Japan Video Topics

Hagi, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, is an historic city set among beautiful scenery, containing many fascinating relics and reminders of the key role it played in Japan's 19th century modernization. Hagi's major attraction for visitors, though, is its camellias. Over 25,000 camellia trees grow in a natural hillside forest, and the simple beauty of these blossom-covered trees is an irresistible magnet for the flower-loving Japanese.

Arita, in Saga Prefecture, was where Japanese ceramics began, about 400 years ago. Arita ware is made in many variations, from simple blue and white pieces hand colored using the sometsuke process, to gorgeously colored, richly ornamented items. Arita also produces the world-famous style known as Kakiemon. From a shrine gateway tiled in porcelain to walls of old kiln bricks, a visitor will see reminders of Arita's proud past everywhere.

In Japan's modern water-purification facilities, leading-edge technology converts seawater into drinking water. The secret is ultra-thin membranes wound in many layers. These Japanese developed membranes are finer than any other, able to block 99.8 percent of all viruses, chemicals, organisms and even ions. Supplying 70% of membranes used in water treatment plants worldwide, Japanese technology is helping to solve the global water shortage.

Producing a powerful sound that resonates throughout the whole body, wadaiko drums have been an important part of Japanese culture since ancient times. A mainstay of traditional Japanese music, wadaiko are also sacred instruments in Shinto and Buddhism. Today, the wadaiko is known worldwide thanks to a number of famous professional groups who are interpreting this traditional instrument in fresh and unique ways.

An oasis of green deep in the heart of the Tokyo megalopolis. The Meiji Jingu Shrine, located near the fashion districts of Omotesando and Harajuku, has over 170,000 trees in its 700,000 square meter grounds. These woods, originally planted by hand, have grown into a natural forest environment. A wonderful spot to relax among greenery, it's popular with tourists as well as Tokyo locals, and with five nearby stations couldn't be easier to get to.

In this traditional street stall skill, the artist works swiftly, squeezing, stretching, twisting and cutting the candy with bare hands before it cools and hardens. In just three minutes, a tiny, lifelike – and edible – sculpture is born. It takes many years of practice to become a good amezaiku artist, able to craft any shape a customer orders – even recognizable portraits. Young and old love to watch them at work, before enjoying the resulting candy.

Japan is home to some of the most advanced infrared and ultrasonic sensor technology, producing 70% of the world's sensors. Sensors play a vital role in energy-saving, preventing waste in everything from escalators to microwaves. Used in automatic taps, they reduce wasted water too. Now often combined with other technologies, sensors continue to evolve and change our world, and Japanese technology leads the way.

Kyo Yuzen is a famous traditional kimono dyeing technique from Kyoto. It is notable for the beauty of the elaborate and colorful scenes from nature, often of flowers and birds, that are used to decorate the kimono fabric. This method requires a great many processes to complete a single piece, each being done by a separate specialist artisan. With a history of over 300 years, Kyo Yuzen is as popular as ever today.

The mountain village of Gokayama lies in a region of heavy snows. To counter this, a special kind of thatched roof design developed here. Gokayama was made a World Heritage Site because of the beauty of this gassho-zukuri architecture, and its perfect preserved view of old Japan. The village is also famous for traditional folk arts, including dance, handicrafts, unique musical instruments and some of Japan's oldest folk music.

A whole style of cooking, very popular in Japan, uses a base of batter cooked on an iron griddle. The best known of these dishes is okonomiyaki, in which a batter mix made from flour and dashi stock is cooked together with vegetables, meat or fish and then given a coating of thick sauce. 500 years ago it was a simple recipe – today many different ingredients are used. Other delicious dishes in this style are monjayaki and takoyaki.

Japan leads the world in cutting-edge carbon fiber technology, and has developed reinforced fibers so strong that they can now be used to construct every part of an aircraft, tail, wings and fuselage. Because these materials are lighter as well as stronger than metal, flight distances can be 1.3 times greater. High-quality Japanese carbon fiber now accounts for 70% of world production, and demand continues to increase.

