20 January 2017

The signals that Donald Trump sent out about Japan on the campaign trail last year were mixed to say the least. He called for the country to shoulder even more of the cost of hosting US troops on its soil, suggested that…

2 September 2015

Brand Japan has taken a beating this week with the news that the logo for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games has been scrapped amid allegations of plagiarism. With fresh accusations emerging over the weekend, the designer Kenjiro…

6 July 2016

Anyone who’s spent time in Japan’s capital knows the city is a paradise for fans of pen and paper, with countless sleek and well-stocked stationery shops dotted around the city. So Tokyo provides the perfect setting for…

25 November 2016

Commuters in the capital can identify their stop even with their eyes closed thanks to a distinctive jingle for each station that alerts them to their train’s arrival. Most are fairly standard melodies but anyone travelling…

26 July 2016

Car-hailing services such as Uber are posing a threat to established taxi companies the world over. That’s why Nihon Kotsu – Tokyo’s largest taxi operator – had the idea of lowering the city’s standard starting fare from…

1 March 2016

After a year-long hiatus the Tokyo International Literary Festival (Tilf) is returning on 2 March, with five days of lectures, discussions, exhibitions and film screenings at venues across the Japanese capital. A newcomer…

1 September 2016

With the relocation of Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market set for November, the city’s new governor, Yuriko Koike, announced yesterday that she was calling for a postponement. The move from central Tokyo – where the market has…

30 May 2016

Tokyo’s latest idea to increase the number of tourists from overseas is a contest to fund a few young directors who want to make short films using the Japanese capital as a backdrop. Called the Short Film & Tokyo Project…

8 September 2015

Earthquakes are never far from the thoughts of Tokyo’s residents and the city has been upping its readiness for disaster. Dropping through letter boxes this week is an unusually well-designed tome: Tokyo Bousai /Let’s get…

3 December 2015

Tokyo has done it again: for the ninth consecutive year the city has taken the Michelin award for the world’s top culinary capital. In the new guide to Tokyo published tomorrow, 217 restaurants are starred – more than in…

18 August 2016

Airbnb has a tense relationship with Japan – it’s illegal for Japanese residents to rent out their homes via the website in some prefectures – but the company is cannily using design as a way to engage with the nation.…

28 July 2016

Japan can sometimes feel very far away – both literally and metaphorically – from the troubles of terrorism. But those days could be coming to an end. This Saturday’s annual Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival in Tokyo, usually…

26 February 2016

Tensions over the relocation of the world’s most famous fish market came to a head in Tokyo this week. Project Tsukiji, a group that represents wholesalers and workers at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, held a press conference…

2 February 2016

Japanese policymakers are worried that the country’s shrinking population and rising number of pensioners will hamper the domestic economy. Meanwhile, young people continue to flock to Tokyo and population decline is hit…

28 February 2017

You don’t see many hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on the streets of Tokyo but that’s about to change. Beginning in March the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will introduce the country’s first buses that run on hydrogen, the most…