.

FEATURED

Ninja in Japan: The Reality Behind The Popular Depiction

How accurately do movies, cartoons, and games portray the ninja of Japan? Not very. Learn about the true tradition of the ninja.

CULTURE

Visual Kei in Japan: The Freedom to Describe Yourself

How a music-fueled rebellion against conformity and fixed gender roles became a significant cultural movement in Japan - and why some people…

CULTURE

Nagoya City Suggests the Disabled Use Drones to Scale a Castle

When the city of Nagoya announced the renovated Nagoya Castle would lack an elevator for disabled access, the response was...left than uplifting.

ENTERTAINMENT

Message from Space: Why “Japan’s Star Wars” Was a Domestic Dud

In 1978, the Toei Company rushed a Star Wars knock-off into theaters. It nearly blew up on the launchpad. Here's why (and…

HISTORY

Cataclysm: The 1888 Eruption of Fukushima’s Mount Bandai

In 1888, "the Mount Fuji of the North" erupted so fiercely that it remade the local landscape. The incredible story of how…

FEATURED

Blood Oaths and Seppuku: The “Beautiful Death” of Author Mishima Yukio

What drove one of Japan's most acclaimed authors to raise a personal militia, and take a high-ranking general hostage in an attempted…

HISTORY

Man of Masks: The Strange Life of Author Mishima Yukio

A youth who found excitement only in books, Mishima Yukio became a brilliant author who challenged his country's sexual mores - until…