Refundable tax credits have repeatedly been proposed in Japan as a way to ease burdens on low income households while encouraging labor participation, yet they have never been implemented. Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae is now advancing the policy as a core reform, but questions about funding remain unresolved.

Inside Keiō University’s magnificent red-brick Old Library, the cozy Café Hakkakutō offers refreshments including coffee milk, a drink enjoyed by the university’s founder, Fukuzawa Yukichi.

In 2026, Soai Kensō received a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on life’s building block molecules, becoming the tenth Japanese chemistry laureate.

Two years ago, Nihon Hidankyō, a Japanese grassroots organization of atomic bomb survivors, received the Nobel Peace Prize for its decades-long crusade against nuclear weapons. We talked to Hidankyō secretary general Hamasumi Jirō about the impact of the Nobel on the movement and efforts to pass the torch to a younger generation of activists.

Balls of velvety green algae called marimo are particularly associated with Lake Akan in Hokkaidō, where they can grow to up to 30 centimeters in diameter.