author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 10, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

James Hadfield
Sara Minami plays an unhinged art student turned ghostbuster in Yuriyan Retriever’s horror comedy, “Mag Mag.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2026
‘Mag Mag’: A wild, messy riff on Japan’s vengeful ghost tradition
Yuriyan Retriever’s debut feature recalls the rambunctious spirit of 1990s indie cinema, mixing J-horror tropes with meta humor and shameless gross-out comedy.
A French pediatric transplant coordinator (Vicky Krieps, left, with Ojiro Nakamura) working at a Japanese hospital grapples with cultural differences and heartbreak in Naomi Kawase’s “Yakushima’s Illusion.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 12, 2026
‘Yakushima’s Illusion’: Medical reality with a mystic twist
Naomi Kawase’s spiritual musings aren’t as compelling as her depiction of lives hanging in the balance at a hospital transplant ward.
“Black Ox” is based on “Ten Oxherding Pictures,” a Zen Buddhist series of illustrations and verses that represent the process toward enlightenment.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2026
Tetsuichiro Tsuta’s ‘Black Ox’ rewards patience with daring cinema
For director Tetsuichiro Tsuta, the Zen parable turned luminous mood piece is the story of a man who has “lost his connection with nature.”
In Koji Fukada’s “Love on Trial,” a pop idol (Kyoko Saito) is sued by her management agency for violating the no-dating clause in her contract.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 22, 2026
‘Love on Trial’: When romance becomes a legal risk
Koji Fukada’s drama gets the details right about idol culture, but softens its moral punch.
Revisiting childhood memories helps a troubled teenager rediscover his sense of wonder in Takuro Ijichi’s debut feature, “Vicissitude.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2026
‘Vicissitude’: A golden-hour reverie on childhood and lost wonder
Takuro Ijichi’s debut feature is most enchanting when it surrenders to pure feeling and risks faltering when it explains itself.
A monstrous bear with a taste for human flesh terrorizes anyone who ventures into its forest home in “Higuma!! The Killer Bear.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 8, 2026
‘Higuma!! The Killer Bear’: Monster movie proves a little too timely
A bear with a taste for human flesh collides with illicit gig work and slapstick humor in this blood-soaked monster movie.
Sota Fukushi (left) and Haruka Fukuhara find romance in the aftermath of tragedy in Isao Yukisada’s “Kaede,” the latest in a succession of Japanese movies based on popular songs.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2025
Can a pop song carry a movie? Japan thinks so.
Hollywood rarely tries it, but Japan keeps going back for more. Isao Yukisada’s drama “Kaede” is the latest reminder that hit songs make potent movie fuel.
Keita Machida (left) and Ryoma Takeuchi play a pair of ballroom dancers whose relationship becomes more than strictly professional in Keishi Otomo’s live-action manga adaptation, “10 Dance.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 18, 2025
‘10 Dance’ teases passion but stays cautiously chaste
Ryoma Takeuchi brings the swagger as a bad-boy Latin dance champion, but Keishi Otomo’s queer romance delivers surprisingly little heat.
Itsuki Nagasawa (center) plays a young woman caught in a feud between her deaf father (Kazuyoshi Kezuka, second from left) and a Kurdish restaurant owner (Murat Cicek, second from right) in Ken Kawai’s “The Chatterboxes.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2025
‘The Chatterboxes’: ‘A comedy of errors finds a common language
Ken Kawai’s comedy about a feud between a deaf Japanese man and a Kurdish immigrant tackles a range of themes including prejudice and communication.
Yukino Kishii (left) and Hio Miyazawa play a pair of college sweethearts whose bond is put to the test by the pressures of adult life in Chihiro Amano’s “Sato and Sato.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2025
‘Sato and Sato’: Unraveling marriage story feels universal
Chihiro Amano’s film about a couple with Japan’s most common surname shows how even small cracks can split a relationship wide open.
Hiroshi Tachi (left, with Gordon Maeda) plays a yakuza turned fisherman who takes self-sacrifice to the extreme in Michihito Fujii’s “A Light in the Harbor.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2025
Predictability weighs down ‘A Light in the Harbor’
Michihito Fujii’s yakuza drama is determinedly old-fashioned — and not in a good way.
Made at a time when Japan was still grappling with Yukio Mishima’s legacy, Paul Schrader’s biopic “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” was blocked from screening in the country for decades.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
A 40-year wait for ‘Mishima’ ends at TIFF
Paul Schrader’s 1985 biopic of the radical author Yukio Mishima finds its Japanese audience at last.
Ikken Yamamoto plays a shell-shocked Self-Defense Force veteran whose past comes back to haunt him in “Flames of a Flower.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2025
‘Flames of a Flower’: A bold interrogation of Japan’s pacifist identity
Oudai Kojima’s PTSD drama turned politically charged thriller takes aim at Japan’s postwar contradictions.
In “Climbing for Life,” Sayuri Yoshinaga (right) portrays Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, alongside Yuki Amami as the journalist who covered the expedition.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2025
‘Climbing for Life’ doesn’t break new ground, but knows its footing
Sayuri Yoshinaga brings quiet strength to the biopic about the first woman to summit Mount Everest — even when the film itself plays it safe.
A hitman (Ryuhei Matsuda, left) and a spiritual ascetic (Yosuke Kubozuka, right) go to infinity and beyond in “Transcending Dimensions.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2025
‘Transcending Dimensions’: A wild trip to enlightenment
Toshiaki Toyoda’s latest feature is a spiritual odyssey with punk energy and cosmic chaos.
Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet"
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2025
What you need to see at this year’s Tokyo film festival
From slow cinema and satire to moving biopics and restorations of classics, the TIFF lineup has something for every cinephile.
Masami Nagasawa plays the talented but circumscribed offspring of a famed ukiyo-e artist in “Hokusai’s Daughter.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 9, 2025
‘Hokusai’s Daughter’ captures the ferocity of a forgotten painter
Masami Nagasawa delivers one of her most compelling performances yet in Tatsushi Omori’s historical biopic.
Suzu Hirose (left), Satoshi Tsumabuki (center) and Masataka Kubota (right) play childhood friends caught up in the simmering tensions of postwar Okinawa in Keishi Otomo’s “Hero’s Island.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
‘Hero’s Island’: Okinawa-set epic is lavishly realized but lacks bite
Keishi Otomo recreates postwar turmoil in rich detail that is sometimes more vivid than the characters themselves.
Yoshihiko Matsui’s “There Was Such a Thing Before” follows two high-school friends (Oshiro Maeda, left, and Airu Kubozuka) growing up in the aftermath of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant meltdown.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2025
‘There Was Such a Thing Before’: Fukushima grief and fury in monochrome
Eighteen years since his last feature, Yoshihiko Matsui is back with a somber Fukushima tale that demands attention, even as its drama feels stilted.
Polish pianist Hania Rani took the audience on a synth odyssey at the first Japan edition of Unsound Osaka over the weekend.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 11, 2025
Unsound turns Osaka into a laboratory of avant-garde music
Long-running Polish music festival Unsound channels Expo ’70 at its first Japan edition.
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Trump says ‘Japan’ instead of Iran at meeting in Ankara
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference during a NATO leaders' summit in Ankara on Wednesday.
Wakatakakage injury casts pall over July meet, but potential new stars loom
Nicholas Tarasenko trains at Minato stable in August 2024.
Osaka trumps Tokyo as both ranked among world’s top 10 most livable cities
Osaka’s infrastructure earned higher marks than Tokyo’s in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Global Liveability Index.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI
Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER