Trends in Japan

Japanese kimono is a clothing tradition with a history of more than a thousand years. For a long time, the popularity of kimono seemed to be on the decline, as the everyday dress of Japanese people became more and more westernized. Young Japanese people these days typically wear kimono only for important ceremonial events such as Shichi-Go-San (a rite of passage for children) and Coming of Age Day. But recently, a growing group of young people are starting to embrace kimono again, mixing it in with modern elements and introducing fresh new takes on the tradition. Let’s look at some of the ways people are getting creative with their kimono.

Since time immemorial, humans and mosquitos have been at odds. More than just spoiling our picnics and keeping us awake at night with their buzzing, mosquitos are spreaders of deadly diseases like malaria, West Nile virus, and dengue. While these diseases are extremely rare in Japan today, that is not the case in some parts of the world. Let’s find out how Japanese people have dealt with mosquitos over the ages, and how Japan is contributing to the global battle against these flying nuisances.

Japan has long been famous for its world-class customer service. Rooted in a culture that values hospitality and attention to detail, Japanese consumer-facing businesses go above and beyond in their care for the customer. Let’s take a look at the modern customer service experience in Japan and some of the things that set it apart.

Japan has many traditional sweets, called wagashi, and one such sweet is yokan. Yokan is a jelly confection usually made with adzuki beans and sold in small rectangular blocks. Though it has been around for centuries, lots of interesting new varieties of yokan are being developed lately, including yokan with unusual ingredients and yokan local to different regions of Japan. Additionally, in recent years yokan has been attracting new attention for its potential as an emergency food as well as other uses. Let’s look at the past, present, and future of this tasty Japanese treat.