Today the FIFA Club World Cup will be kicking off here in Tokyo and Yokohama. One of the sponsors, Sony, has a cool smartphone app that allows fans to show their support for their team in an ...

Flash mobs have been happening around the world for a few years now and they are finally starting to take off in Japan. The recent Kawasaki Halloween cosplay parade included one, and Japanese ...

It's that time of year again. What to get the kids that will keep them occupied for at least an hour? And that savvy nephew who seems never to be surprised by anything? Then there's the parent who is ...

As if it didn't have enough issues with nature to deal with, on top of the earthquakes, tsunami, and volcanoes, every year Japan also has a famous problem with hay fever. After the war, in its ...

At the risk of adding yet more to the digital mountains of bytes and bloggings about the multifarious cafes and restaurants the curious explorer can find in Tokyo, here's another place to add to the ...

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 ...