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July 05, 2026
 

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MUSIC

People take selfies next to a screen displays a message referencing singer Taylor Swift and National Football League player Travis Kelce outside Madison Square Garden, the venue for their wedding celebrations, in New York on Friday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 4, 2026
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married, as pair hosts New York celebration
“JUST&T MARRIED,” flashed on giant screens on the exterior of the Manhattan sports arena.
Open from July 3, the Fender Cafe Shimokitazawa hopes to be just another musically inclined entry to the neighborhood's web of live houses.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 3, 2026
Fender opens a second, more unplugged Shimokitazawa cafe
Open from July 3, the Fender Cafe Shimokitazawa seeks to sit alongside the neighborhood’s reputation as a hotbed of Japan’s indie music scene.
The quintet from Nagoya — comprising (from left) Sangen Ron, Junsei Iwai, Musashi, Hayato Komiya and Kion Umemura — released their debut album “Tomogachi Ga Imashita” on June 17.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2026
Trooper Salute marches to its own beat on dazzling debut album
The quintet’s debut album “Tomogachi Ga Imashita,” released on June 17, features an impressive array of styles drawn from the band members’ wide-ranging influences.
Mei Hanada, a former member of the idol group AKB48, posted a video to X in response to her recent termination by the management.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 26, 2026
Buzzcut backlash: AKB48 member’s termination stirs online furor
Mei Hanada’s response video to her termination from idol group AKB48 echoes a scandal involving a different member of the pop outfit from 2013.
The members of TV Tairiku Ondo — (from left) Harea Togari, Ryuji Chiyotani, Kotaro Suzuki and Hiroto Yanagawa — met as high school students in Sapporo and went viral in 2024 with an energetic 90-second track.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 12, 2026
TV Tairiku Ondo channels the chaotic creativity of youth
After going viral with a 90-second track in 2024, the rock quartet from Hokkaido has been hitting stages big and small and working hard on a debut album.
Ukrainian musicians take part in a presentation amid the Russian invasion in the city of Dnipro in April 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2026
The cultural component of national security
Russia’s war against Ukraine has involved a deliberate campaign of cultural erasure. Since 2022, more than 1,750 cultural heritage sites have reportedly been damaged or destroyed.
Yo Kitamura won the fifth prize in the cello division of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels on Sunday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 31, 2026
Japanese cellist Kitamura wins fifth prize in Brussels contest
Kitamura, 22, played Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto and other works with the Belgian National Orchestra.
The culture agency is looking to pass the copyright revision in the current parliamentary session ending in July and aims to have the law take effect within the next three years.
JAPAN / Society
May 15, 2026
Copyright law revision to extend compensation for artists
The Cabinet on Friday pushed forward the bill, which, once passed by parliament, aims to pass on usage fees to musicians.
Train cars at Toyama Chihou Tetsudou's Etchu-Funahashi Station in Toyama Prefecture
JAPAN
May 14, 2026
Local railway operator offers chances to stream original music
The Toyama company is pushing the project forward as part of local revitalization efforts.
Sony Group said Friday it expects operating profit to rise about 11% to ¥1.6 trillion for the year through March 2027, broadly in line with market expectations.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 8, 2026
Sony announces $3 billion buyback as memory prices take toll
Sony’s shares are down 22% this year as escalating component costs erode margins across the consumer electronics industry.
As Tokyo's public bathhouses age, many are embracing more contemporary aesthetics to stay relevant for a younger class of customer.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 13, 2026
Where Tokyo goes to sweat and soak
To stay relevant and attract new customers, public bathhouses and saunas are trading weary grandeur for contemporary cool.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (third from left) poses with members of British rock band Deep Purple — (left to right) Don Airey, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Simon McBride — during their meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2026
Deep Purple thrills Japan’s superfan prime minister with a quick visit
The group’s courtesy call was a welcome respite for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who has vowed to “work, work, work, work and work.”
In recent years, while Yamaha has worked to introduce guitar models with innovative features, the basic shape has remained unchanged.
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 14, 2026
After 60 years, Yamaha guitars still striking the right chord
This year marks six decades since the company put out its first acoustic folk guitar, the FG180.
Yumi Sakurai (second from left in the background) performs on a piano damaged in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami and later restored, at Sendai Airport in Miyagi Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2026
Sendai Airport fills with music from piano once damaged in 2011 tsunami
After being made playable again, the piano has been placed at the airport for a limited period every year since 2021 to encourage people to reflect on the disaster.
The joint venture by Sony Music Group and Singapore’s GIC will give the Japanese entertainment company funds to build up its portfolio of songs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2026
Sony and Singapore’s GIC to invest $2 billion in music catalogs
The joint venture will give the Japanese entertainment company funds to build up its portfolio of songs.
There are more tools in the Japanese songwriter's toolbox than rhymes alone.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 19, 2025
Why Japanese musicians don’t need rhymes to sing
Japanese pop rarely relies on rhyme. Instead, its lyrics draw power from mora-based rhythm, repetition, sound symbolism and traditional poetic devices.
A member of the public waves Israel's national flag while watching an Israeli singer performing during the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland on May 15.
WORLD
Dec 5, 2025
Eurovision hit by boycotts after Israel cleared to compete
Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands all announced they were boycotting Eurovision — the world’s largest live music competition — over the decision.
The music industry has been battling AI companies, alleging illegal use of their songs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 20, 2025
Major music labels strike deals with new AI streaming service
The world’s largest music companies have licensed their works to a music startup called Klay, which is building a streaming service that will allow users to remake songs using artificial intelligence tools.
At an Oct. 15 performance in Hiroshima, Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich (left) plays a piano that survived the atomic bombing of the city. She is accompanied by Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino. In the right foreground is a digital piano developed to reproduce the notes of the famous piano.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2025
Digitized sounds unveiled of piano that survived atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Concerns about the aging piano’s fragility prompted the creation of a project to make a digital recording of its 88 keys recorded at six volume levels.
Artisan Ghulam Mohammad Zaz makes the santoor instrument at his home in Srinaga on Sept. 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 29, 2025
Strings of identity: Kashmir’s fading music endures
The santoor, an instrument played with hammers, has long been central to Kashmir’s musical identity, but global music trends are beginning to overshadow local sounds.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Japan’s princesses face life-altering legal revisions
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito, said in a 2022 news conference upon coming of age that she hopes to “spend a long time together” with her parents.
Japanese police arrest nine over Sierra Leone-based special fraud
Japanese police have arrested nine individuals for their alleged involvement in a special fraud case using Sierra Leone as a base.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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