Japan
Japan spent two and a half centuries mostly closed, then opened at gunpoint in 1853 and rebuilt itself twice in a hundred years, once into an empire, and once, after that empire ended in firebombing and two atomic weapons, into the second-largest economy on earth. What survived all of it, and what the country is now best known for, is a culture of extraordinary specificity: a print of a wave that changed European painting, a shrine torn down and rebuilt every twenty years, a knife folded from smelted sand, a fish sliced by a man who has done nothing else for sixty years. And then the modern export, Godzilla and Kurosawa, Mario and Pokémon, Totoro and Akira, ramen and city pop and Comme des Garçons, which reached further than anything the empire ever took. This archive follows the culture first: the animation, the food, the crafts, the films, the music, the clothes, the games and the rituals. It also tells the twentieth century straight, including the parts still argued over, because an archive that leaves those out is not an archive of Japan.
A chronological documentary of 990 moments spanning 1100–2026 on Loreline.
Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-08-22
Eras
- Samurai, The warrior class and the centuries it ruled: armour and castles, the Sengoku wars and the unification, the shogunates, sumo and the martial arts, and the long afterlife of bushido, much of which was written down in 1900, well after the last samurai.
- Swords, The blade itself. Steel smelted from iron sand, folded and differentially hardened, and the smiths still doing it by hand, plus the tsuba, the mountings and the collectors.
- Ukiyo-e, Pictures of the floating world. Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro, Sharaku and Kunisada; actors, courtesans, ghosts, waves and the road to Edo, and the block-cutting and printing that made them cheap enough for anyone to own.
- Painting, Screens, scrolls and hanging works rather than prints: ink painting, the Kano school, Rinpa, nihonga, and the Buddhist and narrative traditions behind them.
- Ceramics, Clay and fire. Arita porcelain and Bizen stoneware, Raku bowls made by hand for the tea room, Mino and Seto, the climbing kilns, and the gold seams of kintsugi.
- Crafts, Everything else made by hand and made to last: lacquer, washi paper, textiles and indigo, metalwork, joinery, calligraphy, dolls and basketry, and the Living National Treasures system, which exists because these skills die with their holders.
- Architecture, Buildings and the thinking behind them. Katsura and the tea house, castles, the shrine at Ise rebuilt every twenty years so the carpentry survives, and the modern run from Tange to Ando to SANAA.
- Shinto, Kami, shrines and torii; purification, priests, and the calendar of matsuri, the festivals that still shut whole cities for a week, from Gion to Nebuta to Awa Odori.
- Buddhism, Arriving in the sixth century and never leaving. Zen and zazen, the raked garden, temple life, sutras and statuary, and the schools that shaped how the country thinks about death.
- Theatre, Kabuki, noh and bunraku, all three still performed, all three on the UNESCO list, plus the geisha districts of Kyoto and the training behind an art that takes decades.
- Food, Sushi from preserved fish to Edo street food; ramen, which is Chinese and became the national dish anyway; dashi and the discovery of umami in 1908; the market at four in the morning and the convenience store at midnight.
- Sake & Tea, Two drinks with their own disciplines. Rice, water, koji and the brewing craft UNESCO listed in 2024; and the tea ceremony, which Sen no Rikyū turned into a philosophy with rules.
- Anime, From Tezuka drawing a robot boy in 1963 to an industry that supplies the world and struggles to pay its own animators. Ghibli, Akira, Evangelion, the Jump titles that ran for a generation, and the desks and schedules behind them.
- Film, Kurosawa taking the Golden Lion in 1951 and being remade as westerns ever since; Ozu three feet off the tatami; a man in a rubber suit released nine years after Hiroshima and understood immediately. Then the New Wave, the horror, and Koreeda at Cannes.
- Video Games, A playing-card company founded in 1889 that ended up defining the medium. Mario and Zelda, the arcade, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Pokémon, Kojima, and the hardware, designed with the same care as anything else here.
- Music, Gagaku played more or less continuously for twelve centuries, and city pop rediscovered by an algorithm forty years late. Enka, Yellow Magic Orchestra, the idol machine and its economics, and the jazz bars where nobody talks.
- Fashion, What people actually wear. The kimono and the people still making one by hand; the 1981 Paris collections that arrived in black; Harajuku photographed weekly for twenty years; and the small Okayama mills that make the best denim in the world.
