Divers in Shiretoko have long called it Ikuone. Now Clione ikuoi is the sixth sea angel species, and the third from Japanese waters in 10 years. A misread set of feeding arms had kept it in the wrong genus.

Yamaha releases VOCALOID7 on November 11, 2026, with an AI Megpoid based on Megumi Nakajima's voice. Vocaloid voices have come from real people. In an age of AI cloning, what is a voice with a known owner worth?

Restorers found 95 rolled sheets inside the secret Kannon of Shojuin Temple in Kyoto, one with ink writing not yet studied. Why Buddhist statues held objects, and how to visit the temple.

A ranking of 470 Japanese hotels by foreign-language Google Maps reviews puts Plaza Osaka, a 653-room city hotel in Juso, at No. 1 again. Only one global luxury brand made the top ten.

The 47th Honda Prize goes to Graeme Clark and Ingeborg Hochmair for the multichannel cochlear implant, now fitted in more than one million people. Why did a carmaker founder's foundation pick it?

Mitsui Fudosan and partners plan a data center of up to 20 MW in a disused Kobe tunnel that stays 15 to 20°C. What reuse saves, a 2007 precedent, and the open questions on water, power and heat.

After a suspected core member was sent from Osaka to Germany, Qilin called Japan's security among the world's worst, without evidence. Japan's new reporting law is narrower than the EU's NIS2.

On October 2, 2026, a Sapporo hospital gave the first commercial dose of Akuugo to a man paralyzed in a traffic accident. Why it took over two years, and what the trial evidence shows.

Uniqlo's owner hit 3.9633 trillion yen ($25.1 billion) and passed H&M. The weak yen inflated its growth, not its rank. The risks now: China, tariffs, wages, succession, and a Zara owner still 1.8 times bigger.