Since ancient times, the Japanese have been fond of lacquer, especially for furniture and eating utensils. Many of these items are gorgeously decorated using a unique Japanese technique for applying gold dust called maki-e. By using dust rather than foil, the designs can be painted on the lacquer in much finer detail. The beauty of maki-e is widely admired, although it takes many years for an artisan to master this skill.

The city of Niihama in Ehime Prefecture developed along with the Besshi Copper Mine, which played a significant role in 19th-century Japan's industrialization, and which today is an industrial city with many chemicals and machinery factories.
Every year in October, the city holds the Niihama Taiko Festival, a magnificently spectacular event with a long tradition and history behind it.

The Japanese enjoy an enormous variety of food products that use rice as their raw material. There are mochi rice cakes and dango dumplings, and recently even rice bread. But perhaps the oldest and best loved of rice snacks are the crackers known as senbei. These crisp, crunchy crackers are traditionally round and flavored with soy sauce, but they are also made in many other shapes and flavors.

Japan has many unique technologies for mixing and processing synthetic resins. Ears, arms, fingers and other prosthetic body parts are made ultra-lifelike using multiple types of resin, while innovative methods for resin mixing and coloring produce the realistic model dishes displayed outside restaurants. There is a worldwide demand for the high quality products made using these unique technologies, which can even create resins harder than steel. They can also combine durability with crystal clear transparency, and most large aquarium tanks worldwide are Japanese-made.

The history of Bunraku began when a traditional performing art called Joruri, where the story was told through chanting and shamisen music, was enhanced by the addition of puppets. Bunraku is unique among the puppet theaters of the world in that each puppet is controlled by a team of three puppeteers, a method that produces an amazingly lifelike effect. Bunraku remains popular with modern audiences, and is listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, along with Japan's other theatrical traditions of Kabuki and Noh.

Solar power is widely and increasingly used in Japan in power stations and public facilities, and its advanced technology has given Japan an almost 25% world share in solar generating equipment. High energy conversion solar panel systems are installed on many private homes, and new household-use, high-capacity lithium storage batteries now allow energy generated in daytime to power homes at night. Semi-transparent solar panels provide illumination as well as generating power, eliminating a common problem of overhead panels blocking sunlight. New panels use lenses to multiply solar power conversion efficiency three to four times. Japanese research continues to improve solar technology, lowering costs and increasing generating capacity.

Sited at the heart of Japan, the beautiful coast of the Ise-Shima peninsula is a famous tourist destination, attracting 10 million visitors every year. Over 80% of them come to visit the 1,800-year old Ise Jingu, Japan's most important Shinto Shrine. Through all those centuries, believers never ceased to travel from all over the nation to Ise to give thanks to the kami, or deities, enshrined here. The Ise-Shima coast is also famous for its abundant marine life, and this area was the birthplace of the world's cultured pearl industry. You can still see the traditional women divers, who gather shellfish from the sea bed using no breathing equipment.

Japanese stationery products are known the world over for their ingenious design and for their practicality. For example, scissors fitted with a special cap to make them safer to handle, and an environmentally-friendly stapler that doesn't actually use staples. Very popular among collectors is the vast range of erasers that are perfect replicas – just 3 cm in size – of animals, foods and almost any object you could imagine. Such ideas could only be born in Japan, with its long tradition of meticulous miniature craftsmanship. At the other end of the scale, we also see cutting-edge high-tech stationery such as a ball point pen using ink that can be erased using only friction.

Ukiyoe is a genre of Japanese popular art dating back to the late 17th century that mostly depicts scenes from daily life or seasonal motifs. Whether hand painted or woodblock printed, ukiyoe is distinguished by bold, dramatic designs and vibrant colors. These prints are known and loved worldwide, and right from the start had a deep influence on artists in many countries. Ukiyoe prints are made by a sophisticated work-sharing process in which each print passes through the hands of three highly skilled artisans: an artist, a woodcarver and a printer.

Held in Sendai, the biggest city of the Tohoku region, the Tohoku Rokkon Sai is an event showcasing the region's six most famous festivals. This region was the area worst hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March, 2011, and the new event was planned to revive the spirits of the people, help them overcome the effects of the disaster, and show the rest of Japan and the world that Tohoku is as exciting and dynamic as ever. The featured festivals are Nebuta (Aomori), Kanto (Akita), Sansa (Morioka), Hanagasa (Yamagata), Waraji (Fukushima), and Tanabata (Sendai).

With a history going back over 800 years, this is one of the great summer events in Tohoku's Fukushima Prefecture, and one of the most famous of Japan's Gion festivals. The daytime part includes a parade of about 30 women dressed in gorgeous bridal kimonos carrying traditional offerings to the local shrine. At night, there is a parade of huge floats that stop at various points to act as stages for kabuki performances. The kabuki actors are children, and each time the floats move on, children from the audience ride along, chanting encouragement to the teams of haulers.

Each year in early August, a festival of Tohoku regional performing arts is held in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture. The whole town becomes a stage for a wide variety of traditional dances from all over the region, performed in Kitakami's shrines, department stores, plazas and parks. About 120 groups took part in the festival this year, held in the aftermath of the disaster that devastated this region. Lively performances were provided by dancers from Tohoku and beyond, including groups from towns and villages destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami.

This festival was started after the second world war to pray for divine protection and inspiration as the people of the region struggled through the post-war reconstruction period. Deities from the two hilltop Shiogama and Shiwahiko Shrines are carried in procession in two mikoshi portable shrines to the harbor. Each mikoshi is then placed on its own special ship which sails around scenic Matsushima Bay, accompanied by dozens of fishing boats. The festival takes on a special significance this year, as the region once again faces the difficult task of reconstruction.

Located in a fertile plain by the Kitakamigawa River, Hiraizumi became the political and cultural center of the Tohoku region in the 11th and 12th centuries, after the end of a period of civil war. The unique culture of its golden age was fostered by the ruling Oshu Fujiwara clan, who ordered the construction of many temples and gardens embodying the Buddhist concept of the Pure Land paradise. Many of these 12 century masterpieces have survived to this day, most notably Chuson-ji Temple with its Golden Hall and Motsu-ji Temple with its famous Pure Land garden. Magnificent representations of this Buddhist Pure Land concept, the gardens and temples of Hiraizumi are now a World Heritage site.

The small city of Shirakawa, in Fukushima, is home to some of the world's most advanced aluminum processing plants. One of these produces the world's most precise aluminum tubing using its own specialist drawing technology. The plant makes its own dies to draw the raw stock aluminum tube and achieve an incredible, almost distortion free precision of 1/100 mm. These finished tubes are used to manufacture precision parts such as camera lens rings and high-speed train doors. The tubes are the key to an Antarctic scientific drilling project now bringing up 800,000-year old ice samples from depths of over 3000 m in order to study climate change. These Fukushima plants have bounced back from the recent disaster and continue to keep global industry supplied with irreplaceable specialist parts.

Sendai City in Miyagi, one of the areas of Tohoku hard hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake, is home to a famous craft tradition with a history going back over one hundred years. This is the craft of making Sendai Tansu chests. Made from especially beautiful and durable wood, these chests are treated with a complex lacquering process that allows the grain to shine through, and decorated with fine ironwork fittings. Some of these artisans lost their tools and workshops in the tsunami but, typical of the resilient people of this region, they have overcome the disaster and work on, powered by a determination to keep their family craft traditions alive for future generations.

The huge earthquake that devastated the Tohoku Region in March seriously affected the auto industry, which relies on many specialist component manufacturing plants located in this part of Japan. Most recovered rapidly and are now back in production, including a small manufacturer of extremely precise metal dies. This technology, with a product reject rate of less than 1%, is used to manufacture the high accuracy components required by automakers around the world. The expressway system, depended on by manufacturers for distribution, also recovered quickly - Japan's road engineers had 90% of the stricken highways open for traffic again just 13 days after the earthquake. The speedy response depended on knowhow and techniques employed and polished every day by the specialists who keep society's systems and lifelines running.

