History in Daily Life– category –

You’ve just arrived in Japan and are settling into your new neighborhood. One of your first purchases, naturally, is a bicycle. Not a fancy carbon-fiber road bike, but a classic mamachari—the sturdy, unpretentious workhorse of Japanese c...

When you walk through a Japanese city today, one of the first things you notice is the profound sense of order. The streets are impossibly clean. The air, even in a megacity like Tokyo, feels surprisingly fresh. Trains run on a schedule ...