SUSHI BUS puts a working conveyor-belt sushi lane on the upper deck of an open-top double-decker and sends it around Tokyo from October 2026. Seventy minutes, all you can eat, 20 seats.
A high-kick photo under a torii split Japan, and shrine officials said Shinto has no rules to break. A country of 123 million reports 175 million adherents, yet only 26 percent claim a faith.
From November 1, 2026, Japan drops instant tax exemption at the register. Visitors pay full price and get the 10% consumption tax back only after customs confirms the goods are leaving.
Odakyu Hakone will run a charter train on August 30, 2026 with every window pushed open on a 107-year-old railcar that has no air conditioning. The Hakone Tozan Railway's Type 100 retires in January 2028.
Fujikyu is turning a retired commuter train into SADEN, a day sauna sitting on the tracks at Shimoyoshida Station near Mt. Fuji. The Blue Train sleeping car that stood on the site will not be scrapped.
A wild boar was seen hunting a live rabbit on Japan's Rabbit Island in March 2024. Researchers say unregulated tourist feeding has swollen the rabbit population, and that leftovers and carcasses draw boars in.
The July 2026 Henley Passport Index puts Japan second with visa-free access to 188 destinations, four behind Singapore. What that number is made of, why Japan waives visas for only 74 countries in return, and why just 17.8% of Japanese hold a passport.
Japan's AutoReserve sends an AI to phone restaurants on your behalf, including ones that never opted in and keep asking it to stop. It echoes Google's 2018 Duplex furor and points at an unsolved question for every AI agent, from Operator to computer use: who on the receiving end ever consented?
On July 7, 2026, Noto Airport became the world's first airport to carry the Pokemon name. All 111 Flying-type Pokemon and a giant Pikachu now anchor a recovery push for the quake-hit Noto Peninsula. We unpack the airport's own damage-and-revival story, Japan's distinctive model of rebuilding through beloved characters, and how to visit.
MIYAKO GALAXY-DOME, billed as Japan's first facility to pair a working observatory with an LED-dome planetarium, opened in June 2026 on Kurima Island, Okinawa. Southern Cross skies, live telescope-to-dome projection, prices and how to visit, explained for overseas readers.
Studio Ghibli is opening a Zen exhibition in Kyoto, running October 3 to December 6, 2026, at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. Built around The Boy and the Heron, it traces back to a book of dialogues between producer Toshio Suzuki and three Zen monks. Here is what Zen actually is, and the surprising things it shares with Ghibli's films.