Why Japan Is Reviving the Dirt-Floor Room
Japan's oldest room — the dirt-floor doma — may be its most future-proof.▼ About This EpisodeIn a hushed hospital waiting room — where no one is quite arriving and no one is quite leaving — Professor ...
14 Jul 5min
AI vs Instinct: Japan's New Ad War
At dawn in Toyosu, a tuna show draws a wall of phones — the oldest marketing there is.▼ About This EpisodeBefore the tourists arrive, before the sushi counters open, a wholesaler at Tokyo's Toyosu mar...
9 Jul 6min
Why Japan Obsesses Over Perfect Bangs
In Japan, a few centimeters of hair became an entire economy. Here's how it happened.▼ About This EpisodeA rainy afternoon, a tiny tourist information center in regional Japan, and a lost traveler who...
7 Jul 5min
Glasses Got Smart, Eyes Got Worse
Glasses are becoming the next computer — and Japan sits at the center.▼ About This EpisodeOn a rooftop farm — where city kids touch soil for the first time — Sakura shows up in a pair of glasses with ...
2 Jul 5min
$560B Asleep: Japan's Auction Gold Rush
Japan is asleep on $560B of secondhand goods. Auctions just woke it up.▼ About This EpisodeAt three in the morning, a conveyor belt never stops. Used cameras, trading cards, a luxury watch — each parc...
30 Jun 5min
The End of Japan's 100-Yen Sushi
Japan's 100-yen sushi era is ending — and the big chains are fighting back.▼ About This EpisodeFor decades, a hundred-yen plate was Japan's everyday luxury — affordable, reliable, almost a birthright....
25 Jun 5min
An 800-Year-Old Card Game Goes Global
An eight-hundred-year-old anthology of Japanese poems is quietly becoming one of Japan's most exportable business assets. In a freshly merged rural cooperative office, Haru and Sakura trace how the Hy...
23 Jun 5min
Why Japan Loves Its Most Divisive Flavor
Chocolate mint — "chocomint" — is Japan's most polarizing flavor: people either adore it or swear it tastes like mouthwash. So why is it suddenly everywhere in the summer of 2026? In this episode of N...
18 Jun 5min
