Have you seen photos of kyara-ben (short for “Character Bento”)? They are lunchboxes packed with homemade food decorated to look like animals and anime characters. When I moved to Japan with my 3-year-old and saw these pieces of art, I was impressed...
“ONI: Thunder God’s Tale,” created by Japanese animation director Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, won two Annie awards, often known as the Oscars of animation, in February 2023. The work is a four-part series available on the video streaming service...
In recent years, the term “genderless” has become more common in everyday speech. It is frequently associated with fashion, yet it is also prevalent in other fields. Some argue that the term “genderless” is widely used for...
In recent years, initiatives related to diversity have been under active discussion worldwide. In the area of design, there is a search for ways to make design easy to use for people of various backgrounds. For example, universal design is a method...
QuatroGats (Ibaraki City, Osaka) collaborated with a famous Japanese food reporter Hikomaro (彦摩呂), to launch a bow tie made from a new vegan leather: mushroom leather. QuatroGats produces and sells leather wallets, luggage, accessories and...
In Japan, a very high 98.8% of students enter high school. There, most of them are required to wear school uniforms that typically are differentiated by gender and designated according to the sex the student was assigned at birth. As not all...
Imagine your perfect summer vacation. What do you need for it? Whether if you are the kind of person who loves to spend time in the beautiful sea surrounded by corals, or search for delicious and rare food, or are eager to trace great history...
A Tokyo-based social welfare corporation, Azalee Group, has collaborated with the non-profit organization KultureCity (USA) to make their multipurpose community facility “A-Cube” accessible to those with sensory needs and invisible disabilities...
“Irankarapte!” Cheerful voices greet the viewer upon the click of the play button. The owners of the voices are two young YouTubers, Maya and Yōpin. They already have more than 60 videos uploaded to their Shito-channel and have gained...
In 2019, the #KuToo movement became a hot topic in Japan. This was a wake-up call to the gender expectation that women should wear heels in general business settings. In these days of much discussion about gender equality and genderless fashion, the...