‘Oppenheimer’ is expected to win big at the 2024 Academy Awards. But one point of controversy is that the director did not depict any images of the devastating aftermath of the dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Getting those images out to the public was a longtime quest for Herbert Sussan, then a 24-year-old filmmaker who filmed in Japan at the time.
The 27-year-old Japanese trading card franchise has exploded in popularity in recent years, leading to frenzied fans, collectors and Pokémon card players fighting for the best cards.
They call themselves the Gomi Hiroi Samurai — or the “Samurai Who Pick Up Litter.” These sword-wielding eco-warriors have turned garbage collecting into a choreographed performance.
The latest disturbing TikTok trend in Japan features young pranksters who are contaminating sushi that is served on conveyor belts in restaurants. They share videos of themselves licking sushi rolls or otherwise contaminating plates and condiments. Some restaurants are using AI to fight back.
For more than five decades now, Shizuo Mori, now 80, has been waking up at 4 a.m. to prepare the famous flan-style puddings he serves at Hecklen, his cozy corner café in Tokyo’s Toranomon neighborhood.
The Anthropocene Working Group is voting on a so-called Golden Spike, a sedimentary layer somewhere on Earth that best exemplifies the global impact of humans on planet Earth. It's the last, big task in formally defining the Anthropocene, which is being proposed as a new age in geologic time.
Music is part of The World’s DNA and, as it turns out, it is something many of the show’s staff appreciate. This playlist with their recommendations will take you on a journey around the globe.
Happy Science is among the most enduring and far-reaching “new religious movement,” as they’re called in Japan.
A messianic sect holds sway with Japan’s ruling party. The murder of ex-premier Shinzo Abe is forcing the country to reckon with this shadowy alliance.
Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter, takes a deep dive this week into the ways in which memorialization in South Korea is an act of present politics.
A café manager in Tokyo has developed a particular method to help writers struggling with procrastination complete their work.