William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, etc are just some of the most widely acclaimed English language authors. Literature is an essential part of a country’s culture, and Japan is also known for its diverse literary heritage. While most people know the anime titles Death Note, Bleach, and The Prince of Tennis, they would probably…

Tourists visiting Japan tend to flock to the same spots, these being popular destinations that appear in every guidebook and website that recommends places to the millions of visitors that come to Japan each year. One of these places is Asakusa, where people stroll past multiple traditional restaurants and souvenir shops until they reach Senso-ji,…

First, here’s some cool YouTube facts. Did you know that around 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute? They get around 30 million visitors per day and on average, around 5 billion of videos are being watched daily on the YouTube platform. Mind-blowing, right? YouTubers in Japan are catering to a divers…

Is Tokyo heading a heading for a lockdown? That’s the question that many Tokyoites are struggling with this week. However, for many weeks, Tokyoites had been living their lives as if the coronavirs pandemic were not affecting many countries and overwhelming their health care systems; and while cases skyrocketed in countries like South Korea, Iran,…

Back in 2019, it had been announced that the iconic Harajuku Station would be demolished after the 2020 Olympics (though now the Olympics have been postponed until summer 2021 at the latest). This has been a sad turn of events for those who love the station’s façade, and those who want to preserve the last…

It’s official, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will not be taking place in 2020. Still, the Olympics will be moved to summer 2021 at the latest. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo reached the decision on Tuesday. The unprecedented move comes as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic that has locked…

Dick Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has told USA Today that the Olympics will indeed be postponed because of the coronarvirus pandemic. Pound’s statement came after Prime Minister Abe Shinzo publicly said that the Olympics could not be held under the current circumstances, for the first time implying that the Olympics…

Back when Barack Obama was the president of the USA, Obama city in Fukui prefecture, Japan, decided to ride that wave of name recognition. The omiyage with the president’s face was popping up everywhere, the lucky coincidence of the two names helping propel the small Japanese seaside town to newfound fame. Now that Barack is…

Anime, as we all know, plays an important role in the lives of Japanese. When you say the word “anime,” the first word that comes to mind is “Japan/Japanese.” But first of all, let’s start with the basics – what is anime and how does it differ from regular cartoons? What is anime? jp.fotolia.com/ Anime…

Japan is being rocked by another scandal concerning the #MeToo movement. The newspaper The Asahi Shimbun has reported that Yasuharu Ishikawa, the CEO of Stripe International Inc., had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct multiple times-In. However, the company decided not to punish him. The news has been spreading like wildfire across social…