Kinji Fukasaku’s 1970s gangster movies upended decades of depictions of the yakuza and held up a mirror to Japanese society at the same time.
Director Anno Hideaki is back again for his third live-action retelling of a classic Tokusatsu franchise. How does Shin Kamen Rider fare?
Japan is often described as a one-party, conservative state – and yet, for over a decade, a highly popular socialist led the government of Tokyo. Meet Governor Minobe.
Anno Hideaki and Higuchi Shinji’s second adaptation of a Showa-era tokusatsu classic isn’t exactly deep – but it’s a tremendous amount of campy fun.
As the era of the samurai ended and Japan rushed towards modernization, a rough-scrabble fashion movement called the Bankara rose in opposition.
Melonpan, the sweet baked good that delights people across East Asia, was the creation of one Armenian man living in the diaspora in Japan. This is his – and his diaspora’s – story.
Narita, Japan’s busiest airport, was once the site of a titanic civil struggle that pitted thousands of armed activists and farmers against the state.
Chelsea Szendi Schieder’s new book deftly and fascinatingly reframes the history of Japan’s New Left around the women who contributed so much to it.
It may have been short but it was anything but uneventful. Learn about some of the social movements and disasters that marked this era of Japanese history.
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