When the top 20 releases of the year are dominated by AKB48 or male idol bands from Johnny & Associates, what can a rock band do to stand out? Harness wearable technology. The band One OK Rock is ...

Panasonic has announced a new desktop companion robot that has human-like movements and communication skills. The unnamed concept robot was recently presented at CES2017 in Las Vegas between ...

Toyota has announced a new concept car, Concept-i. The name combines the Japanese character for "love" (ai) with the letter "i". As this choice indicates, the car is inspired by the idea that future ...

Piko Taro, the alter ego of comedian Daimao Kosaka, rocked Japan and the world with his indelibly catchy "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP)" video in 2016. Having inspired so many imitators and boosted ...

Coin laundries are hoping to spruce up their image in Japan by transforming into cafes. The trend is being set by such venues as Eco Wash Cafe, a large and stylish laundromat in Fuchu City on the ...

If you thought Piko Taro's "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen" (PPAP) couldn't get any more "Japanese", think again. Adding to the countless numbers of adaptations and parodies already out there clogging up ...

What were the biggest trends and news events of 2016 in Japan? Here is our round-up. Political and Celebrity Scandals Every year there are plenty of political and celebrity scandals, though ...

Asics Japan will open a new sports facility in spring 2017 in Sumida, east Tokyo. Suggestions for the future facility's name are currently being accepted by the general public until mid-January. ...

Makoto Shinkai's anime Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) has been the biggest film of the year in Japan, so it was surely only a matter of time before we had some spin-off cafes. These tie-in spaces have ...

The actor, film director, TV host and comedian Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi) has met with Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike. There would be nothing news-worthy about that in itself, except for the fact ...

As we know, Christmas in Japan is different breed: it involves strawberry shortcake, KFC, and romance. Now United States ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, has got into the festive spirit by ...

A new venue opens in January dedicated to the toy series Beyblade. Called the Beyblade Bar, the name alone makes it obvious that this pop-up is aimed not at the current generation of Beyblade fans ...

People sometimes say that the niche magazine market in Japan is so strong that everything has its own dedicated publication. That may no longer be the case as the publishing industry continues to ...

Is it a musical instrument? Is it a coffee maker? Or just a wacky Rube Goldberg machine? Well, it's kind of all three. At the Nescafe Harajuku cafe from December 2nd until December 25th, ...

New and exciting virtual reality services just keep on appearing in Tokyo. After the announcement of VR Park Tokyo now comes another virtual reality center. And this time it is ...