Takachiho, a small town in the mountains of northern Miyazaki, is the legendary home of some of Japan's most ancient myths. The landscape around Takachiho is filled with sacred spots, the best known being Gokase-gawa Gorge, a mysteriously beautiful ravine of sheer volcanic cliffs cutting through deep forest. Performed in Takachiho for over 800 years, the Kagura dance portrays the stories of the old gods, backed by the music of traditional drums and flutes.

Zori and geta are two traditional kinds of Japanese footwear that are still popular and widely worn today. Since they don't enclose or restrict the feet, these sandals keep feet healthy and free from perspiration and various ailments like corns. Both styles are made in a wide variety of materials and designs, and geta in particular are often crafted by artisans and beautifully decorated using traditional methods such as lacquer and gold ornamentation.

In a recent new fashion style, young Japanese are remaking and redesigning store-bought clothing to reflect their own personal tastes and to project an image that's unique to each wearer. They use both purpose-made decorations and accessories and any everyday objects that happen to seize their fancy, sewing or sticking them to store-bought garments. Limited only by your imagination, it's an inexpensive and easy way to transform your appearance with clothes that are absolutely one of a kind.

Many of the electronic components at the heart of modern appliances are developed in Japan, and one of the most essential uses technology inspired by a traditional handicraft. Japanese companies have the world top share in ceramic capacitors thanks to a technique from Kiyomizu-yaki, a centuries-old Kyoto ceramic tradition. We also see how traditional methods for making ultra-thin decorative gold foil have made printed circuit board manufacture more efficient.

bentobako, the special containers for carrying these meals, also play a significant role in Japanese culture. Historically, they were made of wood, often lacquered. Today, bentobako are mad Bento (meals cooked and packed for convenient carrying) are an old tradition in Japan. And e in a variety of materials and in a huge range of designs aimed at offering greater functionality. A blend of traditional wisdom and ingenious technology, bentobako ensure that meals stay fresh and delicious, even after being carried for long periods.

Leading edge micro-technology is now widely used in the medical field, and many innovative developments are coming from small Japanese factories. These include the world's thinnest hypodermic needle (0.2mm) and ultra-compact medical light bulbs just 5mm across. Thanks to the vastly increased power of recently developed Japanese microscopes, surgeons are now able to operate on blood vessels as thin as 0.5mm. And robots just one millionth of a mm long allow researchers to study even single cells.

In a recent new fashion style, young Japanese are remaking and redesigning store-bought clothing to reflect their own personal tastes and to project an image that's unique to each wearer. They use both purpose-made decorations and accessories and any everyday objects that happen to seize their fancy, sewing or sticking them to store-bought garments. Limited only by your imagination, it's an inexpensive and easy way to transform your appearance with clothes that are absolutely one of a kind.

The island of Miyajima lies in the Seto Inland Sea, near Hiroshima. The entire wooded island, 30 kilometers around, stands as a shrine symbolizing reverence for nature. The 1,400-year old shrine is built over the water and seems to float against a backdrop of green mountain. Each April over 400 Noh performers gather here from all over Japan for a special sacred event. The sense that they are performing in the midst of nature is especially intense at high tide, when the sea rises almost to the level of the shrine's Noh stage.

The entrance to the Izu Peninsula is an easy one hour train ride from Tokyo. Tourists flock here for Izu's year-round mild climate, magnificent coastline and famous hot springs. The most popular destinations are the spots where many flowers bloom simultaneously in February – you can see plum, camellia, cherry, daffodil and rape blossoms. Plum and cherry blossoms flower earlier here than anywhere else in Japan, and early spring on the Izu coast is a picturesque sight.

