JAPANESE LANGUAGE
Why Does Japan Have So Many Last Names Compared to China and Korea?
Why does Japan have hundreds of thousands of surnames while China and Korea rely on a handful? The answer lies in a…
meiji era
JAPANESE LANGUAGE
CULTURE
Why There’s an 11-Meter Goddess Inside This Tokyo Department Store
It's impossible to miss: a soaring goddess ensconced inside a paragon of capitalism. What inspired a sculptor to carve this mysterious figure…
INSIDER
Urine Nation: Japan’s 150-Years-Long War Against Peeing in Public
During Japan's Edo Era, peeing in the street wasn't a crime, but a contribution to the economy. Here's how Meiji Japan, anxious…
JAPANESE LANGUAGE
Kanji Forever? Why Japan Still Uses Chinese Characters, But Korea Mostly Doesn’t
Japan spent a century trying to abolish kanji, from an 1866 petition to the shogun to a postwar novelist who wanted Japan…
HISTORY
Suzuki Masa: The Samurai’s Daughter Who Helped Found Modern Japanese Nursing
NHK's 2026 morning drama Kaze, Kaoru modeled one of its heroines on a woman most people in Japan have never heard of:…
JAPANESE LANGUAGE
Why Are More Japanese Girls Calling Themselves “Boku”?
How do you refer to yourself in Japanese? For most women, it’s some variant of "watashi." But for many young girls, the…
INSIDER
Japan’s First Female PM Doesn’t Want an Empress
Takaichi Sanae has signaled she opposes changing the law to allow for an empress to rise again. And the Japanese Diet seems…
INSIDER
In Japan, When Does a Fight Become a Duel?
A Tokyo man is facing an additional five years in jail after prosecutors charged him under a 136-year-old law.