Nipponica

The Japanese game arcade industry, which took a significant hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen nearly 8,000 stores disappear over the past decade, with a 30 percent reduction in the last five years alone, a recent survey from credit research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd showed.

But claw machines have bucked the digital and console trend, with demand for prize games remaining high even during the pandemic. The Japan Amusement Industry Association says revenue from the games hit 306.2 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in fiscal 2021 and the genre now makes up nearly 70 percent of an amusement facility's overall sales.

UFO Catcher is my arch nemesis...

An agave “century plant” said to bloom only once every 100 years has begun to open its bushy yellow blossoms in Hibiya Park in Tokyo.

Time to head to the park before they close up again.

I'm concerned about the trend toward exclusion. Even regarding accepting immigrants, the situation in Japan differs from that in the West, which has been accepting immigrants for a long time. We live in an age where anyone can travel abroad, but it seems that Japanese people are still not used to foreigners. I sometimes get the impression that Japan is unilaterally imposing its values and customs on them. And even on matters where we should be treated equally, I feel that Japanese people are given priority.

Places like this are key to helping newcomers to get the simple things done in Japanese society that most people think are simple. Just setting up a phone contract or bank account is hard to impossible for those that don't know the procedures and rules. I got lucky when I first came here as my university helped with all the initial bureaucracy but most do not have the luxury. And huge respect for the Japanese that recognize this problem and are doing something about it.

Tactical voting, unity and impassioned pleas from some of the nation’s biggest celebrities helped a left-wing coalition score a surprise win over the far-right in France’s legislative election on July 7. The result is widely being hailed as a victory for French democracy, and a display of unity in the face of creeping extremism.

Nearly 10,000km away in Tokyo, there is no such enthusiasm. The same day, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike secured a third term at the helm of the world’s largest metropolis by population. Instead of the tactical voting seen in France, there was voter apathy in Tokyo.

Credit to the French people for actually deciding to participate in the democratic process. Voting apathy in Japan is far from a new phenomenon and the lack of engagement from the populous just keeps the same faces and parties in power. Perhaps that is the secret plan of the electorate but I'm willing to bet that something more deep-seated is to blame for a lack of interest in government.

Fifteen students at a metropolitan high school in Tokyo’s Ota Ward complained of burning lips and other problems after eating a spicy brand of potato chips on Tuesday, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

National breaking news. Never eat chips from a stranger.

A group of residents in Tokyo said on Wednesday they were aiming to block construction of a massive logistics and data centre planned by Singaporean developer GLP, in a worrying sign for businesses looking to Japan to meet growing demand.

"One company will be responsible for ruining Akishima. That's what this development is," Yuji Ohtake, a representative of the residents' group, told a press conference.

As referenced in the article, similar protests have occurred in other cities in Greater Tokyo like Nagareyama and Kashiwa.

Those who say you can’t find good Mexican food in Tokyo are mistaken — they just haven’t looked hard enough.

Plumb the depths of the many thousands of eateries that jostle for space in Tokyo’s 23 wards and you will find Mexican cuisine galore. To be fair, it is a bit of a chimeric landscape. There is Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex (California’s take on Mexican food), honest takes on Mexican home cooking, Japanized mashups of chile con carne proportions and sometimes a mix featuring all of the above.

Being one of Kurokawa's earliest works, it is also a representative example of the "Metabolism" architecture movement.

Each room is highly independent of the other, and although the design makes it technically possible to replace each room (capsule), in practice, it has never been done because of the difficulty of replacing only some of the capsules. It was intended for the capsules to be replaced every 25 years (the first time in 1997) since completion.

This is a really cool preservation tech demo that shows the interior of a section of Nakagin before it was demolished in 2022

A record 56 people filed their candidacies for the July 7 gubernatorial election, but only 48 posters could be displayed on each of the official election campaign boards erected around Tokyo. The commission instructed the 49th person to file their candidacy and those that followed to attach their posters outside of the campaign board frame using plastic file folders.

Kawai, 43, argued, "The gubernatorial election, where not all candidates could display posters under the same conditions, was unfair and should be nullified." He stated that if his objection is rejected, he will pursue legal action.

Death to the stupid election poster boards already.

Following her loss Sunday night, Renho did not touch on the reason for her unexpectedly poor performance. Instead, she offered thanks to her supporters, including the JCP, whose members appeared with her at campaign stops and gave speeches.

“I consider it an asset for me to have received so much support from the JCP and others,” she said.

But conservative CDP veterans have long been skeptical of the cooperation between the CDP and the JCP in national and local elections, which is meant to avoid splitting the opposition vote.

Until the LDP’s turnouts are low enough for a second party to get enough seats to form a government, multi-party coalitions are necessary to attain any kind of power. Perhaps the problem isn’t entirely with the parties (although some blame is theirs) but with the candidate.