A Temple Beneath a Tower: How Osaka’s Mitsutera Is Carrying 1,280 Years Into the Future
A wooden hall rebuilt by Osaka merchants in 1808 survived the city’s wartime destruction. More than two centuries later, it was moved intact and sheltered beneath a modern high-rise.
Read the full report →September 6, 2026 edition
Start With These Four
The day’s essential reads
Today’s 16 Stories
15 reports and one art choice
Business, Economy & Policy
September 6, 2026Japan Faces Calls to Defend ICC President Tomoko Akane
Washington’s sanctions on the Japanese head of the International Criminal Court test alliance management, dollar-based finance and Tokyo’s claim to stand for the rule of law.
Japan Certifies New Smart-Agriculture Development Plans
A five-year project will manage temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and airflow in the small space where greenhouse crops actually grow—and test the economics.
Bombardier to Acquire Mitsubishi Heavy’s Canadian Aircraft Operations
A factory group that has built wings and fuselage structures for Bombardier for nearly three decades is moving inside the plane maker’s production network.
Science & Research
September 6, 2026Key Molecule Helps Plants Compete by Extending Their Leaf Stalks
Researchers have connected AKT5’s molecular switch to longer leaf stalks—and to a measurable advantage when plants crowd together for light.
Researchers Recover Terahertz Phase Information From Shadows
A shadow-like artifact at an object’s edge can carry enough information to reconstruct how a terahertz wavefront has been delayed.
Liquid Conductivity Offers a New Way to Control Plasma
The same pulsed voltage can produce radically different discharges depending on how readily the liquid carries current and which side of the circuit it occupies.
Communities & Society
September 6, 2026
Japan Forms Expert Teams to Help Communities Confront Urban Bears
The government will help inexperienced communities diagnose local risks, build a response plan, test it and measure whether it works.
Nagano Turns Sewage Ash Into Agricultural Fertilizer
Rinkore 15 recovers phosphorus from wastewater ash, asking whether a city’s waste stream can become a safe and predictable domestic farm input.
Deaf and Para Athletes Bring Inclusive Sport Into Kanagawa Classrooms
Kanagawa’s 20-school program lets children experience how sport changes when signals, equipment and rules are designed for access.
Sports
September 6, 2026
World Jiu-Jitsu Championship Reaches Its Final Day in Tokyo
The four-day SJJIF championship closes at Yoyogi with children, teenagers, and Para, Deaf and “Special” divisions taking the mats.
Japan U-19 Face Yemen After Scoring 12 Unanswered Goals
Japan’s final Group G match tests how they manage a game in which one point guarantees a place at the AFC U20 Asian Cup China 2027.
Canoe Finals Put Aomori’s Whitewater Course at Center Stage
Four 15-gate slalom titles will be decided on the upper Iwaki River, where a two-point pole touch can reorder the field in seconds.
Culture & Arts
September 6, 2026A Temple Beneath a Tower: How Osaka’s Mitsutera Is Carrying 1,280 Years Into the Future
A wooden hall rebuilt by Osaka merchants in 1808 survived the city’s wartime destruction. More than two centuries later, it was moved intact and sheltered beneath a modern high-rise.
Kyoto Exhibition Examines the Wishes People Buried Underground
Closing Sunday, “Buried Prayers” asks why people placed vessels, coins, sacred objects and scriptures beneath their feet.
Kūkai and Shingon Masterpieces Enter Their Final Day in Tokyo
Eighty-eight works show how Kūkai’s ninth-century transmission became painting, sculpture, ritual and a living network of temples.
Today’s Art Choice
Story 16 · Public-domain artwork
How Tosa Mitsuoki Revived a Courtly Tradition Through Autumn Flowers
Two quail wait beneath chrysanthemums, bush clover and bellflowers. Mitsuoki used outside models and rival schools to give a court tradition a future.
Tosa Mitsuoki, Quail and Autumn Flowers, late 17th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936. Public Domain.
Explore the work →Six Selected From the September 5 Edition
More worth reading from the previous edition
Japan’s 3% Bonds Could Pull Capital Home
The 10-year yield has reached 3% for the first time since 1996, changing the calculation behind decades of outward Japanese investment.
The Same Sardine, Two Different Seas
Japan’s latest assessments show why fisheries management must distinguish stocks and ecosystems, not simply species names.
Japan Rethinks How It Manages Aging Infrastructure
Bridges, roads and water systems are aging together as the population and engineering workforce shrink. Priorities and regional cooperation move to the fore.
Ryugu Preserves a 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Memory of Brine
Minerals in the asteroid sample may record how nitrogen-rich chemistry intensified as water disappeared from its parent body.
Nobel Chemist Hideki Shirakawa, Pioneer of Conductive Plastics, Dies
An unexpected silver film in 1967 opened a new field of conductive polymers and led to the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Hikone Castle Chosen as Japan’s Next World Heritage Candidate
After 34 years on the tentative list, the castle complex will be presented as evidence of the daimyo system of government.
