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July 09, 2026
 

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AINU

No need to go foraging for one of bears' favorite wild vegetables for this dish — just pick it up at your local farmer's market instead.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Jun 28, 2026
Smash tacos with bear-approved veggies
Alpine leeks are a forageable example of the “sansai” (wild edible plants) that make springtime a bounty of flavors across Japan’s countryside — for humans and bear-kind alike.
Members of the Hokkaido Ainu Association place returned remains in a cemetery at the national Ainu cultural facility and perform a memorial service on Friday in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.
JAPAN
May 9, 2026
Ainu indigenous group demands return of ancestors’ remains
The group filed a lawsuit demanding that the remains of 279 Ainu ancestors held by a state facility be returned to their descendants.
Akinosuke Owada, a graduating student at Akan Ainu Craft Center Harikiki, poses next to one of his works at the school in Kushiro, Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 26, 2026
Ainu craft school aims to pass on culture to students
Students in the Hokkaido center’s inaugural class are set to graduate soon, after completing their training to acquire skills of the Indigenous ethnic group.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Ghost of Yotei and Assassin’s Creed Shadows were among the most prominent video games of 2025 to draw heavily on Japanese aesthetics, history and genre traditions.
LIFE / Digital / 2025 IN REVIEW
Dec 19, 2025
In 2025, Japan became the canvas for the year’s best video games
From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to Ghost of Yotei, Japan served as both inspiration and setting for many of the year’s most notable releases.
A vessel is pictured during a handover ceremony of a skull from a member of an Ainu tribe taken by German researchers at the end of the 19th century in Berlin in July 2017. The Japanese government has said that the remains of five Ainu will be returned from the Natural History Museum in Britain to Japan.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 29, 2025
Five sets of Ainu remains to be returned from Britain
It will be the fourth time that Ainu remains have been returned to Japan from abroad.
Before Japanese encroachments onto their native land, the Ainu people in what is present-day Hokkaido lived hunter-gatherer lifestyles supplemented by fishing.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Nov 15, 2025
Timeless tales throw the march of ‘progress’ into relief
Maybe the Ainu had it right after all? Maybe humankind should have remained in that state? What if we had?
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 11, 2025
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Set in Ezo (modern-day Hokkaido), the highly anticipated samurai action-adventure game contains familiar thrills but subpar substance.
A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 6, 2025
Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste
Some scholars and activists are raising concerns that Indigenous voices are not being heard amid the debate over whether to host nuclear waste storage facilities.
Masaru Okawa (right), head of the Ainu association, receives ancestral remains from Peter Mathieson, principal of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland on Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 1, 2025
Remains of Ainu people in Edinburgh to be repatriated to Japan
The remains, which had been kept at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, have been returned to the Ainu Association of Hokkaido and will arrive back in Japan on Saturday.
The remains of three Ainu indigenous people kept at the University of Edinburgh will be returned to Japan and placed at the National Ainu Museum and Park in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2025
Remains of Ainu people in Britain to be returned to Japan
It marks the third time that Ainu remains that were taken abroad for research have been returned to Japan, following similar arrivals from Germany and Australia.
Tokoro Ruins Museum Director Yuuki Nakamura says that 'most Japanese people don’t know' the history of the Okhotsk culture, but he and others are betting that travelers might be intrigued enough to visit and find out more.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 22, 2025
Bear skulls and pit dwellings: Hokkaido aims to sell ancient history
The Okhostk culture thrived in northern Hokkaido from the fifth to ninth centuries and may have provided the Ainu with some of their best-known rituals.
“Ainu Puri” is a nuanced portrait of Shigeki Amanai (left), a modern Ainu man who strives to uphold his culture and heritage in daily life.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2024
‘Ainu Puri’: A vital portrait of indigenous culture in contemporary Japan
Takeshi Fukunaga’s documentary is an engaging examination of the life and community of a Hokkaido man devoted to his Ainu heritage.
Hokkaido's cuisine and the culture that underpins it get top billing in Tim Anderson's newest cookbook.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 15, 2024
‘MasterChef U.K.’ winner’s new cookbook puts Hokkaido cuisine on vivid display
Tim Anderson’s cookbook covers a lot, but its strength is in presenting Japan’s largest prefecture as a detailed tapestry via straightforward recipes.
Discriminatory remarks against the Ainu people by Lower House lawmaker Mio Sugita (center) have prompted calls for introducing penalties under the Ainu policy promotion law.
JAPAN
May 14, 2024
Calls grow for penalizing discriminatory remarks against Ainu
Calls strengthened after a series of discriminatory remarks by Mio Sugita, a House of Representatives lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party.
A traditional Ainu preserved food called <i>satchep</i> (dried fish) being made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Dec. 25. The Sapporo District Court ruled last month that the Raporo Ainu Nation's rights as an Indigenous people did not extend to having an inherent right to fish for commercial reasons.
JAPAN / Society
May 3, 2024
Sapporo court ruling on Ainu fishing rights presents tough questions
A Sapporo court ruled last month that an Ainu group only has the right to engage in salmon fishing for cultural — but not commercial — reasons.
A traditional Ainu preserved food called satchep (dried fish) is made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, in December.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2024
Japan court denies fishing rights to Ainu people
It was the first court decision on Indigenous rights related to Ainu people.
A large snow sculpture representing the National Ainu Museum and Park in Sapporo in 2020. The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology's apology marks the first time that an academic society in Japan or abroad has apologized to the Ainu people, according to the Ainu Association of Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 5, 2024
Anthropology society apologizes to Ainu people over past actions
The apology comes comes after a series of lawsuits filed in the 2010s seeking the repatriation of Ainu remains excavated for research purposes.
A traditional Ainu preserved food called "satchep" (dried fish) being made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Dec. 25
JAPAN / Society
Apr 3, 2024
Japan academic society apologizes to Ainu people
It is the first time that an academic society in Japan or abroad has apologized to the Ainu people, according to the Ainu Association of Hokkaido.
Eleven portraits of Ainu chieftains, completed in 1790, are now held by the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besancon, France. There were originally 12 paintings in the original set, collectively known as the “Ishu Retsuzo,” but one has disappeared.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Feb 26, 2024
The ongoing mystery of the Ainu portraits in France
A former Hokkaido journalist is hoping to find out how portraits of Ainu chieftains from 1790 made it to Europe.
At the Akan International Crane Center, just north of the city of Kushiro proper, visitors can see the majestic red-crowned crane — a symbol of Hokkaido.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 17, 2024
Faces of the north: A Hokkaido town grapples with depopulation
Residents of Kushiro face an issue that more and more communities in Japan are having to deal with. The city may be young, but it’s rich with tradition.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India&#039;s northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Osaka trumps Tokyo as both ranked among world’s top 10 most livable cities
Osaka’s infrastructure earned higher marks than Tokyo’s in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Global Liveability Index.
Japanese teen arrested for booting users off streaming service
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly creating a malicious program and canceling subscription accounts on the Bandai Channel.
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Long-stalled maglev line finally gets green light from Shizuoka Prefecture
Environmental concerns relating to the construction of Central Japan Railway’s high-speed maglev line had contributed to years of delays for the project.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.

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