Ojiya chijimi is a woven fabric that has been produced in Ojima, in Niigata Prefecture, for about 350 years. In this snowy area, weavers discovered that they could bleach their fabric to a distinctive hue by laying it out on the winter snow. They use a local variety of hemp called choma which is very absorbent and dries quickly. In combination with a special crimping technique to produce linen crepe, this makes a comfortable fabric that's ideal for summer kimonos. Hand woven on unique looms, these fabrics also feature very beautiful patterns.

Japan's home moving companies provide a service that's unrivaled for reliability and comprehensiveness. You don't need to make any preparations at all – from packing to unpacking, the movers will handle it all. Special packing materials protect fragile items like crockery, and prevent creases in clothing. Everything is unpacked at your new home and placed precisely where you're used to having it – you simply resume life with no interruption. This service is so complete that they even clean your home before they leave.

Hina-Ningyo are dolls are dressed in the gorgeous costumes of Japan's 11th century court nobility. It's an ancient belief in Japan that dolls can absorb evil and misfortune, and in the Hina Matsuri (March 3rd) dolls are displayed to pray for young girls' health. Hina-Ningyo dolls come in many varieties, all with individual, distinctive faces. At the top of the stepped display sit emperor and empress dolls, backed by a gold or richly decorated screen. The number of steps varies, but a fine seven-step display has 15 dolls, including three court ladies and five musicians.

Japan's high-speed rail network began in 1964 with the launch of the Shinkansen Bullet Train, at the time the world's fastest. The network now has over 2,000 km of track and links all the nation's regions. The trains too have continued to evolve, becoming faster, more comfortable and quieter. The latest in this evolution is the Hayabusa, a new design that debuted on the Tohoku Shinkansen route in March, 2011, with a maximum operating speed of 320 km/h.

Matsue City in Shimane Prefecture grew up around the castle built in 1611, and it still retains much of the look of that old period. Rivers and waterways crisscross the city, giving it much of its beauty, and a riverboat tour is by far the best way to enjoy the sights of old Matsue. Boats operate all year round, with old-style charcoal heaters to ward off the winter chill. Another popular boat tour is on Lake Shinji, to the west of the city, to watch the spectacular sunsets.

In Japan, highly advanced, computerized technology carries eggs from hen to shop. At the processing plant, eggs are first cleaned and externally sterilized with boiling ozonated water. Then come a series of computer controlled inspections for surface dirt, shell cracks and internal defects. Computerized conveyor belt systems clean, check and package about 120,000 eggs per hour with such high levels of hygiene that it's always safe to eat Japanese eggs uncooked.

Origata is a traditional art of folding Japanese washi paper to wrap gifts and make decorations for ceremonial events. The essence of this art is to show respect and consideration for the recipient of the gift, so the paper is always folded for easy opening and arranged to indicate what its contents are. Many levels of meaning can be expressed through this artistic folding of white sheets of paper, and origata is a tradition that's alive and well in Japan today.

Small red azuki beans are often eaten in Japan on auspicious occasions. They are mixed with sticky rice to form sekihan, eaten in miso soup, and boiled with sugar to make anko bean paste. As the base material of wagashi Japanese confectionery, anko adds protein and fiber to an enormous range of beautiful looking, healthy sweets. This little red bean is found at the heart of many uniquely Japanese dishes and confectioneries.

Of all traditional Japanese lacquerware, that made in Wajima City, Ishikawa, is famous for its special combination of fine decoration with the strength to endure many years of use. Over 20 different processes go into the making of a single piece, each handled by its own specialist artisan. Unique techniques for reinforcement and for delicate golf leaf and powder ornamentation are the hallmarks of a lacquer tradition much loved both for its beauty and its practicality.

One of Kyoto's best-known tourist spots, this area of picturesque scenery, ancient shrines and temples is transformed each December by nighttime illuminations. The beauty of Togetsukyo Bridge and the bamboo forest walk become even more magical, lit by electricity generated hydraulically from the river and from solar panels. Streets lined with andon lanterns also feature ikebana flower displays, while illuminated temple buildings and gardens shine magnificently among the surrounding darkness. It's a time of year when the nights of this scenic area are just as entrancing as the days.