How do you get new people into video arcades? That's the dilemma facing Japan's famed "game centers". The amusement centers are slowly but surely dying. Sales have been dropping annually for five ...

Remember the Tamagotchi? You know, the digital pet from Bandai that was all the rage when it was first released in 1996? It went on to sell 40 million units around the world but then the boom ...

Think you like Evangelion? Think again. Not till you've created an Evangelion Angel out of cardboard that looks as good as this can you call yourself a real fan! Sure, you may be able to ...

The Japan National Tourist Organization reported late last month that estimated numbers of visitors to Japan for November 2012 were 648,600, a 17.6% increase from the same month in 2011 and even up ...

It might only be late December but some people are already thinking about spring next year. Why? Because the most important exams ever for school students take place then. The singer Naoto Inti ...

Apple is proving that despite being a foreign brand in Japan, it takes its local customers very seriously. The manufacturer's legions of Japanese fans can get their hands on Apple Lucky Bags on ...

While the world goes mad for Christmas, anime fans are gathering in Akihabara for the Fuyu no Rajikan Matsuri 2012 (Winter Radio Kaikan Festival 2012), where so-called "itasha" (cars decorated with ...

Musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence), perhaps the most respected person in the Japanese modern classical music world (or for that matter, in the ...

A teaser trailer has been released for artist (and uber-businessman) Takashi Murakami's first film, a fantasy movie called "Jellyfish Eyes" (Mememe no kurage) that is set for release in April 2013 in ...

The Sony Building in Ginza recent saw big lines to get your photo taken with a certain person. A celebrity? A hunky guy? No, it was Toro Inoue (aka the Sony Cat) from Doko Demo Issho, the ...

Nano Nano is a series of micro character toys and models made from miniature electronic parts and other metal objects. Designed by Kouichi Miyajima and created in his atelier, they are sold as ...

Japanese toilets are pretty sophisticated contraptions. From heated seats and "butt showers" to buttons where you can play sounds and music to preserve your modesty during noisy evacuations, foreign ...

From emergency evacuation jackets and rescue carry bags, dog pedometers, and even canine communication translators (!?), the Japanese could at times be accused of taking their love of pets a bit too ...

Fancy decorating a train? To celebrating the opening of the direct connection linking the Tokyu railway (which runs from Tokyo to Yokohama) and the Metro Fukutoshin subway line on March 16th 2013, ...

New Year is fast approaching. Along with mochi cakes, a visit to a shrine at midnight, TV shows that go on for hours, and plenty of booze, Oshogatsu in Japan is defined by the delivery of a wad of ...