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Tokyo restaurant offers lunches for less than 1 U.S. cent…if you’re good enough at rock-paper-scissors

We head to a unique restaurant for a harami bowl and a janken match.It wasn’t all that long ago that you could find lots of restaurants in Japan offering “one-coin” lunches, so called because the meals were priced at 500 yen (US$3.25) or less, with 500 yen being the largest denomination of coin in Japan. With prices rapidly rising, though, one-coin meals are getting harder and harder to find, something that’s making both our wallets and our stomachs very sad.However, we recently discovered a res

Government says 5.7 trillion yen of Japanese media was pirated last year, thinks AI could help

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry conducts study to estimate damage to producers of anime and other Japanese media.With Japanese entertainment media growing in popularity around the world, the Japanese government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is also growing more concerned about the effects of media piracy overseas. In its latest study of the situation, the ministry claims that damage from piracy has been rapidly increasing, but one of its proposed countermeasures might not rea

What makes the Starbucks Japan chocolate terrine so popular?

We find out why Japanese social media has gone crazy for this cake.Starbucks might be famous for its Frappuccinos, but fans of the chain will tell you its cakes are where it’s at. That’s what’s happening right now on Japanese social media, where sweet tooths are raving about the chain’s chocolate terrine. At 540 yen (US$3.40) apiece, this is no cheap slice, but fans say it’s worth the investment, and the calories, so we picked one up to find out if it was worth the

Japan’s real-world Pokémon hot spring’s first photos are here![Photos]

Pikachu and Gyarados invite you to come by for a relaxing soak as Noto town recovers from disaster.A lot of storylines in the Pokémon anime and video games follow the journeys of Pokémon Trainers as they roam far and wide in search of rare Pocket Monsters as part of their training to become Pokémon Masters. No matter how strong your resolve is to be the very best, though, eventually you’re going to need to take some time to stop and rest along the way. Likewise, if your real-life travels take yo

KFC Japan’s “The American Burgers” include a pile of guilt

KFC set out to recreate the image of three parts of the U.S. in sandwich form, and it looks like they hit at least one bullseye.People in Japan are well aware that KFC originated in the U.S. Seeing as how Kentucky doesn’t get a lot of international tourists or pop culture attention, though, very few Japanese people have any strong impression of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s home state, to the extent that most Japanese people call KFC itself simply “Kentucky.”So for the trio of sandwiches KFC Japan is

Japanese government to allow desecration of flags on kids’ meals

A victory for freedom of eats.The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been hard at work drafting a bill to criminalize desecration of the Japanese flag. It’s apparently a pressing matter, even though I’ve never seen anyone do anything bad to a flag before. In fact, I rarely see the flag used much at all, good or bad. But it’s perhaps in anticipation of continuing protests to the current administration’s efforts to roll back the pacifist elements of the constitution that they feel this is a prior

World Internet Conference Asia-Pacific Summit 2026 concludes, gathering global technology dignitaries to deepen Asia-Pacific digital collaboration

HONG KONG, April 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Hosted by the World Internet Conference (WIC), organised by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, and co-organised by the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, the 2026 WIC Asia-Pacific Summit was held in Hong Kong on 13-14 April 2026 and concluded successfully. The two-day international flagship event brought together around 1000 global innovation and technology (I&T) stakeholders, including government and business leaders, representatives from international organisations, experts and scholars from over 50 countries and regions. The Summit further deepened regional digital cooperation, showcased Hong Kong's progress and advantages in driving digital transformation and AI governance, and reinforced its position as an international I&T centre and a two-way platform connecting the country and the world.

Two new Sailor Moon art manhole covers are coming to Usagi’s real-world Tokyo neighborhood

Outer Senshi join their anime/manga magical girl sisters on the streets of Minato Ward.Sailor Moon features some pretty fantastical settings, with much of its mythos involving ancient kingdoms on the moon and antagonists hailing from even farther reaches of the cosmos. However, most of the series takes place in Minato, one the actual wards of real-world Tokyo, where Usagi and her friends live, go to school, and fight many of the manga/anime’s monsters of the week,So a while back, Minato Ward dec

Krispy Kreme releases new limited-edition fox doughnuts at only four stores in Japan

Kitakitsune Milk celebrates the charm of Hokkaido with kawaii style. Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido is famous for many things, including high-quality milk, thanks to the region’s many dairy farms, and the indigenous Ezo red fox, known locally as the “kitakitsune” (“northern fox”).Both these renowned claims-to-fame are now being honoured in a new Krispy Kreme product called the “Krispy Kreme Premium Hokkaido Kitakitsune Milk“.The “Krispy Kreme Premium Ho

APEC ministers' meeting seeks broadest common ground on economic, trade cooperation: MOC

NANJING -- The 2026 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting that concluded Saturday in China's Suzhou has actively ...

