The five whaling boats chugged out into the bumpy waters off of eastern Hokkaido, a tiny armada under gray skies and the gaze of the...
On June 1, the organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games announced the route for the Olympic torch relay races, which will...
Japan’s plan to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup means sports fans from around the world will be visiting, presenting an opportunity to train the...
Representatives from members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) who spoke at a meeting in late April which adopted a report leaving in place a...
A recent booklet titled MIYOGAWARI takes on the range of rituals marking the changing of Japan’s era from Heisei to Reiwa. It aims to explain...
I arrived in Japan in the summer of 1990, otherwise known as Heisei 2 nen, intending to be here one year. Twenty-nine years later, I remain...
Leading up to the abdication of Emperor Akihito on April 30, JAPAN Forward is taking the opportunity to reflect on pivotal aspects of the Heisei...
(This letter is part of an ongoing series of letters written by Sakie Yokota to her daughter Megumi. To read other parts of the series...
In Ichihara Elephant Country Park (Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture), Yumeka — the 11-year-old female Asian Elephant — stands in front of a white canvas....
On Friday February 22, Kobe hosted the Kansai Resilience Forum 2019. Its singular purpose: to share with the world the lessons learned from natural disasters....
The government’s Earthquake Research Committee released a new long-term evaluation of the likelihood of future seismic activities in the Tohoku region of Japan, urging the...
Japan can buy all the F35’s and Aegis Ashore missile defense systems it wants. It can even cobble together an “aircraft carrier” or two. And...