January 14, 2018
Until he retired in 2016, Kentaro Yoshioka was a professional snowboarder and Japan's national champion. Now, he manages a small-s...Read more
January 28, 2018
At 51, Mayumi Yamada, a single mother with 2 adult children, was diagnosed with early onset dementia. Now, daily tasks such as dre...Read more
February 4, 2018
Kozue Eda runs a company in Oita City in southwestern Japan that specializes in sorting through the possessions of the deceased, b...Read more
February 18, 2018
In July 2017, residents of a community in southwestern Japan were getting ready for a big day – the opening of a café they'd built...Read more
February 25, 2018
The shock of the first diagnosis. Fear of death. Anxiety and concern about friends and family. Cancer patients experience a range ...Read more
March 4, 2018
Ever since that day in March 2011, Yuta Naganuma had tried to distance himself from what happened. His younger brother was among 8...Read more
March 11, 2018
In March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake changed the life of Wakana Yokoyama. The tsunami following the disaster took away h...Read more
March 18, 2018
In 2017, a high-school drama club in a disaster-hit area in Northern Japan chooses the 2011 earthquake and tsunami as the theme fo...Read more
March 25, 2018
Shohei Kireto is a 26-year-old manga artist with aspirations of making a career in this competitive industry. About 1 year ago, he...Read more
April 8, 2018
Mao Higashi runs a grocery truck service in Mie Prefecture in central Japan, delivering fresh produce, ready-made meals, and some ...Read more
April 15, 2018
Yu Kikuchi left an engineering job in the big city to pursue his dream of making things with his own hands. Now 32, he's training ...Read more
April 22, 2018
Kasumi Takebayashi is a novice teacher in charge of a classroom full of energetic and mischievous 2nd graders. Yurika Oishi has be...Read more
May 6, 2018
Misato Kurogawa opened a guesthouse in a small mountain settlement in southwestern Japan. She had quit her job and moved to Imari,...Read more
May 13, 2018
Zao in northeastern Japan is one of Japan's top ski resorts. Along with excellent powder, Zao's mountains are known for their stun...Read more
May 20, 2018
Iwami Kagura is a traditional Japanese performing art that features dynamic dancing. A group won praise for its exceptional skills...Read more
June 3, 2018
Kana Sugamoto brings dreams to life by helping people raise funds through crowdfunding. In her teens, she had suffered from an eat...Read more
June 10, 2018
A cake shop run by a couple in Shizuoka Prefecture draws a steady stream of customers with low-carbohydrate cheesecakes. Many peop...Read more
June 17, 2018
Retired civil servant, grandfather and nursery school teacher: Mitsutoshi Arasawa decided to get involved in childcare in his late...Read more
July 1, 2018
Ayako Masunaga is a passionate teacher, working at an elementary school in Fukuoka Prefecture for a three-year term. She was worki...Read more
July 8, 2018
Hakone is a town near Tokyo on the shores of Lake Ashinoko, 723 meters above sea level. The surrounding broadleaf forest turns red...Read more
July 15, 2018
The city of Matsudo used to be an inn town where travelers could stop and rest. Residents developed a welcoming nature and accepte...Read more
July 22, 2018
In March 2018, a Japan Railway line linking Shimane and Hiroshima Prefectures in western Japan stopped operating, ending its 88-ye...Read more
August 5, 2018
A barbecue near a babbling stream and a relaxing soak in a hot spring – what a blissful way to spend the day. Saki Mizushina and T...Read more
August 12, 2018
In the decades since the end of World War Ⅱ, the Noren Central Market has been an essential part of Okinawa Prefecture's main city...Read more
August 19, 2018
Children in snowy Yamagata Prefecture flock to an old-fashioned candy store to get sweets, snacks and something more. The owner, A...Read more
September 2, 2018 • 30m
Genki Takahashi is a tea farmer in Sera, Hiroshima Prefecture. After university, as he worked at an established tea company from K...Read more
September 16, 2018 • 30m
Deep indigo blue is a traditional Japanese color. It's an indigo dye that has been made using time-honored techniques passed down ...Read more
September 23, 2018 • 30m
After the 2011 tsunami, Yasuhiro Koike, a Buddhist priest in Higashi-Matsushima City in northeastern Japan, helped lay victims to ...Read more
October 7, 2018
Chihiro Tada is the only woman in a forestry training program in Niyodogawa, but the 25-year-old is firmly resolved to follow in h...Read more
October 14, 2018
People from across Japan have been gathering in central Aichi Prefecture for some 2 decades to test themselves physically and ment...Read more
October 21, 2018
Do you have to be a little crazy to be creative? Artist Mitsuhiro Miyazaki, who calls himself "Crazy Mike", thinks so. When he was...Read more
November 4, 2018
Masahiro Ono is a traveling udon noodle chef – instead of having his own shop, he lugs his tools around in his van to make noodles...Read more
November 11, 2018
Demon-like figures wearing scary masks swing their swords menacingly. It's an ancient performing art called Onikenbai or "demon sw...Read more
November 18, 2018
In the city of Osaka, there is a place where new and expectant mothers can receive support for their physical and emotional wellbe...Read more
December 2, 2018
Despite being only 24 years old, Jun Koike is one of just 400 people in Japan who hold the "sakasho" advanced qualification for sa...Read more
December 16, 2018
Gion, in the ancient capital of Kyoto, is Japan's largest traditional entertainment district. Every year, girls fresh out of junio...Read more
December 23, 2018
An independent night school in Okayama Prefecture, southwestern Japan, offers a place to learn for people who failed to develop ne...Read more