- Empire, The forced opening in 1853 and the speed of what followed: Meiji industrialisation, the colonies in Taiwan and Korea, Manchuria and the war in China, the Pacific War, and then the occupation, Article 9, the miracle and the bubble.
- Hiroshima, 6 and 9 August 1945 and everything after. The two cities, the casualty estimates and their ranges, the hibakusha who spent their lives testifying, and the memorials built where the buildings were.
- Disasters, A country built on four plates. Kobe in 1995, the sarin attack that same year, and 11 March 2011, the earthquake, the wave and Fukushima.
- Robots, A country that has been building automata since the Edo period and now builds them because there are not enough people. The karakuri tea-serving doll, Honda's walking prototypes, nursing and care robots pitched at a shortage of carers, humanoids for the warehouse floor, and Rapidus betting the industrial base on a 2nm chip.
- Tourism, Forty-two million visitors a year arriving in a country that spent decades asking for them. Kyoto's buses and its two-tier fares, the crossing at Shibuya, Fushimi Inari blocked to ambulances, a climbing fee and a daily cap on Fuji, the Osaka Expo, and the towns working out what the crowds are actually worth.
- Ageing Japan, More deaths than births, eight million empty houses and a workforce running short. The care worker and the eighty-five-year-old, lonely deaths and the crematorium queue, the akiya tax, companies abolishing the retirement age, 2.3 million foreign workers, and the politics and economics of a country getting older faster than any other.
- - School trips abandon Kyoto after 13 years at number one. Kansai TV report on Japanese schools moving their annual trips away from Kyoto, the top destination for 13 consecutive years, because of crowding and rising prices.
- - A hundred years of jazz in Yokohama and the Chigusa kissaten. TV Kanagawa feature on Yokohama's jazz century, including the history of Chigusa, the legendary jazz kissa that became a model for Japan's listening bars.
- - 184 days of Expo 2025 Osaka, as the cameras saw it. Yomiuri TV retrospective on the Osaka-Kansai Expo, the first world's fair in Osaka in 55 years, on its closing weekend.
- - Sanae Takaichi's first press conference as prime minister. Asahi Shimbun's uncut broadcast of Sanae Takaichi's press conference on 21 October 2025 after becoming Japan's first female prime minister.
- - Old-Style Sushi Shops of Edo: Three Generations Behind the Counter. Nippon TV feature compilation on long-running Tokyo sushi and tempura counters, including a 70-year-old shop run by three generations and a 233-year-old soba house.
- - Takaichi's first policy speech to the Diet. Uncut broadcast of Prime Minister Takaichi's first policy address on 24 October 2025, covering inflation, growth, security document revisions and population and foreigner policy.
- - The Toji Road: Kusatsu to Shima with Ichikawa Danjuro. Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro, appointed onsen culture ambassador, retraces the Edo-period cure route from Kusatsu through Sawatari to Shima, where bathers went for the finishing waters.
- - Ninety Years of Okinawan Traditional Karate. Okinawa TV report tracing the ninety-year arc of traditional Okinawan karate and what the founding generation intended for it.
- - The first cabinet-level meeting on bear attacks. TV Asahi reports from the Diet press building on the first ministerial-level meeting on bear attacks, elevated from an interagency meeting on Prime Minister Takaichi's instruction as casualties mounted.
- - Chanko: The Food That Builds Sumo Wrestlers. Fukuoka TNC investigation into chanko-nabe, the communal stew each sumo stable makes its own, from a milk-based version to the chicken-miso pot credited with a yokozuna's strength.
- - Bears appear across Japan, including at tourist sites. TV Asahi on bear sightings spreading nationwide in autumn 2025, including at popular tourist spots and one field where eleven bears appeared at once.
- - The Global Matcha Boom Reaches Sencha. KBC report from the Yame tea district of Fukuoka on how overseas matcha demand has driven prices up and begun squeezing ordinary green tea supply.
- - Inside Bones Film: Making the Anime Gachiakuta. Prime Video Japan documents production at Bones Film on the 2025 series Gachiakuta, roughly 10,000 drawings per episode across a three-year production.
