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August 11, 2026
 

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Mark Schilling
Naoto Takenaka (left) and Mugi Kadowaki star as a homeless man and social worker who team up to investigate the identity of a dead man in Chinese director Qi Wang¡¯s ¡°Ghost of Ueno.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Aug 7, 2026
¡®Ghost of Ueno¡¯: A human drama about the invisible among us
Chinese director Qi Wang¡¯s film examines the plight of the homeless and disenfranchised in Japan with a humanist lens.
Newcomer Risa Sierra plays Elena Takahashi, a high school transfer student who gets targeted by a monster with a bandaged head, in ¡°The Invisible Half.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Jul 31, 2026
¡®The Invisible Half¡¯: Stylish J-horror anchored in a standout performance
Masaki Nishiyama¡¯s debut feature is a polished, provocative take on horror tropes, with a riveting performance by newcomer Risa Sierra.
Ryosuke Hashiguchi¡¯s ¡°All Around Us¡± features Lily Franky (left) and Tae Kimura as a couple navigating the vicissitudes of marriage and life.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 24, 2026
¡®Hush!¡¯ and ¡®All Around Us¡¯: Masterpieces from a pioneering gay director
New 4K restorations of two films from the 2000s by Ryosuke Hashiguchi bring his masterful storytelling back to the silver screen.
Suzuka Chinzei (right) plays a school counselor dealing with a string of deaths in horrormeister Takashi Shimizu¡¯s ¡°Sana: Play With Me.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Jul 17, 2026
¡®Sana: Play With Me¡¯ can¡¯t recapture the simple scares of J-horror¡¯s glory days
The latest film by J-horror director Takashi Shimizu (best known for ¡°Juon: The Grudge¡°) starts with an intriguing premise but becomes overblown by its third act.
Shota Sometani stars as the assistant manager of a fictional convenience store chain in Yusuke Iwasaki¡¯s ¡°AnyMart.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Jul 10, 2026
¡®AnyMart¡¯: A surreal parable about the dark side of convenience stores
Yusuke Iwasaki¡¯s debut feature starts off as an observational comedy before being subsumed by creeping dread and shock horror.
Yutaka Mizutani directs and stars in his fourth feature film, an omnibus about love, loneliness and everything in between.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 3, 2026
¡®Piccola Felicita¡¯: From formulaic drama to fever dream
Directed by Yutaka Mizutani, the four-part omnibus looks at love and loneliness in the big city, with some unexpected twists and turns.
Hayato Kohsaka (right) plays a violent teenager whose potential for redemption is the core inquiry in Keisuke Yoshida¡¯s ¡°Unchained.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2026
¡®Unchained¡¯ presents a grim portrait of a budding psychopath
Keisuke Yoshida¡¯s gritty drama concerns the misdeeds of a violent teenager and an ex-con¡¯s efforts to rehabilitate him.
Budding artists Madoka (Mariko Ito, left) and Kazuma (Kai Inowaki) find themselves tangled up in a multiverse while at the movies in ¡°You Are the Film.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2026
¡®You Are the Film¡¯ offers a multiverse on a microbudget
Set in a real-life corner of Tokyo¡¯s Shimokitazawa neighborhood, Makoto Ueda¡¯s debut feature takes a refreshingly analog approach to a familiar concept.
Before Meiko Kaji¡¯s hyperviolent action movies in the 1970s attracted a cult following, she made great efforts to learn the ropes of the entertainment industry.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2026
Meiko Kaji studied hard to smolder on screen
The star of ¡°Lady Snowblood¡± and other 1970s action films looks back on the serendipities that shaped her early career ¡ª and her dogged determination to hone her craft.
Virginie Efira (left) and Tao Okamoto play two women in crisis drawn together by happenstance in Ryusuke Hamaguchi¡¯s ¡°All of a Sudden.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2026
¡®All of a Sudden¡¯: A tender triumph from Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The director¡¯s award-winning film is a poignant study of the human condition built around the chemistry of its two leads, Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto.
Yuki Katayama shines as the titular character in ¡°Fujiko,¡± written and directed by Taichi Kimura and loosely based on his mother¡¯s experiences in 1970s and ¡¯80s Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2026
¡®Fujiko¡¯ is a stirring portrayal of a scrappy single mom
Yuki Katayama shines as the titular character in ¡°Fujiko,¡± a film about a woman¡¯s quest for autonomy in the 1970s and ¡®80s.
¡°Fujiko¡± stars Yuki Katayama (left) as a scrappy single mother who fights for her autonomy in 1970s and ¡¯80s Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2026
