Japan’s traditional mafia organisation, the yakuza, has become almost respectable, leaving space for more violent Chinese gangs to muscle in on their turf.
An undersea tunnel is under construction to release wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Kimimasa Mayama
Hotei, a Japanese god who carries a large sack, has come to be identified with Santa Claus – except that he brings the goodies on New Year’s Day instead of Christmas.
Twenty-five years on from his promise to become “the very best”, Ash Ketchum has won the Pokémon World Championship. But for a franchise that’s always evolving, this is far from the end.
Monsters and spirits –including ‘tsukumogami,’ which are made of everyday objects – in the ‘Hyakki-Yagyō-Emaki’ scroll, painted between the 14th and 16th centuries.
Wikimedia Commons
Shinto and Buddhist ideas about interconnectedness have deeply influenced Japan, shaping centuries-old rituals and stories whose impact continues today.
Now a symbol of Japanese culture, the Kimono has Chinese roots.
supawat bursuk/Shutterstock
The Soviet Union was a latecomer to industrial whaling, but it slaughtered whales by the thousands once it started and radically under-reported its take to international monitors.
Lanterns decorate the plaza in front of Nippori station, in Tokyo, for obon.
Panther Media GmbH | Alamy
Each summer, during the obon festival, apanese people clean altars and family graves to welcome back their ancestors. These contemporary traditions are rooted in ancient rituals.
Seven years in the making, this disturbing Australian film looks at the death of 100,000 citizens in during the second world war.
People line up to pay their respects before the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on July 12, 2022, at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
A scholar of Japanese religion explains the connections that Japan’s political parties have with several religious groups and how religion is tied in with the legacy of Shinzo Abe.
Shinzo Abe: Japan’s longest-serving post-WWII prime minister, who was assassinated on July * 2022.
EPA-EFE/ Kimimasa Mayama