Candidates Announced for Suica Penguin’s Successor. A Public Vote Will Decide the Outcome

September 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Last year, JR East announced that their beloved mascot, the Suica penguin, will retire after 25 years of serving as the iconic face of IC cards. Today, the company has unveiled three candidates to succeed the beloved Suica Penguin, which will officially retire at the end of March 2027. The three designs—created by young Japanese creators—offer a decidedly different take on what Suica might look like in its next chapter. And JR East is putting the final decision up to a public vote.

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Tokyo is Gearing Up for an Art-Filled Fall. And the Entire City is Here for It

September 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

They say autumn is the season for art. In Japan, fall symbolizes freshness and new endeavors. The season’s clearer skies and brighter moons gives renewed enthusiasm to encounter artistic inspiration. And the entire city of Tokyo is not only here for it, but sponsoring it. From museums extending their hours and all-night art exhibitions to outdoor art festivals, Fall of 2026 is going to be one of the best chances to let art take your hand and guide you around Tokyo.

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Kawaii Buildings, as Seen Through the Lens of Urban Photographer Ken Ohyama

August 30, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Urban photographer Ken Ohyama is passionate about cities and the various structures that form them. The Japanese photographer has a knack for taking oft-overlooked elements of urban environments like highways and housing projects, and highlighting their beauty by forcing us to look at them in ways we never have.

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Minecraft Characters Emerge in the Fields for Gaming-Inspired Gyoda Rice Paddy Art

August 29, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Every summer, the city of Gyoda in Saitama Prefecture turns rice paddies into giant canvases, planting colorful rice varieties to form massive works of art. Known as tanbo art, these living murals stretch across nearly three hectares and can only be fully appreciated from above. Gyoda’s rice paddy art holds the Guinness World Record for the largest of its kind, and each year it draws visitors eager to see what design will emerge from the fields.

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FamilyMart and Sumo Legend Chiyonofuji is the Celebrity Collab We Didn’t Know We Needed

August 25, 2026 / / 0 Comments

FamilyMart’s in-house apparel label Convenience Wear is stepping into the world of sumo with a new limited-edition collaboration celebrating legendary yokozuna Chiyonofuji.

Developed in collaboration with fashion designer Hiromasa Ochiai, Convenience Wear is known for its philosophy of “Good Materials, Good Craftsmanship, Good Design.” For this collection, that approach meets the dynamism and tradition of sumo, Japan’s national sport.

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Artist Hiro Sugiyama Recreates Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’ With 750,000 Dahlias

August 15, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Once every two years, Brussels turns its Grand-Place into a living work of art. This year, artist Hiro Sugiyama transformed the cobblestones into a vibrant floral display as the Belgian capital celebrates the 24th edition of its Flower Carpet featuring one of Japan’s most-iconic images.

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Sou Fujimoto’s Meiji Park Brings a Three-Dimensional Landscape to Hakata Station

August 8, 2026 / / Comments Off on Sou Fujimoto’s Meiji Park Brings a Three-Dimensional Landscape to Hakata Station

Is it a park? A building? A pathway? A Landscape? It’s one of our most-anticipated architecture project of 2026, and it just opened yesterday (August 7) in Fukuoka, just steps away from Hakata Station. Meiji Park is a new 3,572-square-meter urban park designed by Sou Fujimoto. Architecture and landscape are woven together vertically, creating a continuous environment of terraces, elevated paths, plazas, and greenery.

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Kiyo Takeda: The Architect Making Tokyo Green Again

July 26, 2026 / / Comments Off on Kiyo Takeda: The Architect Making Tokyo Green Again

Japanese architect Kiyo Takeda belongs to a new generation of designers challenging the long-held notion that architecture should impose order on nature. Instead, his work embraces unpredictability, creating buildings that evolve over time as plants, weather, and the surrounding ecosystem become active collaborators.

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Kokuyo’s New ‘Transparent Mechanism’ Collection Puts its Engineering on Full Display

July 12, 2026 / / Comments Off on Kokuyo’s New ‘Transparent Mechanism’ Collection Puts its Engineering on Full Display

For more than a century, Kokuyo has been quietly refining the humble tools of the desk. Beyond a pursuit of quality and utilitarianism, the Osaka-based maker of stationery tools has always tried to “pique the curiosity of those who hold it.” Their newest “Transparent Mechanism” collection doesn’t introduce new functions so much as reveal the engineering that has been there all along.

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FamilyMart’s New Hipster ‘FAMIMA’ Reimagines What a Conbini Can Be

July 11, 2026 / / Comments Off on FamilyMart’s New Hipster ‘FAMIMA’ Reimagines What a Conbini Can Be

For decades, Japan’s convenience stores have been admired for, well, their convenience. By being sweetly attuned to utilitarian consumer needs, the ubiquitous 24/7 conbini has spread across Japan, achieving an unparalleled density that is perhaps second only to vending machines. This week, FamilyMart, one of the largest operators of conbini, launched their new FAMIMA concept store aimed at reimagining the conbini experience.

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