Used chopsticks upgraded from “waste” to “valuable material” by Kawasaki City thanks to ChopValue

They’re very good at using chopsticks.Every day, millions of people in Japan crack open a bento or dig into a restaurant’s meal while holding a pair of chopsticks that are destined for the garbage once finished, possibly even sooner if one is dropped on the floor. On the bright side, they’re biodegradable compared to plastic utensils, but it still seems wasteful to discard so much material after one use.It’s something the Canadian company ChopValue has been working to address by developing

APEC ministers' meeting seeks broadest common ground on economic, trade cooperation: MOC

The 2026 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting that concluded Saturday in China's Suzhou has actively sought the ...

APEC ministers’ meeting achieves multiple results, consensuses; China’s leading role injects more certainty into regional and global economy, Chinese expert says

The 2026 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting that conclud Saturday, achieving results and consensuses in five ...

Gundam teams up with 300-year-old daruma maker for wood-carved anime mecha figures[Photos]

It’s a Gun-daruma!Being a mecha anime, Gundam is very focused on the future. As a matter of fact, it’s so focused on the future that the franchise has made up multiple “Century” and “Era” names for its timelines, freeing it from the need to align its narratives with real-world history as its characters head out into space.That doesn’t mean that the anime’s mobile suits can’t combine beautifully with traditional earthbound aesthetics, though, and as proof Gundam is partnering with a Fukushima cra

Tokyo’s new extra-expensive ramen restaurant is dividing opinions, so we tried a bowl

Crab, Claaaaab, and high prices in Asakusa.Rising prices in Japan have put ramen restaurants in a tricky position, since part of what makes the beloved noodle dish so beloved is that, traditionally, it’s been not only a tasty meal option, but an affordable one too. As inflation continues, though, a growing number of ramen restaurants are now charging more than 1,000 yen (US$6.50) for a bowl of ramen, and crossing over the four-figure threshold in price has made restaurant ramen a tougher sell to

Bizarre Japanese vending machine sells “Peace and Equality” and “Angels and Demons”

We find out just how devilish and angelic these 100-yen surprises are.Our reporter Natsuno Futon was strolling the streets of OyamaCity in Tochigi Prefecture the other day when she came across an unusual vending machine. The first thing that caught her eye was the huge “100 yen” (US$0.63) sign on the front, but then, as she stepped closer, she became even more intrigued.There, in the window display, were the words “いろんなおもちゃ” (“various toys“), and beneath them:

Japan’s instant ramen snack theme park features an athletic course even adults can enjoy

Sample ramen pizza, alongside other limited-edition items to pick up, or just make your own treats.Snacks in Japan come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from ever-feuding mushrooms and bamboo shoots to make-your-own sweets, but one that I see fairly often in the hands of little children are packets of Baby Star Ramen. A popular snack made of deep-fried, crunchy, bite-sized pieces of instant noodles, Baby Star Ramen came about in 1959 when the founder of Oyatsu Company realized that the broken n

Pizza Hut Japan’s drinkable curry pizza is here – Is it all we dreamed it would be?[Taste test]

Too much of a good thing, or just enough?We weren’t sure if curry pizza is something that should exist. You could make the argument that the combination seems too weird to work. Alternatively, one could contend that, with curry and pizza already being two of the world’s most delicious foods as separate entities, combining them carries the risk of creating some sort of super cuisine that, once tasted, we’d all be unable to stop eating, leading to the collapse of society as all other human activit

Man in Japan calls in bomb threat because he doesn’t want to go to his own work farewell party

Whatever happened to just faking a stomach ache?In March, a restaurant in Saga City received a phone call, and when an employee answered it, the voice on the other end of the call gruffly commanded “Go check your entrance.” When the staff did, they discovered a piece of paper with a chilling message written on it:“I have planted a bomb.”On this same night, the restaurant had a reservation for a farewell party, in which a group of coworkers was celebrating a colleague who was leaving the organiza

Memorial bell inside Hiroshima’s Peace Park has been silenced, but for a sweet reason

Children’s Peace Monument is going to be a quieter place for a while.Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is located in the center of Hiroshima City, right across the street from where the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. Aside from being a tranquil green space, the park contains several monuments to those who lost their lives in or after the bombing, one of which is the Children’s Peace Monument.The Children’s Peace Monument was built in 1958, following the death of Sadako Sasaki, who was a