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July 03, 2026
 

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CONTEMPORARY ART

Sculptor Kohei Nawa's first solo show in Los Angeles debuts 20 new artworks this month.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2026
At Kohei Nawa’s studio, the world is seen through glass bubbles
Kohei Nawa’s “PixCell” series, a play on the words pixel and cell, explores the way we view objects by covering them in glass beads that magnify and distort.
Yoshitoshi Kanemaki’s 16-faced wooden sculpture “Refrain Caprice” is carved using the traditional Buddhist technique of "ichiboku-zukuri," in which an entire figure is made from a single log.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 20, 2026
Art Fair Tokyo blends craft, pop and contemporary art in milestone 20th edition
More than 140 galleries took part at the event held last weekend at the Tokyo International Forum.
Katayama works with analog photography and handicraft practices such as embroidery and needlework, designing and handsewing objects she attaches to her body that she then captures in self-portraits.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 2, 2026
Mari Katayama wins inaugural Mori Art Prize
The biennial Mori Art Award, among the largest payouts for a single contemporary artist in Japan, was established in 2025.
Mai Endo is an artist and researcher who explores queer and feminist issues through her zine platform Multiple Spirits (also known as MaruSupi).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 30, 2026
Mai Endo: ‘Build networks that bridge generations’
Publishing bilingual zines as Multiple Spirits (MaruSupi), Mai Endo explores queer feminism and intersectional histories in East Asia and beyond.
Takashi Murakami's collaboration with champagne maker Dom Perignon marks the artist's first-ever foray into wine label design.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Dec 27, 2025
A Champagne with notes of peach, citrus and Takashi Murakami’s flowers
The Japanese artist has lent his floral motif to two limited-edition bottles of Dom Perignon — just the kind of hip bubblies you’ll want to pop at the year-end party.
Junichi Mori’s quartz sculptures from his “Astral Shadow” series are placed around the stone paths at Kanei Temple like stars in a constellation.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 26, 2025
Tokyo Biennale hides the art in plain sight
This year is the biennale’s most ambitious yet, with 39 participating artists from Japan and abroad creating under the theme “Wander for Wonder.”
“Between Currents and Bloom,” an eye-popping crocheted seascape by Indonesian artist Mulyana, dazzles with Instagram-ready cuteness while recalling a vibrant ocean now threatened by warming seas.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 22, 2025
Aichi Triennale’s message to the art world: Free Palestine
At Aichi Triennale 2025, Hoor Al Qasimi, the festival’s first foreign artistic director, takes a stand in support of Palestine.
One notable section of the “Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010” exhibition is a predominantly pink room featuring works that explore the lives of Asian women, such as Minako Nishiyama’s “The Pinku House”and footage of Lee Bul’s performance “Sorry for suffering — You think I’m a puppy on a picnic?”
CULTURE / Art
Sep 19, 2025
‘Prism of the Real’ makes two turbulent decades tangible with art
Born of a partnership between The National Art Center, Tokyo and M+, the show reveals how artists across borders grappled with a changing world.
Artist Nikita Kadan and dancer Min Tanaka modeled their art and choreography respectively on prosthetic limbs as commentary on the island’s history of being a center for isolating people with Hansen’s disease.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2025
Healing Oshima Island’s history of disease with a touch of art
Min Tanaka opened the Setouchi Triennale’s summer session on Oshima, Kagawa Prefecture, with a site-specific dance at Nikita Kadan’s sculpture, an allegory for support.
“Memory of Lines” is Chiharu Shiota’s second art installation on Teshima as part of the Setouchi Triennale.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2025
Artist Chiharu Shiota weaves a hidden marvel on Teshima
The artist cherished for her red-thread installations creates a new work in one of Japan’s famed art islands.
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2025
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
The spacesuited felines will be familiar to those who have visited the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka or Tokyo’s Ginza Six shopping complex last year.
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2025
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
The Naoshima New Museum of Art is Tadao Ando’s 10th contribution to the popular art islands.
Takuro Tamayama’s sculpture “Models (Pair, 6 sets, 12 rings)” comes with a mathematical formation that scales it for different spaces.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 20, 2025
The floor is art: Takuro Tamayama transforms mundanity
With “Takuro Tamayama: Floor,” the artist, at 34, has become the youngest person to ever hold a solo show at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
Excerpts from Natsume Soseki’s “Ten Nights of Dreams” and footage of dancer Min Tanaka and "shō" player Mayumi Miyata play across three large screens that are reflected in a mirror-like pool of water in the installation “Time Time.”
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2025
Crowds shouldn’t stop you from seeing the hit Ryuichi Sakamoto exhibit
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo’s “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time” has far exceeded expected visitor numbers, but there could be an upside to the crowds.
A model wears items that are part of Takashi Murakami's collaboration with MLB.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 28, 2025
Famed artist Takashi Murakami partners with MLB for Tokyo Series
The new collection includes t-shirts and sweatshirts adorned with Murakami’s signature style, along with hats, baseballs and gloves.
“Light Court” (2024) is based on the “Lightcourt” space at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by metabolist architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007).
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2025
Yuki Harada’s contemplative artworks ponder vanishing
The artist spent time researching Japanese migrants who left Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures for Hawaii, and the U.S. island state often features in his art.
Eugene Kangawa's Atelier iii is a space where visitors are invited to engage directly with the artist’s evolving practice.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 18, 2025
Eugene Kangawa’s art space embraces impermanence
The artist’s Atelier iii studio resists spectacle and asks visitors to slow down and commit to being present.
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2025
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
New exhibition “Seeing Sound, Hearing Time” is the first comprehensive overview of the musician’s installation work presented in Japan.
The year saw multiple noteworthy exhibitions dedicated to important artists who passed away in 2024, including neo-pop designer, sculptor and illustrator Keiichi Tanaami, who died in August.
CULTURE / Art / 2024 in Review
Dec 23, 2024
A year of ruin and renewal for Japan’s art world in 2024
Amid struggles caused by a weak yen, galleries turned to innovative ideas and collaborations.
The Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is located in the Giardini, a historic park in the Italian city.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 6, 2024
Venice Biennale: 70 years of bringing Japanese art to the world
The Venice Biennale has been an international showcase for Japanese art for over seven decades. This year, Yuko Mohri is representing Japan at the prestigious event.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

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