Japan Subculture Research Center

Astonishingly, before taking up her duties for the Third Reich, Pomsel had worked in a Jewish insurance company in Berlin while having a side gig in the afternoons working for…

Japan is a country where saving face is paramount—even if that means covering it with snake venom, bee toxin, horse oil, or snail slime. One company in Japan has been…

The titular family in "Shoplifters" give a new slant to the term "living in squalor." Their house looks more like a bizarre crime scene than an actual dwelling for normal…

In terms of celebrity status, sumo wrestlers are on par with kabuki actors, also entrenched in anti-woman tradition. In spite of this (or maybe because of it) there's never a…

"I think being able to speak English will change a Japanese person in the most unexpected ways," she said. "The Japanese language is just not conducive to self-expression, whereas English…

“Rich nation, strong army” (fukoku-kyohei) was the nineteenth-century slogan the ruling elite used to rapidly industrialize in the advent of the Meiji period to protect national interests against Western colonial…

RENUNCIATION OF WAR Article 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and…

Like many foreigners observing the Moritomo Gakuken scandal play out, I am fascinated by the interplay between Shinto, nationalism, and government. There are questions that come with the scandal: Why…

In the summer of 2013, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, famous for his verbal gaffes declared in a speech to his political supporters, “Germany’s Weimar Constitution was…

"Shonen" isn't a sweat and tears documentary about the underside of Tokyo's sex industry. It is in fact, a fairy tale that showcases the sexual prowess of Tohri Matsuzaka, who…