- - The Kamimukae Rite and Dragon-Serpent Worship at Izumo. Shinto priest of Katsuragi Mitoshi Jinja explains the kamimukae rite that opens the Kamiari festival and the ryujashin serpent deity welcomed ashore at Inasa beach.
- - State of Play Japan: Games Made in Japan and Asia. Sony devotes a special State of Play, hosted by voice actor Yuki Kaji, to more than forty minutes of games made in Japan and Asia, from major series to indie titles.
- - Kiyoshi Kurosawa on Violence in Cloud. Criterion interviews Kiyoshi Kurosawa about how he stages violence in Cloud (2024), his thriller about an online reseller pursued by strangers.
- - Gig shift workers and monitoring sensors in Japanese care homes. Nippon TV on how care facilities are covering staff shortages with two-hour spot workers and reducing night-shift load with monitoring sensors.
- - The government adopts a bear countermeasures package. Nippon TV on the cabinet-level package to cull and capture bears near settlements and reduce populations around residential areas, staged as emergency, short and medium-term measures.
- - Shoko Kanazawa at Forty. Yomiuri TV interview with the calligrapher now aged forty, on how she came to be called a genius and on the decision she has reached about her work.
- - Takaichi asks unions and business for wage rises above inflation. Nippon TV on Prime Minister Takaichi's first government-labour-management meeting, calling for shunto wage rises that outpace price increases.
- - Tsuburaya Productions: 35 Years of Special Effects. A subtitled Japanese documentary on Tsuburaya Productions, founded by Eiji Tsuburaya, and the practical tokusatsu craft, miniatures, suits and optical work, behind Godzilla and Ultraman.
- - A 78-year-old home helper caring for an 85-year-old. TBS report from Unnan, Shimane, where 40 percent of residents are over 65, following a 78-year-old home care worker; bankruptcies among care providers hit a record the previous year.
- - Inside the Gachiakuta Recording Session. Anime Times films the voice recording for Gachiakuta, showing the moment performances are laid over finished battle animation.
- - Did the Mount Fuji entry restrictions work?. Shizuoka Daiichi TV on the joint Shizuoka-Yamanashi council's report, which concluded the entry restrictions had a visible effect in curbing bullet climbing and severe crowding.
- - Kodo play Shake in the harbour at Ogi, Sado Island. Vincent Moon films Kodo at close quarters at the end of a public performance in the small harbour of Ogi on Sado Island, the ensemble's home.
- - Saving Selvedge: a raw denim documentary in Japan. Feature-length documentary on Japanese raw selvedge denim and menswear craft, filmed on location with Japanese makers.
- - A New Shochu Distillery in a Closed School, Kagoshima. KTS report a year after the UNESCO listing on Ushinone Distillery, opened in a disused middle-school gym, and on the century-old wooden pot stills still being built in Kagoshima.
- - Anime Journalist Tadashi Sudo on the State of the Industry in 2025. Analyst Tadashi Sudo reviews the Japanese anime industry's 2025, production volumes, streaming money, and the labour bottleneck, in a long-form industry programme.
- - Imperial War Museums on the wartime 'comfort station' system. IWM curator James Bulgin explains the system of sexual trafficking across the Japanese Empire during the Second World War, from the museum's Unsilenced exhibition.
- - Arcade Archiver: The Space Invaders Special. Hamster Corporation's official preservation programme devotes a marathon episode to Space Invaders, covering the 1978 original's hardware, variants and its re-release on modern consoles.
- - Forging Blue-Bright Steel: Swordsmith Kawachi Kunihira. Nara Prefecture intangible-heritage film archive record of Michio Kawachi (smith name Kunihira), holder of the nationally designated Important Intangible Cultural Property for Japanese sword-making technique.
- - Donkey Kong on Original 1981 Arcade Hardware. An original Nintendo of America TKG-3 arcade board is powered up and captured directly, showing Shigeru Miyamoto's 1981 Donkey Kong, Mario's first appearance, in its export configuration.
- - Sen Soshitsu XVI on the Place of Tea Today. Interview at Konnichian in Kyoto with the sixteenth Urasenke grand master, descendant of Sen no Rikyu, on calligraphy, flowers, incense, food and architecture converging in chanoyu, and on wa-kei-sei-jaku.
