Forget Hayao Miyazaki, apparently the next force in Japanese anime is a German carmaker. Mercedes-Benz has produced NEXT A-Class, a short anime film celebrating the Japanese launch of the A-Class ...

What makes a toy a good toy? Room for sensory discovery, imagination and creativity. At least, that's according to designer Makiko Shinoda, whose Playing with Senses Perceptible Chess Game is ...

Looking for some good Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping ideas this weekend? Forget your local store for a moment and feast your eyes on some of the goodies Tokyo has to offer. Japan Trend ...

We've blogged before about how Japanese eyewear brands are pretty interesting in what they do to promote themselves to a circumspect but myopic public. Now eyewear retailer ALOOK has got together ...

Green tea ice cream. Green tea Kit Kat. Even green tea cafe latte. And now green tea hair dye. Beauty Studio Ryu, a hair salon in Kyoto, is one of dozens of beauty salons in Japan set to offer an ...

Well, here's a partnership we should have seen coming... In what cynics might decry as mere geek pop culture tailored for the Brutus-reading, CINRA.net-browsing Tokyo hipster, Hiroki Azuma -- the ...

No more flabby anime fans. Stop watching Evangelion and get off the couch. You've got walking to do! That's what health gadgets maker Tanita is banking on with this Evangelion Digital Pocket ...

The Japan Sport Council has selected the winning architect for building the new National Stadium Japan. There were 46 entries from architects around the world in the first stage, of which 11 were ...

Lawson, Japan's second biggest convenience store, has a good knack of adapting itself to fit its surroundings, a kind of chameleon chain. We noticed one great example of this recently. Hikarie, ...

Former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara launched his new political party yesterday, The Taiyo no To (The Sunrise Party), ahead of the Lower House elections anticipated to be held soon. The name ...

Japanese underwear brand Triumph regularly unveils a rather silly themed bra as a stunt advertise's its upcoming collection of clothing. For their new range the promo item is the Girls' Ishin Bra, ...

Recently showcased at an expo in Nagoya, Hirobo's new helicopters can travel up to 100km/h (62mph) and fly for 30 minutes at a time. Being electric it is also very quiet and there are one-seater ...

I guessed it just shows that whatever is happening politically or socially, some things are constant. Namely, carnal needs. Amidst all the riots, marine clashes and statesmen-spouted hot air in ...

Working hard or hardly working. That is the question. Some people go to great lengths to construct homemade solutions to working or using your computer in a comfortable position (i.e. lying in ...

GirlsAward, Japan's largest fashion and music event, has just opened a cafe and bar in central Shibuya run by dokusha moderu ("reader models" -- pseudo-amateur models who straddle the areas of ...