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July 24, 2026
 

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DESIGN

¡°A Dictionary of Color Combinations¡± is meant to function as a quick-reference guide for artists, designers and anyone with a passing interest in aesthetics as a quantifiable pursuit.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 27, 2026
¡®The colors speak for themselves¡¯: How Japan¡¯s chroma bible went global
Originally published as a six-volume series in the 1930s, ¡°A Dictionary of Color Combinations¡± has become a go-to for creatives in Japan and around the world.
Tadayuki Sato, representative director of the Phase Free Association, has introduced the "phase-free" concept in a bid to seamlessly integrate disaster preparedness with everyday life and business operations.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Society
Mar 19, 2026
¡®Phase-free¡¯ design builds disaster preparedness into everyday life
The Phase Free Association now operates a certification system for products that integrate disaster preparedness with everyday life and business operations.
Crowded with links, icons and graphics, Japan¡¯s major web portals deliver information at full volume, echoing an online culture that favors abundance over empty space.
LIFE / Style & Design / Longform
Dec 15, 2025
Why Japan¡¯s internet looks weird ¡ª unless you live here
A closer look at Japan¡¯s maximalist web design shows how cultural values and practical needs create an online world richer than it appears.
The current exhibition at 21_21 Design Site is A-POC Able¡¯s first venture outside fashion, though it follows in the footsteps of its founder Issey Miyake, who launched a lighting collection in 2011 with Italian company Artemide.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 2, 2025
New generations of designers carry Issey Miyake¡¯s legacy
From pleated garments to glowing lamps, the designer¡¯s philosophy continues to evolve through new brands, collaborations and generations.
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 4, 2025
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
Run by three generations of the same family, Ryokukou Garden is behind the greenery for five major pavilions at the Osaka event.
Plotter's signature customizable leather binder is just one of many products contributing to the ongoing boom in the popularity of Japanese stationery.
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 2, 2025
Tokyo¡¯s newest stationery store sells ¡®a slower, more human rhythm¡¯
After years of selling its products in third-party stores, Japanese brand Plotter has officially opened a dedicated storefront in Tokyo.
One of Singapore Design¡¯s Week¡¯s lighter exhibitions is the ¡°Unnatural History Museum of Singapore,¡± where levity and engineering combat anxieties over ecological crises.
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 20, 2025
¡®Pluriversal¡¯ Singapore Design Week brings solution-oriented works
Running through Sept. 21, the design fair in the island city-state grapples with issues especially common in Japan.
Otherwise common sights in Japan's supermarkets, the country's fruit and veggie boxes can hide surprising symbols of local pride.
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 19, 2025
Behold the glory of Japan¡¯s fruit boxes
Watermelon mountains and onion parades: The everyday cardboard containers for fruits and veggies are a designer¡¯s delight.
A London-based design pair has turned handhold straps on the Den-en-toshi Line into stylish table lamps.
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 25, 2025
Retired Tokyo trains live on as upcycled table lamps
Former railcars on the Den-en-toshi Line have been refashioned into table lamps available for purchase from Aug. 25.
Jony Ive, left, is collaborating with OpenAI¡¯s Sam Altman as part of a nearly $6.5 billion deal.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 22, 2025
OpenAI to buy AI startup from Apple veteran Jony Ive in $6.5 billion deal
The purchase ¡ª the largest in OpenAI¡¯s history ¡ª will provide the company with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices.
For centuries, artisans have unraveled strands of the fibrous bark of "shuro" trees to create a medley of everyday objects. Designer Kazuki Nagasawa is now transforming the traditional material into ethereal contemporary pieces.
LIFE / Style & Design
May 9, 2025
Kazuki Nagasawa¡¯s sustainable designs are rooted in tradition
The recent SaloneSatellite Award-winner transforms a humble bark, long used by artisans to craft everyday objects, into ethereal works of contemporary design.
Tokyo Creative Salon combines elements of design, fashion and less easily categorizable artistic disciplines.
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 18, 2025
Tokyo Creative Salon sees the city as both runway and canvas
Through March 23, Tokyo¡¯s streets, shopping centers and civic spaces will host an interdisciplinary celebration of creativity.
Ian Lynam's "Fracture" is the result of 15 years of research and production and excavates 100 years of Japanese graphic design history from the Meiji (1868-1912) to Showa eras (1926-89).
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2025
¡®Fracture¡¯ dissects 100 years of Japanese graphic design
Ian Lynam puts his kaleidoscopic expertise to work examining Japanese graphic design from an internationalist and feminist perspective.