- - Bloomberg: why Japan's economy is at a tipping point. After thirty years of near-flat prices, a weak yen has changed the picture; Bloomberg looks at how consumers and firms are adjusting under Takaichi's new government.
- - Life sentence for Shinzo Abe's killer. BBC News on Tetsuya Yamagami's life sentence for the 2022 murder of Shinzo Abe, and the divided Japanese public opinion over the punishment.
- - Sanuki Udon Taught by a Kagawa Craftsman. JA Kagawa demonstration of hand-made udon from flour, salt and water alone, including the foot-treading stage and the new Sanuki no Yume 2023 wheat cultivar bred for udon.
- - Dragon Ball at 40 - Toei Animation Special Film. Toei Animation's 40th-anniversary film animates Akira Toriyama's own colour illustrations, preserving the texture and palette of his original artwork.
- - Matcha Bubble: Gion Tsujiri Drops 'Uji Tea' From Its Logo. Kansai TV investigation into the matcha shortage, in which the historic Kyoto tea house removed Uji-cha from its logo as producers field orders for 100kg lots and prices double.
- - Okayama revises its Nankai Trough projections for the first time in 13 years. Okayama Prefecture's revised estimate, its first since 2013, raises the worst-case death toll by 667 to 3,778, with tsunami deaths rising as building-collapse deaths fall.
- - Japan's GDP returns to growth, barely. TV Asahi on October-December GDP growth of 0.1 percent, the first rise in two quarters, with an analyst warning the recovery may be weaker than assumed as households cut back on food and eating out.
- - Kobe's national-first push against abandoned houses. Sun TV report on Kobe's akiya measures, ahead of most Japanese cities, and the fire and refuse risks that neglected houses create for neighbourhoods.
- - Kyoto considers two-tier bus fares for residents and tourists. MBS report on Kyoto mayor Matsui's proposal for a resident-priority city bus fare, with analysis from Ritsumeikan University professor Koichi Kondo.
- - The 'Ultimate Ordinary': Why Chan-kei Ramen Draws Queues in a Downturn. Fuji TV documentary segment on the chan-kei ramen boom, built from a development team eating at 1,000 old-guard shops to derive a formula for classic shoyu ramen.
- - Who buries the elderly with no family left?. TV Asahi Telementary documentary on Japanese elderly people without relatives, and the men who take on guarantor and after-death administration duties as single-person elderly households approach 10 million.
- - Generative AI Reaches the Anime Studio Floor. Fuji News Network reports from Tokyo studio DLE, makers of Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume, where generative AI has cut a three-week task to four days, and asks what that means for animators.
- - Inside the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. Tour of the Nihon Mingeikan in Tokyo with Hiroshi Ota of the Japan Folk Crafts Association, covering Yanagi's collection and a Shiko Munakata exhibition, followed by a discussion.
- - Toshio Suzuki on Miyazaki at 85. Tokai TV reports producer Toshio Suzuki describing an 85-year-old Hayao Miyazaki as 'oddly energetic' and still very much working, at the unveiling of his Panorama Box pieces.
- - The Nankai Trough megaquake: the government's latest damage projection. Cabinet Office disaster management film setting out the national projection for a maximum-class Nankai Trough earthquake and tsunami, and the measures that would reduce casualties.
- - Nebuta Master Hiroo Takenami Builds Three Floats. Aomori Asahi interview with the seventh-generation Nebuta master taking on three large floats for the first time in thirteen years, and his plans for training successors.
- - Princess Mononoke in 4K - Restoration Trailer. Trailer for the 4K digital remaster of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997), released on 4K UHD in June 2026, Ghibli's back catalogue entering restoration.
- - Tea Farmers in Crisis as Matcha Demand Distorts the Market. Fuji TV report on growers converting sencha fields to tencha for matcha, with farmers calling the boom overheated and the established tea distribution upended.
- - Samurai: the making of a global icon. British Museum panel chaired by Satona Suzuki of SOAS with historians Oleg Benesch and others, arguing that much of what is popularly believed about the samurai is invented tradition.
- - A day with a care worker in Niigata. NST Niigata follows a man working at a special nursing home, on the chronic understaffing, added workload and low pay in Japanese care work.
