As the Japanese populace shrinks and ages, and young people leave the suburbs and rural areas for cities, more and more communities are becoming ghost towns. The municipality of Okutama, on the outskirts of Tokyo, has come up with a novel solution: Give away houses to young families for free.
Stunning street shots by Jack Rangooni, a talented self-taught photographer, and urban explorer from Auckland, New Zealand. He recently visited Japan and shared some amazing street scenes on his Instagram.
Smart use of space and a centuries-old hospitality industry have made Japan’s hotels pop. A new crop of lodging luring millennials might help define Japan’s post-Olympics, Airbnb era. Boutique, offbeat lifestyle hotels might just be the key to attracting a new kind of traveller – and retaining a competitive edge.
Stunning street scenes by James Takumi Shyegun, a talented photographer, videographer, and model from Tokyo, Japan. Takumi focuses mainly on urban, architecture, and street photography.
With an aggressive marketing campaign and a new star in Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega solidified itself as a top contender in the industry and a force to be reckoned with. However, its reign at the top was short-lived, as it eventually caused its own downfall with a series of tragic mistakes.
Every system of justice is inevitably found to be unjust. The question is in which direction, and how far. This is a fairly basic outline of Japan’s idiosyncratic nature.
Nintendo hasn’t always made video games. It was founded over a century ago and at one point sold ramen noodles and operated a taxi service. Today, Nintendo is part of a crowded video game market, up against companies like Sony, Microsoft, Apple and Google. When Nintendo first got into the home console business in the 80s, it dominated.
For Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, Neumann was the prodigal son he never had, with a wild-eyed vision to rival Son’s own. The inside story of how it all went wrong.
Economists are terrified of how slow growth, low inflation and low interest rates could hit the economy. The Financial Times’ US economics editor Brendan Greeley explains why.
The property was owned by a business since the early Meiji era but when business declined, so did the buildings in the 1970s. The property holder refused to give up the land, even though new building permits had been refused to him. The highway corporation and the property owner negotiated for 5 years and what you see today is their compromise.
SIGNS, a new zine of pictures taken in Japan from Paris-born photographer Lucie Rox, is about the joy of exploring new places. It’s a series that encapsulates the feeling of traveling and “being taken by the novelty of the streets, objects and people living their everyday life in front you.”
A brilliant 2008 campaign by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been resurfacing. The campaign, called WWF Japan – Population by pixel, was created by the agency Hakuhodo C&D / Tokyo. Inspired by their work, Imgurian JJSmooth44 made a follow-up to their project and it’s just as powerful as the original.
Okinawa, long known as the island of the immortals, is home to the highest concentration of centenarians in Japan. The village of Kitanakagusuku ranks first in Japanese women’s longevity. What is it about this island that makes its inhabitants live a longer and happier life?
On November 25, 2019, Chris Carney and his two-man crew, Pete Brown and Jun Sumiyama, set off from Japan on their way to Hawaii in a 42-foot sailboat. This is the story of how three crewmen lived more than a week in the middle of the Pacific in a wrecked sailboat with almost nothing.
Finnish street photographer Teemu Jarvinen draws inspiration from the traditions of cyberpunk and film noir, so when he took his camera to Sapporo, Japan earlier this year, he inserted those influences into his images of the city’s snowy streetscapes.
Kanna-machi is living on borrowed time. It’s set to be among the first municipal victims of Japan’s demographic trajectory. The phenomenon is called shoushikoureika—the combined effects of an aging population, anemic birthrate, and surging demand for social services.
Japanese-based firm Nendo has completed a novel three-story two-family home in Tokyo. With three generations of the same family sharing the space, the living quarters for the older couple is situated on the 1st floor, while the 2nd and 3rd levels house the younger couple and their child.
Photographer Michael Wolf spent years documenting the world’s busiest travel system, capturing a claustrophobic nightmare endured by millions traveling across Japan’s capital.
From the Buddhist perspective, cooking is a form of spiritual practice that produces nourishment to prepare the body for hard work and meditation. Its goals are nothing less than permanent enlightenment, nirvana, the fundamental transformation of the human mind and society.
Cultural norms, complex religious influences and friendly neighbourhood police officers make losing something in Japan no big deal. But does this tell the whole picture about Japan’s relationship with honesty?
Wagyu beef is the most prized beef in the world. A single cow can be sold for up to $30,000. Part of the reason why it’s so expensive is due to its exclusivity and increasing demand.
