Megane Fes 2026 takes over Sabae on September 19 and 20. Fukui makes 93.5% of Japan's eyeglass frames, and according to the Fukui Optical Association the town produced the world's first titanium glasses in 1983.
Sushi shop bankruptcies in Japan rose 45.5% in the first half of 2026, yet only 18.8% were losing money, the lowest in Teikoku Databank's 20 years. They are not failing. They close because nobody takes over.
Mitsubishi is bringing the Pajero back after seven years with a plan for just 10,000 units. The shares moved anyway. What a nameplate is worth to a carmaker that sold 797,000 vehicles last year.
Astellas and Kyowa Kirin are the first Japanese drugmakers to sign most-favored-nation pricing deals with Washington. A September 29 tariff deadline explains the timing, and Japanese prices sit inside the U.S. formula.
The Switch 2 hit $499.99 in the US on September 1. Japan raised its price three months earlier, and Famitsu's numbers show a rush to 712,000 units in May, then 100,166 in June, with July still under April.
France announced three theme parks near Paris, €6 billion of Saudi money, and the region said one would be Dragon Ball. Toei Animation says it granted no license; Paris now says it never put that name forward.
Goldman Sachs, Citi, Deutsche Bank, MUFG and 17 others will form a company in late 2026 to issue a dollar stablecoin. Why banks are entering a $303.7 billion market where Tether holds about 60%, and what is undecided.
Toyota's CTO credits development speed to an overwhelming number of failures. Murata built a 35 billion yen MLCC lab that manufactures nothing. A smaller metals firm gets the same room through internal rules.
Godot has moved on Japan with a CRI Middleware partnership. Why an engine at 5% in GDC's 2026 survey gets called the third engine, why its MIT licence stops at the console door, and what Unity and Unreal actually cost.
A paint maker in Imabari spent five years building a bear deterrent launcher called Kintaro. Its president fired it at his own body for a year and a half, and zoos refused to let him test it on a real bear.
Washing a jet at Narita still takes eight people and six hours of night work. JAL is bringing in the AW3, a Swedish robot, in service by the end of 2026. Japan once had a car wash for jumbo jets; now it buys.