- - Ramen Philosophers: Ginger Soy Sauce Ramen in Nagaoka. UX Niigata documentary series episode following Naoto Sato of Ramen Shoga no Umi, a Nagaoka shop working in the regional ginger-shoyu style.
- - CNA Insight: Japan's economy in 2026. CNA documentary noting real wages fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025 even as the Nikkei hit record highs, and asking whether the recovery is real.
- - The 63rd Ise Shikinen Sengu: The Sacred Timber. Official Ise Jingu film of the opening rites of the 63rd twenty-year rebuilding cycle, including Yamaguchi-sai, the felling ceremony in the Kiso forests and the hauling of the sacred timber.
- - Okihiki: Townspeople Haul the Timber to Ise. Chunichi Shimbun film of the first Okihiki processions, in which 72 neighbourhood associations drag the new shrine timber to the Outer and Inner Shrines to cries of enya.
- - Three Japanese Films in Competition at Cannes 2026. TBS reports from Cannes as Koji Fukada's film starring Takako Matsu screens in competition, one of three Japanese titles in the 2026 main selection alongside Koreeda and Hamaguchi.
- - Koreeda's New Film Gets Nine Minutes of Applause at Cannes. Nippon TV reports from the official Cannes screening of Hirokazu Koreeda's Palme d'Or contender in May 2026, with lead Haruka Ayase in attendance.
- - A French Blacksmith Keeping Sakai Knives Alive. ABC TV report on the Sakai knife museum drawing overseas visitors and taking over 300 million yen a year, with a French-born smith among those sustaining the trade.
- - Turning akiya empty houses into a local resource. Shizuoka TV on Kakegawa's programme to find uses for vacant houses, as akiya numbers rise nationally with population decline and ageing building stock.
- - Tokyo bets on 'physical AI' to answer the labour crisis. WION report on the Japanese government's push into AI-powered robotics, framed as a response to a shrinking workforce across healthcare and logistics.
- - Bizen Ware: The Challenge of Jun Isezaki. Pola Foundation film on the fifth Bizen potter to be named a Living National Treasure, who argues that tradition is a chain of innovations and Bizen most needs adventure.
- - Tao Okamoto Wins Best Actress at Cannes. Nippon TV reports the first Japanese win of the Cannes best-actress prize, awarded to Tao Okamoto and her co-stars for Ryusuke Hamaguchi's latest film in May 2026.
- - When the Kneader Changes, the Flavour Changes. Full-length profile of Takeshi Murai, an eighteen-year Sanuki udon craftsman at Moriya in Takamatsu, following a working day and his plans for a successor.
- - Why Every Showa Studio Was Its Own World. An overview of Japan's five-studio system, Toho, Shochiku, Nikkatsu, Daiei and Toei, and how each company produced a distinct film culture rather than merely distinct films.
- - PlayStation State of Play, June 2026. Sony's Japanese State of Play broadcast of June 2026, over an hour of announcements and gameplay from studios worldwide including Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine.
- - Polished With a Fingerprint: Kyo-nuri Lacquer by Miki Hyoetsu IV. Full process film on Kyoto lacquer, in which the fourth-generation lacquerer builds and burnishes the black ground by hand to produce the characteristic waves of light.
- - The NHK announcer who narrated the tsunami and could not say 'run'. Former NHK announcer Shinichi Takeda and Yuriage storyteller Yuko Tanno revisit 11 March 2011, when he was live on air describing the wave as it came ashore.
- - The Ghibli Editor Who Cut Grave of the Fireflies and Totoro. Takeshi Seyama, editor on most Studio Ghibli films, describes editing the 1988 Totoro/Grave of the Fireflies double bill in parallel and the fundamental difference between how Miyazaki and Takahata made films.
- - 2026年 東葉高速鉄道2000系電車. Japan train station commuters modern. This is a Japanese commuter train called the 2000 series. This car is designed in the same way as the 05 series of Japanese subway cars, and there is almost no difference. However, while the 05 series train has customer service equipment tailored to the latest c
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 09, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
…870 further moments continue the chronology here. Full text archive: /loreline-text/japan.md
- - 20260427 Goldener Pavillon 03 im Kinkaku-Ji-Tempel, Kyoto, Japan anagoria. Kinkaku-ji. Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 10, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 01, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 05, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 07, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260427 Goldener Pavillon 01 im Kinkaku-Ji-Tempel, Kyoto, Japan anagoria. Kinkaku-ji. Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 02, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 03, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 06, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260429 Burg Himeji 04, Hyōgo, Japan anagoria. Himeji Castle. Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
- - 20260427 Goldener Pavillon 02 im Kinkaku-Ji-Tempel, Kyoto, Japan anagoria. Kinkaku-ji. Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
- - 2026-06-29 kyoto-fushimi-inari torii-romon night. Fushimi Inari-taisha. A large vermilion torii gate frames the Rōmon gate of Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto after dark.