A Japanese farm introduced a new crop this winter: an organic banana with a peel that’s thin enough to eat. In a nod to this appealing outer covering, Setsuzo Tanaka, the banana’s inventor, has named his creation the Mongee (“mon-gay”) banana — which means “incredible banana” in Japanese.
With at least 50,000 members, Japan’s Yakuza gangs form one of the world’s largest criminal networks. Anton Kusters, a Belgian photographer, was allowed a rare glimpse inside a Yakuza family in early 2009. He documented the family for two years.
Toyota revealed plans to build a prototype “city” of the future on a 175-acre site at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan. Called the Woven City, it will be a fully connected ecosystem powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
The scheme for reuniting unlucky people with their wayward valuables relies on a complex mix of infrastructure, carrot-and-stick legal encouragement, and cultural norms. Taken together, they form a shockingly efficient system that has long been a source of wonder for Western observers.
Aogashima Island is famous for having a volcano inside a volcano surrounded by dense jungle. It’s also considered the smallest town in Japan and the hardest place in Japan to get to. There is no direct transportation to Aogashima.
The Japanese brand might be celebrating their 100 year anniversary in 2020 but it was 60 years ago that one model, in particular, set the benchmark for Mazda and microcars at large. priced at just 300,000 ¥ (around $830 USD), the small, adorable Mazda R360 coupe was more than a city car.
To mark the release of his latest book, ‘Tokyo-Yokosuka 1976-1983’, Greg Girard has shared a collection of largely unseen images offering a nostalgic glimpse of the Japanese capital before it exploded into the hyper-modern metropolis we know today.
The closure of part of the 2019 Aichi Triennale reflects a broader climate of aggression, censorship and nationalist revisionism. Art is the frontline in debates around free speech precisely because it creates space for questioning values and challenging historical assumptions in public.
A sense of mystery surrounds the keyhole-shaped kofun tombs in Japan. Although the iconic Mozu Tombs in Sakai city, Osaka have recently been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status, surprisingly little is actually known about these intriguing monuments, kept under lock and key by the Japanese government.
A year and a half in the making, the Pepsi Pavilion drew eager crowds and elicited effusive reviews. Just a month after the opening, the partnership with Experiments in Art and Technology—E.A.T.—collapsed amidst a flurry of recriminating letters and legal threats.
Far removed from the ultra-fast Shinkansens and myriad of metro lines that dominate Japan’s major cities, photographer Arnaud Montagard focuses his lens on a much more leisurely commute – Japan’s ferries.
The Ripples of Time Sand Clock allows natural materials to be shaped by time, reminding us of its presence. The installation consists of two complementary clocks; Sand and Water. Sand, inspired by Zen Gardens, is the gradual formation and flattening of a ripple pattern over a period of twelve-hour cycles.
Five separate train lines, almost three thousand passengers per minute and trains arriving every second. How can the people behind the scenes of the world’s busiest station overcome a traffic load like this every day? A look behind the scenes of the world’s busiest station: Shinjuku Station in Tokyo.
Since the early 20th century, posters have been created by Organising Committees of the Olympic Games to promote and advertise this major sporting and cultural event. Tokyo 2020’s official posters have been created by internationally renowned artists and designers
“If Fukushima was a book, the cover would be about radiation. But the contents would be totally different. Of course, people never read the contents.” How surfing was revived alongside a community in the wake of a tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the Japanese finally succumbed to the threat of further nuclear bombardment and surrendered. The support for this narrative runs deep. But there are three major problems with it, and, taken together, they significantly undermine the traditional interpretation of the Japanese surrender.
In 1981, a young Swede called Owe Bergsten strolled through Singapore to pass the time before his flight home. Passing a camera shop, he spotted a two-button LCD game called ‘Fire RC-04’ in the window. The story of a man, a lie, a video game handheld, and a business empire.
Sony Corp. opened an exhibition Monday in Tokyo’s bustling Ginza district to mark the 40th anniversary of its signature Walkman. The handheld audio player debuted on July 1, 1979, offering portable music to ears across the world. In the years that followed, over 400 million units would be sold.
One of the most well-known, influential, and transcendent artists of post-war Japan, Tadanori Yokoo has one of the best styles of psychedelic, meets graphic design, meets poster art, meets traditional printmaking you will ever see. He has had numerous retrospectives over the years.