The 12-year wait between Designtide Tokyo events was long, but the range and quality of exhibitions on offer made it worth the wait.
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 11, 2024
After 12 years, Designtide Tokyo returns with a lineup of sensory dialogue
Swedish music hardware company Teenage Engineering both scored and encapsulated the philosophy of the innovative design fair¡¯s 12-year comeback.
For Designart 2024, 130 (one thirty) is exhibiting its first furniture collection of 100% recyclable 3D-printed works at Issey Miyake Ginza.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 19, 2024
117 creative exhibits take over Tokyo for Designart 2024
Designart¡¯s official exhibitions at the World Kita -Aoyama Building in Minato Ward are always well-rounded displays of both established and up-and-coming designers.
Plamo Furniture¡¯s Baum series of interior works, designed by Takuro Izumi, is made with vertically layered panels of engineered wood that can be custom-designed to seamlessly fit any space.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 5, 2024
Japan¡¯s flat-packed furniture doesn¡¯t skimp on aesthetics
Disappointed by flat-packed aesthetics? Not if you give these Japan-designed pieces a look.
Designed by Bob Foundation in collaboration with Sugita Ace, the Sonaete series of disaster preparedness kits are packaged in bags, boxes and pouches that look attractive in homes.
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 13, 2024
Stylish emergency goods can save precious seconds when disaster strikes
Eye-catching go bags, canary-inspired whistles and more aesthetically pleasing emergency preparedness items you¡¯ll want to keep within arm¡¯s reach.
The Oku knife "hooks or wraps elegantly along the edge of a plate or board," designer Kathleen Reilly says.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 22, 2024
A playfully subversive knife from a rising Scottish design star
The Scottish artist fuses East and West in a new knife design crafted in and inspired by Niigata Prefecture¡¯s Tsubame-Sanjo.
With brightly colored hair and equally colorful attire, the 48-year-old Maaya Orii certainly stands out in a crowd.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 1, 2024
Paging Dr. Maaya, the neurosurgeon doubling as a fashion designer
Maaya Orii works as a neurosurgeon in Tokyo on weekdays and as a doctor in Kushiro, Hokkaido, on weekends. In her spare time, she¡¯ll shift gears and focus on fashion.
In about a year, Wormann has taken four Tokyo "akiya" (abandoned homes) under his wing ¡ª three in Sangenjaya and the most recent in Shin-Nakano.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 27, 2024
The Swede bringing ¡®Japandi¡¯ style to Tokyo¡¯s abandoned homes
The 86-year-old building Wormann acquired in Sengenjaya came with not only a degraded structure but also termite damage throughout.
Japan scientists identify clusters of protein believed to trigger Alzheimer¡¯s disease
A team of researchers said they found a ¡°seed¡± that accelerates the amyloid beta accumulation process in the brain, naming it ¡°Peak 1 amyloid beta,¡± as seen in a mouse's brain.
Indian brothers make manga debut in Japan
Two Indian brothers made their manga debut in Japan with "Kung Fu Kung Fool" ¡ª an action-comedy series that follows the adventures of a notorious thief and a young boy.
Japan weighs regulating Pokemon cards amid trading mania
A Pokemon event is held in Jakarta on July 11
Low-income families in Japan cut food and air conditioning during summer break
Yumiko Watanabe, the chairperson of nonprofit Kidsdoor, explains the results of a survey in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on July 1.
Iran strikes on CIA facilities prompt questions about possible Russian role
Iranian drones are displayed in an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on Jan. 13, 2025.U.S. officials have acknowledged that Russia has ?provided targeting ?and other support for Iran in its drone strikes on U.S. targets in the Persian Gulf region.
The sci-fi sensibilities of electronic trio Black Boboi
Black Boboi was formed in 2018 when solo artists Julia Shortreed, Utena Kobayashi and Ermhoi came together under Kobayashi¡¯s newly founded label, Bindividual.
A perfect storm: Kaze Fujii fans flock to Fuji Rock
Okayama-born singer-songwriter Kaze Fujii has carved out a distinctive place in Japanese pop since his major-label debut in 2019.
Can Japanese comedy get laughs in English? Yoshimoto Kogyo lets the jokes rip
Wes-P has millions of followers and his viral clips made him recognizable out of Japan.
The 180-day locals: Life on Japan¡¯s digital nomad visa
Christopher Flinn works remotely from Tokyo earlier this month. Japan issued 646 digital nomad visas in 2025, but tourism officials are hoping to increase that figure in the coming years, with Japan's relatively cheap cost of living and the weak yen seen as potential draws for young professionals.
Japan reveals hint of new defense spending target in fiscal blueprint
The Self-Defense Forces' Type 16 mobile combat vehicle fires during a joint live-fire drill with U.S. Marines as part of the annual Resolute Dragon exercises in Yufu, Oita Prefecture, on June 28.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan¡¯s landscape that they often go unnoticed.
Why Japan¡¯s utility poles won¡¯t be disappearing anytime soon
By Alex K.T. Martin

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