¡®Fujiko¡¯ transforms a mother¡¯s resilience into festival gold
Fresh off a major festival win and new international distribution deals, Taichi Kimura reflects on the deeply personal project that honors his mother¡¯s perseverance.
Koshi Mizukami (right) plays a rookie police detective who teams up with a South Korean counterpart (Jung Yunho) to tackle an international crime syndicate in the Kabukicho red-light district.
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2026
Crime and comic antics abound in ¡®Tokyo Burst: The Roundup¡¯
Set in the same universe as a hit South Korean series, ¡°Tokyo Burst: The Roundup¡± mashes up a cartoonish aesthetic with gripping violence.
A killer (Jiro Sato, center) cursed with the ability to make objects held in his right hand invisible terrorizes strangers in "Nameless."
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2026
¡®Nameless¡¯: Cursed killer goes wild in uneven thriller
Director Hideo Jojo borrows from horror classics while pitting Jiro Sato¡¯s unhinged killer against a dogged veteran cop.
Shota Sometani plays a physician with an unsettling approach to elder care in ¡°The A-Care: Disusebody.¡±
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2026
Â鶹´«Ã½ aging anxieties fuel the disturbing logic of ¡®The A-Care: Disusebody¡¯
Amputation as eldercare makes for an unnerving premise, but Koki Yoshida¡¯s bleak drama is most effective in its quiet plausibility.
Tadanobu Asano delivers a career-defining performance as the unhinged Masao Kakihara in ¡°Ichi the Killer.¡±
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2026
4K restoration sharpens the madness of ¡®Ichi the Killer¡¯
Part gorefest, part dark comedy, Takashi Miike¡¯s cult shocker remains one of the director¡¯s most unforgettable films.
In ¡°Kyoto Hippocrates,¡± Kuranosuke Sasaki plays a country doctor practicing Western medicine in the late Edo Period (1603-1868).
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2026
¡®Kyoto Hippocrates¡¯: A genial look at medicine¡¯s early days in Japan
Akira Ogata¡¯s warmhearted drama mixes medical history, culture clash and gentle humor into an enlightening look at modern medicine¡¯s beginnings.
Akio Fujimoto¡¯s film follows two siblings (Muhammad Shofik Rias Uddin, left, and Shomira Rias Uddin) who maintain a sense of play through a perilous journey.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2026
¡®Lost Land¡¯: A Rohingya odyssey viewed with startling immediacy
Shot with nonprofessional Rohingya actors, Akio Fujimoto¡¯s film follows two siblings through a perilous journey, where survival depends as much on strangers as on luck.
A mild-mannered trading company employee (Issei Takahashi) finds out that he is married to a complete stranger in ¡°Rhapsody, Rhapsody.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2026
¡®Rhapsody, Rhapsody¡¯ falters between rom-com whimsy and psychodrama
Director Go Riju sets up a mismatched pair, but the film¡¯s tonal swings make their uneasy connection hard to fully invest in.
Decades after the death of her teenage crush, a woman (Haruka Ayase) decides to pour her unresolved feelings into a written message in ¡°One Last Love Letter.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2026
¡®One Last Love Letter¡¯: A wistful throwback to romance in the age of texts
Yuya Ishii¡¯s drama leans into familiar tropes but delivers a tender reminder of the power of words left unsaid for too long.
America¡¯s cyberforces grapple with cluster of deaths by suicide
The U.S. Cyber Command building (center) stands on the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Many Indonesians named after Japanese anime characters
Some people in Indonesia are named Doraemon, the name of a lead character of the blockbuster anime series with the same title.
Yasukuni Shrine introduces ban on military attire and cosplay
People gather in front of thousands of lanterns on display at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on July 15 during the Mitama Matsuri, one of the capital's largest summer o-Bon festivals.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn't just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it's an ingredient.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.
J. League enters new era as league kicks off first fall-spring campaign
Players from each J. League club pose during a kickoff event on Monday ahead of the start of the 2026-27 campaign.
Speaking Japanese at the movies with ¡®Chiikawa¡¯
A "Chiikawa The Movie" poster is seen at Toho Cinemas in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.
How Â鶹´«Ã½ racehorses find second careers away from the track
TCC Therapy Park is supported financially by racing organizations as well as donations from members of the public.

Podcast

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

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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