One of the biggest stories of 2015 was the opening of the "robot hotel", Henn na Hotel, in Sasebo, where guests are served by artificial staff. The "Strange Hotel", as its name literally means, ...

Pocchari (larger size) culture just got another stamp of mainstream approval. While Japan is readily associated with slim and willowy female fashion, beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. As such, ...

The rise, rise and rise of Blue Bottle continues. After its much-hyped arrival in chicly run-down Kiyosumi-Shirakawa in 2014, it swiftly went more metropolitan with branches in Aoyama and ...

Shiseido Beauty Creation Center has announced the results of its street survey on female hair and makeup trends in Tokyo. It surveyed 300 women aged in their twenties and thirties between late ...

Thanks to the release of Godzilla Resurgence in Japanese movie theaters last week, the country is witnessing a slew of tie-in merchandise and marketing campaigns. At the risk of becoming a website ...

With the release last Friday of the first Japanese-produced Godzilla film since 2004, Godzilla is currently everywhere and anywhere. From a slew of new tie-in products to whisky products and ...

Ben & Jerry's is encouraging people to participate in the upcoming election for the new governor of Tokyo by giving away free ice cream to anyone who announces on social media that they will ...

While shocking acts of terror and murder have dominated the headlines domestically and abroad, the biggest trend of the year in Japan is probably virtual reality. We have already seen a host of ...

The Japanese are, it is often observed, crazy about bathing. This might take the form of a hot spring or public bathhouse, or even a mud bath. In what is being described as a possibly world-first ...

The top 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsors have joined together to support the Japan team heading to Rio with a special branded Yamanote Line train. Sponsored by 15 companies, the ...

Courier company Yamato Transport has teamed up with DeNA to launch a self-driving car delivery service from March 2017. The driverless automobiles are branded with the distinctive black cat logo ...

The Nintendo game character Kirby now has its own pop-up cafe and official store. Kirby Café and store opens August to September in Osaka, with a concurrent store opening in Nagoya's Parco ...

Is this the most original way to stay cool this year? Quite possibly. New from Thanko, Japan's at times strangest creator of chindogu (everyday gadgets), the Electric Armpit Clip-on Cooler Fan is ...

A Where's Wally? Wally Run will take place in October, bringing together thousands of Wally (aka Waldo) cosplayers. Applications are currently being accepted for the two "runs" in Osaka on October ...

This summer, Tokyo is going mad for ninja (again). “The Ninja: Who Were They?” is an exhibition at Miraikan, a science museum in Tokyo, until October 10th. While ninjas might seem a better ...