- - How Toho Became the Mainstream of Japanese Cinema. A history of Toho from Ichizo Kobayashi's theatre empire and the PCL studios through the Toho labour dispute to the Kurosawa, Naruse and Tsuburaya years.
- - The forced-labour camps inside the Okinawa internment system. Nippon TV investigation, drawing on survivor testimony, into the special facilities within the wartime civilian camps in Okinawa where young men were segregated and made to work on US base construction.
- - A Century of Japanese Whisky and the Master Blender. FNN report from Yamazaki distillery on the craft behind Japanese whisky's reputation, with chief blender Futoshi Koshiishi, after Yamazaki 18 swept the 2025 International Spirits Challenge.
- - A 16-Year-Old Sushi Apprentice in 1966 Osaka. ABC TV archive feature built on 1966 footage of Kuniaki Yoshida training at Sushiman, a long-established Osaka sushi house, rising at 4am to cook rice over firewood.
- - Kiki's Delivery Service in 4K. Toho's trailer for the 4K digital remaster of Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), given a limited two-week national re-release in July 2026.
- - Miyazaki's 31 Peep Boxes Open at Ghibli Park. TV Aichi films the new Ghibli Park display of 31 layered peep boxes Hayao Miyazaki built over about three and a half years, each assembled from separately drawn backgrounds and characters.
- - Goro Miyazaki on His Father's Panorama Boxes. Chukyo TV covers the Panorama Box exhibition at Ghibli Park, 31 dioramas Hayao Miyazaki made over roughly three years, with Goro Miyazaki explaining what his father intended by them.
- - Neyagawa introduces Japan's first city-wide vacant house tax. Yomiuri TV explains Neyagawa City's plan for a nationwide-first akiya tax covering the whole city, intended not to raise revenue but to force neglected houses back into use.
- - Record inbound tourism: 42.68 million visitors in 2025. TV Tokyo on the 2026 tourism white paper approved by cabinet, recording 42.68 million foreign visitors in 2025, up about 16 percent, and 9.5 trillion yen in spending, both all-time highs.
- - AI Arrives on the Anime Production Line. MBS reports from Japanese anime studios where AI has cut inbetween work from 30 minutes a drawing to 200 drawings in 10-20 minutes, interviewing an animator of 46 years about what it means for the workforce.
- - Behind the Scenes at Kyoto Animation. Kyoto Animation's own documentary series on producing the 2026 series Nijusseiki Denki Mokuroku, opening with the cast on auditions and recording.
- - 85,000 Yen a Month: The Anime Industry's Pay Gap. An analysis of the gap between animator earnings, one artist's best month at 85,000 yen, below minimum wage, and the average salaries of the companies whose logos close the credits.
- - Two Metres Bent Nine Millimetres: The Cooper of Shodoshima. Joiner Kazuhiro Oka explains why the base of a two-metre fermentation vat is deliberately not a true circle, working Yoshino cedar planted a century ago into vats meant to last another hundred years.
- - Gion Matsuri 2026: The Saki-matsuri Float Procession. Kyoto Shimbun 4K record of all 23 floats in the 17 July 2026 procession, including the shimenawa-cutting by the chigo boy and the tsujimawashi corner turns.
- - Ten Events That Changed Japanese Film History. A survey of the turning points of the Japanese industry, the Toho dispute, the five-company agreement that bound stars, Daiei's bankruptcy, Nikkatsu's turn to Roman Porno, and Kurosawa's departure from Tora! Tora! Tora!
- - Mizoguchi at 70 Years After His Death - Broadcast Season. Japanese satellite channel Eisei Gekijo announces a Mizoguchi retrospective marking 70 years since his death, including the first television broadcast of Fujiwara Yoshie no Furusato, Nikkatsu's first talkie.
