Bridgestone has announced the latest in its line of "airless tires" that do not require inflation, this time adapting the technology for bicycles. The second generation of the Air Free Concept was ...

While the days when we used to look forward to consumer electronics from Sony, Panasonic and the like with great excitement have faded away, there is still a lot of interesting tech coming out of ...

The pioneering film director and video artist Toshio Matsumoto has died, aged 85. He passed away on April 12th in Tokyo from intestinal obstruction, local media has reported. Matsumoto was well ...

Whether you're an anime fan or not, it cannot have escaped your notice if you live in Japan that last year there was a film released called Your Name. (Kimi no Na wa.). In fact, it's still on release ...

Japanese advertising tends to consist of merely hiring some ubiquitous celebrity and having them hold the product in question. This lazy and mind-numbing approach has become the default for almost ...

Something special happens when anime music meets classical music. As was true with the classical music concert renditions of the Ghibli, Final Fantasy, and Super Mario soundtracks, the music becomes ...

Sado Island, the rustic s-shaped landmass off of Japan's western coast, is known for a lot of things. Heavy metal music is not traditionally one of them. As part of a campaign to attract visitors, ...

Family restaurant chain Coco's has teamed up with android and robotics creator Hiroshi Ishiguro to offer tabletop robots that can entertain diners while they wait for their orders. The small ...

The "beer girls" (uriko) at baseball games are a somewhat iconic image of sporting events in Japan. They can be found walking around the stands with beer backpacks, always ready to pour you out a ...

The transformation of Shibuya continues with the opening of Shibuya Cast on April 28th. Following the opening of Shibuya Hikarie in 2012 and the upcoming openings of multiple other complexes ...

If the popularity of monkey parks and hot springs is any indicator, monkeys, particularly the Japanese macaque variety, are a sure way to attract visitors to tourist destinations throughout Japan. ...

This April, fashion brand Pac-Store is teaming up with Harajuku's Kawaii Monster Cafe for a special collaboration event featuring Pac-Man in all his yellow-headed glory. The Pac-Man x Kawaii ...

May the force be with you. Or should that be... toothpick? Does Japan harbor the biggest Star Wars fan base? Why else does it seem to have such an insatiable appetite for Star Wars products and ...

The spring in Japan means many things: the start of the new fiscal and academic year as well as the arrival of the cherry blossom season. The sakura blooms, transforming parks and other areas into ...

Everyone's favorite creators of chindogu (strange and "useless" gadgets) have done it again: made something we didn't even realize we needed. Thanko's latest arrival is the Smaneck Smartphone ...