Kumamoto Shaken Again
Inside Southern Japan’s M7.1 Earthquake
At 4:27 p.m. on July 28, a shallow magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto region, producing shindo 7 shaking in Uki and Hikawa. The tsunami advisory has been lifted, but rescues, damage assessments and the danger of strong aftershocks continue. Our special leads 16 new reports, four July 28 selections and today’s Kawanabe Kyōsai Art Choice.
Four Stories to Read First
Kumamoto Earthquake, BABYMONSTER, Nogizaka46 and Tokyo Idol Festival
Four Selected From the July 28 Edition
OpenAI, banking, manufacturing and Japan–U.S. investment
Today’s News: 20 Stories
16 new reports + four selected from July 28
Kumamoto Shaken Again: Inside Southern Japan’s Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake
What is confirmed, what remains provisional, why shindo 7 matters, how the quake relates to 2016 and what the dangerous days ahead may bring.
Fuji Rock 2026: What Japan’s Biggest International Music Weekend Revealed
Three days of artists, audiences, streaming and local commerce in Naeba reveal where Japan’s festival culture is heading.
BABYMONSTER’s World Tour Reaches Fukuoka
The Fukuoka stop shows how K-pop’s global touring system now runs through Japan’s regional cities, arenas and deeply organized fandoms.
Nogizaka46 Sells 756,000 Copies in One Week
In a streaming age, Nogizaka46’s opening-week total exposes the durable machinery of Japan’s fan economy and physical-media market.
Tokyo Idol Festival Expands Beyond Odaiba With Three-Day Streaming
TIF’s full three-day stream links a dense physical festival to viewers far beyond Tokyo, changing what attendance can mean.
LE SSERAFIM Moves Its World Tour From Osaka to Yokohama
A venue shift reveals how major K-pop tours navigate metropolitan demand, arena logistics and the geography of Japan’s live business.
VTuber Kanae Prepares to Fill Tokyo International Forum Hall A
As a screen-born performer enters a 5,000-seat hall, the VTuber concert remakes the boundaries among music, theater and fan participation.
Hiroshima Prize Exhibition Asks How Art Can Repair the World
Through Mel Chin’s practice, the exhibition asks how far art can enter the damaged terrain of pollution, memory and collective life.
Three Places, Three Centuries: Tokyo Museum Rethinks What Art Is For
By joining distant places and centuries, the exhibition casts the museum as more than a storehouse: it becomes a machine for revising how society sees.
How Japanese Nature Transformed European Art Nouveau
Flowers, insects, waves and asymmetry trace the path by which Japanese art altered Europe’s decorative imagination.
TOMIX at 50: How Model Trains Recreated Japan in Miniature
Shinkansen, commuter lines, rural stations and suburbs: fifty years of TOMIX show how miniatures preserve Japan’s railway landscape.
Tokyo Museums Stay Open Late—and Students Enter Free
Late hours, music programs and free student admission turn museums from daytime destinations into public spaces for the city at night.
Mishima and Pasolini Face Each Other on an Exhibition’s Final Day
The exhibition places two writers and filmmakers across from each other to expose their charged visions of body, politics, desire and death.
Takaichi Defends Economic Policy as Inflation Erodes Public Support
The gap is widening between the government’s long-term investment case and the immediate pain households feel from prices and the weak yen.
Foreign Residents Help Rebuild Japan’s Shrinking Fire Brigades
As depopulation and aging thin the ranks, foreign residents joining local disaster response are expanding the meaning of both neighbor and volunteer.
Japanese Researchers Reveal How Super-Low-Friction Materials Wear Out
Even nearly frictionless materials have a lifetime. Seeing molecular change at the surface could reshape machines, transport and energy efficiency.
SoftBank’s OpenAI Gain Produces ¥5 Trillion—and Japan’s Biggest Profit
Valuation gains on OpenAI created a record annual profit and transformed SoftBank’s place in Japan’s corporate hierarchy.
MUFG Overtakes Toyota as Japan’s Most Valuable Company
Higher rates, record banking profits and renewed investor confidence pushed MUFG’s market value above Toyota’s.
Toyota Plans a Second San Antonio Assembly Line With $3.6 Billion
The San Antonio expansion would add more than 2,000 jobs and annual capacity for roughly 150,000 vehicles.
JPMorgan May Help Finance Japan’s $550 Billion U.S. Investment Pledge
With dollar funding expensive for Japanese banks, U.S. financial institutions may help carry a vast bilateral investment pledge.
21. Today’s Art Choice
Kawanabe Kyōsai / Shintomi-za / Wild Meiji Theater Art
Today’s Art Choice: Kawanabe Kyōsai’s Shintomi-za Theater Curtain
Today’s Art Choice explores Kawanabe Kyosai’s legendary Shintomi-za theater curtain, painted with a turbulent procession of demons, ghosts and comic monsters. Its explosive brushwork, theatrical movement and controlled chaos inspired the visual identity of today’s Japan.co.jp edition.
Read the Art Choice →