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.
Japan's antitrust regulator raided six major ice cream makers over an alleged price-fixing cartel. Among them: Akagi Nyugyo, the maker of Garigari-kun, a company beloved for theatrically apologizing over a 10-yen price increase. Here is what the probe alleges and why it stings.
On June 16 the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate to 1.0%, the highest in 31 years, with Governor Ueda hospitalized and absent. We unpack the 7-1 vote, the lone hiker among major central banks, the still-weak yen, and Japan's swelling debt-service bill.
Japan's Terra Drone has taken controlling stakes in WinnyLab and Amazing Drones, two Ukrainian firms whose interceptor drones have downed Shahed attack drones in combat. Here's why moving from investor to owner matters, and how the cheap, 3D-printed interceptors are rewriting the cost of air defense.
Japan's Koroyawa floor stays hard when you walk and softens only when you fall. Science Tokyo proved it prevents elderly hip fractures using a world-first simulation built from a real patient's CT data.
From October 2026, Japan requires every employer to shield staff from abusive customers. Inside the 'customer is a god' myth, the front-line toll, and why most countries lack the word.