The surprise smash hit event of 2015 in Tokyo was the Shunga Exhibition, the first such large-scale public showing of erotic prints in Japan. 200,000 people packed the tiny Eisei Bunko Museum over ...

Everywhere around the globe has been going Star Wars crazy due to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is especially the case in Japan, though, which saw an array of merchandise and ...

After American street artist DAAS stunned us with his vibrant burial mound-inspired mural in Takatsuki, here's another example of superb recent street art in Japan. While a lot of great street art ...

Christmas and New Year are over, so it's already time to look towards the next big public (and commercial) holiday: Valentine's Day. Regular readers will know that February 14th in Japan is a bit ...

In Japan, even the police have their own moe cute mascot characters. The Japanese metropolitan police has a "crime deterrence measures" department. While that sounds very serious, in Japan that ...

The final weekend saw Comiket take over the Odaiba bay area, as thousands of cosplayers, dojinshi readers, and manga fans descended on Big Sight for the three-day festival. Japan's video game, ...

As Japan deals with a massive rise in inbound tourism, a rather ugly side to the country's popular culture is rearing its head. Part of this is due to pure ignorance and part is an ingrained belief ...

American street artist DAAS has produced an awesome mural in Takatsuki City, a suburb of Osaka. Part of the Takatsuki Art Expo 2015, the mural was first featured on Street Art News. The ...

A lot happened in 2015, not least for Japan Trends, as we relaunched the website. We hope you like the new design. What were the big trends of the year? Political Renaissance During the ...

The popular Q-pot Cafe is celebrating the start of 2016 -- the year of the monkey in Japan -- with some themed special items on their menu. Available only from January 3rd to January 11th, the New ...

It is sad to feature this kind of news at this time of year, but Reporters Without Borders have highlighted the fate of Japanese journalist Junpei (also Jumpei) Yasuda, missing in Syria. He is ...

In need of some holiday cheer? Fed up with all the bad news stories clogging up on your feed? Then take a gander at something that is bound to make you smile: the Running Christmas ...

The winner of the design competition to find a replacement for the much-troubled New National Stadium is Proposal A, designed by Kengo Kuma. The new stadium will be the prime venue for the 2020 ...

Take three cups, add some clever drawing and cutting, plus a fair amount of skill... and then you can create your very own animated One-Punch Man comic, a sort of modern-day kamishibai-style rotating ...

Searching for something to do during the New Year holidays? How about watching a tuna being cut up while dancing to house music? Because that's basically the concept behind Maguro ...