- - Gion Matsuri: The Ato-matsuri Procession Through Kyoto. Kyodo News report on the second Gion Matsuri procession, in which eleven floats travel the reverse route through central Kyoto on 24 July.
- - The Only Sword-Making Couple in Japan Producing Tamahagane. TV Asahi report on the sole husband-and-wife team in Japan smelting tamahagane steel and forging swords by traditional method.
- - Inside Naruto Stable: A Day in a Sumo Heya. Naruto-beya's own film of morning practice and the ordinary domestic life of a sumo stable afterwards, including the communal meal.
- - A domestically built humanoid robot for Japanese workplaces. Nippon TV on a Japanese firm's humanoid robot designed for indoor use in hospitals and factories facing severe labour shortages, first aired 5 August 2026.
- - Game Freak on Prototyping Poco a Pokémon. Game Freak's Shigeru Ohmori shows part of the original design document and never-before-seen prototype footage for Poco a Pokémon.
- - Four Countries That Regulated Gacha, and What Happened. A comparative analysis of the four national regimes that restricted gacha and paid loot mechanics, and their measurable effect on markets and player behaviour.
- - The Kanto taiko contest at the Hachioji Festival. Full live broadcast of the Kanto Taiko Daigassen and the Min'yo Nagashi procession, in which around 1,500 dancers in yukata take part, at the Hachioji Festival on 8 August 2026.
- - Nagasaki: a mother who lost six of her family to the bomb. NBC Nagasaki broadcast archive of a 1990 interview with Chiyoko Egashira, a teacher at Shiroyama school some 500m from the hypocentre, who lost her husband, four children and mother-in-law.
- - An 86-Year-Old Tempura Master and the Third Generation. Shizuoka Asahi TV report on Tenkin in Hamamatsu, founded 55 years ago, where the founder still tests oil with his fingers and a grandson abandoned a job offer to take over.
- - Comiket at Fifty - Anniversary Film. Comic Market's official 50th-anniversary film, marking half a century since the first event on 21 December 1975.
- - Morning Training at Shikoroyama Stable. Stable-run record of a full morning keiko session: suriashi footwork drills, butsukari-geiko and moshiai bouts with the new recruits.
- - Awa Odori 2026: The Final Night Sodori. Shikoku Broadcasting footage of the massed sodori dance closing the last night of the Tokushima Awa Odori at the Minamiuchimachi enbujo.
- - Okinawa Karate World Festival: Masters Teaching Kata. Ryukyu Shimpo footage from the third Okinawa World Karate Tournament, where 3,000 karateka from 49 countries gathered and 12 of 18 seminar instructors were prefecturally designated holders of intangible cultural property.
- - Arrest over inflated costs on the Expo Grand Ring. Nippon TV report on the arrest of the site manager responsible for the Expo 2025 Grand Ring on suspicion of inflating construction billing, and Governor Yoshimura's response.
- - Companies abolish the retirement age as workers run short. Fuji News Network report on Shionogi and Meiji Yasuda raising or effectively abolishing mandatory retirement in response to labour shortages caused by demographic decline.
- - Game Freak on Developing Pokémon Champions. Game Freak's official channel has its own staff explain the setting and development background of Pokémon Champions, the studio founded by Satoshi Tajiri that created Pokémon in 1996.
- - Shrinking Japan: population decline and what comes next. BS11 Inside OUT panel with former internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda after the 2025 census recorded a fall of about 3.1 million in five years, with projections of under 100 million by 2056.
- - Debating foreign workers: a soba chain where a third of staff are foreign. ABEMA Prime panel on Japan's acceptance of foreign labour, with the head of the Yudetaro noodle chain, an immigration recruiter and commentators discussing wages and shortages.
- - Grand Sumo in Paris: The First Overseas Tour in 31 Years. Japan Sumo Association film covering the June 2026 Paris exhibition tournament, the first grand sumo tour to France in 31 years, with the surrounding ceremonies and events.
- - Two years of the Mount Fuji entry fee, reported from the trail. Sankei Shimbun reporter climbs Fuji in the second year of the 4,000-yen fee, finding overnight bullet climbing largely gone but a heavily foreign trail with recurring equipment and etiquette problems.
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