Japan recorded 86,473 IVF births in 2024, about 1 in 8 of its 686,173 births. Treatments fell to 550,265 while the multiple-birth rate rose to 4.15 percent, and the 2022 insurance reform helps explain both.
The Apothecary Diaries is getting a live-action drama starring Mana Ashida, on Prime Video from 2028. Japanese social media flipped from dread to approval within an hour, but one uncast role still has fans nervous.
Saint Seiya creator Masami Kurumada sued his ex-manager on September 2, 2026, over 4.686 billion yen (about $29.3 million) allegedly embezzled. A trusted editor walled him off for 25 years, his lawyers say.
Shingo, a village of 1,919 in northern Japan, has had a tomb of Jesus since 1935, declared by a promoter of a forged chronicle. Almost nobody there believes it, yet the Shinto rite hit its 62nd edition in 2026.
Japan's Children and Families Agency asked 100,000 young people about marriage. 35.1% of unmarried respondents said they have no intention of marrying, but only 53.1% of that group said they do not want to.
Japan cremated 99.98% of its dead in fiscal 2024. But the rate was 36.2% in 1915, and the Meiji government banned cremation in 1873 before reversing itself. Land, cholera policy and local ordinances built that number.
Toyota's CTO credits development speed to an overwhelming number of failures. Murata built a 35 billion yen MLCC lab that manufactures nothing. A smaller metals firm gets the same room through internal rules.
ABLIC's CLEAN-Boost banks tiny amounts of ambient energy and releases them in one burst, amplified up to 30,000 times. Inside the battery-less sensor that trips on 150 microliters of water.
Some 21 years after launch, the developer of the 2005 arcade fighter Fist of the North Star explains where the basket bug came from. The code meant to stop infinite combos is what created them.
Toyota, NTT and Tokyu are among roughly 1,600 Japanese employers paying for an AI dating app for single staff. The workplace is trying to buy back a matchmaking role it lost over fifty years.
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.
ONE PIECE FILM BAAD opens in 2029, and so far it is four handwritten letters and nothing else. Japanese fans have landed on 5 readings; overseas forums reached for Arabic and Urdu dictionaries instead.
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.
Japan's trade ministry is reportedly winding down the Cool Japan Fund and its 54 billion yen in losses. Hours later it published a strategy targeting 20 trillion yen in content exports by 2033.
On August 7, 2026, Japan's mechanical engineers added six objects to their Mechanical Engineering Heritage list, now 138 long: a camera that hit 45,000 frames a second in the 1920s, and a micrometer kept on a home altar.
A shrine in Iwakuni held a memorial for 281 white snakes that died in one year, the most since records begin in 2009. Only 804 remain in the society's care, and this sacred albino population now breeds as a closed group.
A lump of iron from a Toyama riverbed turned out to be a meteorite. Enomoto Takeaki had five swords forged from it in 1898, and the same rock later served as a reference for researchers analysing Tutankhamun's dagger.
Chiikawa the Movie took 8.07 billion yen in 20 days. A random figurine, then a Bonbon Drop sticker: how Japan's moviegoer-gift system built the repeat viewing behind that number, and where the film opens next.
Japan's Neko Kentei cat exam has drawn roughly 40,000 takers since 2017. Three levels of 100 questions each, part of every fee funds stray-cat neutering, and your cat is officially allowed on camera.
A Czech team pooled five studies on what competitive gaming does to the body. Energy use barely moves, 1.3 to 2.5 kcal a minute, while heart rate can jump from 85 to 137 bpm. In Japan, the argument is about the word.