Japan has rewritten its seed law to add ten years to breeders' rights and let officials block exports even before a variety is registered. We unpack the bill enacted on July 17, 2026, the suspected leak of Ehime's premium citrus to China, and why the 2020 version left a hole that fruit pirates walked right through.
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.
Japan estimates the leak of its Shine Muscat grape to China and South Korea costs about $120 million a year. We unpack how a missed registration deadline, a strawberry precedent and a too-late seed law left one of Japan's best fruits unprotected abroad.
On June 26, 2026, Japan's Diet passed a law renaming the Air Self-Defense Force as the Aerospace Self-Defense Force, the first rename of an SDF branch since 1954. A new 880-strong Space Operations Command will track satellites and threats in orbit. Here is what changes, and why now.
First Rheinmetall, then Anduril: in a single month, foreign arms makers signaled they want to build in Japan. We map the three routes they are taking, the April export-rule change that opened the door, and the identity shift Japan is now choosing.
Japan's government just promised over 370 trillion yen ($2.3 trillion) across 17 strategic sectors by 2040. We unpack the suspicious arithmetic: a 6.5x return promised on chips, an undisclosed public-private split, and a deadline conveniently 14 years away.
Japan, the UK, and Italy are building the GCAP sixth-gen fighter, but lead partner Britain is in political and fiscal chaos after PM Starmer's resignation, with the contract keeping it alive expiring June 30. Why Tokyo is the anxious one, plus the queue of countries like Canada lining up to join.
Germany's largest arms maker, Rheinmetall, is eyeing its first production base in Japan. Who is the company behind the guns on the Leopard 2 and Japan's Type 90 tank, how did the Ukraine war transform it, and why does it now want to export from Japan?
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.
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.
JR Central and JR West unveil Supreme Class, the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen's new top tier: a private cabin with a locked door, free service, and a steep price. Here's the cost and how visitors can book it.