From Sanrio characters to starry-eyed idol singers, it’s no secret that kawaii (“cute”) culture is huge in Japan. Whole museums and theme parks have been dedicated to the concept of kawaii. Heck, it’s ...

Convenience stores, a very American concept for people on the go, were first introduced in Japan in the 1970s. Today, they’re an intrinsic part of life throughout the country – even more so than in ...

TOKYO — A tiny replica of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus and a plastic cat squatting on sushi: just two of the weird-and-wonderful capsule toys that have become a multi-million-dollar craze in ...

Kawaii. You hear it in anime, you hear it on TV shows, and you hear it on the streets of Japan, where the word is spoken by young and old alike. With people around the world growing up on Japanese ...