CULTURE
The Lesser-Known Festivals of Japan: Let Loose Edition
A survey of three of Japan's more light-hearted festivals that focus on the less serious subjects of nudity, navels, and nasty words.
hokkaido
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CULTURE
HISTORY
Video: The Colonization of Hokkaido
Watch our latest video - a reading by author Noah Oskow of his original essay on the history of Hokkaido and how…
HISTORY
The Otsu Incident: Tsar Nicholas II’s Near-Assassination in Japan
In 1891 Japan, history was nearly changed when a Japanese policeman took aim at Russian Crown Prince Nicholas II - the future…
HISTORY
Stranded: Edo Era Castaways in the Russian Empire
In the Edo era, when setting foot on foreign soil was punishable by death, 16 castaways risked it all in an epic…
CULTURE
Ainu to Receive Grants for Cultural Promotion
Japan's native Ainu residents will receive financial support from the government for the first time - a move that has some right-wing…
POLITICS
Is Free Speech Under Assault in Japan?
Amidst rising anti-Korean discourse in Japan thanks to worsening trade relations, another issue is taking headlines: freedom of speech.
HISTORY
Karafuto: How Japan Gained – and Lost – a Prefecture
The story of how, for a brief period of time, the island of Karafuto controlled by Russia became an official part of…
FEATURED
Sakhalin Island: Japan’s Final Frontier
How Japan's discovery of a large northern island devastated the island's native population - and how Japan lost control when Russia muscled…