In Japan's science city of Tsukuba, a coffee roaster and the KEK physics lab created five drip-bag blends named after subatomic particles, each tuned to the particle's real character. Why visiting researchers love them as souvenirs.
While matcha sells out worldwide, the kyusu, the side-handled teapot once found in every Japanese home, is quietly disappearing. What a kyusu is, where its odd shape came from, why it fell out of use, and why you should try a cup brewed in one when you visit Japan.
Japanese izakaya group Watami has acquired a 51% stake in Onigilly, a San Francisco onigiri chain — a bet on America's rice-ball boom. But the buyer is also a company long known in Japan as a symbol of 'black company' overwork culture. We unpack the deal, why onigiri became a healthy, photogenic US lunch, and who Watami really is.
Warabi mochi is a Japanese sweet famous for its jiggly, melt-in-your-mouth texture. We dig into its surprising origin (it is not made from rice), its thousand-year history, the rise of matcha warabi mochi, and why it keeps going viral on TikTok.
Kumamoto University has built a world-first device that kills anisakis parasites in raw fish using a 30,000-volt pulse lasting one-millionth of a second, without freezing or cooking. A look at the food-safety tech behind Japan's sashimi culture.
Akita Prefectural University students nicknamed the 'Avocado Squad' published a method that predicts avocado ripeness from skin reflectance and storage temperature—no slicing required. Now patent pending and seeking commercial partners.
Japan's Fisheries Agency will sell fully farmed eel to the public for the first time on May 29. After cutting glass-eel production cost from 40,000 to 1,800 yen, the country aims to end wild-juvenile dependence by 2050.
Caviar's definition of 'best' has shifted from geography to aquaculture technology. As China supplies 60% of the world's farmed caviar and Russian product disappears under sanctions, a landlocked Japanese prefecture is challenging the global hierarchy with a hybrid land-based farming system that combines patented closed-loop tech with rare ultra-soft spring water.
A Hokkaido natto maker in Ebetsu, Hamanasu Foods, has grown its exports 60-fold in 8 years — almost entirely to China, where Beijing supermarkets stock Japanese-labeled 4-pack sets dominating 80% of shelf space. Meanwhile back home, Mizkan paused four natto products in May 2026 due to Middle East tensions disrupting packaging supplies. Plus: the science of Bacillus subtilis, where to buy natto abroad.
Sushiro, the king of Japan's revolving sushi industry with 13 consecutive years as the top earner, is finally making a real run at the US market. The Times Square flagship opens this fall — but rival Kura is already at 83 US stores and listed on NASDAQ. Inside Japan's three-way sushi war and Sushiro's last frontier.
With matcha in short supply and prices soaring, an unassuming Japanese herb called yomogi (mugwort) is being talked up as the 'next matcha.' One Osaka supplier shipped a record 754 tons in 2025 and expanded cultivation 1.5x. Mugwort-steam salons jumped 1.8x in three years. A trading-company veteran turned mugwort farmer is now branding the weed.