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July 07, 2026
 

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NINTENDO

Justin Scarpone, Sega's global head of transmedia, believes the gaming icon has all the right conditions to become a multimedia powerhouse.
LIFE / Digital
Jan 16, 2026
The American bringing a Disney flair to Sega’s nongaming push
As Sega’s global head of transmedia, Justin Scarpone sees ‘character, environments and stories’ as key to success outside gaming.
Nintendo’s upcoming film, Super Mario Galaxy Movie, is positioned as a major 2026 soft-power moment for Japan, with expectations it could replicate the franchise’s 2023 $1.36 billion box office success.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 29, 2025
Takaichi, Mario, baseball and the Year of the Fire Horse
2026 marks the Year of the Horse in Japan. It’s one demographers have been awaiting for decades — the return of the Fire Horse.
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.
Microsoft's decision to bring Halo to PlayStation signals the end of the console wars, as both Microsoft and Sony adapt to a new gaming landscape with cloud gaming, cross-platform play and changing hardware models.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 23, 2025
The console wars end not with a bang, but a whimper
While game systems once featured bespoke hardware architecture, these days there’s increasingly little difference under the hood of a PlayStation, Xbox or mid-range gaming PC.
Japan has been a tough market for the PlayStation platform over the past few generations, as Nintendo continues to dominate there.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2025
Sony emulates Nintendo with new, cheaper console only for Japan
A region-locked PlayStation 5 Digital Edition will cost ¥55,000, Sony announced via a live stream, significantly lower than the previous price of ¥72,980.
Nintendo raised its Switch 2 sales forecast, boosting confidence in the console's strong momentum.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 4, 2025
Nintendo now expects to sell 19 million Switch 2 consoles by March
The company reported an operating profit of ¥88.25 billion and revenue of ¥527.2 billion in the September quarter, both beating a consensus of analyst estimates.
Nintendo is asking its manufacturing partners to ramp up output of its Switch 2 console, counting on demand to persist over the coming holidays and into the new year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2025
Nintendo aims to make 25 million Switch 2 units by end of March
Nintendo’s future hinges on the $450 Switch 2 being a success, and the company more than doubled marketing spending around its June launch to ensure it gets off to a fast start.
A trade fair for video games in Paris in 2023. The games industry in general has struggled in recent years, with players spending more time on existing titles and not taking as many chances on new ones.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2025
Xbox’s hike on Game Pass shows cost of lost Call of Duty sales
The price hike and other changes are a sign that Xbox’s big streaming push is still not generating the revenue it would like eight years after launch.
Super Mario soft toys in various sizes at collector Kikai's residence in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Aug. 19
LIFE / Digital
Sep 12, 2025
‘He’s a regular man, not unlike us’: Marking 40 years of Mario games
Super Mario Bros., released for Nintendo’s home consoles in Japan on Sept. 13, 1985, was a landmark of early video gaming.
A McDonald’s Japan Pokemon card promotion triggered scalper frenzy, upset children and forced the company to rethink its Happy Set campaigns.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 28, 2025
McDonald’s ‘Pokemon’ frenzy shows the collecting boom’s dark side
After a “Pokemon” trading card promotion went disastrously wrong, it’s been rebuked by the Consumer Affairs Agency and is rethinking future campaigns.
Merchandise are pictured for sale at a Nintendo store in central Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 2, 2025
Nintendo to raise U.S. pricing of original Switch hardware
Nintendo attributed the changes to “market conditions,” a hint at the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Nintendo said its quarterly revenue had more than doubled year-on-year thanks to the Switch 2, which became the world's fastest-selling console after its launch in June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2025
Nintendo keeps Switch 2 forecast unchanged despite hot start
The Kyoto-based company said on Friday that it still expects to sell 15 million units of its next-generation hardware by March, maintaining a conservative view.
Visitors play Hades 2, an upcoming independent game for Nintendo's Switch 2, during the BitSummit indie gaming expo in the city of Kyoto on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 19, 2025
Indie game studios battle for piece of Switch 2 success
With Nintendo game sales long dominated by in-house franchises, it can be hard for outsiders to break through.
Sega's first brick-and-mortar store in Japan is an example of how the country's video game industry is thinking of its digital products as tangible experiences.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 18, 2025
Sega’s first Japan store signals ‘immersive entertainment’ push
Opened on July 18 in the Shibuya Parco building, the video game company’s brick-and-mortar venture hints at a broader trend in Japan’s gaming landscape.
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 12, 2025
‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’
The Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society almost shuttered earlier this year, but a flood of support has buoyed efforts to save games on extinct media.
A customer buys a Nintendo Switch 2 in Tokyo on June 5. Online outrage over the gaming console’s price, terms and features was loud but meaningless, as record-breaking sales showed once again that internet backlash rarely reflects real consumer behavior.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 25, 2025
The ‘internet’ hated Switch 2 — consumers bought it anyway
The internet gives consumers a voice they once didn’t have. But separating signal from noise is a challenge — just look at the Switch 2.
A customer poses with a Nintendo Switch 2 console at a Bic Camera electronics store in Tokyo on June 5.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025
Nintendo’s Switch 2 sets sales record in boon for gaming sector
The numbers bode well for its target of selling 15 million units by March next year.
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025
Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here
The long-awaited gaming console hits shelves Thursday, with booming orders and tariffs making for a complicated debut.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't your typical Japanese role-playing game, but that hasn't stopped it from being one of the best to come from the genre in years.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
May 24, 2025
Uh-oh, is the rest of the world making JRPGs better than Japan?
Developed by a French studio, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has pushed the genre forward more than any Japanese-developed title in the past 10 years.
For Nintendo, it’s been a challenge making sure it can produce enough Switch 2 gaming devices to meet demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2025
Nintendo turns to Samsung to make chips for Switch 2
The Kyoto-based company is pivoting to Samsung because the Nvidia-based chipset that the Switch 2 employs was optimized for the Korean company’s manufacturing systems.
Japan might be giving the currency market the silent treatment
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has issued verbal warnings recently using the same language and the same tone, saying authorities “will take appropriate action at any time, as necessary.”
Murakami says his novels are ‘different’ from AI literature
Haruki Murakami's first book in three years hit shelves in Japan on Friday.
Suspected Asian fraud ring exec served fresh warrant in Japan
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka Prefectural Police have issued arrest warrants for three people, including a suspected fraud network leader, over alleged immigration and residency violations.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Tokyo hospital baby hatch accepts 20 newborns in first year
Hitoshi Kato (left), head of San-ikukai Hospital in Tokyo's Sumida Ward, speaks during a news conference at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building on Thursday.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
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.
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.
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.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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