Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, credited with building the foundations of Japanese medicine and helping make Japan the world leader in longevity, often practiced what he preached.

The physician, chairman emer…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

Kumamoto has seen its fair share of drama over the centuries – but perhaps most famously, it was the site of the final battle between 20,000 samurai and the ruling Meiji government.

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

The New Year's Eve show featured celebrity comic Hamada appearing in a Beverly Hills Cop skit with his face blacked up.

Using makeup to lampoon black people - a practice known as blackface - is seen …

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

For 18-year-old model Rina Fukushi, Tokyo is home. But growing up as a mixed-race child in Japan wasn't always easy. With a Japanese-American father and a Filipina mother, Fukushi was one of a growin…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

Prices for cat condos are on the rise in Japan. A artisan-crafted feline perch called Modern Cat Tree NEKO retails for ¥1,080,000 (approximately $9,570) including tax.

The Japanese are known to spare…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

One hundred and fifty years after the Meiji Restoration, several generations of growth and development have not erased the feeling that Japan remains in the midst of a transformation pitting traditio…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

The rise in the value of bitcoin could be adding 0.3% to Japanese GDP growth, according to Nomura analysts Yoshiyuki Suimon and Kazuki Miyamoto.

In a recent note to clients, they argued that the “wea…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

Japan has a sex problem. The country's birthrate is shrinking year after year, to the point where deaths are outpacing births.

Simply put, Japan's population is decreasing.

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

After hiking only a couple hundred yards into Aokigahara—where over 247 people attempted to take their own lives in 2010 alone, according to police statistics cited in The Japan Times—Paul encountere…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments

Two people have died in Japan and several are in a critical condition after choking on traditional rice cakes as part of the new year celebrations.

They may seem harmless, but each year the hard-to-e…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 10 months ago | 0 comments