An island nation surrounded by ocean buys most of its salt from the far side of the world. Starting at a white island off Hiroshima, here is why Japan imports its salt from Mexico and Australia.
A nine-story mosque near Tokyo's Okachimachi Station became a national flashpoint after one post on X. But it's a rebuild of a facility that has served the area since 2008. A calm look at the jewelry district's history of coexistence and Japan's distance from Islam.
Dynamic Map Platform, known for self-driving HD maps, now sells North American road authorities a bridge and tunnel clearance solution. We explain the 15,000 annual bridge strikes, the new SNBI standard, and how it compares with existing U.S. services.
Foreign visitors spent ¥2.07 trillion (~$12.9B) on food in Japan in 2025, 21.9% of all inbound spending. What 42 million tourists eat, the dietary-diversity gap, and how to plan a gourmet trip.
Japan's 2026 population estimate shows foreign residents up 9.64% to 3.73 million while the total falls. How Japan is quietly becoming an immigration society, compared with Germany and Canada.
Japan's heart-transplant society is studying transplants from cardiac-death donors. Why now, in a country that donates at one-fortieth the US rate? Inside the 1968 scandal, the death-view gap, and the ethics of restarting a stopped heart.
JR East will phase out magnetic short-distance train tickets in spring 2027, replacing them with QR-code paper tickets. We break down the environmental and cost reasons, why almost no one will notice, and the small ritual that is quietly disappearing.
In greater Tokyo, families now wait one to two weeks to cremate the dead. As Japan's annual deaths head for a 2040 peak, new crematoriums stall on local opposition while a private near-monopoly drives up prices in the capital's 23 wards. A look at the limits of death-care infrastructure in the world's oldest society.
A stray calico named Tama once saved a doomed rural rail line. Now Japan's Wakayama Electric Railway plans to turn the whole route into 'Nyanderland', a cat nation with passports, visas, and a queen.
In Anicom's 2026 dog ranking, small mixed-breed 'MIX' dogs took first place for a second straight year with 30,061 entries, ahead of Toy Poodles and Chihuahuas. A look at the rise of small designer mixes, Japan's growing shelter-adoption culture, and why a pet insurer's annual dog census makes the news. What's the most popular dog where you live?
Japan's 2025 property investment topped the 2007 record, with foreign buyers at their largest presence yet. We break down Tokyo's 0.9% office vacancy, 7.5% rent growth, and why the Japan-West interest rate gap is pulling global capital in.