The 2025 World Expo in Osaka, slated to take place in Osaka, is just 6 months away. Taking place from April 13 to October 13, 2025, the expo aims to be a participatory, experiential, solutions-oriented exposition, offering the world an opportunity to come together in one place to explore a new vision forward. And as details are beginning to leak out, here are a few things we’re excited about seeing at the host country’s Japan Pavilion.
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all photos by Toshiyuki Yano
Right across the Kanda River from Akihabara Station is 12 Kanda, a new co-working space dedicated to supporting small businesses and startups. A visually eye-catching building, it features multiple stories with different forms and functions stacked on each floor.
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An onigiri smushed at the bottom of your bag. Water splashing off a spoon. Burnt toast. Life is full of small disappointments. But helping us see the humor in it all is Makosun, a Japanese maker of weird plushies—their words, not ours—who renders all these small disappointments as handmade plushies.
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all photos by Takumi Ota courtesy Schemata Architects
For decades, Japanese manufacturers have worked in obscurity, churning out parts for the world’s biggest automakers and smartphone brands. And for the most part—largely owing to the confidential nature of their work—they have remained behind the curtain, neither seeking credit nor publicity for their work. One of those companies is Furukawa Manufacturing, which has been creating tailor-made production systems for automobile companies since 1940.
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Want a taste of the frights but too busy to go to a haunted house? How about a haunted train? This year, a Tokaido shinkansen, in what is being called the world’s first zombie bullet train, will travel between Tokyo and Osaka.
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photos courtesy Wara Art Festival
Autumn is officially upon us. It’s the season of shorter days, brighter moons and bountiful harvests. Niigata prefecture, in Northern Japan, is known for its rice paddies and rice production. Around this time of year the rice harvest becomes a big deal, as well as the tons of rice straw, or wara, that is leftover. It can be plowed down as soil improver, fed to livestock, or even woven into decorative ornaments.
But before any of that, for the past 10 years Uwasekigata Park has hosted a Wara Art Festival by teaming up with art students to create creatures, both real and mythical, from rice straw.
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all photos by Takuya Seki courtesy Maru Architects
Founded in 1870, Hanaju is a florist that has served Tokyo’s Yanaka neighborhood for over 150 years. The flower shop is located near the entrance of Yanaka Cemetery and is surrounded by traditional homes and businesses, including a headstone supplier, that harken back to older times. Just last summer, after 3 years of planning, Hanaju reopened with an outdoor garden and cafe.
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Cokeco are a Fukuoka-based design duo who create leather accessories inspired by the natural curiosities of the world around them. Lately, their attention has been focused on sealife: specifically, our multi-limbed mollusc friends whose tentacles provide endless inspiration for bags, keychains and other everyday accessories.
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unless otherwise noted, all photos by Takeshi Shinto
This summer, a unique store opened in Tokyo. Located just a few steps away from Tokyo Sky Tree is “Guruguru Shakashaka,” a salt specialty store that lets you explore 600 varieties of salt and then blend your own. Equally unique is the name, which is based on the Japanese onomatopoeia for mixing and shaking.
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Tokyo-based artist Ogino Yuna creates semi-abstract paintings using motifs of living things that are familiar to her, such as flowers and people. But for her latest exhibition, which just opened in Tokyo, the artist has pointed her brush at one of the most basic yet intimate human connections: the embrace.
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