Nippon.com

6 stories

Nippon.comGoHigan: Japan’s Buddhist Equinox Holiday Higan, marked twice annually in the periods around the spring and autumn equinoxes, is a Buddhist observance in which people pay respects to their ancestors, such as by visiting their graves.

September 22

Nippon.comGoTsukimi: Japan’s Autumn Moon-Viewing Tradition From ancient poems to modern fast food, Japan’s tsukimi custom of autumn moon-viewing has endured and evolved as a key cultural tradition.

September 19

Nippon.comGoHalting the Yen’s Long Decline: Three Conditions for a Rebound Autumn 2026 has shown the first signs of a shift in more than four years of a weakening of the yen’s value.

September 19

Nippon.comGoBOJ Rate Hike Promises Asset Boosts for Elderly, Higher Housing Costs for Young Amid growing US demands for higher interest, the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate to 1.25% in September 2026.

September 18

Nippon.comGoExperiencing the Art of “Gyotaku” Fish Prints Gyotaku is the art of making ink prints of fish. In Japan, these are often monochrome prints on the walls of fishing lodges and seafood restaurants, but the pictures have evolved into a more colorful…

September 16

Nippon.comGoKiyomizudera Ranks Top in Overseas Searches for Kyoto Cultural Properties The temple of Kiyomizudera led international search interest among the 17 locations that make up Kyoto’s UNESCO World Heritage site, according to a survey based on a year of data across 32 countries…

September 15

Day by Day Japan plans a first trip to Japan the way a friend who lives here would: one day at a time, with the trains and the prices written down.

Each route is a real day or weekend: where to go first, how long the walk or the train takes, what the ticket costs and where to eat on the way. Prices come from the operator's or the place's own published fares and carry the date they were checked; where we have not checked a price, the route says so instead of guessing. If it rains, the route has a plan B.

Around the routes sits the week in Japan. Every few hours the site reads the Japanese city and food press and the English-language desks in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka, and puts the places they name on one map. Headlines stay in the language they were written in, every story links to its source, and we quote no more than a line.

The routes and notes are written by one editor under a pen name, Sora Nakamura, drafted with AI assistance from checked material and read before they go out. Day by Day Japan is independent: no advertisers, no affiliate links, no bookings.